Beginning Role-Playing Games Programming with VB 2005: From Novice to Professional

The core of Visual Basic .NET has been well covered in many books on the market, which means that more interesting areas can now be explored. This book takes programmers with some basic Visual Basic .NET experience and shows them how to create role-playing games (RPGs). RPGs have long been favorites of certain sections of the programming world and many, many people have dabbled over the years.
The author is a certified .NET developer and trainer (MCAD, MCSD & MCT) combined with being a Master-level RPGA (Roleplaying Gamers Association) games master, which makes for a compelling combination. No other RPG programming-related book mentions the author(s) being active in the RPGA. The book focuses more on creating role-playing games with depth than on the graphics. There are already many books that deal solely with graphics libraries such as DirectX or OpenGL. The few existing books that address RPG programming either concentrate on design at the expense of code, or they gloss over what really makes an RPG and focus too much on graphics. TOC:What are role-playing games?.- Picking a genre.- Random number generation.- Creating a world.- Populating the world.- One man's treasure.- Places to go, things to do.- Combat.- Character development.- Crafting a compelling story.- Optional elements.- Presentation.- Securing the game.