Alternate Worlds is a the Gathering memoir written by Brian Schneider, one of the game’s early R&D leads, about the fun and merit of growing up a gamer. Consider it a love letter to CCG, to gamers, and to anyone who woke up one day and thought, “I miss my friends.”
The book itself is a “Magic deck” of sixty short, delightful, stories -- all tales about lessons learned along the way. All profits from Alternate Worlds will be donated periodically to nonprofit organizations of the highest need.
Alternate Worlds: A Memoir From the Early Days of Playing and Making Magic: The Gathering was published November 2025.
Brian and I crossed paths over on SubStack, and I was very excited to check out his book.
The approach of this book is very casual, taking the reader back to the early to mid-90's - a far simpler time to be sure. The first half of the book focuses on Brian's participation in many Magic tournaments across the country and the world. The second half centers around his time working in the R&D team for Wizards of the Coasts, working on Magic and several other games for the company.
While I certainly dabbled in a few RPGs in the 90's and 2000's, Magic: the Gathering was not one of them. So, many of the names, events and such did not resonate as much as they could have. I suspect for folks more into this orbit that the stories will hit better. Still, it was enlightening to see that journey Brian went down both as a player and as a developer.
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