Let's update Appendix N

One of the more evocative and intriguing parts of the 1st Ed Dungeon Masters Guide is in the appendices – Appendix N, Inspirational and Educational Reading, in which Gary Gygax sets outs his sources. I quote:

Inspiration for all the fantasy work I have done stems directly from the love my father showed when I was a tad, for he spent many hours telling me stories he made up as he went along, tales of cloaked old men who could grant wishes, of magic rings and enchanted swords, or wicked sorcerors [sic] and dauntless swordsmen.

Then too, countless hundreds of comic books went down, and the long-gone EC ones certainly had their effect. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror movies were a big influence. In fact, all of us tend to get ample helpings of fantasy when we are very young from fairy tales such as those written by the Brothers Grimm and Andrew Lang. This often leads to reading books of mythology, paging through bestiaries, and consultation of compilations of the myths of various lands and peoples.

Upon such a base I built my interest in fantasy, being an avid reader of all science fiction and fantasy literature since 1950.
The following authors were of particular inspiration to me. In some cases I cite specific works, in others, I simply recommend all of their fantasy writing to you. From such sources, as well as any other imaginative writing or screenplay, you will be able to pluck kernels from which will grow the fruits of exciting campaigns. Good reading!

Anderson, Poul: THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS; THE HIGH CRUSADE; THE BROKEN SWORD
Bellairs, John: THE FACE IN THE FROST
Brackett, Leigh
Brown, Frederic
Burroughs, Edgar Rice: "Pellucidar" series; Mars series; Venus series
Carter, Lin: "World's End" series
de Camp, L. Sprague: LEST DARKNESS FALL; THE FALLIBLE FIEND; et al
de Camp & Pratt: "Harold Shea" series; THE CARNELIAN CUBE
Derleth, August
Dunsany, Lord
Farmer, P. J.: "The World of the Tiers" series; et al
Fox, Gardner: "Kothar" series; "Kyrik" series; et al
Howard, R. E.: "Conan" series
Lanier, Sterling: HIERO'S JOURNEY
Leiber, Fritz: "Fafhrd & Gray Mouser" series; et al
Lovecraft, H. P.
Merritt, A.: CREEP, SHADOW, CREEP; MOON POOL; DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE; et al
Moorcock, Michael: STORMBRINGER; STEALER OF SOULS; "Hawkmoon" series (esp. the first three books)
Norton, Andre
Offutt, Andrew J.: editor of SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS III
Pratt, Fletcher: BLUE STAR; et al
Saberhagen, Fred: CHANGELING EARTH; et al
St. Clair, Margaret: THE SHADOW PEOPLE; SIGN OF THE LABRYS
Tolkien, J. R. R.: THE HOBBIT; "Ring trilogy"
Vance, Jack: THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD; THE DYING EARTH; et al
Weinbaum, Stanley
Wellman, Manley Wade
Williamson, Jack
Zelazny, Roger: JACK OF SHADOWS; "Amber" series; et al

The most immediate influences upon AD&D were probably de Camp & Pratt, R. E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H. P. Lovecraft, and A. Merritt; but all of the above authors, as well as many not listed, certainly helped to shape the form of the game. For this reason, and for the hours of reading enjoyment, I heartily recommend the works of these fine authors to you.
- E. Gary Gygax, 1979, AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, p. 224

So I have several questions.

Which of those works have you read and what influence(s) on D&D have you spotted?
A lot has been written since, and a lot probably missed off that list in the first place. What would you add to it, and why?

I’m not so interested in the literary worth or quality of a given work, more as something that can be used as a source of D&D material. And let’s try not to get too circular about this either. You could argue that the Drizz’t books have led to dual-wielding ranger in later editions of the game, or the effect of the Dragonlance books on the modules and vice versa, but maybe keep away from anything that’s obviously based on D&D in the first place - or not, if you have a good argument for its inclusion. It doesn’t have to be SF/fantasy, and it doesn’t need to be explicitly D&D.

Of these, I’ve managed to read:
de Camp & Pratt: "Harold Shea" series – the first notable contribution is that the first story in the Harold Shea series is set in Norse mythology, with a confederation of hill, frost and fire giants conspiring to conquer the Aesir – very evidently the inspiration for the Against the Giants series. The other most obvious lift is where Shea and his friends categorise magic as having verbal, somatic and material components (their words).

Derleth, August – August Derleth seems to have been one of those writers who dabbled in other people’s settings. I’ve read some stuff he co-authored with Lovecraft and with RE Howard, but nothing that could be said to be entirely his own work.

Dunsany, Lord – Aside from the fact that I don’t think titles are catalogued as first names the way EGG has here, I love what I’ve read of Dunsany (Tales of Wonder et al.). Little vignettes in delirious prose, Dunsany’s stuff is very like Lovecraft’s Dreamlands works, with people, often from the “ordinary” world, visiting fantastic places that usually have a dark side to them. Worth mining for ideas for settings. I’ve not yet found anything that has a direct correlation in the game. Edit: Oh yes, the House of the Gnolls.

Howard, R. E.: "Conan" series. The archetypal adventurer, making his way through life for gold, girls and glory (in any order). You could pretty much lift any Conan story for the basis of a scenario. Notable direct lifts that I’ve found are the giant (acid-spitting) slug and a creature that in the Conan stories is called a Remoraz, but in the game the frost worm is a better representation than the remorhaz.

Leiber, Fritz: "Fafhrd & Gray Mouser" series; et al. Like Howard, Leiber’s characters are typical adventurer types with fairly selfish motives (Fafhrd less so than the Mouser). When they do act out of altruism and save the world, nobody notices. Lankhmar is the original amoral city setting, with a powerful thieves guild and a myriad of uncaring gods. Again, like the Conan books you can pretty much lift stories whole cloth and use them as the basis for an adventure. I did, as the basis of a long-running RuneQuest campaign. Stardock, Jewels in the Forest and Lords of Quarmall I managed to use largely unchanged, with some embellishments. Others I took apart and used bits and pieces in different places. Direct influences? Well the Nehwon Mythos is the only proprietry setting to survive to later printings of Deities and Demigods, there was a setting book and some adventures, and perhaps wererats are inspired from Swords of Lankhmar.


Lovecraft, H. P. – Seems a little strange, doesn’t it, when there is a dedicated game for the works of HPL. But the Cthulhu Mythos were in that almost legendary first print of Deities and Demigods. The Elder Elemental Eye and Tharizdun have definite Lovecraftian overtones, as does the mysterious altar in the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. The monsters have crept back into the game via Pathfinder, which has stats for the likes of Shoggoths etc. The Dreamlands stories, I reckon, you could lift those almost whole cloth for a fantasy setting, and I have done with The Doom that came to Sarnath

Merritt, A.: CREEP, SHADOW, CREEP; MOON POOL; DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE; et al. I’ve read The Moon Pool, which is fairly standard “lost world” kind of fiction. No obvious direct influence except maybe the seeds of the Vault of the Drow (underground race with hatred of surface dwellers). A good idea for a secret door that could be nabbed, though.


Moorcock, Michael: STORMBRINGER; STEALER OF SOULS; "Hawkmoon" series (esp. the
first three books) – Plenty of fantasy elements, settings, characters and scenarios that could be nicked. I guess the most obvious influence is the Law-Chaos axis of alignment, but not much else works in D&D as it does in Moorcock’s books. Another setting that was cut from Deities and Demigods. You could, I reckon, do a kind of eternal champion thing if you had several different campaigns, whereby all the characters of a single player were multiversal copies of the same archetype.

Tolkien, J. R. R.: THE HOBBIT; "Ring trilogy". Tolkien’s works cast a larger shadow over the game than any of the others on this list, and that’s probably because the original player character races are mostly a direct result of his works (except for gnomes). Orcs, of course. The Balor demon is evidently a Balrog in disguise (flaming sword and whip? Check). And the ranger class almost certainly stems from Aragorn (one of the old level titles was Strider). Beyond that, though, the influence is less than you might think. Later iterations of the game tended to cleave to the “epic quest” model of scenario, but in my experience it works better on the pulp short story model.

Vance, Jack: THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD; THE DYING EARTH; et al. Although the D&D magic system is often referred to as “Vancian”, really the whole fire and forget model only comes from one set of stories – Rhialto the Marvellous (which also features Ioun Stones and the spells Temporal Stasis and Imprisonment). Mostly in Vance’s books magic either has no clearly defined rules, or magicians deal with otherworldly beings (archveults or sandestins) and coerce them into working for them. Vance’s books tend to be collections of shorter stories, and even his later Lyonesse trilogy which post-dates the original Appendix N digresses into lots of little substories. Plenty of ideas could be nicked, although the way Vance's stories work they tend to have an ironic sting to the tale which is hard to do in a gaming situation without railroading things.

Zelazny, Roger: JACK OF SHADOWS; "Amber" series; et al. Of these I’ve read the first Amber series, not the second generation one. I don’t think anything has been directly lifted, once again it’s more a matter of the idea of magical worlds that is the source of inspiration. I do like the concept of worlds behind worlds, of increasing “reality” – it’s a bit Matrix in a way – and I think the concepts of the mirror realms of Rebma and Tir Na Nog could be used – a magical staircase that appears under certain conditions of moonlight? Yes please.

Burroughs, Edgar Rice: "Pellucidar" series; Mars series; Venus series. I’ve put this at the end because I’ve only seen the Disney film. I guess the girallon is based on white apes. Four things that struck me as immediately usable – a huge city that moves across the landscape despoiling everything (they kind of have those in Eberron), air ships (Space 1889), the green martian culture and a group like the white martians manipulating things behind the scenes (Scarlet Brotherhood of Greyhawk? Red Wizards of Thay or Zhentirim?)

So that’s the original list, and two things that strike me are (a) how many I’ve still not read, nor even heard of and (b) how it’s largely pulp-y, wierd fiction kinds of works, quite often with a central protagonist who comes from the “real” world ending up in a fantasy world.

So what others would I add to the list? Remember that these aren’t based on a judgement of writing quality, but on a source of inspiration and ideas.

Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson) and Song of Ice and Fire (George RR Martin). Arguably the two fantasy colossi of our time, these sprawling epics would make poor D&D scenarios in themselves as in both of them the characters are spread across the land, acting independently and often at odds. You could run a game like that but it would be hard. Both are worth considering in terms of how to present a living backdrop to a world in turmoil, a kind of chaos theory of political manoeuvring and war stemming from small actions (and one side has dragons). Specific ideas that I’ve had my eye on – from Wheel of Time I like the idea of an earlier age of magic/technology (Netheril?) and I love the idea of the Ways, that have become corrupted by the Black Wind. From Game of Thrones, the Wall (and the reason for it) is a great D&D concept, and an organisation like the Night Watch, a place where misfits and criminals are sent, is a good starting place for a PC party, where they all meet up in some kind of... Keep, on the Borderland, say. There are some other good exotic touches like the Faceless Men or Shadowbinders of As’shai that sound good and D&Dish.

Clark Ashton Smith – I include because he is a surprise omission from the original list, being contemporary with many authors on there. Similar to Lovecraft in many ways, but also to Vance sometimes – his Averoigne stories have a wry humour to them and were used as the basis for module X2 Castle Amber.

Stephen R Donaldson Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I’ll grant you, mainly due to Donaldson’s simile-laden prose and that infamous rape scene, but there are some good ideas to be mined here, especially the Ravers – immortal evil spirits that can possess others and use them to do evil, often of a spiteful, petty kind which is a good way to get players to hate your bad guys. The ur-viles and wayhnim are interesting creatures too, with their wedge-fighting and mysterious magic. Later series introduce other powerful beings such as the elohim and the insequent, which could be usable if done so sparingly. Arcana Evolved, of course, has taken the concept of the Seareach giants for its giant race, and the Haruchai Bloodguard for the Oathsworn class. Some articles in early White Dwarf showed that converting things like the Staff of Law and the powers of the Lords, of Rhadhamearl and others to D&D stats is tricky at best.

China Mieville and Iain M Banks. Mieville exemplifies the “new wierd” style, but both he and Banks are good examples of not being afraid to go over the top with your ideas. Quite often I’ve seen people be quite conservative with their idea of what constitutes “fantasy” (it must have elves and dwarves, for example – of all the books listed above, there’s only one author who does that!). Giant trains traversing an ever-changing landscape on a set of tracks that are laid down before it and taken up after it. A plant-like organism that covers an entire planet. A consortium of intelligent battleships several miles long. Go for it!

Dante’s Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost – sources for the architecture of heaven and hell – the Nine Hells and Seven Heavens stem from Dante, and you ‘ll find the likes of Geryon, the Malebranche devils, the Iron City of Dis and icy planes of Cocytus whilst in Paradise Lost Lucifer passes over the great abyss wherein lurk the chaotic monsters of Demogorgon and Orcus.

So those were the ones I came up with on the fly, which suggest that they are uppermost in my mind for influences. More mythology could be included. Also what about the likes of Pratchett, Rowling and Meyer? They’re influential, yes, but any useful feedback into gaming? And let’s not stop at books. What about film, TV, comics, gaming media?

Some of the thief's ability seem to come from Fritz Lieber's the Grey Mouser. Like dabling in magic with a change of failure. The demi-lich's, gem incrusted flying skulls, also seem to come from Lieber.

Jack Vance (anagram of Vecna), also influence a lot the magic of D&D. Hence the infamous vancian system. Can't say the books are good though. At least some of Lieber's stories were readable. Same with Howard's Conan, the quality really varies from story to story.

I think in the first bestiary Gagyx used Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian monsters without permission. He did the same with Elric and hobbits.

Updated list? China Miéville's Perdido Street Station is a must. So is The Scar.

Dune needs to be in it, even if it is sci-fi, the setting is feudal, religion playsa big part of it, technology is replaced by psionics andlife-shaping (sort of of), political intrigue, the spice and the powers it gives can be easily be considered magical.

Philip Pullmna's His Dark Materials trilogy is pretty awesome. Multiverse, magic, playing with souls, angels, world shaking plot.

Pathfinder has a reasonably decent, and updated, Appendix N, and there's an expanded list in the "GameMastery Guide".

Personally, I would add:

The Dragonlance Chronicles, the Dark Elf Trilogy, and the Icewind Dale Trilogy and nothing else from the realms of D&D fiction - those three trilogies seem to have a particularly disproportionate influence on the game.

China Mieville is a good shout, as is Terry Pratchett. Sadly, I can't second the recommendations for Jordan or Martin, though - the former just went on far far too long, while the latter is yet to finish. We'll see how he stands once he's done, though the signs from the last two novels aren't so good.

Bernard Cornwell's "King Arthur" trilogy - "The Winter King", "Enemy of God", and "Excalibur".

Glen Cook's "Black Company" series.

Elizabeth Moon's "Deed of Paksenarrion" trilogy.

Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" - not a new book, of course, nor fantasy, but one of the finest adventure novels I've read. (Shame about the sequels, though...)

Likewise, Hugo's "Les Miserables" has a lot to say about various topics. The section where Jean Valjean enters the Paris sewers should be required reading for any D&D rogue who decides to do the same.

Oh, and Neil Gaiman - mostly for the short stories, which are an excellent source of wierdness.

(My most recent campaign took a huge amount of inspiration from "The Da Vinci Code", but I don't think I can recommend that - mostly, the inspiration was of the form, "I can do better than that"!)

- double post, sorry -

delericho said:

Pathfinder has a reasonably decent, and updated, Appendix N, and there's an expanded list in the "GameMastery Guide".

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Interesting, I didn't know that. I get all my Pathfinder data from the SRDs, don't actually own the rulebooks!

delericho said:

China Mieville is a good shout, as is Terry Pratchett. Sadly, I can't second the recommendations for Jordan or Martin, though - the former just went on far far too long, while the latter is yet to finish. We'll see how he stands once he's done, though the signs from the last two novels aren't so good.

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Well as I said it's less a matter of quality than of usable ideas. I agree though, both series suffer from the same tendencies of having, by the middle, introduced loads of characters and sub-plots and then moving each one along ... in ... tiny ... steps ... really ... s .. l ... o ... w ... l ... y.

delericho said:

(My most recent campaign took a huge amount of inspiration from "The Da Vinci Code", but I don't think I can recommend that - mostly, the inspiration was of the form, "I can do better than that"!)

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Still valid though! Again, it's if you get inspired rather than if the book is any good. I'm with you on that, taking a mediocre piece of work and changing it to better suit your own tastes is an excellent source of ideas. Dan Brown's stuff could probably used as the stepping-off point for a Call of Cthulhu style campaign, as could perhaps Kate Mosse.

Dr Simon said:

Well as I said it's less a matter of quality than of usable ideas.

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Indeed. It was for that reason I made sure to say I couldn't second their recommendation, rather than outright opposing it.

Still valid though! Again, it's if you get inspired rather than if the book is any good. I'm with you on that, taking a mediocre piece of work and changing it to better suit your own tastes is an excellent source of ideas. Dan Brown's stuff could probably used as the stepping-off point for a Call of Cthulhu style campaign, as could perhaps Kate Mosse.

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There are actually lots of things to be learnt from bad fiction (and TV and movies). In Dan Brown's case, the biggest lesson I learnt was that running the plot at a high enough pace can just about compensate for it not making any sense. It also covers a multitude of other sins.

One of the very best games I ran this year was created by taking a plot that would fit perfectly in a "The Fast and the Furious" movie, setting it in the 'Verse (Serenity RPG). And then we used the crew of Betty (from Alien: Resurrection) as the pre-gen crew. It worked like a charm.

I have read most of the authors in index. They are what I cut my teeth on back when I started reading SF and fantasy back in the late 70s early 80s. The Conan books and the other sword and sorcery are not my favorite game styles. I played a lot of that style back in the day but now they bore me.

If I was going to add to the list I would add examples that showcase political intrigue like Game of Thrones, Codex Alexa by Jim Butcher for examples of a strong church colliding with magic I would suggest Katherine Kurtz Deryni series which is very similar to psionics. There are some wonderful urban fantasy for more modern settings like the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher almost any thing written by Tanya Huff.

I would include Dan Brown(Like him or hate him he has a good selling adventure), Brad Mezler(More intrigue and political then action but very well researched), and Jim Butcher(The Dresden files is what D20 modern should have been, and has a great wizard protagonist that still needs help)... I might even go with potter and twilight (Please don't hurt me)

Elf Witch said:

I have read most of the authors in index. They are what I cut my teeth on back when I started reading SF and fantasy back in the late 70s early 80s.

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Interesting, that's quite a feat. Any you'd particularly recommend? I remember back when I first got my copy of the DMG I'd barely heard of most of the authors, but I put that down to being 12 years old. When I looked back at them recently, I still hadn't even heard of, let alone read, a lot of the authors, but I've managed to find most of them on Amazon, as second-hand at least.

Y'know, if we're including Dan Brown we probably ought to include Clive Cussler. The one and only book of his I read (don't remember the title), involved modern-day Nazis looking for Atlantis in Antarctica. On a giant ship. And I think they had a doomsday weapon of some sort. That's top-notch ridiculous pulp-plotting right there!