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Gygax’s use of the word "race" to refer to non-human entities like elves, dwarves, and orcs probably derives from his sources. Appendix N The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien: "Ever since the fall of the Great Goblin of the Misty Mountains the hatred of their race for the dwarves had been rekindled to...

I'm a big fan of the original Gamma World. I particularly like the random mutant powers, the strange monsters, and the fact that the world is largely unknown to the PCs. Post-apocalyptic settings provide a good justification for the default D&D-style rpg activity -- exploring ancient ruins in...

OD&D Volume I Men & Magic: There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e., a player wishing to be a Balrog would have to begin as let us say, a "young" one and progress upwards in the usual...

There are some important differences but many more similarities. These similarities are so specific that, in my opinion, JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit is almost certainly the main source for goblins in D&D. This post compares the goblins in OD&D, 1e AD&D and 5e D&D with those in The Hobbit...

The first listed method of artefact destruction in the 1e AD&D DMG is "Melt it down in the fiery furnace, pit, mountain, forge, crucible or kiln in which it was created." (page 164)

I completely agree, and I'd add that Celadon Forest resembles Lothlorien and Fangorn Forest, Celene and its ruler Queen Yolande somewhat resemble Lothlorien, and the "Battle of Emridy Meadows" (the name) resembles the "Battle of the Pelennor Fields". The way that demihumans -- elves, dwarves...

Men of Their Time, Standards of Ours In practice, however, better thinking about complex past figures is rarely the point. If it were, wielders of the injunction not to judge would not apply their counsel so selectively. They would, for example, be as concerned with positive as with negative...

Gryphofang. An unnatural hybrid created by an insane wizard that has the head and front paws of a sea lion (the 1e AD&D MM version) and the hindquarters of a gryphon. Hippotaur. Another blasphemous monstrosity created by the same wizard that has the front half of a hippocampus and the...

From the Imaginary Bestiary Vol I-III: Behydusa Catobleghast Dryad, Yellow Musk Creeper Gorgohydra Sharkatrice Tabaxi, Displacer Wereowlbear Zombosaurus https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-imaginary-bestiary-volume-iii-the-table-of-contents-for-an-imaginary-ad-d-1e-monster-book.660615/

I think L Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's The Roaring Trumpet and Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions also draw on this tradition. Their conception of law and chaos in the quotations upthread is similar--chaos is a primal and ancient threat to civilisation and the natural order. In...

The Roaring Trumpet (1940) L Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt A major influence on Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions. Men and gods live by law; else they would be but giants. Three Hearts and Three Lions (1953) Poul Anderson Holger got the impression that there was a perpetual...

Gary Gygax employed a degree of 'Schrodinger's GMing' in his games. Source By "depending on the party" I think Gygax means that more powerful parties would have more difficult encounters.

Source

These panels, from Miracleman #2 (early on in Moore's run), capture the difference between human and superhuman very well.

Yes, back in Ye Good Old Days it was all sophisticated psychological horror.

The easiest way to do horror in D&D might be to present the PCs as the monsters.

Part of it is down to different definitions for what counts as horror. Someone who uses a strict definition will consider it harder to do horror in D&D than someone who uses a broad definition. This is apparent in this thread. The people who think horror is hard to do seem to be using narrower...