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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 5245678" data-attributes="member: 467">Here's the thing: it isn't simply about preferences, or inspiration or any other nebulous, subjective aspect of our favored fantastical entertainment medium. Those Appendix N authors actually shaped the game in a way that still remains with it in the age of Pathfinder and 4E. Not only would one appreciate the game and its tropes more if one were even moderately knowledgable of the inspirational; literature, but reading those original sources of inspiration actually informs one how to play and/or run the game. I dare anyone to read Vance and not "get" the magic system. I dare anyone to read Conan and not "get" the combat system.Of course, the farther afield from the original game gets, the farther afield from the original inspiration it gets too. As I stated above, the tropes are still there, but the systems used to represent them are harder to align with the inspirational literature. A lot of the "inspirational literature" of the modern iteration is literature inspired by the previous iteration -- including books, comics and other sorts of games.But I suppose I am starting to diverge from the subject of the thread. On that I can only reiterate my position, which is that the classic sword and sorcery fiction that inspired the original version of D&D is still relevant and knowing it will improve play.</blockquote>