D&D General How many books/authors of the original AD&D Bibliography have you read? Do you feel you see D&D differently than people who have not read any?

[John Lloyd1]

But if I had to recommend a single volume from the list, based on quality and literary legacy, I'd go with Lord Dunsany's King of Elfland's Daughter. It's gorgeous and deep, and completely magical. There are books on the list that feel more "D&D-ish," but Dunsany's writing is amongst the best of it.

I love the King of Elfland's Daughter. There is even a musical.

I think there are four authors' books (Tolkien, Dunsany, Moorcock and Howard) that I have read that are on that list. I think I have read more of the authors, but not their fantasy since I am more of an SF person. It is hard to remember that far back.

I read my first Conan story recently and was very impressed. I thought it had aged reasonably well. The writing was pretty good and the themes hadn't aged as badly as some.

I have added the 5e recommended reading list to my Goodreads 'want to read' list. It is remarkable how many are still there. Only a few have dropped off.

 

[Voadam]

The original 1979 AD&D theme, Greyhawk, and the game rules are based on a wide variety of fantasy novels (as well as miniatures wargaming, history, etc.)
1. How many books/authors have you read from the 1979 bibliography?
2. Do you feel you see D&D differently than people who have not read these?

I have read books or stories from the following authors. I started playing D&D when I was eight so I think the Hobbit was the only one on the list I had going in. I used to read a lot of fantasy anthologies and one offs I grabbed at the library so some of the names sound vaguely familiar, most are definites though.

□ Anderson, Poul:
□ Carter, Lin: - Maybe, sounds familiar.
□ de Camp, L. Sprague: Maybe
□ Derleth, August - Maybe
□ Farmer, P. J.: - Maybe
□ Fox, Gardner: read a short story in Dragon Magazine I think.
□ Howard, R. E.:
□ Leiber, Fritz:
□ Lovecraft, H. P.
□ Moorcock, Michael:
□ Norton, Andre - Maybe
□ Offutt, Andrew J.:
□ Saberhagen, Fred:
□ Tolkien, J. R. R.:
□ Vance, Jack:
□ Zelazny, Roger:

~ Ref AD&D Dungeonmasters Guide (1979; page 224, Appendix N)

I read Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions on my kindle this summer and it was amazing, you could see a lot of D&D being lifted straight from it.

 

[Blue Orange]

□ Anderson, Poul: THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS
□ Bellairs, John: THE FACE IN THE FROST
□ Carter, Lin: “World’s End” series (2 of 5)
□ de Camp, L. Sprague: LEST DARKNESS FALL
□ Dunsany, Lord
□ Howard, R. E.: “Conan” series
□ Leiber, Fritz: “Fafhrd & Gray Mouser” series; et al
□ Lovecraft, H. P.
□ Moorcock, Michael: STORMBRINGER; STEALER OF SOULS
□ Norton, Andre
□ St. Clair, Margaret: SIGN OF THE LABRYS
□ Tolkien, J. R. R.: THE HOBBIT; “Ring trilogy”
□ Vance, Jack: THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD; THE DYING EARTH; et al

Some of it I recognized (regenerating trolls from Anderson, snakes, clever fighters, and ruined cities from Howard, disappearing spells from Vance, adventurers on heists and thieves with mild magical abilities from Leiber, Law and Chaos from Moorcock, elves, dwarves, and halflings from Tolkien, complex multilevel dungeons from St. Clair), some of it took me a while. (The mind flayer, for instance, seems to have been inspired by the cover of Lumley's The Burrowers Beneath, which depicts a cthonian, a later monster in the Lovecraftian tradition.) Quite a few of them have questionable connections to D&D (LEST DARKNESS FALL is fun but doesn't seem to have much to do with D&D), and likely were just Gygax's favorite books. The most Lovecraftian element of orthodox D&D, as far as I can tell, is the books that can make you powerful or drive you nuts or cost you levels (book of vile darkness etc.); otherwise, the monsters are usually killable, the books and monsters don't drive you nuts by looking at them, and there is a relative lack of tentacles. Gygax didn't particularly like Tolkien (one of the reasons the demihuman level limits were so low), and the game started out much closer to the sword and sorcery/low fantasy pole to begin with and got more high fantasy with Dragonlance.

There is a book, but I hesitate to recommend it. I did read Jeffro Johnson's Appendix N book (for the uninitiated he is friends with, and the book is published by, Vox Day, a notorious far-right author who's engaged in harassment campaigns and attempts to rig the Hugo awards), and it actually picks up a lot of the contributions each of the books makes to D&D, and I learned some things I found quite fascinating about the books I missed (the green slime monster and psionics being in Hiero's Journey, for instance, Zelazny's Jack of Shadows as the prototypical thief along with the Gray Mouser, or Nine Princes in Amber as a model for the limited number of monks and druids at high levels). You can decide how you want to proceed given the author's associations. Some options might include borrowing it from a library that has it, buying one copy and sharing it among your friends to diminish your support for the guy; donating twice the price to a left-leaning charity of your choice as a sort of 'carbon offset'; or...other methods I won't mention here. It is, unfortunately, the only semi-scholarly treatment of Appendix N I know of; there's a book of short stories by the same authors as the Appendix N authors but that's not the same thing. (Someone else really needs to write a book...)

I'd also add that 5th edition is, as far as I know, the first to have its own list of inspirational reading, which includes a bunch of additional authors who have published in the intervening 40 years and is somewhat more diverse. I'm not sure about the copyright implications of reproducing it here--I think it would be fair use, but it's not all over the web like Gygax's Appendix N, and Hasbro's lawyers are likely much better than TSR's. But if you have a copy of the 5e books, open them up and take a look.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

The original 1979 AD&D theme, Greyhawk, and the game rules are based on a wide variety of fantasy novels (as well as miniatures wargaming, history, etc.)
1. How many books/authors have you read from the 1979 bibliography?
2. Do you feel you see D&D differently than people who have not read these?

□ Anderson, Poul: THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS; THE HIGH CRUSADE; THE BROKEN SWORD
□ Burroughs, Edgar Rice: “Pellucidar” series; Mars series; Venus series
□ Farmer, P. J.: “The World of the Tiers” series; et al Read Riverworld□ Leiber, Fritz: “Fafhrd & Gray Mouser” series; et al

Moorcock, Michael: STORMBRINGER; STEALER OF SOULS; “Hawkmoon” series (esp. the first three books)
□ Norton, Andre
□ Saberhagen, Fred: CHANGELING EARTH; et al
□ Tolkien, J. R. R.: THE HOBBIT; “Ring trilogy”
□ Zelazny, Roger: JACK OF SHADOWS; “Amber” series; et al

~ Ref AD&D Dungeonmasters Guide (1979; page 224, Appendix N)

I have read most of the above, although mostly Anderson and Norton's SF stuff, not their Fantasy stuff so much. Although Norton's Beastmaster was great. Zelazny's Jack of Shadows is sitting on my To Read shelf - I don't think I have read it before.

□ Bellairs, John: THE FACE IN THE FROST
□ Brackett, Leigh
□ Brown, Frederic
□ 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
□ Fox, Gardner: “Kothar” series; “Kyrik” series; et al
□ Howard, R. E.: “Conan” series
□ Lanier, Sterling: HIERO’S JOURNEY
□ Lovecraft, H. P.
□ Merritt, A.: CREEP, SHADOW, CREEP; MOON POOL; DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE; et al
□ Offutt, Andrew J.: editor of SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS III
□ Pratt, Fletcher: BLUE STAR; et al
□ St. Clair, Margaret: THE SHADOW PEOPLE; SIGN OF THE LABRYS
□ Vance, Jack: THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD; THE DYING EARTH; et al
□ Weinbaum, Stanley
□ Wellman, Manley Wade
□ Williamson, Jack

Lots that I haven't read apparently. Most of which I have no interest in reading now, too much good stuff coming out these days tbh.

For question 2 in the OP, I am sure I see D&D different from everyone else. In fact I think everyone brings their own exact lived experience to their games, including whatever media they have consumed. Some games may be more like my games due to shared media touchstones I guess. One example of this is I have never been much interested in "Sword & Sandals" and "Sword and Sorcery" type fiction nor games. So I guess someone who has read mostly REH Conan our games would be different.

 

[JEB]

1. I have read only a handful of the Appendix N recommendations, honestly. The works of H.P. Lovecraft and Derleth (the former being off the table for me at this point, the latter at least losing points by extension). Some Conan stories. Some Dying Earth stories, which is probably the only block that came to my attention through D&D. Several others are on my to-read list at some point, but who knows if I ever will. (FWIW, I've also seen the LOTR and Hobbit films, the Conan films and the 1990s cartoon, the John Carter film, and a TV movie of Riverworld.)

2. While tropes from the above have worked their way into my D&D games, I'd honestly say more influence came from other fantasy (and non-fantasy) sources - and D&D itself. I have toyed with the idea of a more low/pulp fantasy game at times, but it would be an attempt to emulate early D&D, not Conan or whatever. In general, though, I tend to favor a more heroic fantasy tone, not the tone of many Appendix N works.

 

[JEB]

Not on the list, but among my favorite were C.S. Lewis's Narnia series.

It's kind of interesting that the Narnia stories were not on the Appendix N list. They're also absent from the 5E "Appendix E" list.

 

[TerraDave]

I have read about a dozen.

Over the years they have certainly influenced my game, though they are far from the only influence.

But as for D&D, I think its original and long standing premise, as touched on by Gygax (and certainly Arneson) many times, can be summarized as:

D&D is a game that you have the freedom--and in fact the duty--to make your own.

From this flows much opportunity, but also much tension. Including from and with Gygax himself.

 

[SJB]

Yes, especially Howard, and before I discovered D&D.

I’ve been writing a blog series about how D&D looked when viewed through a Howardian prism. It’s called ‘Game Like Conan’.

the180fantasyproject

Rollicking RPGs

the180fantasyproject.wordpress.com

 

[Yora]

I've read plenty Howard, Leiber, Moorcock, Borroughs, Lovecraft, and Tolkien. The only immediate connection I see is "this is fantasy".
The Tolkien influence is quite strong in Dragonlance of course, but that was a radical departure from what D&D had been conceptually in the preceeding 10 years.
I think the Known World of Mystara does have an echo of Leiber in it, but again, that came later.

When I think of fantasy influenced by Howard, Moorcock, Borroughs, and Lovecraft, D&D is certainly not the game that comes to mind.

 

[Blue Orange]

D&D is a game that you have the freedom--and in fact the duty--to make your own.

From this flows much opportunity, but also much tension. Including from and with Gygax himself.

One of the interesting things I remember from the Slaying the Dragon book was that it's hard to make money selling a game that encourages people to use their own imaginations, because then you can't sell them stuff.