D&D 5E What Author or Authors are your biggest influence in the Fanatsy Genre/D&D

[hejtmane]

Kind of an interesting question in my opinion because I think it shapes our D&D worlds,game play, character concepts etc. With that said here are mine.

My Biggest influence are probaly 4 Authors

Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain)
Michael Morrcock (Elric, Corum and Hawkmoon all those series)
David Eddings (Belgarion and SparHawk Series)
Raymon Fiest (The intial Riftwar Saga Books: Magician Series)

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Sacrosanct]

You guys have good taste Lloyd Alexander was my introduction to fantasy, and is still one of my all time favorites.

Tolkien
Terry Brooks
David Eddings
Weis&Hickman
Salvatore
The various AD&D and Wizard & Warrior choose your own adventures (also one of my first introductions to fantasy, and molded my preferences).

I've read and like many others, of course, but over the 35 years of playing D&D, those are the biggest influence to my games.

Edit* Oh! How could I forget Norton Juster (Phantom Tollbooth). While not a typical fantasy per se, it was probably one of the first exposures to fantasy monsters I had. Great book, by the way.

 

[iamntbatman]

Obviously this is the big one, but I really feel like lots of DM's would be well-served by trying to be as descriptive of environments as Tolkien was. At least on the same level is Mervyn Peake, a criminally underrated fantasy writer. I plan on trying a mix of the latter with Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian when I take over the DM chair in the next campaign arc.

The current campaign has a pretty dark take on the Feywild playing a major role in our homebrew world. Hints of Lovecraft and Thomas Ligotti, plus some more overt horror that's more John Carpenter than anything from literature. I've envisioned my character in this campaign (a halfling bard with a possible warlock dip) as something along the lines of Bilbo Baggins falling into a Lovecraft story after he encounters the terrifying nature of true evil, violence, depravity and madness. I hope it will be a real fun transition!

I also like to let a bit of Gene Wolfe creep into things, especially using his penchant for interesting unreliability in his first person narrators as inspiration for character flaws or development.

 

[Nevvur]

Top three would be George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen), R. Scott Bakker (Prince of Nothing/Aspect Emperor trilogies)

I feel I should include Hidetaka Miyazaki of Dark Souls fame in this list, too. There's a novel lurking in there somewhere, but one does not exactly read this author's work.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Probably Miachael Moorcock, Fritz Lieberman and HP Lovecraft would be my big 3. Beyond that, I have healthy doses of Larry Niven, Clive Barker, Stephen Donaldson, JRRT, Robert E. Howard, Terry Brooks and Terry Prachett.

 

[GlassJaw]

Tolkien and Howard above all, with heavy doses of Lovecraft, although Lovecraft certainly crosses genres.

It disappoints me to say I'm finally getting around to reading Lieber but I'm enjoying Fafhrd and Grey Mouser immensely. I couldn't get into Vance though. I know its the origin of the D&D casting system but his writing and subject matter are too flowery for me. I like my fantasy on grittier spectrum.

 

[Blue]

Okay, this is not a list of my favorite fantasy authors, but rather the ones that are my personal biggest influence on D&D/fantasy gaming. The influences on my DMing are more clearcut - I borrow ideas as a player from all over the place.

Well, Ursula K. LeGuin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" impacts my world building to this day, long (loooong...) after first reading it in 4th grade, and rereading it N+1 times since.

Tim Powers, while not writing fantasy, has definitely impacted how I weave plots and mythic-sized secrets into the world. I really like mythic underpinnings to my world and they get worked into the campaign.

Emma Bull's "The War of the Oaks" has absolutely colored how I rung the non-human motivations of fey/elven courts. (Plus inspired PCs and NPCs off Eddi, Pouka, and Hedge.)

Roger Zelazny has provided too many good things to riff off of. Though I'm more likely to steal ideas from works like Jack of Shadows instead of the best known ones like Amber that are too recognizable.

Steven Brust Taltos and Khaven novels have given me more than a few ideas I've pondered that have influenced how I build highly-magical worlds.

Jaqcquelin Carey's various Kushiel books influence how I shape gentle(wo)man rivals/foes as well as the personal nature of politics.

The Knight chapterhouses in Edding's Sparhawk books have added a lot to various guilds I run.

On the player side I've stolen ideas from all over the place. Fritz Leiber, Scott Lynch, David Eddings, Elizabeth Moon (Pak from The Deed of Paksenarrion is hands down my favorite "becoming a paladin" story, Robin Hobb, Guy Gavriel Kay, Walter Jon Williams. And while not an author, a shout out to the movie Ladyhawke because I've tried several times to play a character as glib as Mouse.

 

[iamntbatman]

What Vance have you read? The Dying Earth stuff is honestly pretty darn light/comical. My favorite Vance is probably Demon Princes. Vance was never a master of characterization but boy could he ever come up with fascinating cultures and worlds.

 

[Tallifer]

Frank L. Baum (Wizard of Oz)
Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)
Walt Disney