D&D General What were the true influences of "Appendix N"?

[Pamphylian]

I think an underrated Appendix N source, because it is not directly in Appendix N, but massively influences D&D directly as folklore and indirectly through its influence on Appendix N authors, is the Arabian Nights. Of the top of my head: Efreets, Djinns, Marids, snake-people monsters, animated statues and automatons, the City of Brass (rather different in the stories but the influence is clear), flying carpets, Rocs, Iron flasks filled with demons, lost cities, subterranean adventures, ruins of former civilizations, stumbling from one dangerous or weird island or village to another (tropes and styles elaborated on by Appendix N authors).

Vance can also be seen in the named spells D&D tradition (Tenser's Transformation, etc.) and explicitly in the Prismatic Spray spell and its variants which have been in various editions.

The Imprisonment spell is also more or less the spell of Forlorn Encystment, including the especially delightful spell mishap (sadly dropped at some point):

The reverse spell, freedom, cast upon the spot at which a creature was entombed and sunk into the earth, causes it to reappear at that spot. If the caster does not perfectly intone the name and background of the creature to be freed, there is a 10% chance that 1 to 100 creatures will be freed from imprisonment at the same time.

From Vance specifically, more than any particular item, I think we get a lot of the mood and implied setting: grandiose, self centered and often truculent Wizard NPCs; the picaresque stumbling from weird village to demon lair to calamitous problem to weird village again; the mixture of fantasy, comedy and roguishness; the style of magic/magic items that are an idiosyncratic and risky mix of bane and boon (sadly watered down in more recent editions); the "archaeological" and post apocalyptic nature of treasure hunting, where much comes from lost ages of high magic and technology. Not the only source for these ideas of course, but maybe the most prominent and with the most embedded flavor.

 

[SothFan]

From Vance specifically, more than any particular item, I think we get a lot of the mood and implied setting: grandiose, self centered and often truculent Wizard NPCs; the picaresque stumbling from weird village to demon lair to calamitous problem to weird village again;

Is this murder hobo, the homeless adventurer?

 

[Pamphylian]

Is this murder hobo, the homeless adventurer?

Well I wouldn't say Cugel is a murder hobo exactly, but definitely the self-centered scumbag that many parties shake out as...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think an underrated Appendix N source, because it is not directly in Appendix N, but massively influences D&D directly as folklore and indirectly through its influence on Appendix N authors, is the Arabian Nights. Of the top of my head: Efreets, Djinns, Marids, snake-people monsters, animated statues and automatons, the City of Brass (rather different in the stories but the influence is clear), flying carpets, Rocs, Iron flasks filled with demons, lost cities, subterranean adventures, ruins of former civilizations, stumbling from one dangerous or weird island or village to another (tropes and styles elaborated on by Appendix N authors).

There was a huge fandom for the Arabian Nights in the Victorian era. People writing their own fan fiction and everything. Even if an author of Appendix N wasn't as into the Arabian Nights, I guarantee it was an influence on the people that influenced them.

 

[Reynard]

There was a huge fandom for the Arabian Nights in the Victorian era. People writing their own fan fiction and everything. Even if an author of Appendix N wasn't as into the Arabian Nights, I guarantee it was an influence on the people that influenced them.

Those Victorians sure did love their exoticism.

 

[Pamphylian]

There was a huge fandom for the Arabian Nights in the Victorian era. People writing their own fan fiction and everything. Even if an author of Appendix N wasn't as into the Arabian Nights, I guarantee it was an influence on the people that influenced them.

Yeah, my understanding is it was particularly popular in American (Abraham Lincoln allegedly loved it), I'm sure we could come up with sociocultural hypotheses about why. In any case, seems almost characteristic of American early 20th c. pulp fantasy (vs. euro fantasy, say Tolkien) to be disproportionately Arabian Nights influenced (vs. Arthuriana, European folklore, chivalric romance). REH, HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith (and before them, Poe) I believe all explicitly cited Arabian Nights. I'm not sure about, e.g. Vance or Leiber, but there seems to be a lot of influence there even if not direct (Cugel bumbling from weird village to weird village feels a lot like Sinbad).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Those Victorians sure did love their exoticism.

They sure did. There's a whole lot of problematic stuff wrapped up in there, with them pillaging countries for both resources and culture.

It's also fascinating to me to see which editions of the Arabian Nights are "cleaned up" and which contain the, ahem, X-rated stuff.

Yeah, my understanding is it was particularly popular in American (Abraham Lincoln allegedly loved it), I'm sure we could come up with sociocultural hypotheses about why. In any case, seems almost characteristic of American early 20th c. pulp fantasy (vs. euro fantasy, say Tolkien) to be disproportionately Arabian Nights influenced (vs. Arthuriana, European folklore, chivalric romance). REH, HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith (and before them, Poe) I believe all explicitly cited Arabian Nights. I'm not sure about, e.g. Vance or Leiber, but there seems to be a lot of influence there even if not direct (Cugel bumbling from weird village to weird village feels a lot like Sinbad).

I think there would've been a sense of the strange and fantastical that would've easily entranced readers of that time. Not to mention, depending on the translation, you were getting some pretty racy stuff.

There's definitely some of the Arabian Nights in the picaresque elements of Vance, not to mention the quick-witted people that get the best of Cugel again and again.

 

[Voadam]

I think an underrated Appendix N source, because it is not directly in Appendix N, but massively influences D&D directly as folklore and indirectly through its influence on Appendix N authors, is the Arabian Nights. Of the top of my head: Efreets, Djinns, Marids, snake-people monsters, animated statues and automatons, the City of Brass (rather different in the stories but the influence is clear), flying carpets, Rocs, Iron flasks filled with demons, lost cities, subterranean adventures, ruins of former civilizations, stumbling from one dangerous or weird island or village to another (tropes and styles elaborated on by Appendix N authors).

There was a lot of grabbing from different sources in early D&D.

Potions of growth and reduction were straight out of Alice in Wonderland.

Belts of Giant Strength, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and Hammer of Thunderbolts come out of Thor's items in Norse Myths, (Norse Myths also give us Fire Giants, Frost Giants, the concept of light and dark elves, etc.) and javelins of lightning bolts look a lot like Zeus's thunderbolts.

Tons of Greek myth monsters are in D&D (nymphs, dryads, titans, minotaur, medusa, harpy). Whether you grab them from the originals or a bunch via Narnia is dealer's choice. Giant beavers who talk in the 1e MM look a bit more Narnia.

OD&D had Burroghs' John Carter monsters in the encounter charts as a Martian alternative to desert encounters.

Rakshasa with their vulnerability to blessed crossbow bolts (and in later editions variations of that weakness) is out of a Kolchak the Night Stalker TV show.

 

[SothFan]

I can no longer update the post with new things you are all giving, it is way more than I imagined. Thanks.

 

[Pamphylian]

There was a lot of grabbing from different sources in early D&D.

Derro might have my favorite strange origin.