What's the Opposite of GM's Day? (Free PDF Weekend!)

[William Ronald]

I understand the choice sprung mostly from his desire to write it as an English pseudo-legend.

Well, the Silmarillion and many of the tales of the First Age of Middle Earth were meant by Tolkien as an effort to create an English mythology of sorts -- as well as to provide a history for his languages. One irony of the Lord of the Rings is that it tells the end of an Ancient World, before its beginning and middle were told. (To paraphrase from the forward of the current edition of LOTR.)

The Auld Grump -- It is incredible to think of what authors in the 19th and 20th century could write without being strongly edited. Mind you, there are some writers in the 21st century who could use editors.

 

[Mark CMG]

The Auld Grump & William Ronald (or anyone, really) - What, if anything, are you finding you can you take from The Book of Wonders and apply to your D&D games?

 

[William Ronald]

The Auld Grump & William Ronald (or anyone, really) - What, if anything, are you finding you can you take from The Book of Wonders and apply to your D&D games?

Well, the story "Chu-Bu and Sheemish" has given me a few ideas of how to use divine rivalries in a campaign, and how such rivalries may have unintended consequences. Also, I think we have an example in the story of very local deities. Such deities were very common in real world cultures -- including ancestor deities and tribal deities, and can be added to a campaign to give some local flavor. The stories can give DMs many ideas for plots, and players ideas of some things that they wish to do with their characters.

Also, "The Bride of the Man Horse" and the other stories have great descriptions, and I think can inspire a DM to create descriptions that invoke the same feelings of wonder in players that I felt as a reader.

Even the epilogue can give DMs an idea for a great adventure. The idea of bardic satire is a very old concept, that was a common element of Celtic bards. So, my advice is to read The Book of Wonder, enjoy it, and see where it can lead you as a player and as a DM.

 

[Mark CMG]

Brilliant! Anyone else?

 

[DaveStebbins]

The Auld Grump & William Ronald (or anyone, really) - What, if anything, are you finding you can you take from The Book of Wonders and apply to your D&D games?

Probably a half-dozen or more years ago I transcribed a list of character names from Dunsany's works (a perfect excuse for reading a whole bunch of his stories) and created a seed file for the Everchanging Book of Names random name generation software. Dunsany had a way with names and I still find many great fantasy names created by the Dunsany generator from EBoN.

-Dave

 

[William Ronald]

Probably a half-dozen or more years ago I transcribed a list of character names from Dunsany's works (a perfect excuse for reading a whole bunch of his stories) and created a seed file for the Everchanging Book of Names random name generation software. Dunsany had a way with names and I still find many great fantasy names created by the Dunsany generator from EBoN.

-Dave

Hmm, such a list would be useful. I suppose you don't have it as a Word file to attach to a message?

 

[DaveStebbins]

Hmm, such a list would be useful. I suppose you don't have it as a Word file to attach to a message?

I'm not sure if this is the complete list I used, as it was compiled several years (and at least three computers) ago. But here's what I could find.

-Dave