We had been well immersed through the 1980s in a variety of text-based adventure games run on the family’s Tandy machine, and we had delved into science fiction and fantasy, detective fiction, and even Choose Your Own Adventures at the library; so that when a friend introduced us to Dungeons & Dragons with the red box, tabletop gaming seemed the natural course for us to take.
Indeed, the tropes, concepts, and art were already familiar companions and landmarks in our minds. And without rulebooks of our own in those early days, we cobbled together our own rules drawn from SSI’s Pool of Radiance computer game. Before long we found AD&D 2nd edition, GURPS, Rolemaster, the World of Darkness, and more, all the while conducting a thorough ransacking in piles of fantasy and science fiction.
Along the way, and without knowing it, we had read much of the Appendix N, and had even dipped our toes in the sources by which the authors listed in it had been influenced. Much like dungeon adventurers, wilderness wandering knights, or arm chair sages, we had come away from the sources with much wealth back to our tables.
There was—and there still is—a sense of wonder in reading this literature and in returning to these inexhaustible sources again after long years, revisiting tales of these fantastic places, people, and deeds with more experience than the first or the last time.
Experience worth sharing along the way.
Appendix N Plus 