Published 1979 in the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide, Gary Gygax’s APPENDIX N: INSPIRATIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL READING [1] elaborated on his earlier December, 1976 article FANTASY/SWORDS & SORCERY: RECOMMENDED READING [2] in The Dragon, Vol.1 No.4. In introducing the Appendix N list, he offered some additional context, citing the stories his father would tell him, fairy tales, countless comic books, and genre cinema, among other influences. Considering this variety of influences, the Appendix N yet specifically provided a reading list drawn from fantasy and science fiction genre fiction.
The Appendix N reading list was itself rooted in a long-running tradition of appendices, bibliographies, and reading lists. Coming from the field of wargaming—in which Avalon Hill had often published non-fiction reading lists—Gygax and Arneson would likewise include a standard non-fiction bibliography in their 1972 Don’t Give Up the Ship [3], with additional mention of movies, television, and fiction in its foreword. Years later, Blume and Gygax’s 1975 Boot Hill [4] continued the tradition with a Suggested Reading non-fiction list, and also passing mention of “Hollywood Westerns” and “dime novels.” Indeed, in these few years, a novel subset of wargaming was emerging. As Gygax then wrote in his 1971 Chainmail fantasy supplement [5], “a brief set of rules which will allow the medieval miniatures wargamer to add a new facet to his hobby, and either refight the epic struggles related by J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, and other fantasy writers; or you can devise your own ‘world,’ and conduct fantastic campaigns and conflicts based on it.” And so, the die was cast.
[1] Gygax, Gary. Dungeon Master’s Guide. TSR Games, 1979.
[2] Gygax, Gary. FANTASY/SWORDS & SORCERY: RECOMMENDED READING. The Dragon. 1976, Vol. 1, No. 4.
[3] Arneson, Gygax & Carr. Don’t Give Up the Ship. Guidon Games, 1972.
[4] Blume, Brian and Gary Gygax. Boot Hill. Tactical Studies Rules, 1975.
[5] Gygax, Gary and Jeff Perren. Chainmail. Guidon Games, 1971.
Appendix N Plus 