Category: Uncategorized

In 1978, The Dragon’s editor, while defending his decision to include fiction in his magazine’s pages, contended that roleplaying gaming “required large amounts of stimulation to ensure fresh and viable campaigns.”[1] As the hobby matured, and perhaps became increasingly self-referential to some degree, players and designers continued to draw upon their common literary and cultural heritage for inspiration and vigor.

This author contends that delving into the literary and cultural sources of roleplaying games not only provides a useful, and at least entertaining, dimension to our hobby, but that these sources are limitless fountains, offering a wealth of inspiration and wonder worth the seeking.

None of this culture exists in some vacuum or as a static thing in some museum, provided there is still some player with it in mind on some stage or at a table or desk, somewhere. Just as the creative process involves more than novelty seeking, and isn’t as original as some would have you believe; just as Shakespeare worked from Chaucer, Gower, folk lore, and medieval and classical texts, so does any player or designer looking to keep their narratives “fresh and viable.” This Appendix N Plus will delve into the sources and beyond. No single post should be read as a final word, as if the story were complete and told and done. It is a work in progress, the evolving results of research, a journey, if you will.

---

[1] Kask, Tim. (Editor’s Foreword). The Dragon. 1978, Vol. 3, No. 2.

At the end of 1973, Gygax penned in his foreword to Dungeons & Dragons [1], “These rules are strictly fantasy. Those wargamers who lack imagination, those who don’t care for Burroughs’ Martian adventures where John Carter is groping through black pits, who feel no thrill upon reading Howard’s Conan saga, who do not enjoy the de Camp & Pratt fantasies or Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pitting their swords against evil sorceries will not be likely to find DUNGEONS and DRAGONS to their taste.”

Soon after D&D’s publication, Gygax and Blume based their 1974 Warriors of Mars [2] entirely on Burroughs; M.A.R. Barker’s 1974 Empire of the Petal Throne [3] claimed some inspiration from Howard, Vance, and Burroughs; Greg Stafford’s 1975 White Bear and Red Moon [4] wargame cited “fantasy, both modern and traditional,” with The Iliad, Beowulf, the Bhagavad Gita, Conan the Barbarian, The Worm Ouroboros, Stormbringer, and Lord of the Rings; and Sustare and Robinson’s 1976 Bunnies & Burrows [5] drew inspiration from Watership Down. And, among other releases in those formative years, 1975’s En Garde! [6], grounded in Erroll Flynn’s movies and Dumas’ fiction, deserves mention.

Published in 1978, RuneQuest [7] presented a bibliography of classic fiction, non-fiction, and other fantasy role-playing games. It also left out “obvious references,” “on the assumption that the player has probably read at least one Conan book, or a chunk of the Elric Saga, or at least the Lord of the Rings and the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories.” The hobby drew on a vast wealth of speculative fiction and culture, as diverse and experienced as its participants, but nonetheless sharing a common frame of reference in its literary origins.

---

[1] Gygax, Gary and Dave Arneson. Dungeons & Dragons. Tactical Studies Rules, 1974.

[2] Gygax, Gary and Brian Blume. Warriors of Mars. Tactical Studies Rules, 1974.

[3] Barker, M.A.R. Empire of the Petal Throne. Tactical Studies Rules, 1974.

[4] Stafford, Greg. White Bear and Red Moon. The Chaosium, 1975.

[5] Sustare, B. Dennis and Scott Robinson. Bunnies & Burrows. Fantasy Games Unlimited, 1976.

[6] Hany, Chadwick, and Evans. En Garde!. Game Designers’ Workshop, 1975.

[7] Perrin, Steve. RuneQuest. The Chaosium, 1978.

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.

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 2^nd 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.