Goodman Games

Posted: **Tue Dec 28, 2010 6:13 am**

I know that Joseph has an "Appendix N" thread already, but it mostly seems to be designed to be a thread to update what he's been reading.

This thread has two main goals:
(1) To list all of the books of Appendix N at the top, so others can find it.
(2) To find out which are the most "important" of the titles; in other words if a person were to reccommend only a couple of these books to a reader so that they can best get "the feel" of the genre, which would they be?

The following authors were of particular inspiration to me. In some cases I cite specific works, in others, I simply recommend all of their fantasy writing to you. From such sources, as well as any other imaginative writing or screenplay, you will be able to pluck kernels from which will grow the fruits of exciting campaigns. Good reading!

Anderson, Poul: THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS; THE HIGH CRUSADE; THE BROKEN SWORD
Bellairs, John: THE FACE IN THE FROST
Brackett, Leigh
Brown, Frederic
Burroughs, Edgar Rice: "Pellucidar" series; Mars series; Venus series
Carter, Lin: "World's End" series
de Camp, L. Sprague: LEST DARKNESS FALL; THE FALLIBLE FIEND; et al
de Camp & Pratt: "Harold Shea" series; THE CARNELIAN CUBE
Derleth, August
Dunsany, Lord
Farmer, P. J.: "The World of the Tiers" series; et al
Fox, Gardner: "Kothar" series; "Kyrik" series; et al
Howard, R. E.: "Conan" series
Lanier, Sterling: HIERO'S JOURNEY
Leiber, Fritz: "Fafhrd & Gray Mouser" series; et al
Lovecraft, H. P.
Merritt, A.: CREEP, SHADOW, CREEP; MOON POOL; DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE; et al
Moorcock, Michael: STORMBRINGER; STEALER OF SOULS; "Hawkmoon" series (esp. the first three books)
Norton, Andre
Offutt, Andrew J.: editor of SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS III
Pratt, Fletcher: BLUE STAR; et al
Saberhagen, Fred: CHANGELING EARTH; et al
St. Clair, Margaret: THE SHADOW PEOPLE; SIGN OF THE LABRYS
Tolkien, J. R. R.: THE HOBBIT; "Ring trilogy"
Vance, Jack: THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD; THE DYING EARTH; et al
Weinbaum, Stanley
Wellman, Manley Wade
Williamson, Jack
Zelazny, Roger: JACK OF SHADOWS; "Amber" series; et al

The most immediate influences upon AD&D were probably de Camp & Pratt, R. E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H. P. Lovecraft, and A. A. Merritt; but all of the above authors, as well as many not listed, certainly helped to shape the form of the game. For this reason, and for the hours of reading enjoyment, I heartily recommend the works of these fine authors to you.

What does your "short list" look like?

Posted: **Tue Dec 28, 2010 6:14 am**

My own "short list" would be something like this:

Anderson, Poul: THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS; THE BROKEN SWORD
Burroughs, Edgar Rice: Mars series
de Camp & Pratt: "Harold Shea" series
Howard, R. E.: "Conan" series
Leiber, Fritz: "Fafhrd & Gray Mouser" series
Lovecraft, H. P.
Moorcock, Michael: STORMBRINGER; STEALER OF SOULS
Vance, Jack: THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD; THE DYING EARTH; et al

To explain a little:

Three Hearts and Three Lions -- my personal Anderson favorite; great Paladin; Law v. Chaos
The Broken Sword -- I love the way Anderson uses Sidhe (fey elves)
Burroughs' Mars (Barsoom) Series -- my favorite of all ERB classics; a "must read" list would include A Princess of Mars and perhaps the first three, which make a great self-contained trilogy.
Harold Shea -- a fantastic and whimsical view of magic.
Howard's Conan -- I'd reccommend the DEL RAY trade-size editions (Coming of Conan, Conquering Sword of Conan, Bloody Crown of Conan) over the ACE paperbacks because the Del Ray series is pure and uneditied. The Ace books are fun (and the ones I read when I was younger) but lack the grit of real Howard Conan.
Fafhrd & Grey Mouser -- I'd swear that Leiber wrote up D&D adventure logs to make up stories, but he wrote his best stuff before D&D was even invented. The F&GM books are fantastic!
Lovecraft -- so many to pick from. I actually like the concept of Lovecraft better than his actual stories, and prefer some of the Robert E Howard "mythos" stories more than HPL's own work.
Moorcock's Elric series -- I reccomend the DEL RAY trade-size volume called The Stealer of Souls, since it has the original magazine text of the earliest Elric stories. I like that version better than any of the others.
The Eyes of the Overworld is my favorite Vance story.

As much as I love Tolkien and Zelazny, I removed them from my short list simply because the style of these books doesn't seem to fit the style of the others.

Posted: **Wed Dec 29, 2010 4:20 pm**

My short list would be, in no particular order:

de Camp & Pratt: "Harold Shea" series
Lovecraft, H. P.
Norton, Andre
Vance, Jack: THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD; THE DYING EARTH; et al
Lovecraft, H. P.
Howard, R. E.: "Conan" series
Farmer, P. J
Burroughs, Edgar Rice

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2011 6:34 am**

A couple years ago, James Maliszewski wrote a great article for The Escapist called "The Books That Founded D&D." It's a short introduction to Appendix N and the relative importance of each work therein to what the final product became.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... ounded-D-D

His short list was:

Edgar Rice Burroughs
Robert E. Howard
L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt
Fritz Leiber
Jack Vance
H.P. Lovecraft
Abraham Merritt
Poul Anderson

Merritt is worth seconding simply for his influence on D&D despite his modern obscurity. Merritt was HUGE back in the early 20th century, with many of his books selling more than 1 million copies. Nowadays, nobody has heard of him. But "Moon Pool" and "Dwellers in the Mirage" are essentially D&D adventures -- "Moon Pool" in particular is almost a modern dungeon delve. Read "Moon Pool" to understand, in part, where the drow came from; it's hard not to see the similarities and conclude this book wasn't where Gygax came up with the drow.

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2011 7:52 am**

Thank you for the link. I'll have to make it my New Year's resolution to read more of appendix N this year.

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2011 5:03 pm**

goodmangames wrote:Merritt is worth seconding simply for his influence on D&D despite his modern obscurity. Merritt was HUGE back in the early 20th century, with many of his books selling more than 1 million copies. Nowadays, nobody has heard of him.

I'll ocnfess that of James' short list Merritt is the only one I haven't read. I guess I'll have to get on the ball and check out some stories....

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2011 11:30 pm**

A. Merritt's books tend to be of the "Lost World" sub-genre, and they are both tantalizing and beautiful. I recommend starting with The Moon Pool.

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:03 pm**

I found copies of both "Moon Pool" and "Dwellers in the Mirage" used on ebay. I'll hopefully be reading them in a couple of days.

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2011 5:11 pm**

finarvyn wrote:I found copies of both "Moon Pool" and "Dwellers in the Mirage" used on ebay. I'll hopefully be reading them in a couple of days.

Hopefully not the OCR 'editions' from Australia -- complete with typos, according to the description. I've seen the same seller attempting to sell wikipedia articles at outrageous prices.

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:31 pm**

GnomeBoy wrote:
finarvyn wrote:I found copies of both "Moon Pool" and "Dwellers in the Mirage" used on ebay. I'll hopefully be reading them in a couple of days.
Hopefully not the OCR 'editions' from Australia -- complete with typos, according to the description. I've seen the same seller attempting to sell wikipedia articles at outrageous prices.

These are actual paperback books from an online used bookstore, not e-books or anything like that. Dunno if they are from Australia, and I hope they aren't full of typos.

Posted: **Wed Jan 05, 2011 9:12 am**

I imagine if you're getting honest books, there won't be problems. I was just shocked to see the book available via OCR without any proofreading to correct mistakes, and more shocked to find the seller being honest about that.

Posted: **Wed Jan 05, 2011 10:10 am**

Interesting thread - I just started my own 'Appendix N' project this year (to catch up on all the fantasy reading I had missed) - and it's clear that it's going around! Gives me high hopes for the this DCC RPG, though November seems a long ways away.

I like Jame's short list, having read these italicized authors, with Leiber and L Sprague de Camp coming up shortly in the rotation. It really is a shame so much of this stuff is out of print!

Edgar Rice Burroughs
Robert E. Howard
L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt
Fritz Leiber
Jack Vance
H.P. Lovecraft
Abraham Merritt
Poul Anderson

Posted: **Wed Jan 05, 2011 7:33 pm**

Beedo wrote:It really is a shame so much of this stuff is out of print!

Agreed! At one point I was kicking around the idea of republishing some of the Appendix N works that are older and harder to find. Then again, you can find most of them for $5.00 or less if you spend enough time in dusty used book stores...

Posted: **Wed Jan 12, 2011 5:54 pm**

Not Clark Ashton Smith, you can't. I find it hard to track down his stuff anywhere!

While the notion of GG becoming a publishing house to get some classic fiction back in print is an interesting one, I would be a bit concerned that book publishing could take time/energy/resources away from game design, etc.

That would be a bummer.

Posted: **Wed Jan 12, 2011 6:49 pm**

goodmangames wrote:
Beedo wrote:It really is a shame so much of this stuff is out of print!
Agreed! At one point I was kicking around the idea of republishing some of the Appendix N works that are older and harder to find. Then again, you can find most of them for $5.00 or less if you spend enough time in dusty used book stores...

What, reduce our DCC playing time to go to dusty old bookstores? Don't be silly. Just republish them. And then publish new fiction in an old-school style. You could even call the company "Appendix N Publishing".

Posted: **Wed Jan 12, 2011 7:18 pm**

finarvyn wrote:Not Clark Ashton Smith, you can't. I find it hard to track down his stuff anywhere!

See if you can special order this book (pictured below) at a local Borders or Barnes & Noble. I actually got it right off the shelf at one of the big box book stores (I forget which one) which leads me to believe it's a currently published edition that they can special order.

Posted: **Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:13 am**

Amazon.com also has it for almost $5 off list ... just ordered one. Thanks.

Posted: **Sat Jan 15, 2011 10:23 am**

DCCfan wrote:Thank you for the link. I'll have to make it my New Year's resolution to read more of appendix N this year.

I found a copy of Fritz Leiber's Swords and Deviltry for $1.17 at a small used book store. I can't wait to get started on my appendix N resolution.

Posted: **Sun Jan 16, 2011 4:37 am**

Thanks for the tip! I'll buy one off of Amazon.

I guess my problem in part is that as I grow older I have a tough time with small font size, so I tend to be on the lookout for hardbacks. CAS hardback prices seem through the roof.

Joseph, since you have "Return of the Sorcerer" maybe you can tell me -- is the font size decent?

Posted: **Sun Jan 16, 2011 2:50 pm**

If you have an internet phone or tablet you can get tons of oop books from the Kindle store for free. I'm reading through the ERB books again, been years since I've read him, though I did reread the John Carter series a couple years ago.

Posted: **Sun Jan 16, 2011 5:19 pm**

JRR wrote:If you have an internet phone or tablet you can get tons of oop books from the Kindle store for free.

I have a Nook Color. Any idea if the formats are interchangible?

Posted: **Sun Jan 16, 2011 9:13 pm**

finarvyn wrote:Joseph, since you have "Return of the Sorcerer" maybe you can tell me -- is the font size decent?

Yes, it's pretty easy to read -- I'd say maybe 11 or 12 point, even. And the lines are spaced apart, too, which also makes it easy.

Posted: **Mon Jan 17, 2011 7:40 am**

finarvyn wrote:
JRR wrote:If you have an internet phone or tablet you can get tons of oop books from the Kindle store for free.
I have a Nook Color. Any idea if the formats are interchangible?

I'm not sure, I have an Archos 70, it runs on Android, but there's a Kindle app for it.

Posted: **Sat Jan 22, 2011 9:58 am**

How much will the flavor of the Appendix N books really color the game? Take the cleric for example. Its a staple of D&D, but I'll be damned if I've ever read of any character in a sword & sorcery book that sounded like one. Priests yes, but none that wore armor and used maces. And hardly any that healed anybody with magic. The priests are usually more like wizards than anything else. I'm hardly an expert on the books in the list, mainly having only read Leiber, Moorcock, Fox, Tolkien, Lovecraft, and Howard from it, so are there really clerics in any of the other books in that list or does it come mainly from Gygax's medieval and catholic readings?

Oh, and another thing that has always bugged me about the difference between D&D and s&s books- fighters are effective in the stories even without armor. Conan usually only wore armor if he was going to war. Try going without armor in D&D (any edition) as a fighter and survive. Will the new game do anything to make this possible?

Posted: **Sat Jan 22, 2011 10:02 am**

I, too, have never seen a D&D cleric outside of RPGs. I've certainly never seen one in any of the sources in Appendix N.

Goodman Games

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