The Original Appendix N (reposted)

[finarvyn]

Somewhere in the archives is a thread with the actual content of Appendix N. I thought that it would be worth having this handy again, as folks discuss it.

Also, since it's a common term here I thought it would be a nice resource for a newbie. For anyone not "in the know" the original Appendix N was a list by Gary Gygax of works of literature that inspired the creation of AD&D (and by extension one would suppose inspired the creation of OD&D). This is only Gary's list, and as far as I know other early creators (Dave Arneson, Rob Kuntz, et all) never made lists of their own.

The original “Appendix N” from the Dungeon Master’s Guide (AD&D; 1979)
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.

[finarvyn]

Appendix N, Chronological
Here is the Appendix N list, re-written to reflect chronological order. I had a couple of issues in making this list. (1) Some authors were listed without any specific stories. (2) When a series was listed, how to select a single date. My solution to #1 was to look for the first scifi or fantasy novel that seemed to make an impact and quote that. My solution for #2 was simply to select the first book in the series.

Another interesting effect occurs with authors like Michael Moorcock where he singles out certain volumes of a series (e.g. the first two Elric books, or the first three Hawkmoon books) and I wonder if Gary didn’t like the others or just hadn’t read them. If a specific title was given, I tried to fit it into the Chronology.

1905
Dunsany, Lord (I chose THE GODS OF PEGANA)

1912
Burroughs, Edgar Rice: Mars series (11 books; 1912-1964)

1914
Burroughs, Edgar Rice: "Pellucidar" series (7 books; 1914-1963)

1919
Merritt, Abraham: MOON POOL

1925
Lovecraft, H. P. (many Mythos stories; 1925-1935)

1932
Howard, R. E.: "Conan" series (many stories; 1932-1934)
Merritt, Abraham: DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE

1934
Burroughs, Edgar Rice: Venus series (5 books; 1934-1970)
Merritt, Abraham: CREEP, SHADOW!
Weinbaum, Stanley (short story “A Martian Odyssey”)
Williamson, Jack (I picked his “Legion of Space” stories)

1937
Tolkien, J. R. R.: THE HOBBIT

1939
Leiber, Fritz: "Fafhrd & Gray Mouser" series (7 books; 1939-1988)
de Camp, L. Sprague: LEST DARKNESS FALL

1940
de Camp & Pratt: "Harold Shea" series (5 stories; 1940-1954)

1941
Derleth, August (11 Lovecraft Mythos books; 1941-1976)

1944
Brackett, Leigh (no specific book; I chose SHADOWS OVER MARS, her first scifi novel)

1948
de Camp & Pratt: THE CARNELIAN CUBE

1950
Vance, Jack: THE DYING EARTH (“Dying Earth” series)

1952
Pratt, Fletcher: BLUE STAR

1953
Anderson, Poul: THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS

1954
Anderson, Poul: THE BROKEN SWORD
Tolkien, J. R. R.: "Ring trilogy" (written 1938-1950 or thereabouts)

1959
Wellman, Manley Wade (“Nine Yards of Other Cloth” won a Hugo)

1960
Anderson, Poul: THE HIGH CRUSADE

1963
Moorcock, Michael: STEALER OF SOULS (“Elric” series)
Norton, Andre (I picked the “Witch World” series; 8 pre-1980 books; 1963-1978)
St. Clair, Margaret: SIGN OF THE LABRYS

1965
Moorcock, Michael: STORMBRINGER (“Elric” series)
Brown, Frederic (Short story “Arena” voted one of the 20 top scifi stories, pre-1965)
Farmer, P. J.: "The World of the Tiers" series (5 pre-1980 books; 1965-1977)

1966
Vance, Jack: THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD (“Dying Earth” series)

1967
Moorcock, Michael: "Hawkmoon" series (4 books; 1967-1969)

1969
Bellairs, John: THE FACE IN THE FROST
Carter, Lin: "World's End" series (6 books; 1969-1978)
Fox, Gardner: "Kothar" series (5 books; 1969-1970)
St. Clair, Margaret: THE SHADOW PEOPLE

1970
Zelazny, Roger: "Amber" series (5 pre-1980 books; 1970-1978)

1971
Zelazny, Roger: JACK OF SHADOWS

1972
de Camp, L. Sprague: THE FALLIBLE FIEND

1973
Lanier, Sterling: HIERO'S JOURNEY
Saberhagen, Fred: CHANGELING EARTH

1975
Fox, Gardner: "Kyrik" series (4 books; 1975-76)

1978
Offutt, Andrew J.: editor of SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS III

[goodmangames]

Interesting idea to look at it chronologically. I have never done that. I knew some of the "legacies" involved: i.e., Moorcock specifically cites Poul Anderson as an influence on his Chaos-Law continuum, and Lovecraft specifically cites Merritt as an influence. But I've never seen it laid out in that order. I'll have to re-read them in that order someday. Someday.

[shadewest]

Just what my OCD needs, a new list to work through. So far this year, I've read Anderson, Howard, Burroughs, Merritt and Brackett. I had good momentum, and now I need to start over.

[reverenddak]

Thanks for the Chronological order Finarvyn! I just downloaded The Moon Pool from the Gutenberg Project: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/765 anything before 1923 is public domain.

[finarvyn]

Interesting idea to look at it chronologically.

That's what I do ... hang out and come up with interesting ideas.

I have never done that. I knew some of the "legacies" involved: i.e., Moorcock specifically cites Poul Anderson as an influence on his Chaos-Law continuum, and Lovecraft specifically cites Merritt as an influence. But I've never seen it laid out in that order. I'll have to re-read them in that order someday. Someday.

I doubt that I'll ever try to read the whole list in order, but I find it interesting to see where some of my favorites (Burroughs, Howard, Leiber, Moorcock, Zelazny) fit in chronological order.

It's also interesting to see which authors start off with good books, then fizzle as teh series continues. For example, Howard's Conan is good throughout (he only wrote a few stories and all in a small time span) whereas both Leiber's and Moorcock's best works are early but they wrote over a much longer time span.

[beermotor]

What's the best/most cost effective way to get (all?) the Conan stories by Howard?

[sheriffharry]

What's the best/most cost effective way to get (all?) the Conan stories by Howard?

That could be a start:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Chronicl ... 0575077662

"The complete Chronicle of Conan". Should be able to find it anywhere.
As a matter of fact I just flip through it in a library here in Quebec just last week!

[AJClark]

I second "The Complete Chronicles of Conan". Not only are the the original versions (there are some heavily edited versions out there), but they are also in the order the stories were published, not chronological order. R.E.H. had stated that he preferred the stories be read in the order they were written, not in the order they were supposed to have occurred.

[finarvyn]

There is also the three-volume trade paperback series by Del Ray books:

• The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
• The Conquering Sword of Conan
• The Bloody Crown of Conan

I like those books quite a bit and you can buy 'em used on Amazon for pretty cheap.

[fishgeekted]

I created a rough Amazon list for Appendix N here: http://amzn.com/lm/R2SUYO1585JGNH

[finarvyn]

A nifty little list! There are a couple of those I haven't gotten around to finding yet. Thanks for posting the link!

[ragboy]

Has anyone already asked: Why isn't Clarke Ashton Smith on this list? I guess because Gygax wasn't inspired by him...

I'm reading Emperor of Dreams, and it's so Appendix N, I want to write an adventure for every paragraph...

[cthulhudarren]

Has anyone already asked: Why isn't Clarke Ashton Smith on this list? I guess because Gygax wasn't inspired by him...

Read the DCC RPG rulebook section, it mentions that it must have been an oversight. I love CAS, he knows how to set a mood.

[GnomeBoy]

Has anyone already asked: Why isn't Clarke Ashton Smith on this list? I guess because Gygax wasn't inspired by him...

Read the DCC RPG rulebook section, it mentions that it must have been an oversight. I love CAS, he knows how to set a mood.

Somewhere recently on the interwebs (don't ask me to remember where), someone had dug up a document or something that was published that was essentially a 'rough draft' of Appendix N by E.G.G.

It, too, did not have CAS on it -- which lead to the speculation that it wasn't an oversight that he's not on the list in the DMG.

I think E.G.G. may have simply not liked CAS's work enough to include it -- I'm sure we all have something we can point to that is wildly popular in it's circle or in the wider culture, but that we ourselves just simply don't care for at all, e.g., Harry Potter leaves me cold.

[cthulhudarren]

Has anyone already asked: Why isn't Clarke Ashton Smith on this list? I guess because Gygax wasn't inspired by him...

Read the DCC RPG rulebook section, it mentions that it must have been an oversight. I love CAS, he knows how to set a mood.

Somewhere recently on the interwebs (don't ask me to remember where), someone had dug up a document or something that was published that was essentially a 'rough draft' of Appendix N by E.G.G.

It, too, did not have CAS on it -- which lead to the speculation that it wasn't an oversight that he's not on the list in the DMG.

I think E.G.G. may have simply not liked CAS's work enough to include it -- I'm sure we all have something we can point to that is wildly popular in it's circle or in the wider culture, but that we ourselves just simply don't care for at all, e.g., Harry Potter leaves me cold.

EGG also talked about not liking LoTR too, but that's still on the list.

[GnomeBoy]

EGG also talked about not liking LoTR too, but that's still on the list.

Fair enough -- I can't say LotR is my favorite thing in the world, either. But I think the evidence is there that ideas from LotR made it into D&D, agreed? Maybe Gygax wasn't too hot on CAS and didn't find anything to steal *cough* ahem! -- anything inspirational about CAS to make him want to include it on the list. It's the right genre, but it didn't give him anything, perhaps, maybe?

Of course, I'll also admit that I'm throwing that out there without knowing if there is anything in D&D that can be traced to CAS and no other particular source... Gotta leave that for scholars better than I. Or better than me, even.

[finarvyn]

Somewhere recently on the interwebs (don't ask me to remember where), someone had dug up a document or something that was published that was essentially a 'rough draft' of Appendix N by E.G.G.

There is a thread a lot like this on these very boards. I found a list in Dragon magazine roughly 2 years before Appendix N.

[GnomeBoy]

Somewhere recently on the interwebs (don't ask me to remember where), someone had dug up a document or something that was published that was essentially a 'rough draft' of Appendix N by E.G.G.

There is a thread a lot like this on these very boards. I found a list in Dragon magazine roughly 2 years before Appendix N.

May very well be where it was from, and I wouldn't be surprised. You seem to know your stuff. I had done a little search, but couldn't turn it up here, so had thought maybe I had seen it elsewhere...

[finarvyn]

Somewhere recently on the interwebs (don't ask me to remember where), someone had dug up a document or something that was published that was essentially a 'rough draft' of Appendix N by E.G.G.

There is a thread a lot like this on these very boards. I found a list in Dragon magazine roughly 2 years before Appendix N.

May very well be where it was from, and I wouldn't be surprised. You seem to know your stuff. I had done a little search, but couldn't turn it up here, so had thought maybe I had seen it elsewhere...

The one I'm thinking about is called Gygax pre-"Appendix N".
http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/vie ... 77&t=41938

[Clangador]

EGG also talked about not liking LoTR too, but that's still on the list.

I have heard that Halflings were included in D&D just to ride off some of the popularity of LotR. They were originally called Hobbits before J.R.R's estate got after TSR.

[finarvyn]

EGG also talked about not liking LoTR too, but that's still on the list.

I have heard that Halflings were included in D&D just to ride off some of the popularity of LotR. They were originally called Hobbits before J.R.R's estate got after TSR.

This is correct. OD&D had balrogs and hobbits and ents and the like through 4th printing, but this was changed by 5th printing and beyond (mostly; there are a couple of references which somehow slipped past without anyone catching them). The funny thing is that those parts of the book are pretty easy to spot as the font doesn't quite match the rest of the text. (No word processors back then, so they had to cut and paste typed copy.)

[Clangador]

EGG also talked about not liking LoTR too, but that's still on the list.

I have heard that Halflings were included in D&D just to ride off some of the popularity of LotR. They were originally called Hobbits before J.R.R's estate got after TSR.

This is correct. OD&D had balrogs and hobbits and ents and the like through 4th printing, but this was changed by 5th printing and beyond (mostly; there are a couple of references which somehow slipped past without anyone catching them). The funny thing is that those parts of the book are pretty easy to spot as the font doesn't quite match the rest of the text. (No word processors back then, so they had to cut and paste typed copy.)

I came into D&D with the Holmes Basic set, so I didn't see any of the original OD&D stuff. I still don't understand how TSR could use Halfling as that is from J.R.R's writing too. And was Hobbit even coined by Tolkien? I heard at one point it wasn't and I am to lazy to Google it.

[Hrevelax]

Great stuff, thanks for the lists. I've been itching for a good fantasy-adventure novel but I had no idea where to look. Thanks!

[cthulhudarren]

I just finished with Poul Anderson's The High Crusade, which I found at a used book store in Jim Thorp, PA.

It was definitely Appendix N as a blend of Midieval and Sci Fi. But have to say that it was not as good as The Broken Sword or Three Hearts and Three Lions.