Voros
Doomed Investigator
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So I thought it might be fun if we discussed what our personal Appendix N or Moldvay's 'Source for Inspirational Reading' is.
How you define that is up to you but I'd suggest we keep the list to a Top Ten so it doesn't become too unwieldy.
It could be what sources of fiction or with Moldvay's list as an example non-fiction that inspires your play now, or a list of what inspired your play when you first started playing rpgs.
Or anything else you think of, Gygax mentions comics and films but doesn't list any but no reason we can't.
My Appendix N is going to take the approach of what I was most into when I discovered and played D&D as a kid and a teen.
Ironically although I was obsessed with D&D as a kid I was never a big fantasy or sf fiction reader until my early adulthood so some of my choices will range from the obvious to the odd.
Here is my list in no particular order.
1. Conan the Barbarian/Savage Sword of Conan
I read some scattered Howard stories as a kid but this film directed by Milius and written by Oliver Stone and the B&W Savage Sword had the much bigger impact on me until I came to read Howard more extensively as an adult.
Savage Sword I loved for the B&W art, shocking (to me) violence and occasional nudity.
2. The Hobbit
Obvious sure but one of the few fantasy novels I was taken with as a kid. Still prefer it to LotR as (among other things) I think Bilbo is more interesting as a protagonist and Smaug is a great villain.
3. Dune
The Lynch film was my Star Wars as a kid. I watched it so often I still have large chunks of the over-the-top dialogue memorized.
Odd that I only got around to reading the book years later although I'm slowly working my way through a re-read now in between other books.
4. Excalibur/The Once and Future King
Excalibur was another film I was obsessed with as a kid, it seemed to be on afternoon TV all the time and it led me to White's masterpiece which remains one of the best fantasy novels I've read. If anything it set the bar so high that one reason I didn't become a big fantasy reader until later in life was because most of what I encountered didn't measure up to it. This novel and film is why I instantly bought Pendragon when I discovered it hidden on the shelf in the local comic shop and opened my mind to a world of games beyond D&D.
How you define that is up to you but I'd suggest we keep the list to a Top Ten so it doesn't become too unwieldy.
It could be what sources of fiction or with Moldvay's list as an example non-fiction that inspires your play now, or a list of what inspired your play when you first started playing rpgs.
Or anything else you think of, Gygax mentions comics and films but doesn't list any but no reason we can't.
My Appendix N is going to take the approach of what I was most into when I discovered and played D&D as a kid and a teen.
Ironically although I was obsessed with D&D as a kid I was never a big fantasy or sf fiction reader until my early adulthood so some of my choices will range from the obvious to the odd.
Here is my list in no particular order.
1. Conan the Barbarian/Savage Sword of Conan
I read some scattered Howard stories as a kid but this film directed by Milius and written by Oliver Stone and the B&W Savage Sword had the much bigger impact on me until I came to read Howard more extensively as an adult.
Savage Sword I loved for the B&W art, shocking (to me) violence and occasional nudity.
2. The Hobbit
Obvious sure but one of the few fantasy novels I was taken with as a kid. Still prefer it to LotR as (among other things) I think Bilbo is more interesting as a protagonist and Smaug is a great villain.
3. Dune
The Lynch film was my Star Wars as a kid. I watched it so often I still have large chunks of the over-the-top dialogue memorized.
Odd that I only got around to reading the book years later although I'm slowly working my way through a re-read now in between other books.
4. Excalibur/The Once and Future King
Excalibur was another film I was obsessed with as a kid, it seemed to be on afternoon TV all the time and it led me to White's masterpiece which remains one of the best fantasy novels I've read. If anything it set the bar so high that one reason I didn't become a big fantasy reader until later in life was because most of what I encountered didn't measure up to it. This novel and film is why I instantly bought Pendragon when I discovered it hidden on the shelf in the local comic shop and opened my mind to a world of games beyond D&D.
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