What is Your Appendix N?

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OK, so lets talk Sci Fi for a minute

Old shit that I still like:

1. Doctor Who, tops the list, period. Specifically Tom Baker
2. Star Wars, Episodes IV and V
3. The Last Starfighter
4. Krull
5. Pern, the first handful of books

Newer shit that I also still like:

1. Alien/s/etc
2. John Ringo - Posleen War
3. Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep
4. John Scalzi - Old Mans War
5. The Expanse series (tv and novels)

Honorable mentions:
Everything by Philp K Dick
Some stuff by William Gibson
Akira and some other assorted Anime
Ad Astra (weird, I know)
The Watchmen (graphic novel)
Firefly (woot, should maybe have been top 5)
Blade Runner (both)
The Dark (German Netflix Show)
Ice Pirates
They Live (RRP FTW)
The Mandalorian
Lucifer's Hammer

I'll stop now...
 
Fantasy (Books)

OK, this is the really hard one. I've devoured fantasy most of my life, and pinpointing the biggest influences is nearly impossible, so this is more of a favourites list than anything. Also, I've stuck to fiction only, because the rabbithole of nonfiction sourcebooks I have is just too much for a single list of ten to adequetly contain. I'm also leaving off just general fairytales, as I've consumed thousands of these

1. J,R.R. Tolkien

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2. Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain

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3. Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun

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4. Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirlees

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5. Lord Dunsany

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6. Robert Holdstock's Mythago Cycle

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7. Neil Gaiman

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8. Terry Pratchet's Discworld

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9. Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar Cycle

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10. Arthurian Mythos

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Fenris-77 said:
OK, so lets talk Sci Fi for a minute

Old shit that I still like:

1. Doctor Who, tops the list, period. Specifically Tom Baker
2. Star Wars, Episodes IV and V
3. The Last Starfighter
4. Krull
5. Pern, the first handful of books

Newer shit that I also still like:

1. Alien/s/etc
Click to expand...

Just to be Pedantic, the first thing on your "Newer shit that I also still like" is older than most of the things on your "old shit I still like"...
 
So, keeping it to (1) fantasy-adjacent (2) modern fiction only, and (3) things I had read, or was reading, during the first five years or so that I was gaming, and cheating by listing authors rather than single titles:
  • Tolkien, originally The Hobbit but then later LotR and, at the end of the period, The Silmarillion.
  • Burroughs, especially the Barsoom tales but also Pellucidar, Tarzan, and some of the stand-alones. I'd read much of Burroughs before I started gaming. Oddly, I didn't get around to his Venus series until decades later.
  • Vance, The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, and The Last Castle/The Dragon Masters Ace Double. I once pitched a game based on the Dragon Masters, but my players wouldn't go for it.
  • Leiber's Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser books.
  • Howard's Conan stories, through the old series that included all the adapted and pastiche works.
  • Moorcock's Eternal Champion books, including the Elric, Corum, and Hawkmoon series, as well as some other titles like The Ice Schooner. While in high school I had for a time a D&D campaign that borrowed heavily from Hawkmoon but was set on the moon (rendered inhabitable by terraforming).
  • Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series, or at least the original trilogy. I experimented with a fantasy game in that setting briefly in college, long before the later RPG for it came out.
  • Dunsany, The Charwoman's Shadow and The King of Elfland's Daughter.
  • LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy (all that existed of Earthsea at the point and still my favorite part).
  • Davidson's The Phoenix and the Mirror, which remains one of the most beautiful fantasies I've ever read.
If I were to expand it beyond modern fiction, I'd list some of medieval literature I was reading at the time: Beowulf, The Song of Roland (I bought the Terry translation for a dime, used), The Mabinogion (maybe I should have listed Evangeline Walton's tetralogy above), The Niebelungenlied, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Marie de France, Chretien de Troyes, some bits of the Vulgate Arthurian cycle, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Mallory. Some I read for fun, some for coursework. Maybe because I'd already absorbed a good deal of Arthurian literature, when I came to T.H. White's Once and Future King I found I couldn't get into it; something about its attitude to the source material bugged me. I suppose I should give it another chance, someday.
 
So keeping strictly to formative influences, rather than just spam everything I like.

1: Doctor Who. My earliest memory is the opening titles to Tom Baker's run. I was like, 2 when he started, so it won't be his first series. but I do remember being terrified of Davros. Probably on a Genesis of the Daleks rerun. And I remember things like Leela's first appearance. And to this day. I've got literally every DVD the BBC have put out under the Who logo.

2: The Hobbit. One of the first full length novels I ever read. Enough people have waxed lyrcal about this. Suffice to say, it's where D&D imagery came from as far as I'm concerned.

3: Moorcock. I remember getting Stormbringer, the out of print abridged one, out of the library when I was young enough to think getting books from the adult section was daring. The wild, hallucinogenic imagery of a world totally overtaken by Chaos still haunts me. And the contradiction of the evil hero who saves the world by ending it and then killing his best friend to begin the new world. And then his evil, living sword comes to life and kills him, is still one of the best concepts in fiction for me. Often imitated, never equalled. Let alone beaten.

4: Susan Cooper. When the Dark comes Rising, Six shall turn it back. The film was absolute garbage. But the books, apart from the first one, are probably the first multi part fantasy epic I ever read. Growing up in semi rural Wales, not too far from the locations in The Grey King gave those books a particular resonance for me.

5: 2000AD. I'm a certain age and British. Naturally, I grew up on 2000AD. I can even tell you the first issue I bought, prog 377. It had the 2nd episode of The Ballad of Halo Jones in it. It was somewhere in the middle of the epic Outlaw story for Strontium Dog. Rogue Trooper may well have been in there. But mostly I got it because the cover had Judge Dredd and Mean Machine Angel on it and it looked cool. So I bout it right up until the end of Necropolis.

6: Magician, Raymond E Feist. Forget the 20 odd books that came after it. This one was, to me, the Real Thing. two boys, one war. Ridiculously big cast of characters and stupendous scope. A sprawling mass that really shouldn't work, but does and keeps you turning pages. To this day, Magician in particular is a huge influence on how I see RPG worlds. Especially if you're playing GURPS.

7: Legend, David Gemmel. A friend of mine once said, it's Zulu, but fantasy. And he's right. There's no twists and turns. No clever plotting. Just some cool characters, a sense of the torch being passed to the next generation and one of the best battles in fantasy. Forget Druss the Legend, I'd still love to make a Regnak the Wanderer character in GURPS. Cowardice and Berserk seem like they should make for a fun combination.

8: Babara Hambly, the Darwath Trilogy. Yes, it's portal fantasy. And has weird, Lovecraftian monsters as the driving force behind the story. But it's also one that showed me that not all victories are won in battle. And that climate change can have very real effects on the world. Even though it was written in the early 80s. Also, has the Archmage being the Best Swordsman. Which I always thought was cool.

9: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Controversial in some circles, but I think the idea of a guy from our world being zapped into a fantasy one and told he's going to save the place is a hackneyed idea. So when the Chosen One says, "Nope, you're all a delusion, I'm having none of this!" Also has Lord Foul, one of the best Evil Overlord types I can think of. And a great cast of supporting characters who are mostly possessed of infinite patience with our protagonist.

10: Katherine Kerr, the Deverry Cycle. A non linear story told over multiple generations, like a great big 12+ volume Celtic Knot. With the best realised, most consistent magic system I can think of. The quality can be a little inconsistent towards the last part of the story. But it's a world that absolutely deserves an RPG.
 
It's harder for me to come up with an "Appendix N" for sf because my sf interests are more siloed and brand-centric than my fantasy interests, so I have less desire to mix and match influences into a big "universal sf" stew. Nevertheless, here's some that come to mind:

1. Star Trek - the original series and original-cast movies, not much interested in anything else
2. Doctor Who - the first five, and ninth-eleventh incarnations mostly
3. Star Wars - mostly the first two movies and the Marvel Comics; Mandalorian and Rogue One also get points for mostly capturing the same look and feel as the stuff I liked
4. 2000 AD - I bought this on import as a kid (I didn't like the Americanized comic-book versions): Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, Halo Jones, etc.
5. Robotech
6. The space-flavored MCU stuff: Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers Infinity War
7. Heavy Metal - the 1981 movie
8. Philip K Dick
9. 80s Cyberpunk - William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, John Shirley, Richard Kadrey, etc.
10. The stuff name-checked in Traveller supplements 1 & 4: Poul Anderson's Flandry and Van Rijn, Vance's Demon Princes, Niven's Known Space, Pournelle's CoDominium, Asimov's Empire and Foundation, Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat and Deathworld, Laumer's Retief, Alexei Panshin, Alfred Bester, H. Beam Piper, etc.
 
Stevethulhu said:
3: Moorcock. I remember getting Stormbringer, the out of print abridged one, out of the library when I was young enough to think getting books from the adult section was daring. The wild, hallucinogenic imagery of a world totally overtaken by Chaos still haunts me. And the contradiction of the evil hero who saves the world by ending it and then killing his best friend to begin the new world. And then his evil, living sword comes to life and kills him, is still one of the best concepts in fiction for me. Often imitated, never equalled. Let alone beaten.


7: Legend, David Gemmel. A friend of mine once said, it's Zulu, but fantasy. And he's right. There's no twists and turns. No clever plotting. Just some cool characters, a sense of the torch being passed to the next generation and one of the best battles in fantasy. Forget Druss the Legend, I'd still love to make a Regnak the Wanderer character in GURPS. Cowardice and Berserk seem like they should make for a fun combination.
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How the fuck did I forget Gemmell and Moorcock:shock:? Those were very much part of my formative years, as well as Zelazni (who probably still ranks as my #2 or #3 preferred author).

Stevethulhu said:
10: Katherine Kerr, the Deverry Cycle. A non linear story told over multiple generations, like a great big 12+ volume Celtic Knot. With the best realised, most consistent magic system I can think of. The quality can be a little inconsistent towards the last part of the story. But it's a world that absolutely deserves an RPG.
Click to expand...
Incidentally, I've also thought this is a cycle that's crying out for an RPG. But I there might have been attempts at it already.
 
OK, let's do Horror...

Going deep on this one, all the foundational stuff from early childhood. Leaving out films, because I already did a thread on that...



I. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
All children in the 80s remember these books, and the chilling illustrations that outraged parent groups for decades. In fact, the stories themselves were largely inconsequential. It was those visceral inhuman grotesques that forever cemented artist Stephen Gammell as the architect of a thousand nightmares for my generation.

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II. Haunted Houses by Bernhardt J. Hurwood
I must have read a thousand books of ghost stories growing up, paperback collections of that sort were a dime a dozen in the early 80s at garage sales and local fairs. I wouldn't be surprised if this book cost me a quarter or less the first time I encountered it. It's hard to say why certain stories stay with you, certain tales hit a nerve and bury themselves in your unconscious, so that decades later they can still resurface from time to time to haunt you. For all the horror films I saw without so much as a nightmare in consequence, for all the trashy 80s dimestore horror novels I consumed, most came and went with no lasting impression. But this book, specifically the very last tale inside, got some sort of hold on me and never let go. "The Girl With the Beckoning Eyes" it was called. I can't even put a proper name on the feeling that it evokes. Not horror or fear in the conventional sense, but something much more bleak, much more sorrowful and heartwrenching. A hollowness in the pit of my heart that can never be filled or repaired, merely accepted.

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III. The Cask of Amontillado
I first heard the story on a book on tape audiocollection of Edgar Allen Poe tales that I listened to on our first family roadtrip down to Florida. I couldn't tell you now any of the other tales, and there were quite a few as it was one of those styrafoam booklets of nine casettes. But this one, I remember as if I had seen a film. Every element played out distinctly visually in my mind. There is a raw evil to this story, so base and malicious, yet so calculating and matter of fact. If I ever hated someone, hated them so much that I wanted them dead, wanted to personally make them dead... this is how I would do it.

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IV. Read All About It
There is a category of horror that seemed particularly prevalent in children's entertainment the 1980's that I can only call "Unintentional Nightmare Fuel". Stuff that sort of slips into what is supposed to be the most innocent and inoccuous entertainment aimed at the youngest audience, creating a sudden shock and lasting unease. Whether it's the Wheelers of Return to Oz, the batshit insane Mysterious Stranger claymation segment of the Adventures of Mark Twain, or even the disturbing absurdity of a Kinder Egg Commercial, these twisted elements are notorious to this day, collective scars shared by a generation of viewers.

For myself, this was epitomized by the television program deceptivelly titled "Read All About It". A TVOntario "educational" production, I've no idea how widely this show was known outside of those growing up in Ontario, Canada in the early 80's. Ostensibly a show devoted to teaching about literacy and history, it's difficult to put into words what pushed this show into the realm of horror. There was just something "off" about the whole show, a pervasive sense of unease. I'd caught hints of the same feeling in episodes of Land of the Lost, and old Doctor Who, but here it was concentrated, sustained.

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V. Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (aka Ten Little Indians)
Before Michael Myers picked up a butcher knife, before Jason Vorhees put on a hockey mask...Agatha Christie gave use THE archetypal slasher story. It's kind of a shame then, with such a cineatic legacy that none of the adaptions do justice to the raw horror and impact of the original book. I think because there is a legitimacy attached to the author's name, there is always a pretensiously-motivated effort to be restrained. The book is anything but, with all the tropes that would come to define the genre decades ;ater, from the diverse cast of victims to the endlessly inventive means of dispatching them. The mystery is secondary here, as incidental as a Saw film.

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To be continued...
 
VI. Crestwood House Monsters Series
One thing that strikes me about the difference in growing up in the 70s and 80s, as opposed to now, is the distinct difference in availability. There was so much we simply didn't have access to in those days. Certain media you'd hear aout, have referenced in other books and TV,without ever having seen it. You had to hunt things down. Conventions, out of the way shops in the seedier parts of town, swap meets. Bootleg VHS tapes formed their own underground economy. Case in point, it wasn't possible in the 80's to go into a videostore and rent any of the classic universal monster movies. Though they were an ever-present part of pop-culture, they were also nowhere to be found. You couldn't buy them in any shop, no Blockbuster stocked them. At best, a channel might show one late at night during the Halloween season. As such, my primary introduction and source of knowledge on these cinema horror classics while in elementary school was this set of books in the school library, which I constantly checked out on a regular rotation.

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VII. Clive Barker

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I can't imagine there's much I need to say that hasn't already been said. From the Books of Blood to Hellraiser, Clive Barker was the epitome of horror for me in the late 80's/early 90's, pushing the genre out of the slasher ghetto into something sophisticated, sexual, and transgressive in every way that the Fundamentalist morality-enforcing bogeymen of cheap gore never managed.

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VIII. T.E.D. Klein
I first encountered Klein's work in the seminal Dark Forces collection (which would also be on this list if I had room). In a book that redefined the face of horror for a generation, hs story still stood out as something more. Unfortunately, Klein is pretty much the opposite of Stephen King, in that since that first impactful blood spurt on the literary scene in 1980, he released a total of one novel, and one book of short stories. And they are both absolute genius, he belongs in the top ten, maybe at the top, in any discussion of 20th century horror literature. Sadly, he is virtually unknown these days.

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IX. The Nightmares on Elm Street
I've never been one for noveliations of flms; I tend to avoid them with the same prejudice I apply to game fiction - maybe even moreso, as eve gaming fiction has it's regular exceptions such as Black Library and the Battletech line. But even as a kid I was acutely aware that most movie tie-in novelizations were pushed out en masse for a quick buck as part of the marketing hype. It's somewhat odd then, that this particular novelization comes in the wake of two films in the series, and it's only by complete chance I happened across it in a bargain bin at Brentano'sor Waldenbooks or some other mall shop (could have even been at Tower Records, now that I think about it).

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But what's even stranger is how good this book is, in fact, arguably the very best Freddy story in any medium. It takes the story of Alice, protagonist of two of the later sequels, unenviably given the job of following up what is almost unanimously considered the best entry and the best Final Girl in the series, and transforms two films into a single cohesive narrative journey that is way beyond the sum of it's parts. Not only is the story fleshed out, the characterizations on every level are much deeper. Instead of a stock of disposable teens for Freddy to gleefully dispatch for cheap thrills, this is a generation of people who grew up together, each from broken homes forging a new family together, only to be beset by an incomprehensible evil that is a manifestation of their parent's sins, creating a metaphorical loop of the consequences of abuse and the struggle to overcome that and forge one's own identity. Kruegar himself, accurately deemed "The Bugs Bunny of Slasher Villains" is elevated to a mythical figure, demonic and cunning. While Alice, in what is only hinted at in the films, is forged into the perfect counter to Freddy, learning to use and manipulate dreams on the same scale as him and turning his powers against him. It's a hell of a thing, and sadly, being out of print since the 80s, will likely never recieve the recognition it deserves.


X. House of Leaves
The newest piece of media on this list, regardless it deserves it's place as the last horror book to actually scare me. Not in any sort of traditional way of horror, but it's labyrinthine manner of digging into your brain and leaving a trail of scars that will wake you up in the middle of the night staring at shadows on the wall. Even the page design transforms the very act of reading into an exercise in transgression, pulling the reader into a Jungian Labyrinth that twists in on itself, breaking down the walls between fiction and history, reader and participant.

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Loz said:
Alan Garner: Elidor; The Weirdstone of Brisingamen; Red Shift
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I've been struggling to come up with a definitive list of my own but I would definitely put The Weirdstone of Brisingamen near the top. I don't read a lot of fantasy books but that is at the top of my list alongside The Hobbit.

There's a lot of great stuff already mentioned that I would definitely consider putting on my own list. One thing I haven't noticed (I may have missed it mind you) though is the Fortean Times magazine. Particularly the issues published between the late 80s and late 90s. I haven't read it regularly since I graduated University in '99. It remains, in general, one of the most influential magazines I've ever read. There was just so much cool stuff in there, from the obvious ghost and UFO stuff to all kinds of mythology, fringe (and psuedo) science, history, unusual crimes, strange deaths, and reviews of a whole raft of geek-friendly media. Any given issue was perfect fuel for the imagination!

Also, the Xenozoic/Cadillacs & Dinosaurs comics. A 1950s post-apocalyptic world, with Pulp Action heroes, aliens, and dinosaurs! Fantastic stuff.

Another influential comic book would be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The original Mirage run. I discovered them quite a while before the cartoon aired on TV and wanted the RPG as soon as I heard of it. When I finally got hold of it it became the game that really got me into RPGs.
 
I'm going to append my appendix for my current sensibilities. I'm going to wipe out nostalgia, smash sentimentality, and take hold of the flame of my current perspective that my younger self could not fathom. I'm going to keep it short.

Appendix N for me in Books

R.E. Howard: Conan the Barbarian - The whole canon. It was the second book series I ever read. And its shadow looms over everything I do in fantasy. I'm fine with including the non-Howard stuff.

Michael Moorcock: Elric Chronicles, Corum and Hawkmoon a close second. I'm gonna say it. Moorcock is king for me. While Howard may have given me my foundation, Moorcock expanded and elevated that foundation beyond any horizon that is rarely achieved in gaming or in fiction. I strive for this every time.

Raymond Feist: Magician - This is straight up what I consider *classic* D&D fantasy done right, and contextually contained. It's pure homage to Tolkien in a modern sense, while adopting the gaming sensibilities of the 70's and 80's, and doing so with skill and a little not-so-clever inspiration from Tekumel (but damn it was satisfying). I recommend this series (at least the first four books and the Empire trilogy with Janny Wurts) for any new GM for inspiration on how a Kitchen Sink setting could be run. It is a full spectrum setting and covers everything from thieves skulking in the night, to Gods killing Gods. You can't ask for more.

Joe Abercrombie: The First Law series - Purely modern in its approach and conception. Not perfect, but it is very solid in narrative (no maps!) in world building and the delivering of history in an oral fashion without clubbing you to death with it. Fun, fast, and very much a modern take on S&S that scratches my Pulp Itch.

Frank Herbert: Dune - If I have to tell you why, it probably doesn't matter. Read it. READ THE WHOLE SIX books. Then read it about ten more times. You'll learn something new about yourself and the books every single time. Great series if for nothing else than fertilizing your mind for political play and nuance, and the impact of soft-power on the scope of a setting. Priceless for those doing sandbox for the first time to get a feel for scaling.

Neil Gaiman - Sandman. Myth - it's what drives your world if you do it right. So do it right.

I could make this list fantastically long. Music, Comics, Movies, Non-fiction - all have their place in my Appendix N. But I'll keep it short and sweet.
 
Limiting to 5 for each category:

Appendix N for Fantasy:
1) Dying Earth (series)
2) Lord of the Rings trilogy, Hobbit, Silmarillion
3) Zothique stories, Clark Ashton Smith
4) John Carter of Mars series
5) Vlad Taltos novels

Appendix N for Space Opera
1) Known Space stories, including Ringworld et al, Larry Niven
2) Dune, Frank Herbert
3) Revelation Space series, Alastair Reynolds
4) Star Wars movie series, esp Ep IV-VI
5) The Expanse film and TV Series by James SA Corey

Appendix N for Supers
1) Marvel Cinematic Universe (film series)
2) X-Men Phoenix Saga
3) Legion of Super Heroes, Great Darkness Saga and Magic Wars
4) Young Justice (TV series)
5) Infinity Gauntlet
 
I'm going to keep my appendix N to childhood.

part 1 early influences.
Enid Blyton - The Famous Five
Scooby-Doo - Cartoon
C.S. Lewis - Lion, witch, wardrobe, etc
Jack London - White Fang, The call of the wild
Ulysses 31 - Cartoon
Dogtanian - Cartoon
Brian Earnshaw - Dragonfall 5
Lloyd Alexander - The book of three, etc
Moldvay D&D
JR Tolkien the Hobbit
Commando - Comic books
Ladybird books - King Arthur stories and history books

Part 2 early teens
White Dwarf magazine
David Eddings
David Gemmel
Terry Pratchett
Sven Hassel - WW2 stories
Susan Cooper - the dark is rising books
Various books of ghost stories
Captain W. E. Johns - Biggles

I have more military and other adventure stories than most of you in my mix of party based adventures that fed my love of RPGs, but I was never really into superheroes unlike many of the people that I played with.
 
18 and under years:

Film- Clash of the Titans, Dragonslayer, Highlander, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Covington Cross

Animation- Hobbit (Rankin/Bass), Dungeons and Dragons, Pirates of Darkwater

Print- The Black Cauldron, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Dark is Rising, The Grey King, Shakespeare, Beowulf, Greek mythology

Adult years:

Bachelor's degree in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, numerous books on the history and literature of the Middle Ages

RPG focused blogs and message boards

Gaming products
 
Just to go extra obscure, I was into Black and White indie comics in the eighties.

Cerberus - A funny animal Conan parody turns into a social commentary turns into a raving madman's delusional rant.

Adventurers (Adventure Comics) - What do you do when you have a lawful good paladin and a chaotic evil cleric of non-being in the same party. The first series was better illustrated by Peter Hsu, who also did Elf Warrior, the comic for people who really hate elves.

The Realm (Caliber Press) - A group of college students gets transported to a fantasy world while camping out at an abandoned cottage. What do you do when you bust into the evil overlord's castle to rescue your friend but they've already gotten married? There was also a Tales of The Realm comic telling the story of the great war between the forces of darkness and the Elves and Dwarves.

Death Hawk (Adventure Comics) - Four backup stories in the less amazing Star Rangers, and two or three issues. Beautifully illustrated story of a space rogue and his telepathic blob companion.

Empire Lanes (???) - An adventuring party gets stranded in nineteen eighties Chicago and lives in the back of a bowling alley. Gorgeous art and a kind of wistful story about not belonging where you are and longing for home.

There was also this odd one about some mutant turtle martial artists that kinda fizzled out and disappeared. Well, to be fair everything on my list kinda fizzled out and disappeared. sigh
 
Katherine Kerr is an infinitely awesome writer (and I've not read Deverry, only her Nola O'Grady books.) However, a friend introduced me to her on social media. She's lovely to talk to, and honest to a hilt. I talked to her about a legitimate trigger I had and she warned me it comes up in the Deverry series, and to skip one book completely. She's still writing by the way.

I think, the next things I'll read after a few rereads of superhero stuff (one series or another) will be her first Deverry book. I own, I think two others or did--they were given to me, and as much as the setting sounds awesome, I never seem to think of them when I'm interested in fantasy, but I am SURE going to hit the first one running! I talked to her about my love for the Nola books, and she said her publisher wasn't interested in them because they didn't sell (they're kind of unique urban fantasy, with a bit more of an SF vibe to them than most.)
 
This is kind of a difficult question for me, as my formative tastes were formed well before I got interested in the TTRPG hobby. Nonetheless, I'll give it a go:

Early Interests:

The Inklings:Tolkien's works pretty much go without saying here, so I'll just mention that while I read The Hobbit several times in my single-digit years, it took a couple tries to get through The Lord of the Rings, and I remained quite ignorant of Tolkien's post-mortem output until my teenage years. The Chronicles of Narnia and, to a lesser extent, the Cosmic Trilogy were equally as influential.

19th Century Adventure Fiction: Two of my favorite novels were and remain Treasure Island and King Solomon's Mines. I was also familiar with Verne and Well's most famous works, as well as a smattering of other classics.

Sci-FI Extended Universes: This basically means Star Trek and Star Wars novels. The two of the latter I remember most vividly are Darksaber and Shadow of the Empire, although I also remember reading the much-maligned Jedi Prince series. For Trek, I remember my local library at the time had the complete run of James Blish's novelizations of the Original Series episodes (which was the only way I was familiar with several of them, leading to some confusion when I finally got to actually watch them!). I also had access to a wide variety of TOS novels (Memorable titles include Ishmael, Doctor's Orders, and How Much for Just the Planet?), and a smaller number of TNG titles (my favorite was Dark Mirror, a pre-DS9 "Mirror, Mirror" experience for the crew of the Enterprise D.

Other: Outside of the aforementioned Inklings, the only straight-up secondary world fantasy I was really interested in was the Redwall series, which in retrospect may have been because of Brian Jacques' mixing of Tolkienesque quest-plots with Lewisian animal characters. Hmm. I also loved getting Dinotopia from the library, because who wouldn't?

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Initial Gaming Influences:

As I mentioned, I came to RPGs somewhat later than most, and pretty much entirely from the growing ubiquity of the Internet. I had become interest in Alternate History novels, Harry Turtledove and S.M.Stirling and that sort of thing, which lead me to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This simultaneously introduced me to the notion of the mega-crossover, which lead to Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton series and from there to . . . quite a bit; and the online tabletop sphere (Big Purple had a lot of threads about modern League lineups in those days). Ironically, both those influences converged in leading me to a lot of classic stuff I had missed as a kid and early teen - Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard are the two biggest names there.
 
My appendix N:

I will focus on the ten that made the most impact on what I do at the tabletop. Most were read before I discovered RPG’s, and I think this is significant. These works informed my gaming, not vice versa.

1) Lord Dunsany – taught me the power of place and mystical settings

2) C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia – taught me that even deep magic has rules

3) Tolkien – culture matters

4) Homer, The Iliad: Even heroes die, it’s often why we honor them

5) Ray Harryhausen movies based on old myths, including Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts. This is what questing looks like, and explains why you need hirelings and henchmen alongside your heroes

6) Edgar Rice Burroughs – adventure does not need to include rescuing a beautiful woman, but if you get to choose your adventure … do it for the girl

7) R.E. Howard, and to be honest, Lin Carter’s and L. Sprague de Camp’s contributions to the prehistoric world of Hyboria which defines Sword & Sorcery for me

8) Fritz Leiber – Friendships make for better adventuring

9) Andre Norton, Janus books: the proper way to blend Sc-fi and fantasy is not to put elves in spaceships, but to recognize that the difference between genres may be understood as one of perspective

10) Gene Wolf, The Book of the New Sun: for reinforcing #9, above

I will admit to being deeply concerned about the new generation of RPG players. I’m not sure that they are reading anything that informs their view of a fantasy world beyond the drivel that is published by WotC for the express purpose of selling products. To be sure, there is a lot of great speculative fiction being written today that is not infected with D&D-isms, but I guess that could be another thread.
 
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David Johansen said:
Cerberus - A funny animal Conan parody turns into a social commentary turns into a raving madman's delusional rant.
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TristramEvans said:
Cerebus is indeed one of the greatest comicbooks of all time....if you know when to jump off and stop reading, before it becomes a real-time documentation of one man's descent into mental illness.
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Cerebus is incredible until Jaka's Story. I know most people rate that arc as it's finest hour but... no, it's just not. High Society is. Jaka's Story has definitely got things going for it but that's also the point it really starts to become obvious that Dave Sim is going off the rails. It does look pretty though. Anything after the Mothers & Daughters arc (which is itself not always easy to read. Tip: ignore the text segments!) is just massively inconsistent but, despite the odd amusing moment, generally leans toward being incredibly dull. The whole thing where Dave Sim re-interprets the Torah with a Woody Allen lookalike? The writing quality there is just woeful to be honest. However, the artwork remains exquisite to the very end.

TL;DR: Read Cerebus up to the end of Church & State, then put it down and pick up a collection of Steve Gerber's original 1970s Howard the Duck comics instead. Or Usagi Yojimbo. or both.
 
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David Johansen said:
The Realm (Caliber Press) - A group of college students gets transported to a fantasy world while camping out at an abandoned cottage. What do you do when you bust into the evil overlord's castle to rescue your friend but they've already gotten married? There was also a Tales of The Realm comic telling the story of the great war between the forces of darkness and the Elves and Dwarves.
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Looks like The Realm is on One Bookshelf's Comics site with Issue #1 being free.
www.drivethrucomics.com

The Realm Vol. 1 #1 - Caliber Comics | The Realm | DriveThruComics.com

The Realm Vol. 1 #1 - DIGITALLY REMASTERED THIS ISSUE: "Timeslip" It all begins here. The epic fantasy series for those that enjoy Lord of th
www.drivethrucomics.com www.drivethrucomics.com
 
With a limit of 10, I'm sticking to fantasy and my early influences (and still failing).

I was introduced to D&D in 1978 during the summer between 4th and 5th grade, so D&D had as much influence over my choice of reading as my exposure to fantasy literature / myth had on my D&D. The late 70s and early 80s was a great time for fantasy films.

Pre D&D I devoured Greek and Norse mythology when I could find books on them. This interest probably fueled by films. The big ones being the Ray Harryhausen films. Weekend TV having loads of old movies on also introduced me to a number of other films with a fantasy or horror bent. Creature Features a late night monster movie show was another source although generally much more horror film than fantasy.

My Dad is a Sci-fi fan (and to a lesser degree fantasy). I've read a lot of classic Sci-fi due to his influence (and his having the books available), the sci-fi mostly came a bit later, but Tolkien, Howard and Lovecraft are directly due to him.

My early influences then (roughly first 5 years)

Film
Jason & the Argonauts
7th Voyage of Sinbad
The Hobbit (Rankin / Bass)
Lord of the Rings (Bakshi)
Wizards (Bakshi)
Excalibur
Conan the Barbarian (Arnold)

Authors
Tolkien - The Two Towers was the first real fantasy book I read. I found it in the 6th grade and started reading it not knowing it was the middle of a trilogy. My Dad saw me reading it and told me he had the whole series and other books as well, that being his clue that I would read "real" books. Read the whole series from the Hobbit to Return of the King by 7th grade.

TH White - The Once and Future King. After this and LotR I struggled for a bit as compared to these the other fantasy I found was kind of weak (none of the biggies except for CS Lewis of which I only read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).

RE Howard - Conan, what else. I didn't read his mythos tales until much later, and only recently have read his other fantasy and action stories.

HP Lovecraft - After fantasy, horror is a favorite, and there is some cross over.

Susan Cooper - (actually had to look this one up, it has been a long time since I read them) The Dark is Rising series.

Piers Anthony - Xanth

Robert Asprin - Myth adventures, Thieves world (although I think I found TW during high school so outside of the 1st 5 years)


Artists, I would be overlooking a major influence if I left this out

Frank Frazetta (duh :tongue: )
Edward Gory
Erol Otis
Phil Foglio
 
Sorry, long and rambling!

What influenced me as a child/teenager is completely different to what it would be today, although these influences linger.

I think my earliest fantasy exposures would be to Fighting Fantasy books (from Choose your Own Adventure)
Then the Lone Wolf books, which were fantastic (pardon the pun) in the continuing 'campaign' style, and The Way of the Tiger series (which started a massive ninja fascination - which was partly the zeitgeist).

From somewhere I absorbed Arthurian knowledge, mostly the Roger Lancelyn Green condensed adaption, but it was just everywhere it seemed.

I should say Tolkein, and I did read Lord of the Rings a couple of times, but I just found it boring as a kid (and not much better today). I liked the animated film a lot more, shame it was never finished. At the time Lord of the Rings just seemed so derivative (I didn't know it was the actual source at the time though).

More influencial was TV, He-Man, Thundercats, Prince Valiant and other 80s/early 90s cartoons and related toys.

Also films, Star Wars is the biggie here A New Hope and Return of the Jedi in particular. Massive Luke fan as a kid so I didn't like TESB as much.

It also seemed there was a steady diet of fantasy films as a kid - Conan, Red Sonja, Willow, Ladyhawke, Hawk the Slayer, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Princess Bride and seemingly many others that my family used to rent on VHS, even the odd Disney film (The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood and The Black Cauldron in particular) and Technicolor classics on Sunday afternoons (Clash of the Titans, .

Games-wise, my first exposure was AD&D because of my Dad (I'm pretty sure he had, what I recognised much, much later were, D&D character sheets with his AD&D monk on). I poured over those books pretty much, and even got a few others (Oriental Adventures in particular).

Out of everything though the Milton Bradley/Games Workshop Heroquest boardgame has to have been the biggest influence on my gaming though. It introduced me to miniatures properly (sure my Dad had a few, but this was something else) and I just loved it. I had 3 brothers so we each had our own characters, I was the barbarian and my Dad was Morcar. That game led on to so many others by Games Workshop and others that it really was the proper beginning.

Then I got GURPS, this came about because of my Steve Jackson confusion (I doubt I'm the only one!), which just blew my mind. Once I found this D&D was a goner, the rules just made sense to me, I could play sci-fi games too!

Strangely I wouldn't play GURPS now, far too complicated for me nowadays, and I certainly haven't returned to D&D in any form (still have the books for nostalgia purposes though).

I haven't mentioned comics, or anything sci-fi that's not Star Wars (it's long enough already)
 
Is this only for D&D or can we do an Appendix N for other games as well?

Because I've got an Appendix N for WoD that I'd love to share.
 
Here's my Appendix N for World of Darkness, most of it's for Vampire. I might do another one for Werewolf and Mage as well.

Books
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Dark Tower series - Stephen King (Drawing of the Three and Song of Susannah especially)
Omerta - Mario Puzo
The Godfather - Mario Puzo
Salem's Lot - Stephen King

Movies
The Lost Boys
Goodfellas
The Warriors
The Godfather trilogy
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Van Helsing
Casino
Underworld (mainly to piss off the goths, punks, and "personal horror" crowd)
Near Dark
Reservoir Dogs
Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
August Underground
Hellraiser
Next of Kin
Joker
Batman (1989)

Anime and Manga
Vampire Hunter D
Ninja Scroll
Hellsing Ultimate
Black Lagoon
Vampire Wars
Angel Cop
Mad Bull 34
Genocyber
Elfen Lied
High School of the Dead
Vampire Princess Miyu
Blood+

Video Games
Grand Theft Auto III
Mafia II
Darkstalkers trilogy
Resident Evil: Director's Cut
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
CarnEvil
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Devil May Cry
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Final Fantasy XV
Fallout: New Vegas
Darkwatch

TV Shows
The Sopranos
The Shield
Breaking Bad
Miami Vice
The Addams Family
The Munsters
 
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Herculoids
Thundarr the Barbarian
D&D cartoon
Masters of the Universe, especially the mini-comics set before Prince Adam
Conan the Barbarian by Roy Thomas & John Buscema
Tarzan movies on Sunday morning & the DC comic series
Warlord DC comic series
Grimjack
Marshall Bravestarr
Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
Clash of the Titans
Arak, Son of thunder
Lords of the Ultra-Realm
Star Wars
Battlestar Galactica
Wizards & Warriors TV show
The Belgariad
Howard's Conan & Solomon Kane
Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique
Moorcock's Eternal Champion
The original Dragonlance Trilogy
Egg & Nix novels by Paul S. Kemp
 
Doc Sammy said:
Resident Evil: Director's Cut
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
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I'd love an RPG to capture the RE vibe. Did you get the remakes? (Years since I thought about the Director's Cut of RE1. Funny all the little changes they made)
 
After posting in the Warhammer FRP thread, I really should add that to my list, both the RPG and the tabletop game. More so than any other setting, the OId World is my Ur Setting I guess you'd call it, the one I ted to measure others against, and the one I tend I tend to dip into, one way or another, when I want something I'm designing to feel 'more like what I want'. I didn't really realize the extent to which the Old World influenced my opinion of fantasy in general until I really gave it some thought and did a little Foucault-style archeology of my own knowledge. But that's where I'm at. Honestly, I should should run the fucking Old World as-is sometime soon, something I haven't done in decades. :thumbsup:
 
Yeah, I agree about Warhammer - the Empire feels like a living world, a functioning society that is happening. But unlike say, Middle Earth (a setting I otherwise love that is just as deep), it also feels like a setting you can just jump in and be a part of - there isn't that uncomfortable feeling like you're playing in someone else's sandbox.

I could probaby go into a deep analysis of the whys and wherefores, but not tonight. It's enough to say that it's very distinct among fantasy RPGs in that way.
 
When I gave my players a list of recommended reading and viewin fo rmy first interstellar-SF campaign it was

Books & Stories
  • Isaac Asimov: Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun
  • Lloyd Biggle, Jnr: Monument
  • Arthur C. Clark: Imperial Earth, Rendezvous with Rama
  • Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness, The Secret Agent
  • Phillip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
  • Gordon Dickson: Dorsai, ‘Soldier, Ask Not...’
  • Tom Godwin: The Cold Equations
  • Joe Haldeman: All My Sins Remembered, Forever War, Worlds, Worlds Apart
  • Robert Heinlein: Beyond This Horizon, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers
  • Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
  • Ursula K. Le Guin: The Dispossessed, Rocannon’s World, The Word for World is Forest
  • Frank Miller: The Dark Knight
  • Allan Moore: The Watchmen
  • National Geographic Society: Orbit
  • Larry Niven: The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton
  • Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle: Footfall, The Mote in God’s Eye, Oath of Fealty
  • George Orwell: 1984
  • H. Beam Piper: Space Viking, Minister of Disturbance
  • Jerry Pournelle: The Mercenary, Prince David’s Spaceship, West of Honour
  • Robert Silverberg: The Tower of Glass
  • Cordwainer Smith: Norstrilia
  • Elizabeth Marshal Thomas: The Animal Wife
  • Jack Vance: The Anome, Araminta Station, The Augmented Agent, Blue Planet, The Book of Dreams, The City of the Chasch, The Château d’If, The Dirdir, The Dragon Masters, Ecce and Old Earth, Emphyrio, The Face, The Gray Prince, The Killing Machine, The Languages of Pao, The Last Castle, To Live Forever, Marune, The Moon-Moth, The Palace of Love, The Pnume, Servants of the Wankh, The Star King, Throy, Trullion, Whyst.
  • John Wyndham (John Beynon): Trouble with Lichen, Survival
TV Shows
  • Bird of Prey
  • Edge of Darkness
Movies
  • Alien
  • Aliens (not the director’s cut)
  • Apocalypse Now
  • Bladerunner (director’s cut)
  • Gattacca
  • Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan
  • Soylent Green
  • 1984 (the 1984 British version)
 
Can't believe I never noticed this thread.

Here's my Appendix N:

  1. The Lord of the Rings. The effect of Tolkien on my inner landscape can scarcely be overstated
  2. H.P. Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness and Dreams in the Witch House
  3. Robert E. Howard's Conan, unedited by de Camp and Carter
  4. Star Wars: A New Hope: a pivotal experience in my young imagination
  5. Elric series
  6. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser
  7. The Dune Series
  8. The Foundation Series
  9. Richards Topical Encyclopedia for all the pictures of weapons and armour, instructions on how to build a backyard fort, etc.
  10. Bugs Bunny: The Last Crusader flip book, because it blew my mind when I was like, 7.
 
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