Wikipedia

Appendix N

Appendix N is a list of books and authors which informed the creation of Dungeons and Dragons. The term now covers a loose literary aesthetic of pulp fantasy and planetary romance.

History

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The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide (1979) was a book written by Gary Gygax to help people run games of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D).[1] It contained a series of appendices, including one titled “Appendix N: Inspirational and Educational Reading”. Appendix N was a list of authors and works that were identified by Gary Gygax as the source of many concepts, tropes, spells and monsters that were used in the development of D&D.[2]

The list specifies 28 authors, 22 specific books, and 12 different book series; it is one of the foundations on which fantasy roleplaying was built.[3] A revised and expanded version of the list was published as “Appendix E: Inspirational Reading”, in the 5th Edition Player's Handbook (2014).[4]

Appendix N is now used to describe a subset of imaginative fantasy and science fiction from the early-to-mid 20th Century that predates the global mass media popularity of the genre; much of the work in the list was originally published as serials in pulp magazines of the 1930s.[5][2]

Impact on D&D

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Appendix N set the tone for fantasy roleplaying.[6] The early design of D&D drew so widely from Appendix N influences, that very few of the classic monsters are even claimed as Product Identity by Wizards of the Coast (notable exceptions including the Beholder and the Mind Flayer).[7] According to Appendix N researcher, Jeffro Johnson, if you read Appendix N then a great many of the oddities of classic D&D will start to make sense.[8]

Gary Gygax has stated that D&D was not meant to recreate the work of any one specific author in the Appendix,[9] but his list singled out the impact of L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H. P. Lovecraft, and A. Merritt over the others.[1][5] The impact of J.R.R. Tolkien is also evident in races such as the Halfling (originally Hobbit), the division of elves, the ubiquitous orc, and the Ranger character class (after Aragorn), although Gygax professed Tolkien's impact was “minimal” and dismissed the Ring Trilogy as “tedious”.[5]

D&D's influential alignment system of Law vs Chaos was derived from the Elric stories of Michael Moorcock and their precursors in Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions, which also inspired the player character class of Paladin.[3] The player character class of Barbarian is a direct nod to Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, although this remains the subject of debate amongst fans who class the character variously as a fighter, thief, or hybrid of the two. The concept of dungeons with multiple levels connected by secret doors is derived from Margaret St. Clair, especially Sign of the Labrys,[10] while the inspiration for the Drow and the Underdark were derived from both Merritt and St Clair.[3]

D&D’s engine of memorised spells is known as the “Vancian magic system” after the work of Jack Vance, who also inspired the Thief player class, and several early spells.[7] Vance freely gave permission to Gygax to use his Ioun Stones as a magical item in the game on the condition that his books received a mention (as they then did in the Appendix).[7]

However, not everyone was as happy to be so influential: the first edition of the Deities & Demigods reference book [11] included statistics for nonhuman characters from the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft and the Melnibonéan mythos from Michael Moorcock, both of which were the subject of legal threats and were removed from subsequent editions.[12] TSR was served with papers threatening damages to the tune of half a million dollars by Elan Merchandising on behalf of the Tolkien Estate in connection with D&D and a Five Armies game.[13] TSR were told to removed Balrog, Dragon, Dwarf, Elf, Ent, Goblin, Hobbit, Orc, and Warg from the game,[14] but eventually all but Hobbit, Ent and Balrog were ruled as public domain.

Works listed in Appendix N

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Works cited but not formally listed include EC Comics books, medieval bestiaries and fairy tales.[1] The original list did not feature Clark Ashton Smith, which Gygax later addressed as an omission. Some of the books and series include an “et al”, indicating that their further works were also partially included in the list.

Authors

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Series

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Books

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Legacy and cultural impact

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Appendix N reflects the canon of fantasy literature at the end of the 70s. The amalgamation of fantasy tropes into the original D&D in the late 70s has been identified by Michael Moorcock as a period marked by the creation of a fresh genre of fantasy literature, whereas the work that came before was often within the now-obsolete genres of planetary romance or weird fiction.[15]

Appendix N was instrumental in the foundation of fantasy roleplaying and has been important to the OSR “Old School Renaissance” of roleplaying games.[3] Games designer, Joseph Goodman, read every book in Appendix N in order to create the Gygax-inspired OSR RPG Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC).[2] Many of the published modules for the game directly reference some of the Appendix N texts, such as Peril on the Purple Planet, which is inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs.[16] DCC have also published campaign settings for adventures set in the worlds of Fritz Leiber and Jack Vance.[2]

Jeffro Johnson's book on his journey through Appendix N was nominated for the Hugo Award in 2016.[17]

Others have also endeavoured to read the entirety of Appendix N, including games designer, Martin Ralya who maintains a blog on his quest.[18] There are multiple podcasts exploring and reviewing all of the books in Appendix N, including Sanctum Secorum and the Ennie Award-nominated (2022) Appendix N Book Club.[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Gygax, Gary (1979). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. ISBN 0-935696-02-4.
  2. ^ a b c d "What is Appendix N?". Goodman Games. March 26, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d Goodman, Games. Dungeon Crawl Classics Softcover Edition. p. 442. ISBN 0-9974738-3-5.
  4. ^ Dragons, Dungeons & (2014-08-19). Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (Core Rulebook, D&D Roleplaying Game). Renton: Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0-7869-6560-1.
  5. ^ a b c "Dragon Magazine : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive". Internet Archive. October 23, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
  6. ^ Bebergal, Peter (2021-02-23). Appendix N. London, England: MIT Press. ISBN 1-907222-74-X.
  7. ^ a b c "Frequently Asked Questions :: d20srd.org". The Hypertext d20 SRD (v3.5, 5e & Pathfinder d20 System Reference Document). Retrieved September 18, 2024.
  8. ^ Johnson, Jeffro (2017-06-28). Appendix N. ISBN 978-952-7065-18-1.
  9. ^ Gygax, Gary. "JACK VANCE & THE D&D GAME" (PDF). Dying Earth Roleplaying Game Site. Pelgrane Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 10, 2015. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  10. ^ Clair, Margaret St. (2016-11-16). Sign of the Labrys. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-80410-1.
  11. ^ Ward, James Michael; Kuntz, Rob; Dee, Jeff (1984-01-01). Deities & Demigods. Lake Geneva, WI : [New York?]: TSR. ISBN 0-935696-22-9.
  12. ^ Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
  13. ^ "EN World: RPG News & Reviews". enworld.org. October 7, 2012. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
  14. ^ Baird, Scott (May 2, 2020). "Lord Of The Rings' Complicated Legal History With Dungeons & Dragons". ScreenRant. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
  15. ^ Moorcock, Michael (2013). Elric: the Fortress of the Pearl. p. 240. ISBN 0-575-11343-X.
  16. ^ Games, Goodman. "Adventures On the Purple Planet...and Beyond! Project Update: Artistic Inspirations for the Purple Planet". BackerKit. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
  17. ^ "2016 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Award. December 29, 2015. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
  18. ^ Ralya, Martin (August 28, 2012). "Reading Appendix N: The project, the appendix, and the goal – Yore". Yore – Martin Ralya's blog about TTRPGs, miniatures, &c. / Established 2009. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
  19. ^ "Appendix N Book Club". Appendix N Book Club. January 29, 2024. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
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