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When playing or DMing Dungeons and Dragons, or any other fantasy RPG, we all tend to draw on outside sources for ideas. They can be from books, comics (I'm lumping in manga), songs, cartoons, video games, TV shows and movies, all that matters for this thread is how they effect your game. Hell through in stage plays if you want. Don't feel shy, just post a list of your top inspirations for D&D and other fantasy RPGs. I'll take the liberty of posting a link Gygax's original Appendix N for all to read. In the mean time I'll get to work on my Appendix N.
Cartoons/Anime
Avatar the Last Airbender
The Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes
Batman the Animated Series
Disney's Gargoyles
Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Inuyasha (if for no other reason than I'd like to see if I can do a better job with the characters or setting material)
Books
Codex Alera
Discworld
Dragerea
Dresden Files
Elric Saga
The Nightside series
The Philip Marlowe novels
Comic Books/Manga
The Authority (from what I've heard about it)
The League of Extraoroinary Gentlemen Vol. I and II
Planetary (see The Authority)
Sandman
Scott Pilgrim
Live Action TV Shows
Burn Notice
Criminal Minds
Leverage
Grimm
Supernatural
The X-Files
Film
Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Marvel Cinematic
Sin City (have not read any of the graphic novels yet)
Video Game
Other
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Mann
It's worse than the time some friends used a silver piece, a platinum piece, a delayed blast fireball and a scroll of passwall to make a nuclear explosion in a game...
Quote:
Originally Posted by nagora
Chatter is usually a sign that it's time to break out the Lego pirates and start firing marbles at each other's ships instead of role playing. Some nights, we're just not in the mood!
Books:
Redwall Saga
Inheritance (I might not think much of it now, but it did get me into fantasy)
Lord of the Rings
This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Horus Heresy saga
Games:
The Elder Scrolls series
Mass Effect
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
I'll add more if I think of any.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stu42
I used to like called shots. Then I took an arrow to the knee.
Hm. Things I like to draw on, or at least would like to draw on, if I was good enough:
Comics:
The Sandman (Neil Gaiman)
Lucifer
Books:
Kraken (China Mieville)
Zamonia Series (Walter Moers)
Small Gods, other Discworld novels (Terry Pratchett)
Stardust, American Gods, various short stories (Neil Gaiman)
The Voyage of the Beagle (Charles Darwin)
The Dresden Files (Jim Butcher)
Movies:
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
Pan's Labyrinth
Games:
The Myst series
The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
TV Series:
Doctor Who
There's probably more, that's what I can think of, right now.
“Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse,” I said, sounding calm, probably inaudible in the midst of the screaming. “Inevitable. Wasn’t that how she put it? I told them. Warned them.”
-Taylor Hebert. Yes, I'm a proud Skittle.
A lot of these are more for world-building than campaigns or characters.
Film: The Fisher King
Monty Python
Games: Commander Keen The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Final Fantasy (particularly IX, X, XI, and XII) Jak and Daxter (particularly II and III) Kingdom Hearts Neverwinter Nights (1&2, +expansions)
Literature, Ancient to Medieval: Anaeid (Vergil) Divine Comedy (Dante) The Epic of Gilgamesh Gawain and the Green Knight Illiad and Odyssey (Homer) Le Morte d'Arthur Metamorphoses (Ovid)
Misc. Greco-Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and European mythology
Old and New Testament Poetic Edda
Prose Edda
The Quran
The Talmud
Literature, Renaissance to Modern:
Belgariad and Malorean series (David and Leigh Eddings)
Book of Mormon
Discworld series (Terry Pratchet) The Dresden Files
Elenium and Tamuli series (David and Leigh Eddings) The Golden Bough (James Frazer) Jonathan Strange and Mister Norell
Narnia series (C.S. Lewis)
Redwall series (Brian Jacques)
The Space Trilogy (C.S. Lewis)
A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters (Madeleine l'Engle)
Various books by Agatha Christie
Hmm, I have either based entire campaigns or sections around twisting together or apart different aspects of these things
Books
A Song of Ice and Fire by GRRM
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie
The Prince by Machiavelli
Comic Books
V for Vendetta
Video Games
Dragon Age: Origins
Movies
Star Wars: Prequels (admittedly in an attempt to see if my players could do it better)
The Godfather
History
Fall of Rome
World War I
The Peloponnese War
The Discovery of the Americas
The Viking Invasions
The Gunpowder Kingdoms
Mongol Invasions
The War of the Roses
The Holy Roman Empire
An interesting note, although Gygax mentions Tolkien in his list of influences, he does not include him in the note at the bottom in which he lists the works most influential in the creation of D&D.
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Generally speaking, Appendix N consists mostly of nonfiction, shifts frequently, and contains a lot of short works. With that said: Essentials
From Sumer to Rome: The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies
Romance of The Three Kingdoms
Science (Academic Journal)
Nature (Academic Journal)
The Golden Bough
Le Morte d'Arthur
Currently Relevant
The Road To Manzikert
The History Of Arabic Science (Academic Journal)
The History of Rome (Podcast)
A Concise History of China
Lots of stuff that touches on religion too heavily to discuss here.
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Fudge Assistant in the Playground.
An interesting note, although Gygax mentions Tolkien in his list of influences, he does not include him in the note at the bottom in which he lists the works most influential in the creation of D&D.
That's because Tolkein didn't serve as one Gygax's greatest inspirations. He was an inspiration. He ranked the works of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Jack Vance, Poul Anderson and Michael Moorcock higher on his list of inspirations for D&D.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Mann
It's worse than the time some friends used a silver piece, a platinum piece, a delayed blast fireball and a scroll of passwall to make a nuclear explosion in a game...
Quote:
Originally Posted by nagora
Chatter is usually a sign that it's time to break out the Lego pirates and start firing marbles at each other's ships instead of role playing. Some nights, we're just not in the mood!
Lets see, maybe not the most original of lists, but there might be a few things on there which not everyone has read...
Books
Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (Defines fantasy and worldbuilding for me)
Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia (Inspired my interest in Parallel worlds, plus the Ruins of Charn are an incredibly evocative image)
Pulman: His Dark Materials / the Ruby in the Smoke et al (an excellent answer to Narnia)
Herbert: Dune et al (taught me how to make important issues like politics and religion essential to my games)
Azimov: Foundation et al / The Caves of Steel (A very interesting case study in created history.)
Clarke: 2001 et al, Rendezvous with Rama. (Shows one how to do Hard SF well)
Rothuss: The Name of the Wind (one of the best fantasy books i've ever read)
Canavan: The Black Magician Trillogy (taught me how to think about how magic works rather than just what it does.)
Reeve: Mortal Engines (inspired a love of Airships and taught me how to write a dystopia that still has wonder in it.)
Stroud: The Bartimaeus Trilogy (An excellent example of spirits and extraplanar things should work)
Zhan: Heir to the Empire et al (Shows that stories don't have a nice simple end, even if you did blow up the death star.)
Adams: The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. (A crash course in absurdist humour)
Pratchett: Discworld et al (taught me how to deconstruct fantasy tropes long before a certain website came along)
Mann: The Affinity Bridge et al (The best Steampunk series i've found yet)
Crichton: Jurrasic Park et al, Timeline. (Books that show you how expeditions can go horribly horribly wrong)
Film and TV
The Lord of the Rings (arguably the best fantasy films ever made)
Star Wars (Had a massive influence on me growing up)
Indiana Jones (My advice to anyone unsure how to write a Dungeon Crawl adventure is to go and watch the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark.)
Pirates of the Caribean (Swashbuckling adventure)
Star Trek (massively influential)
Stargate SG-1 (involved detailed storylines)
Babylon Five (use of long storylines and Wham Episodes)
Children of Dune miniseries (for similar reasons to the books above)
Dragonflyz (I really like Flying cities, dragon riders and power crystals. and I think this cartoon is responsible)
Other
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Original Series) (I listed to this on a loop as a kid.)
Jackson and Livingstone: Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks (taught me how to play D&D before I tried to play D&D)
Lego (theres no better way to learn how to build a fantasy world than by literally building medieval villages out of small plastic bricks.)
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Time is but a pattern in the currents of causality,
an ever changing present that determines our reality,
the past we see as history, the future seed with prophecy,
and all the time we think on time our time is passing constantly.
Hmm not that I DM, but I imagine my Appendix N would have a lot in common with where I draw on for writing in general.
Books and folklore
Neil Gaiman in general
The Malazan Book of the Fallen + The Malazan novels
Guardian of the Swords
Norse mythology (most of it)
Greek mythology (especially concerning Hades, the after life and the war between the titans and the olympians)
Cartoons/Anime
Ragnarök Online: The Animation
Transformers
Tailspin
Wolf's Rain
Comic Books/Manga
Sandman
Ragnarök
Live Action TV Shows
Babylon 5
Doctor Who
Andromeda
Star Trek
La Femme Nikita (not the reboot)
Film
Lord of the Rings
Top Gun
Regin of Fire
The Lion King
Video Games
Age of Wonders
Unreal Tournament
Assassins Creed
Black and White
Mass Effect
Dragon Age
Warcraft
Ragnarök Online
Guild Wars
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Avvy by the awesome BooTheHamster
Last edited by NikitaDarkstar : 10-09-2012 at 01:33 PM.
Mine is whatever I'm into at the moment. There is no longterm appendix N, because I don't usually reread, rewatch, or replay anything. And even if I did, it's extremely unlikely that I'd be watching and reading the same thing at the same time.
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Do you have an "Appendix N"?
