DCC Days Online Seminar: Sword & Sorcery of Appendix N
As most of you likely know, the roots of Dungeon Crawl Classics are seated in the depths of Appendix N. This section of the AD&D Player’s Handbook lists some of the influences that Gary Gygax credits towards the creation of Dungeons and Dragons. And it’s also something we like to talk about. One of our most popular seminars at DCC Days Online was Sword & Sorcery of Appendix N. At this seminar, our own Dark Master—Joseph...
Ghosts, Ghouls and Little Green Men: E.C. Comic and Appendix N
Ghosts, Ghouls and Little Green Men: E.C. Comic and Appendix N By Mark Bishop “Drag over a casket kiddies and place your palpitating body upon it… being careful not to jar it, otherwise its unfortunate occupant might GO TO PIECES! If you have time to KILL, let’s have a chat…” Thus begins the Crypt-Keeper’s Corner, the letters page in the June-July 1950 edition of E.C. Comics Crypt of Terror. You could be forgiven if you mistook that...
Appendix N Archaeology: The Famous Works of Edgar Allan Poe
Appendix N Archaeology: The Famous Works of Edgar Allen Poe by Bradley K. McDevitt In my previous articles on Poe, which can be found here and here, I discussed first why Poe was worth a second look. I then did an overview of some of his lesser-known stories and how they could be used as inspiration in a gaming setting before it was pointed out to me that not everyone in the audience has read Poe since they fulfilled their English...
Appendix N Archaeology: Edgar Allan Poe’s Other Works
Appendix N Archaeology: Edgar Allan Poe’s Other Works By Bradley K. McDevitt Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson did not dream up the background ideas of Dungeons and Dragons out of thin air. Fans of fantasy fiction, they had borrowed liberally from Tolkien, Howard, Lovecraft, Moorcock, Leiber and many others to build their game. These authors were among many the others who inspired Appendix N. But those authors were inspired by other, older...
Appendix N Archeology: The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series
Appendix N Archeology: The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series by Michael Curtis More than a decade before Gary Gygax assembled his list of influential fantasy authors and titles—the famed “Appendix N” which appeared in the Dungeon Masters Guide published in 1979—another author was hard at work compiling a list of fantasy stories to introduce to the reading public. Both catalogs would include some of the same authors on their rolls, and...
Appendix N Archaeology: Clark Ashton Smith
Appendix N Archaeology: Clark Ashton Smith by Michael Curtis Gamers often point to Appendix N and decry the absence of a particular author (or three, or seven, or…), declaring Gygax’s omission of them to be a literary crime of some sort. Putting aside the unbelievable idea that gamers may complain about things for the moment, we must realize that Appendix N is not a list one can argue with. It is a catalogue of all the literary...
Appendix N Archaeology: Edgar Allan Poe
Appendix N Archaeology: Edgar Allan Poe, Part One By Bradley K McDevitt Ok, class, before we start… let’s have a show of hands. Who here thinks about reading Edgar Allan Poe and gets traumatic flashbacks to seventh grade English? I thought so. Having the father of the modern horror story force-fed us tends to have that effect, as opposed to other lesser writers like Lovecraft, Howard, or Tolkien, all of whom we had to discover on our...
Joseph Goodman Sits In On Appendix N Book Club Podcast
The Dark Master has spoken! No, seriously, our own Dark Master—aka, Joseph Goodman—sat in on the most recent Appendix N Book Club Podcast. This particular episode focused on Abraham Merrit’s The Moon Pool, but the episode talks about all of Appendix N and its impact on RPGs—a subject near and dear to our Dark Master’s heart. And Joseph goes into the impetus behind the creation of Dungeon Crawl Classics, and what set...
Appendix N Archaeology: William Hope Hodgson
Appendix N Archeology: William Hope Hodgson by Michael Curtis In the now famed Appendix N, Gary Gygax lists roughly thirty authors whose works inspired the creation of Dungeons & Dragons. Many luminaries from the fields of both pulp sword & sorcery and horror fiction, as well as some then-current authors fill that list. However, as with any catalogue of inspirational sources, Appendix N is merely representative of what the...
Appendix N Archaeology: Harold Lamb
Appendix N Archaeology: Harold Lamb By Howard Andrew Jones In the now-famed Appendix N, Gary Gygax lists roughly thirty authors whose works inspired the creation of Dungeons & Dragons. Many luminaries from the fields of both pulp sword & sorcery and horror fiction, as well as some then-current authors, fill that list. However, as with any catalogue of inspirational sources, Appendix N is merely representative of what the...
The Last Great Mystery of Appendix N: EC Comics
The Last Great Mystery of Appendix N: EC Comics By Joseph Goodman Today, March 1, would be the 97th birthday of William Gaines if he were still alive. William Gaines is a name not familiar to most D&D and DCC fans, but perhaps it should be, for his body of work is explicitly named in Appendix N. William Maxwell Gaines was the publisher and co-editor of EC Comics, the legendary 1940’s-era publisher of Tales From The Crypt,...
What is Appendix N?
The story of Appendix N goes with Dungeon Crawl Classics like fish and water. Peanut butter and jelly. Robert E. Howard and Conan. But what exactly IS Appendix N? Appendix N is the list of books that inspired Gary Gygax to create D&D. This bibliography first appeared as an appendix in the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide—specifically, Appendix N—which is why the list is known by that name. To write DCC RPG, author Joseph Goodman...
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