Monday, May 28, 2012

Appendix N & the OSR Revolution, Part 1




I remember hearing of a story about a father who said that if he wanted grass on his grave,then he might as well be buried in a field. He died in an automobile accident and his son took those words to heart. For many years he tended his father’s grave site and meticulously removed all traces of grass, and did so until he was too weak to continue. I wonder if his father actually wished to have his son do this for 50+ years, or if it was just an off the cuff remark? I wonder what words I have said or will say to my kids that might carry as much weight was the ones mentioned earlier.

Goodman Games has crafted and entire RPG (Dungeon Crawl Classics) around the words that Gary Gygax wrote in Appendix N of his First Edition Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG). Gary Gygax stated that he utilized multiple books as a background for Dungeons and Dragons and lists them in Appendix N. I would say that a majority of these books follow the sword and sorcery or low fantasy genre, even though The Lord of The Rings is listed as a source, which I consider high fantasy. I have not read many of the books on this list and most likely never will.

I saw on the Goodman Games forum a listing of people who are trying to get every book listed in Appendix N and are even posting pictures of their collections, much to the envy of other readers. There’s even a new line of adventure modules called, Appendix N Adventures. I have read the Dungeon Crawl Classics beta rules and think that the game would be fun to play, but I wonder if Gary Gygax realized just how much weight his written words would have on the world almost 34 years later?

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