Saturday, March 30, 2013
What came first, Appendix N in the Gygax's AD&D DMG or the list of "inspirational reading" in the Moldvay's D&D...
What came first, Appendix N in the Gygax's AD&D DMG or the list of "inspirational reading" in the Moldvay's D&D Basic Set? I am asking this here because the Holmes experts (I don't have a copy, shame on me!) should be able to tell me if there's a list of literary sources in Holmes' Basic Set already? (Maybe I should also ask the OD&D crowd since I don't own a copy of that either, more shame on me I guess.)
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There's a proto-Appendix N in Dragon #4 (Dec 76). It's very similar to the list in Appendix N. I have a screenshot here: http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2011/12/35-years-ago-this-month.html
ReplyDeleteNext there's the Holmes Basic set (July 77), which has a few sentences rather than a long list: "The imaginary universe of Dungeons & Dragons obviously lies not too far from the Middle Earth of J.R.R. Tolkien's great Lord of the Rings trilogy. The D & D universe also impinges on the fantasy worlds of Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard, Gardner F. Fox, classical mythology and any other source of inspiration the Dungeon Master wants to use" (pg 40). Cthulhu and Crom are also mentioned as deities on page 39.
The DMG Appendix N came in the Summer of 79, and then the Moldvay list in early 1981.
Holmes expands on his favorite authors in two other places: his 1980 Confession of Dungeon Master article in Psychology Today and his Nov 1981 FRPG book.