Appendix N

For those who have stumbled upon this blog without being familiar with the concept. Appendix N organically appeared in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide, and was a list of books and authors that influenced the creators of Dungeons & Dragons.

Some day I hope to write at least a paragraph about each item explaining how it’s influenced me and my games, today is very much not that day.

Books

• The Old Kingdom by Garth Nix.
• The Hobbit && Lord of The Rings
• Dune
• The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
• Earthsea
  • Specifically The Tombs of Atuan
• The Arthurian mythos
  • Specifically King Arthur and his knights by Sir James Knowles I was given a copy for my 5th birthday and my father read it to me multiple times.
• The Powder Mage Trilogy
• The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan
• His Dark Materials
• The Left Hand of Darkness
• Beowulf
• The Prism Pentad
  • Specifically The Verdant Passage as an example of a party with mixed alignments and motivations.
• [American Gods]

Graphic Novels

• [Sandman] - in junior and senior year of high school I wrote some stories that were heavily inspired by sandman and Ayreon’s Into the Electric Castle. They are now, lost to time.

Movies

• Pan’s Labrinth
• Cube
• The Goonies
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• The Black Cauldron (film)
• The Spine of Night

TV Shows

• Delicious in Dungeon
• The Lost Room

Video Games

• The Secret of Monkey Island
• Darkest Dungeon
• Morrowind
• Diablo
• Baldur’s Gate
  • Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast
• Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn
  • Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal
• Dungeons of Dreadrock
• Red Faction: Guerrilla
• Thief: The Dark Project && Thief II: The Metal Age I was never good at them when I first played them.
• Planescape: Torment
• Dark Souls & Elden Ring, still not good at these games, possibly worse now. However, I love the concept and ideas, and wish I were better at them, to play and enjoy the worlds and challenge of them.
• Signs of the Sojourner, the way it handles conversations and social interactions is so compelling! I keep thinking about how to use it in an RPG.

Music

• Ayreon
  • Into the Electric Castle - Strangers forced into a strange world to survive.
• Goblins’ Song by Spellblast
• Rainbow Demon by Uriah Heep

Roleplaying Games

Just so many.

• His Majesty the Worm
• Blades in the Dark
• Burning Wheel
• Songbirds 3e
• D&D
• Cairn
  • I played in a game ran by the creator at ArcaneCon and had a blast.
• Electric Bastionland
• Mausritter, damn that inventory system!
• Sigils in the Dark
• Tales from the Wild Blue Yonder
  • Lady Blackbird
  • Magister Lor
  • Lord Scurlock

Game Types:

• Mothership Month 2025 Wargame: OVER/UNDER
• Braunstein
• West Marches
• Open Table
• Play by mail
• Inside the 40 Year-Long Dungeons & Dragons Game - 2022 WIRED

Settings

• Bluffside: City on the Edge
  • It holds a special place in my heart, it was the first RPG book I bought with money I earned from a “real” job, vs birthday, holiday, or chore money. Purchased it from the Waldenbooks at the local mall, RIP.
• Planescape
• Dark Sun
• Birthright
• Ravenloft
  • My older brother gave me a copy of the 3rd edition book published by Sword and Sorcery Studios, some of the attempts to make the mechanics of D&D work for the setting had a bigger impact then the setting itself.

Adventures

• A Rasp of Sand
• Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
• White Plume Mountain
• The Black Egg - Dungeon 106
• The Sunless Citadel
• Caverns of Thracia
• Gradient Descent - Mothership
  • I have not played it but I have read it.

Boardgames

• HeroQuest
  • My older brother had a copy when I was young, and I have fond memories of trying to play it with my younger brother in the basement of our then house.
• Oath
• Root
• War of Whispers
• Clank!
• Betrayal at House on the Hill
• Paupers’ Ladder
• Star Wars: Outer Rim
• Star Wars: Rebellion
• Spirit Island

Skirmish and Wargames

• Mordheim
• Frostgrave
• Sun Rot
  • I played a demo of the game at Under the Dice with my younger brother.
• Hex28
• 1490 Doom
  • I played a demo of the game at Under the Dice with my younger brother, he had the audacity to pull a ladder up on me! The nerve!

People

• My Brothers
  • I talk about them in discussing The first RPG I played

Places

• The woods and buildings around where I grew up.
  • There were ruins of hundred year old foundations in the woods, old aqueduct that you could crawl into if you were brave enough, a few “secrete passages” really just crawlspaces, and a few semi-hidden doors. It was enough to get a child’s mind wondering at the mysteries and adventure, plus the wooden swords and sticks didn’t hurt of course!