#old school D&D

[3d34-2]

[mask131]

Read-list for an "old school D&D" fantasy (plus bonus)

This is a remake of an earlier post of mine, that I decided to update (some additional books were suggested to me, others I found out about later).

This is a reading-list of various literary works that heavily inspired or were heavily used in the creation of the first editons of Dungeons and Dragons - and thus, reading them will allow you to plunge back into what the original D&D was meant to look what/what it tried to emulate.

J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit". No surprise here, Tolkien's works were the start of modern fantasy and thus the main source of old-school D&D. In fact, D&D was originally created to be just a Lord of the Rings role-playing game - or to be precise a LotR wargame. This was the original intention. Which is why, quite famously, the very first version of D&D included elements such as the hobbits, the mithril and the balrogs. And when the Tolkien Estate pointed out the consequences of what was plagiarism, D&D changed these concepts to... "halflings", "mithral" and "balors". The only Tolkien-element D&D could preserve vaguely unchanged were the orcs, because the Tolkien Estate could not prove Tolkien had invented the term "orc". But even beyond that, D&D's dwarfs and elves and ents (sorry, treants) and wights and rangers all were heavily inspired by Tolkien - the gods of the orcs even use symbols such as an "eye of fire" and a "white hand"...

Poul Anderson's "Three Hearts and Three Lions". Poul Anderson was quite influential on early 20th century fantasy, and this specific book influenced D&D in three ways. On one side, it was one of the two sources for the "Order versus Chaos" conflict of D&D (the other being Moorcock). On the other the D&D trolls were inspired by the Three Hearts and Three Lion trolls. And finally the Paladin class was inspired by Anderson's Holger Carlsen character (the same way the Ranger was Tolkien's Aragorn). [This book also seems to have had some influence over the Fey of D&D?]

Michael Moorcock's "The Elric Saga". With Anderson's work, it was the other main source of the Order vs Chaos, Lawful vs Chaotic division of the D&D game. It also served as the main inspiration behind the D&D Drows, due to the Elric Saga shaping the original image of "Dark Elves" in fantasy, through its Melnibonéan Empire. D&D also originally collected references to the Elric world - creating many variation of Elric's evil magical sword Stormbringer through a variety of cursed soul-drinking weapons.

Robert E. Howard's "Conan the Barbarian". The source of heroic-fantasy the same way Lord of the Rings influenced epic fantasy, the world of Conan was also a huge source of inspiration for D&D - the most obvious reference being the Barbarian class, shaped for those who wanted to play Conan.

Fritz Leiber's "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser". Originally intended as a parody of the Conan-style heroic fantasy, but promptly becoming a serious and admired work that created its own sub-genre of fantasy (the "sword and sorcery" genre), they also were inspirational for the first editions of D&D. Sometimes it is indirect - the "Thief" or "Rogue" classes were inspired by Leiber's Gray Mouser character - other times it is MUCH more direct. For example, among the numerous pantheons you could choose to use in early D&D, one was the various gods of Newhon and the city of Lankhmar, the universe of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. And the fantasy trope of "Thieves' Guild" made famous partially by D&D was originally an invention of Leiber.

Jack Vance's The Dying Earth. This emblematic series of the "science-fantasy" genre offered to D&D its magic system, which is generally known as "vancian magic". It was Jack Vance who had the idea that a wizard had to learn/store spells in their mind, with a limited number of spells they could carry in their brain, and that once cast the spell had to be re-learned or restored. Several spells and items of early D&D were also directly taken from the Dying Earth books - the "prismatic spray" or the "ioun stones".

H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos". No need to explain how Lovecraft's brand of eldritch horror and alien-fantasy shaped the creatures and deities of early D&D, to the point that early on the deities and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos were part of the pantheons you could chose to use - listed alongside the Newhon gods of Leiber, or the gods of the Conan universe.

While not fantasy works, the most famous creations of Edgard Rice Burroughs - Tarzan on one hand, and John Carter of Mars on the other, were claImed by Gygax to have been very influential to his creation of D&D.

Another author Gygax mentionned as being a huge influence for D&D was Fletcher Pratt - through his Harold Shea fantasy series, about a main character being carried away in various magical and fantastical worlds very different from each other, in which he has to adapt himself to new settings and learn new rules to avoid dangers and threats... Sounds familiar? The idea of world-travelling might also have been inspired by the science-fiction series by P.J. Farmers' World of Tiers: the rules of travel in D&D between the various planes of reality seem to have been inspired by Farmers' own rules for dimension-travel.

One of the lesser known influences of D&D is the fantasy series "Kothar" by Gardner Fox: Gygax explicitely said that the idea of the "Lich" as a D&D monster came from Fox's Kothar series.

Not a book, but movies: the Sinbad movies of the mid 20th century were influential on early D&D. Various monsters and creatures referenced pictures such as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" or "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad".

"The House on the Borderlands" by William Hope Hodgson was explicitely referenced by Gygax's 1979 module "The Keep on the Borderlands", and it might have heavily influenced the original depiction of the D&D orcs as pig-men...

The Shannara series by Terry Brooks has also been pointed out as an influence on D&D - while not on the very first edition, elements of the Shannara world seem to have influenced later ones...

Mind you, this is but a fragment of a much longer list known as the "Appendix N" composed by Gygax, and that lists all the books and pieces of work he took inspiration from when designing D&D. Beyond the most famous works evoked above he also listed:

Poul Anderson's "The High Crusade" and "The Broken Sword"

John Bellairs' "The Face in the Frost"

Leigh Brackett's works

Fredric Browns' works

I evoked before Burrough's Mars series, but Gygax also listed his "Venus series" and his "Pellucidar series".

Lin Carter's "World End" series

L. Sprague de Camp's "Lest Darkness Fall" and "The Fallible Fiend" and "The Carnelian Cube"

August Derleth's continuation of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Lord Dunsany's writings, of course.

Gardner Fox's "Kyrik" series

Sterling Lanier's "Hiero's Journey"

A. Merritt's "Creep, Shadow, Creep", "Moon Pool" and "Dwellers in the Mirage"

Michael Moorcock's "Hawkmoon" series (which is technically part of the wider universe of which the Elric Saga is the central piece)

Andre Norton's works

Fletcher Pratt's "Blue Star"

Fred Saberhagen's "Changeling Earth"

Margaret St. Clair "The Shadow People" and "Sign of the Labrys"

Stanley Weinbaum's works

Manley Wade Wellman's works

Jack Williamson's works

Roger Zelazny's "Amber" series, and "Jack of Shadows".

In 2007, Gygax even updated his Appendix N with a handful of new titles reflecting elements added to later editions of D&D:

Sterling Lanier's "The Unforsaken hiero"

Piers Anthony's "Split Infinity" series

And of course, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series

And since this post is all about updates, I will also include a list of works that were used as inspiration for current day/modern D&D - especially the fifth edition. Like that, you'll have the evolution of "old school D&D versus new school D&D". This list is taken from fragments here and there of interviews given by Mike Mearls, the Appendix E "Inspirational Reads" of the fifth edition, and Rodney Thompson's interviews.

Appendix E replaces several elements Gygax talked about in interviews or in his Appendix N: Leiber's work, Burroughs's Mars series, Howard's Conan, etc...

Appendix E adds among other things China Mieville's "Perdido Street Station", and Elizabeth Bear's "Range of Ghosts".

Mike Mearls said that what inspired him in his design work of modern D&D was Ursula LeGuin's "Earthsea" series, Patrick Rothfuss "The Name of the Wind", Saladin Ahmed "Throne of the Crescent Moon" and Octavia E. Butler's "The Parable of the Sower".

But Mearls also repeated several of the picks already used by Gygax. He invoked again The Elric Saga, and Roger Zelazny's Amber series, and Tolkien's Legendarium of course...

Rodney Thompson rather insisted on returning to the Anderson roots of the D&D fantasy: mostly "Three Heart and Three Lions", but also "The Broken Sword".

[sam-seer]

Hot off the press: old school dungeon ideas inspired by S2: White Plume Mountain.

[vixensdungeon]

I totally forgot to include one of my favorite things about the way old D&D editions were written in my post about the subject, but I'm not going to tag this little tidbit onto that monstrosity. So here goes!

Book II: Monsters & Treasure helpfully informs us that vampires are properly of the undead class rather than lycanthropes.

Apparently there was some previous confusion about that, good thing they clarified it.

[weirdoshutin]

>A vampire salaryman appears from the shadows!

>["No, don't run!, I've only got an hour for lunch!"]

If you like this illustration please follow my art blog to see the rest of my work! Art blog: @jimenez-madrid-art

[athelind]

@modmad gets it.

Mind flayer using psionic attack, by Tom Wham from the AD&D Monster Manual, TSR, 1977.

[sol-rust]

+ sketchy ww

[d-does-art]

What if Luffy found someone else at Egghead?

[caelanglang]

One day we will be nothing but remains found in history…

[karmakaze]

The house rule I'd run into was that female characters should get +1 CON to balance out the -1 STR because something something female test pilots. I suppose it was better than nothing but it was a relief to reach "at the point at which someone is exceptional enough to be a protagonist and go up in levels, population level averages are pretty much meaningless."

There are some elements to older version of D&D where I prefer them to more modern ones, but the problem is that a lot of spaces dedicated to discussing older editions of D&D are also home to The Dungeon Racist

[mask131]

Reading-list for an “old-school D&D” fantasy

Aka, here is the list of the fantasy books that MASSIVELY influenced the original D&D and its first editions. Or, if you want to put it another way, the books that were the ingredients to create D&D/that were copied by D&D.

# J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” (+ “The Hobbit”). The source of modern fantasy, and THE main influence and source of old-school D&D. In fact, the creation of D&D was basically the creation of “The Lord of the Rings: The Role-Playing Game”. Very famously (or unfamously), in its original edition, D&D included a LOT of elements taken from the work of Tolkien, that then had to be re-shaped due to being under the copyright of Tolkien’s work. In the first edition D&D you’ll find “hobbits”, “mithril” and “balrogs” for example - that D&D had to change to “halflings”, “mithral” and “balors” to legal reasons. The only Tolkien-specific creatures D&D could keep were the orcs. Overall a LOT of D&D comes from Tolkien: the original depictions of elves and dwarfs, the ents (sorry, treants), the wights, the symbols of the “eye of fire” and “white hand” for the gods the orcs worship... And of course, the “Ranger” class was originally just the character of Aragorn as a class.

# Poul Anderson’s “Three Hearts and Three Lions”. This book was one of the two sources for the alighnment system of D&D of “Order versus Chaos” in a fantasy world. The D&D trolls were also heavily influenced by the depiction of trolls in this novel, PLUS the “Paladin” class was influenced by the character of Holger Carlsen.

# Michael Moorcock’s “The Elric Saga”.The other main source of the “Order vs Chaos”, “Lawful vs Chaotic” alignment of D&D - but also the main inspiration behind the Drow and the D&D-shaped image of “Dark Elves” in general (in the novels, they are the Melnibonéan Empire). D&D also contains several other references to the Saga - for example “Blackrazor” is inspired by Elric’s iconic sword, “Stormbringer”.

# Robert E. Howard’s “Conan the Barbarian”. The source of heroic fantasy the same way Tolkien’s LotR was the source of epic/high fantasy - the Barbarian class of D&D (and the image of a Barbarian in fantasy in general) all comes from Conan. 

# Fritz Leiber’s “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser”. The origin of the “Sword and Sorcery” genre (at least, as called as such), originally intended as a parody of the Conan-style heroic fantasy genre, but then promptly becoming itself a serious and admired genre-creating classic, Leiber’s works were another major inspiration for D&D (the “Thief” class was heavily inspired by the character of the Gray Mouser), and there is a good number of supplements and books in D&D entirely centered around this book series - introducing the characters of the books, the gods of Newhon, or the city of Lankhmar, into the D&D world. 

# Jack Vance’s “The Dying Earth” series. The magic system of D&D was heavily influenced by how Vance re-imagined magic and spells in this unique sci-fi feeling fantasy: some spells and items are directly taken from the books (the prismatic spray, the ioun stones) and the entire concept of needing to “re-learn” or “re-charge” a spell once it is cast is the Dying Earth magic system (called by some “Vancian Magic”). 

# H.P. Lovecraft’s work (especially anything tied to the “Cthulhu Mythos”). Lovecraft’s brand of eldritch horror and alien fantasy has also been a big influence over the creatures and deities of early D&D - to the point that the various gods of the Cthulhu Mythos were included as one of the pantheons that could be used in the early editions of D&D (alongside other pantheons such as the gods of Newhon from Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, or the gods of the Conan world). 

# Gary Gygax, one of the creators of D&D, also listed other authors as direct influence for his game, but given I am less familiar with them I will just list them here: Fletcher Pratt (I think it might be his “Harold Shea” series, quite famous in the fantasy genre), L. Sprague de Camp, Edgar Rice Burroughs (the creator of some of the most famous American fictional characters, such as John Carter of Mars, or Tarzan) and A. Merritt. 

(Finally, not a literary work, but a series of movies that also influenced early D&D: the “Sinbad” movies of the mid-20th century. If you look through the creatures, monsters and illustrations of early editions D&D you’ll find several references to movies such as “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad“ or “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad”)

[sam-seer]

Class illustrations of the elf, dwarf, and halfling from a Japanese edition of B/X.

Translations by u/merurunrun:

Elf Elves: Can fight. Can cast spells. Are smart. Are long-lived. ...but good god do they level up slowly.

Dwarf Dwarves are short...but tough! "How...?" "You see...it's because we eat rocks." (That was a lie.)

Halfling Halflings are hard to hit. But as far as I'm concerned, without strength, dexterity, or constitution, they're worthless. "Hi-ho!"

[3d34-2]

D&D and TTRPG, improving people's lives since 1974.

The "dnd will make you a Satanist" thing is extremely funny to me because part of my path to becoming pagan was incorporating Hel (my first an primary deity) into my motw campaign.

[pyr0frnzy]

Sanji being homophobic and gay as shit is either the funniest thing to me or makes me fall to the floor in agonizing heart wrenching pain

also zosan bc i think that makes this funnier

[weirdoshutin]

>A goblin crab-rider blocks your path!

>["Be still Rosinante... I've got them on my sight..."]

If you like this illustration please follow my art blog to see the rest of my work! Art blog: @jimenez-madrid-art