Stonegiant Level 5 Thaumaturgist member is offline
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Joined: Jul 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 240 Location: St. Augustine Beach, FL. Karma: 9
Re: What books/authors were your biggest influence « Reply #17 on Aug 16, 2007, 6:34pm »
Off the top of my head-
Steven Brust (A broken down castle) Joel Rosenberg (The Guardian of the Flame Series) Glen Cook (The Black Company Chronicles, The Tower of Terror) HP Lovecraft (Anything) Ursala K. LeGuin (The Earthsea Trilogy, THe City of Illusions) LOTR and the Hobbit
Re: What books/authors were your biggest influence « Reply #18 on Aug 16, 2007, 7:41pm »
Quote:
Have you read The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt (sans de Camp)? Good stuff!
No, never have read it, hopefully I can find it. Hard to find Pratt's stories. I do have "Land of Unreason" by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. I haven't read it yet.
Kinda surprised to see the disdain for JRRT's LotR. Does remind me, though, of a sig I read very recently, quoting a reviewer who said something to the effect of "People who read the Silmarillion either give up in disgust after the first chapter, or live within it" Either you read it and really got it, or you missed the boat.
Middle Earth - there's no other place I'd rather be!
Joined: Aug 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 598 Karma: 17
Re: What books/authors were your biggest influence « Reply #20 on Aug 16, 2007, 11:04pm »
Wow, I don't think I'll list all of my influences as that would take entirely too long. Here's a condensed list:
Robert E. Howard Jack Vance Fritz Leiber Clark Ashton Smith Lord Dunsany
All of these writers are able to evoke mood better than most of their contemporaries, or new writers too. If you want to understand how far down the path of evolution that English has dwindled read any of these authors, and get a good dictionary if you need meanings for words.
Beowulf 12 labors of Hercules The Tain bo Culaigne Orlando Furioso Norse Mythology The Popul Vuh The Book of Five Rings Sketchbooks and paintings by Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Wally Wood, and Michael Whelan Heavy Metal Magazine
These are some of the inspirational non fiction and artwork that have influenced me.
Joined: Jul 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 392 Location: Civitas Quinqueecclesiensis Karma: 26
Re: What books/authors were your biggest influence « Reply #21 on Aug 22, 2007, 8:44am »
(from early on) Leigh Brackett Robert E. Howard (although, being a teenage snob, I used to look down on him... I eventually grew up, though ) Jack Vance Fighting Fantasy gamebooks (particularly Deathtrap Dungeon - I think me and my friends must have made a dozen replicas of that ) John Caldwell's Word of Chaos & The Heart of Chaos (Hungarian fantasy novels inspired by the U1 and L1 AD&D modules) Jeffrey Stone's Quest for the Nightstone and its two sequels (another Hungarian novel, written by the same author as the Chaos stories, only under a different pseudonym; its dragons-versus-helicopters-versus-undead-versus-tanks aesthetic AND the backstabbing, shady characters may have been the strongest direct influence on me... seriously, these three books deserve translation) The Epic of Gilgamesh
(a bit later) Howard P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu) Fritz Leiber Michael Moorcock (Corum more so than Elric, which I never liked) fiction from history (e.g. Grimmelhausen's picaresques)
(more recently) C. A. S. Lovecraft again (Dream-quest) even more Brackett A. Merritt even more Vance Catherine L. Moore
(and even more recently) Talbot Mundy Harold Lamb, both are like discovering... or in my case rediscovering Howard's Conan
There may be more I forgot, but they are probably not so important.
Movies: Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns Conan I. swords&sandals movies I don't recall the titles of Flash Gordon (B&W serials and 1980 movie; also, the first comic books!)
Computer games: Wizardry VII. (it was a rite of passage in our group to complete it) early on, Lords of Midnight, but it didn't last too long Ishar II-III. for a short period.
And finally, on classics:
Quote:
1. those books are hard to read and I prefer a fun book to a historical one. I find the concept of "the classics" much more interesting than actually reading them.
Hard to say, I have loved Gilgamesh and straight Sumerian-Babylonian mythology since the age of ten. Homeros took some more time to get, and I'm still not too keen on the Romans.
Joined: Aug 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 598 Karma: 17
Re: What books/authors were your biggest influence « Reply #22 on Aug 22, 2007, 10:52pm »
Just a guess, but I'd bet most of us have read a lot of mythology over the years. The Popul Vuh is quite possibly the most visceral for me. I mean what kind of fantasy lover wouldn't like an underworld like Xibulba, and the House of Knives? Scary stuff! The most fun to read are probably the stories of Irish Heroes, CuChulainn and Fionn MacCumhail. Just fun stuff, fighting off armies single handedly, and all the exotic weapons.
Falconer Level 9 Sorcerer Cleric of OD&D member is offline
OD&D, Middle-earth, Star Trek TOS
Joined: Sept 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 1,340 Location: Chicago, IL Karma: 51
Re: What books/authors were your biggest influence « Reply #23 on Sept 3, 2007, 7:29pm »
Hmm, I have many favorite books/authors. The most influential on my games?
J.R.R. Tolkien -- Undeniably #1. My favorites are The Book of Lost Tales, The Lays of Beleriand, and The Hobbit. I try to be a pre-The Lord of the Rings purist, but the latter has an undeniable appeal (MORIA!). Needless to say, hobbits and balrogs and ents are hobbits and balrogs and ents!
C.S. Lewis -- The Silver Chair and Giants-Drow are a great match. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is another great model for a campaign. I like the Red Dwarves/Black Dwarves thing. Oh, and having Father Christmas show up (with presents!) on the Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl was pretty hilarious! (At least, for us Americans.)
E.R. Eddison -- The Worm Ouroboros has lent many interesting scenarios and ideas.
Poul Anderson -- The Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions has contributed greatly to my understanding of many aspects of fantastic races, alignment, etc.
de Camp and Pratt - The Compleat Enchanter series has also contributed many great ideas.
I'd love to say that some of my other favorites such as Burroughs, Howard, Smith, Lovecraft, and Vance have been influences on my game, but quite honestly they haven't much, other than indirectly through Gygax. Regards.
A man may do both. For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day! —J.R.R. Tolkien
Joined: Jul 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 15 Location: Busan, South Korea Karma: 6
Re: What books/authors were your biggest influence « Reply #24 on Sept 4, 2007, 12:55am »
By the time I got into D&D at age 11, I was already into things medieval and fantastical.
Early on, it was a book of illustrated fairy tales that included a few non-standards like one of Brian Boru's children catching a leprechaun and the story of Aladdin and the Lamp along with Little Red Riding Hood and so on.
My elementary school library had D'Aulaire's illustrated book of Greek Mythology (too bad they didn't have the Norse one, would have loved that as a kid), a book on knights, also illustrated (to this day I think of a morning star as a spiked ball on the end of a chain, not as the AD&D version because of this book), and various childrens' adventure stories.
The public library had a series of books on UFOs, Bigfoot, ghosts, Nessie, etc. that I devoured, along with a series of SF adventures that I loved as well. Malory's Morte d'Arthur and a kids version of Ivanhoe were on the list there.
At home, it was a children's version of Beowulf and lots of Endless Quest, Choose Your Own Adventure, Wizards Warriors and You books, etc. (The public library had some more of these too).
Then just about the time I heard of this game called D&D, I started reading Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles.
In my early gaming days, it was Weis & Hickman, Lawrence Watt Evans, David Eddings, Katherine Kerr, some Piers Anthony, and a bunch of fantasy writers I don't really remember from the library, more game books, and eventually when I got into high school, Tolkien.
It wasn't until recently that I started reading Poul Anderson, REH, and some of the other early masters of the genre.
Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 4,674 Location: Near Chicago Karma: 178
Re: What books/authors were your biggest influence « Reply #25 on Sept 4, 2007, 8:10pm »
How about a "do over"?
Quote:
Just wondering who each of you consider the biggest influences on you and the way that you play OD&D.
I started to compile a list of the top books and realized that some posters listed just a couple while others listed a huge list. It became difficult to determine how to classify things like "ancient history" or the like; is there a specific book that influenced you a lot?
As the thread was originally supposed to be about the bigest influences how about if we limit the list to 5-6 of the most influencial rather than a laundry list of every book you ever liked? That way we can really compose a nice list of the top books!
So ... you can re-post a "top" list or go back to edit your earlier post. I think that might be more useful in the long run.
Here's my new and revised list of five top authors: * Tolkien * Howard * Moorcock * Burroughs * Zelazny
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 432 Location: Hollywood, California, USA Karma: 40
Re: What books/authors were your biggest influence « Reply #26 on Sept 4, 2007, 9:51pm »
Trimmed list, per Fin's instructions:
Gary Gygax (D&D books and modules -- as a "second generation" D&Der (i.e. started playing in the 80s), Gygax's D&D books and modules themselves were my primary influence, at least in the early years, and I discovered fantasy and swords & sorcery literature through them, rather than the other way around) A. Merritt (everything, but if you want some specific titles: The Moon Pool, The Face in the Abyss, The Ship of Ishtar, Seven Footprints to Satan, Dwellers in the Mirage) Philip Jose Farmer ("World of Tiers" series) Gardner F. Fox (Kothar series -- these Howard-pastiche/ripoff stories feel more "like D&D" to me than Howard's actual stories (and are better than the pastiches by de Camp, Carter, et al.)) Joseph Campbell (The Hero With a Thousand Faces)
Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 4,674 Location: Near Chicago Karma: 178
Re: What books/authors were your biggest influence « Reply #28 on Sept 5, 2007, 2:14pm »
Quote:
Gardner F. Fox (Kothar series -- these Howard-pastiche/ripoff stories feel more "like D&D" to me than Howard's actual stories (and are better than the pastiches by de Camp, Carter, et al.))
And don't forget about the 8 or so Niall of the Far Travels stories by Gardner F. Fox. They can be found in Dragon magazine.
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
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