From Powells.com
Our favorite books of 2020-2021.
Staff Pick
Perfect for rainy day reading even if you aren't a dungeon master in training, this collection presents a tightly curated sampling of old favorites and hidden gems of the high and pulp fantasy stories of yesteryear. Bebergal's introduction offers a quick look into the early history of Dungeons & Dragons and how Gary Gygax's reading habits shaped his outlook as a game designer and Bebergal's own relationship with fiction and the selected stories. A fantastic read by itself and a good jumping-off point for exploring the featured authors' works. Recommended By Megan S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
An anthology investigating the influences behind Dungeons & Dragons, the most popular modern role-playing game.
Drawing upon the original list of "inspirational reading" provided by Gary Gygax in the first Dungeon Master's Guide, published in 1979, as well as hobbyist magazines and related periodicals that helped to define the modern role-playing game, Appendix N offers a colletion of short fiction and resonant fragments that reveal the literary influences that shaped Dungeons & Dragons, the world's most popular RPG. The stories in Appendix N contextualize the ambitious lyrical excursions that helped set the adventurous tone and dank, dungeon-crawling atmospheres of fantasy roleplay as we know it today.
About the Author
Peter Bebergal is a writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His writing on speculative and fringe cultures have been published by the Believer, the Times Literary Supplement, the New Yorker, Boing Boing, and the Paris Review. He is the author Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural, Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll, and Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood.