Appendix D(omopunk)
Here’s my late entry (what’s new?) to the Appendicitis N bandwagon. This has been surprisingly hard to pin down for a few reasons. One, I’m almost 40 and the influences that shape how I run adventure games and think about fantasy are dozens of things ground into a vaguely recognizable paste of which the constituent elements are constantly changing. I’m constantly craving new experiences and don’t tend to reread books or rewatch movies/tv shows, which makes it harder for me to pin down formative media. Two, I tend to have a more focused Appendix N for each game I’m working on. My post-apocalypse appendix (Fallout, Mad Max, Vampire Hunter D, Roadside Picnic, Coda) looks pretty different from my nautical adventure appendix (Pirates of the Caribbean, Master and Commander, Pirates of Darkwater, Monkey Island, The Scar).
That being said, I will do my best to tease out a selection of Ur-Appendix influences that tend to find their way into my games regardless of my intentions. This is a mix of discrete one-offs and categories, because universal resolution systems are for dorks. There are big ones that I’m not going to include, like Lord of the Rings and Lovecraft’s works, because I think anything I might say about them has been said better by others several dozen times. Those things that influence so much of the wider adventure gaming community (I’m trying to get away from saying OSR but its hard!) seem less interesting for me to write about than those thing that are more personal to me.
You’ll forgive me if this post gets a bit rambly - it’s in the name of my blog, so you’re contractually obligated to do so.
My First D&D Game
This is probably cheating since I’m including an actual game of D&D that I played in my Appendix N which informs how I think about ttrpgs, but it’s my list and I’ll do what I want. I also think it’s fair game because it’s a very nebulous experience in my memory, hazy due to the relatively fleeting nature of it and the fact that it was 30ish years ago. I don’t even really know what edition of D&D it was, though to be fair if you squint they all look mostly the same.
A childhood friend’s dad ran a regular game for his kids and some of their friends, myself included. I think it was some version of AD&D, as there were definitely non-weapon proficiencies (I remember my friend being very serious about the need for someone in the party to have cartography). In my memory, it was an extremely deadly game with a daunting and vast wilderness to explore and map. Crossing a river was a major feat, as was surviving past level 1. Buying a horse was a huge advancement - those 2 hoof attacks were majorly helpful for survival.
I probably only played in a dozen sessions or less, but it stayed in my mind as the primal example of D&D. Extremely different from what I found myself playing as I dove headfirst into 3/3.5 in high school or 5e when I returned to the hobby. I suspect that my swerve away from 5e to the OSR/indie adventure game space was partly me chasing the dragon that 10 year old me caught a whiff of.
80’s Fantasy Movies
I’ll be honest, this category is mostly just Willow and The Neverending Story. These were some of my first exposures to fantasy as a kid and I watched them both a ton. They informed a lot about what I think a proper adventure looks like as well as locking some aesthetics into my head. The magic in Willow is all properly gnarly, as are the monsters (I used to watch through my eyes during the scene with the trolls and the two-headed dragon beast). The Neverending Story has a dreamy feel that I think effectively puts things in storybook mode where the edges are a bit hazy but it’s ok because it’s a story rather than a concrete thing. I love a high stakes journey, even as I’ve kind of moved away from this sort of play in favor of sandboxes. Just writing this out makes me consider trying something a bit more focused and trad to try and evoke some of the same feelings that these movies do.
As I finish up this post and come back to reread my categories, I realize that Clash of the Titans should absolutely be listed here as well (I didn’t realize it released in 1981 and assumed it was older). Aside from tying in with my love of mythology, Perseus having to be creative to deal with his challenges (and accept assistance from higher beings) is exactly the kind of thing I like to see in my games and push my players to do. You know it’s some good adventure gaming when victory hinges on taming a winged beast, creative use of magical equipment, and weaponized monster heads.
Fantasy Tinged with Horror
- The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King
- Aching God, by Mike Shel
- The Blacktongue Thief, The Daughters’ War, and Between Two Fires, by Christopher Buehlman
- The Broken Empire Trilogy, by Mark Lawrence
- The Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson
- The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins
- Vampire Hunter D (the anime, I’ve never read the manga)
No matter what I do, I invariably sneak some horror into pretty much any game I run. This is certainly not at odds with the common take that the dungeon game is basically survival horror at early levels, but I embrace it wholeheartedly. My general love of horror stories and media aside, I think the elements of the genre are a great counter-point to the inevitable humor and shenaniganry that players bring to the table. Hell, jokes and absurd asides are frequent reactions to horrible situations and creatures. I love a bit of gallows humor.
I think all of the books above do a good job of blending horror with the kind of fantasy I like, and some even manage the humor aspect as well (Malazan and Blacktongue Thief come to mind). Keeping these sorts of stories in mind help me draw out the horror without making things relentlessly grim.
Somewhat related shoutout to the older neighbor kid who had me over to watch Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre all in the same day when I was like 10 or 11. It may have given me nightmares for a few weeks, but I’m sure that’s what kickstarted my love of horror. So if you are unexpectedly
Chrono Trigger
One of the GOATs. Alongside Final Fantasy 6 (to a lesser degree), it showed me how one can effectively mix genres together and still maintain cohesion. It’s rad as hell that your party has a robot, cavewoman badass, frog man, and vampire dark magician mixed in with your standard arrangement of plucky teen heroes who are fated to save the world from an alien. Seeing the consequences of decisions play out over multiple timelines is pretty special, and I can only hope that the seeds planted early on in any of my games meaningfully change the game world as they burst through the soil.
Also, the more I play adventure games the more I see the appeal of going classless. It’s cool that everyone in CT can fight and use magic!
Suikoden
JRPG domain play! I think these games are a good model for what domain play can look like, and the first two in the series are top tier for me. The PC party still goes out and adventures, despite owning a castle, but has a home base to come back which can be upgraded. The 108 companions even means that you have a stable of PCs.
I’ve seen people assume that when you hit domain level play that you stop adventuring, but that doesn’t have to be true! I like throwing interesting NPCs at the players in the hopes that they might take them on as retainers or stronghold hires, assuming they don’t murder them or something. I also think that it’s a worthy goal to be able to switch between modes of play - base building/recruitment, adventuring, and large scale combat - and have each mode of gameplay bleed into the others.
Hidden World Stories and Folklore
I’m a big fan of hidden worlds that lie just underneath what a normal person can see, especially when those other worlds are used to darkly reflect the reality above. This is a huge theme in urban fantasy, which is a favorite genre of mine. Despite my many issues with The Dresden Files, it’s a big touchstone for me. It’s fun to see the shockwaves from activity in the other world affecting the normal world in unexpected ways and forcing those in power to scramble in order to keep things separate and explain the unexplainable.
American Gods (obligatory fuck Neil Gaiman) scratches a similar itch for me. One of my favorite moments (SPOILERS AHEAD!) is the reveal that the kids who go missing from Lakeside are sacrifices to Hinzelmann. What was thought to be a series of mundane disappearances and runaways actually keeps a minor god in power, who then uses that power to ostensibly maintain the town as an idyllic little pocket of America. The ritual being tied to an annual town raffle (guessing when an old car on the frozen lake will fall in) that everyone in town participates in is the icing on the cake. I think it’s the interconnectedness between the seen and unseen that draws me in, and it’s something I try to incorporate in my games when I can.
I also enjoy interpretations of folkore, which urban fantasy series have in spades. I’ve always been drawn to mythology and folklore and I’m a big fan of stories that reimagine and remix such things. For my own games it’s always a fun exercise to take a standard monster or mythological creature and alter it to fit the setting or the genre. I find immense value in having the original idea in front of me to start from, as the convenient handholds of symbolism, themes, and imagery allow me a firm grip to twist things into a shape that better fits my goals.
Honorable mention to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and the awesome dark world, as a brief discussion on the RainbOSR server with NBateman about his selection of the Zelda games for his appendix led me down this road.
Closing
I could keep going, but I would probably start blurring the lines between what is actually my Appendix N and what are just Things I Like even more than I already am.