In the vein of the series of "best" threads, I'm interested to hear what literature and authors fellow DMs have found most inspirational for creating adventure ideas, campaign world-building, etc. Doesn't necessarily have to be fantasy/sf genre. I'll share my top ten list (not nec. in order) as a seed.
1. Tolkien (goes without saying)
2. Robert Jordan (also goes without saying--great heroes, great villains, amazing plotlines, and a very entertaining take on the struggle between the sexes)
3. Alexandre Dumas pere (Three Musketeers series--read the books, which have cool heroes, cool villains, and it's often hard to tell which is which until the plot climaxes. Also lots of cool encounters, behind the scenes machinations, and dialogue. No movie adaptations do Dumas justice).
4. Dickens (Dickens and Dumas require patience, but writing a chapter a week for serialized novels is almost like running a campaign, and these two are among the best at creating and interweaving multiple plotlines. Dickens also was a master at creating "life-like NPCs"-i.e. cameo characters who are memorable because of his way of introducing them.
5. Katherine Kurtz (good descriptions of medievalesque society, material culture, ritual, religion, dynastic politics--useful for building DM's descriptive vocabulary)
6. C.S. Forrester--Horatio Hornblower series (great combo of action, humor, and "roleplaying", plus useful for getting a feel for shipboard life and seamanship if you're running a nautical campaign).
7. Arthurian Legends in all their tellings and retellings--I especially like the pre-Mallory stories like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Percival, and Tristan and Isolde because of the hints they give about medieval conceptions of magic, honor, and courtly love, as well as Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Mists of Avalon" for its feminist take on things, which I think gives some insights on how one might play strong and clever female NPCs.
8. Evangeline Walton--her adaptation of the Mabinogion has lots of interesting Celtic-flavored otherworlds, interaction between deities and mortals, themes of jealousy, vengeance and the quest for happiness--and lots of interesting magic.
9. Journey to the West--a 15th century Chinese novel that is totally cool, but unfortunately only partially translated into English by Arthur Waley (under the title "Monkey"). Chinese TV did a very long, pretty good mini-series version which I think was broadcast with subtitles by BBC at some point--so with digging one might be able to dig up DVDs. Sun Wukong the Monkey King is the coolest demigod ever--incorrigibly mischievous and a complete bad-ass. Blows Olidammara out of the water! Lots of cool Chinese deities, demons, monsters, and martial arts.
10. Jin Yong. The best Chinese author of martial arts novels with a fantasy flavor. Some of his stuff is published in English under the name Louis Cha, I think. I'm working my way through a long novel (Xiao Ao Jianghu, which I'm not sure how to translate). I saw it in miniseries form in China, and it's pretty cool--gives ideas for many different martial arts styles and feats, as well as cool magic items and effects. It might be available in subtitled DVD, as I think it may well have been shown in Hong Kong. It's giving me all kinds of ideas for a Silk Road flavored campaign I'm running.
Well, that's my short list. I hope some of you like my suggestions, and I'm looking forward to hearing from others so I can have some fun and inspiring stuff to add to my reading list.
For a Canuck (or kanuck?) it is easy i believe to say that Guy Kay is one of the best Canadian Fantasy Novelists out there to date. He has a whole take on magic that is quite unique in his Fionavar Tapestry series as well as Tigana. In the Sailing to Sarantium series he doesn't even give magic a thought. IT is all science based and takes place during the reign of the Greeks and Romans but does manage to put a view on Religion that is quite interesting. Lots of mythology in the Last Light of the Sun.
David Gemmell is ammazing for his Legend series. Druss is one of the most memorable figures in fantasy novels ever, IMHO. The white wolf with the damned and his take on a possible future world. Men melding with animals and magic that is usually ritualistic. Very nice stuff. His novels may be quick but they are amazing.
That is enough from me so
Later
David Eddings, author of the Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium & Tamuli series. My personal preference is the Elenium & Tamuli trilogies. Sparhawk is such a badass.
Emma Bull - War for the Oaks. Silly human! Caught between a war between the Seelie & Unseelie Courts. Really cool stuff.
Anne McCaffrey's Pern series (though I haven't read the newer stuff - it feels very blah).
Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton. Was originally really good, but seems like a lot of gratuitous T&A in some of the later books.
Any mythology book never fails to inspire, nor do any history books. "Ancient Mysteries" and "Ancient Inventions" are two really good books that are very inspirational.
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Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton. Was originally really good, but seems like a lot of gratuitous T&A in some of the later books.
Lilith, I think you get the understatement of the year award! I think that several passages of her more recent books could be described as porn, and not necessarily softcore (granted, they are very good descriptions). But, yes, LKH constructs some very nice fight scenes and knowing some of the haunts in St. Louis that she appropriates makes it more fun.
Authors that inspire me...
Tolkien - as Peruhain said, goes without saying.
The Greeks, Egyptians, Norse, Celts, Irish, Russo-Finnish, Aztecs, Native Americans, and many other cultures who have tales, myths, traditions that broke my mind open to the wider possiblilties of the world of faith, reason, and rationalization of a metahuman presence in the physical world.
Dumas, Cervantes, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson (and others)-authors of 'the classics' of early fantasy. The spine of the adventure story.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Howard, Sax Rhomer, H. Rider Haggard - I love the pulp adventures! These are the giants that are one of the pillars of fantasy. The breathed life and vitality into the stories and frequently created what we hold as 'old chestnuts' of fantasy and adventure. Not the spine of the adventure story, but the meat.
HP Lovecraft - Proof that a crazy guy in a diaper and carrying a knife doesn't hold a candle to the scary quality of the unknowable. How do you stand against something your brain can't even comprehend?
Orson Scott Card - every time I read one of his books, I am pummeled with the awareness that a living, breathing mythology/alternate reality with fully realized characters with warmth and vitality can leap from a page.
Lots more, but that's all I have time for now...
Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton. Was originally really good, but seems like a lot of gratuitous T&A in some of the later books.Lilith, I think you get the understatement of the year award! I think that several passages of her more recent books could be described as porn, and not necessarily softcore (granted, they are very good descriptions). But, yes, LKH constructs some very nice fight scenes and knowing some of the haunts in St. Louis that she appropriates makes it more fun.
I stopped reading the series after Obsidian Butterfly. :-( I was reading it and my brain was screaming "Enough of the sex already, get on with the damn story!"
Anita Blake's necromancy powers gave me the basis for an NPC in one of my games (subconsciously, now that I think about it). The NPC was a necromancer who had been betrayed by someone she trusted and was sent to the Negative Energy Plane where she was trapped. Remarkably, she did survive. Fast forward 200 years and one planar conjunction later and she's in my PCs lives. (Libris Mortis is REALLY fun if you're building a necromancer.)
I probably have a host of other NPCs in my game that are subconsciously modeled after book characters.
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I stopped reading the series after Obsidian Butterfly. :-( I was reading it and my brain was screaming "Enough of the sex already, get on with the damn story!"
Obsidian Butterfly is tame in comparison to the sex content of 'Narcissus in Chains' or 'Cerullian Sins'. Her relationship with...well, pretty much everybody has been, uh, blown open.
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For a Canuck (or kanuck?) it is easy i believe to say that Guy Kay is one of the best Canadian Fantasy Novelists out there to date. He has a whole take on magic that is quite unique in his Fionavar Tapestry series as well as Tigana. In the Sailing to Sarantium series he doesn't even give magic a thought. IT is all science based and takes place during the reign of the Greeks and Romans but does manage to put a view on Religion that is quite interesting. Lots of mythology in the Last Light of the Sun.
David Gemmell is ammazing for his Legend series. Druss is one of the most memorable figures in fantasy novels ever, IMHO. The white wolf with the damned and his take on a possible future world. Men melding with animals and magic that is usually ritualistic. Very nice stuff. His novels may be quick but they are amazing.
That is enough from me soLater
Another vote of David Gemmell. The best way to describe his is if David Eddings and Robert E. Howard had a son, he would be David Gemmell.
China Mieville, Clive Barker, Mary Gentle, Tad Williams, and of the older stuff - Mervyn Peake, Tolkien, Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Good thread!
Many of the aforementioned, plus these:
Raymond Chandler (get the pulp noir feel long before Eberron came along).
Thomas Harlan (Oath of Empire series is exactly how D&D works when placed in the context of Ancient Rome).
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (end-of-the-world mood and context)
and
The Old Testament (The Hebrew conquest of Canaan is world building at its best).
Oh, and lest I forget, the now-forgotten comic book "Arak Son of Thunder" by Roy and Dann Thomas. It's one of those things that got me hooked on fantasy sword and sworcery, not to mention got me through medieval history class.
Creative Director
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My list looks like this: Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Ambrose Bierce, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Clive Barker, F. Paul Wilson, and Tim Lebbon.
Authors who have a good chance of getting onto this list once I read more by them include China Mieville, Jeff Long, Jack Vance, and George Martin.
I forgot to mention George Martin's A Song of Fire & Ice series. Hefty hefty reads.
Can't believe no one's mentioned Raymond E. Feist- the worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan were, after all, designed by him and his friends the "Thursday/Friday-Nighters" (they got the name because they played DnD on those nights) as a world for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and some of the characters in the books began life as PC's.
All the authors on my list have already been mentioned, so I will just add my vote to:
- Michael Moorcock
- Robert E. Howard
- H.P. Lovecraft
- J.R.R. Tolkien
and I will add: Fred Saberhagen. ( I am in love with Berserker's and would gladly be a good life in their service.)
From the horror end of things...I have to start with Edgar Allen Poe, especially HopFrog and the Masque of Red Death and the dude that walls up the living with the Cask of Amontillado...the Bells 'In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!' and Annabel Lee!
I second (or third) Stephen King...especially the short stories and amazing talent for making a character 'real' in a very little amount of words.
For characters as well I choose John Steinbeck. 'The Red Pony' (well, the 4 or so stories that make up that book) and 'Chrysanthemum' are two short stories with amazing characters...and a great twist on the old 'boy and horse' story that I read when I was little. Of course, Cannery Row/Sweet Thursday, Tortilla Flat, East of Eden, and Mice and Men all have extraordinary characters.
For fantasy, I'm going with Lloyd Alexander, first and foremost. I have read the Chronic- (what?!) -cles of Prydain so many times, as well as The Cat who wished to be a Man and the Westmark Trilogy.
Also, Neil Gaiman. This man is a genius in the best sense of the word. Prose, comics, plays, scripts...the way he can take a normal 'cliched' idea and twist it around to make it fresh is awesome!
Alan Moore too. Especially in his earlier works. V for Vendetta is about to be released as a movie, and I am sure I will watch it...but those comics at a certain time for a certain child were like gold. Even more precious than Watchmen.
And finally in the fantasy vein, I have to give serious dues to Charles De Lint. While, not directly transferrable to D & D world, the characters and situations that he puts together in his crazy town of Newford are very inspirational. Super believable characters (male and especially female).
I forgot to mention George Martin's A Song of Fire & Ice series. Hefty hefty reads.
Duh! I feel so stupid I can't believe that I forgot him and his amazing Seven Kingdoms. A Game of Thrones was one of my first Sci-Fi Fantasy novels ever! Kicks butt!
This is a great thread! I am going to look into a lot of these authors now who I never heard of before. Did anyone mention Gene Wolf yet? He wrote two books called The Sword and the Citadel, and Something and Claw, really great stuff. And another book about a Roman soldier who gets hit in the head and cant remember anything but can see the Gods calle "Latro in the Mist"; I couldnt actually get through it myself but it was cool.
I also have been wanting to post here for some time, and this is not a paid advertisement, that they just rereleased all the Conan stories actually written by Robert E. Howard, in the order he wrote them, with all his notes and maps etc. in one book. I just finished it, really great.
To add my other votes: Tolkein, Beowolf, The abridged version of Mallory's Arthur, David Eddings, Marion Zimmer Bradley, A Distant Mirror (especially the first half), and The Green Knight.
Thanks agsain for this thread and for all the awesome reccomendations.
Oh my god!!
I can't believe I forgot to add Ian M. Banks
Please check out his work. I would start with CONSIDER PHLEBAS for an introduction to The Culture.
I've read J. Gregory Keyes' novels "The Waterborn" and "The Blackgod", as well as the Fool Wolf stories in back issues of Dragon magazine and throughly enjoyed them. He's great about creating cultures and a belief system thoroughly entrenched in that culture. He can also take the stereotypical characters, like "The young hero with the magic sword" and make them a little more flawed and human.
Do you remember the title of novel that featured a magic sword named "Dabendeik" (drat, that I do not remeber the exact spelling, or I would google.)
I remember a sentence from the book that went something like "Dabendeik flickered like a serpent's tongue and another life was taken..."
I read this as a kid and now 20 years later I am trying to locate it again?
I would like to think that everything I read informs my game and my life. But in terms of fantasy/science fiction writing thse are my top ten.
JRR Tolkien
Steven Brust
CS Friedman
Frank Herbert
Dave Duncan
Tad Williams
Terry Brooks
Orson Scott Card
George RR Martin
Patricia McKillip
I would like to think that Folklore, Mythology, History, and Business inform my play as much as the fantasy I have read. Although I tend to remember those books more by subject matter and title rather than author.
I would like to think that Folklore, Mythology, History, and Business inform my play as much as the fantasy I have read. Although I tend to remember those books more by subject matter and title rather than author.
I'm sure that is true for all of us. As a historian I know that my reading and research has helped me fill out my homebrew campaign in a big way.
My quick two cents:
Barbara Hambly and Robert Asprin.
i know i'll be covering some ground others have gone over, but hopefully i'll have a few new notes to add too.
Burroughs (the barsoom, pellucidar and amtor books specifically)
Michael Moorcock.
H.P Lovecraft
Tolkien
Robert Howard
Fritz Leiber
Glen Cook's Garret series
Simon R Green, Hawk and Fisher series, Blue Moon books, Darkside series
Laurel Hamilton (more the Merry series than the Anita series, same commentaries as before, but i do like them in spite of that)
Zelazny the Amber books, the Dilvish the Damned duet, Roadmarks.
Raymond Chandler
Dashiell Hammet
Eiji Yoshikawa's serialized and exaggerated biography of Miyamoto Musashi, accurate or not...
and sidebaring momentarily to films,
Kurosawa's Samurai films, notably Seven Samurai, Yojimbo (and all of the remakes of these two films--and yes, Yojimbo was itself a samurai adaptation of Hammet's novel 'red harvest'), The Hidden Fortress and Sanjuro all can convey so much of a feeling, that i find myself seriously inspired every time i watch any of these (even though the classic Bloodstone Pass modules started with an adaptation of the Seven Samurai plotline).
wow; I have read all of these books, series except Anna Bull frm Lilith; gonna have to check that out. Robert Aspirin has a lot of stuff; he edited Thieves world; but as a d&d er read his myth series ie Mything Persons, and such.
Was really surprized not to see Jim Butcher on this list; he is awesome bar none. Wizard battles; werewolfs, vampires, faerun, angels (both kinds); this has it all. Awesome. Simon Hawke; Wizard of 4th Street is the first one; great stuff with a bit of mystery. Stephen Donaldson, his Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series has a lot of features I put in my d&d world. the First one is Lord Foul's Bane, if you can get through the first two books the third one will get you by the short hairs and you will be hooked. Larry Niven (I think) wrote Lucifers Hammer; definate reading for anyone wanting theme material for post apocolypse ideas. Gene Wolfe good thematic stuff. Sheesh there are so many; if I was home I could look on my plethora of bookshelves.
Has anyone mentioned Richard Lee Byers and Paul S. Kemp yet? I've been reading their new stuff for FR of late and it is AMAZING...and this is coming from someone who hates FR with a passion.
Of course I also love 95% of the aforementioned authors, and have heard of 100% of them.
For non-fantasy authors that really inspire me, I've recently been exposed to Haruki Murakami through one of my classes here at school and I love his work. The Elephant Vanishes is a great collection of short stories and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a work of genius, in my opinion. Part of what I love about Murakami is the foundation he works from in Kafka and the existentialists, like Camus and Sartre, as well as Hammet and Chandler. The Stranger really did change my life.
Looking at them, you may be able to find things to work with in D&D, from a setting (a beach on the coast of Algiers; the sun is beating down mercilessly and there's an Arab blowing the same notes over and over again on a reed near the spring, the Arab pulls a knife out from under his overalls and holds it to the light, reflecting a white-hot ray into your eyes. Your friend's revolver is heavy in your coat pocket: what do you do?) or just a look at how to weave plot threads through a mystery or how to really turn your reader's (or player's) expectations on their ear (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle starts with the protagonist making spaghetti, idly wondering where the cat has gone, and then the phone rings; it's amazing where he goes from there).
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Like many others have mentioned I use everything I read and not just Sci-fi authors make it to my D&D games.
Jeffrey Deaver – A master of suspense, Deaver keeps me guessing to the last page and I keep my plays guessing almost as long.
Orson Scott Card – esp. the Ender Series and the Shadow Series together the first two books are good examples of how player characters might experience the same campaign events differently.
Raymond Chandler – Noir at it's best I drew on these sources before Eberron's release for a Werewolf game and discovered it slipped nicely into several other campaigns unexpectedly. Now that I'm running Eberron I'm glad I started reading Chandler.
J.R.R. Tolkien – Enough said.
Jim Butcher – The Dresden Files modern noir investigations but instead of a private detective Harry Dresden is an actual wizard, the only wizard in fact to advertise in the Chicago phonebook. For fans of Laurel K. Hamilton who are tired of the gratuitous sex give Butcher a shot.
Jack Whyte – Historical Arthurian legend set in roman Britain that ends with pulling the sword from the stone rather than beginning with it.
Bernard Cornwell – Another author of historical fiction: The Sharpes Rifles series, The Grail Quest trilogy (set during the hundred years war), the Warlord trilogy (more Arthurian legend), As well as some stand alones like Gallows Thief and Stonehenge.
Robert Ludlum – Particularly the Bourne novels. I’m currently planning on making an assassin based on the villain from the books (not the movies).
Ellis Peters – Brother Cadfael is a Benedictine monk and medieval detective.
And many others:
Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, David Eddings, David Gemmell, Robert Jordan, P.G. Wodehouse, Robert Asprin, Raymond Feist, Stephen King, Larry Niven (Magic Goes Away), C.S. Lewis, and assorted D&D novels (including books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Keith Baker, and R.A. Salvatore.)
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Much as I love D&D,
I don't have that much of a taste for fantasy novels aside from your basic Lovecraft, Moorcock, Howard, Ashton-Smith stuff.
Design-wise, I've found Gregory Keyes really inspirational and Pat Mills's Slaine comics had a huge influence in creating my homebrew world (even before I worked on the Slaine RPG stuff)
Other writers that I've found inspirational to my campaign design include:
Charles G.Finney
Kurt Vonnegut
Herman Hesse
Albert Camus
Anton LeVey
William T. Vollmann
Lucias Shepherd
Jim Thompson
Although, looking over my list now is sort of revealing to me why my players keep telling me I run a very existential campaign.
Although, looking over my list now is sort of revealing to me why my players keep telling me I run a very existential campaign.
Yay, but don't worry about your players, they don't really exist!
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As a one-time bookstore manager, I have read most of those listed above, and have actually met several of them. Since I don't wish to be redundant, I won't mention ones that have already been posted. Instead I will put out a little "if you liked that, you should try this:"
For fans of Stephen King, Scott Nicholson is an absolute must-read. The realism of his characters isn't up to King yet, but its getting there. His description (I never thought I would say this) is BETTER. He seems to get a little rushed at the ends of his novels, but they are all very much worthwhile.
Also--for all of you existentialists, who may or may not be there to read this, check out Mark Z. Danielewski's HOUSE OF LEAVES. It took the guy ten years to write it. It is a bit slow at places, but well worth the effort. I've read it seven times, and each time it gets better. It is also the only book that has ever been able to give me the creeps. The recurring theme of the Minotaur is really cool, and there are some good things that can be used for D&D games.
And, after stating that I wouldn't list anyone that had been previously mentioned, I just have to say this: if anyone on these boards hasn't read Neil Gaiman yet, they are seriously missing out. He is one of the freshest voices (pens?) in literature to come out in a very long time.
Enjoy!
Orson Scott Card and Katharine Kerr have been my favorite authors for some time. Eric Flint and George RR Martin are gaining ground.
I must say that I am appaled that no one has mentioned R.A. Salvatore. I don't really get inspiration from other writer's works (save for a few adventures found in Dungeon). J.R.R. Tolkein got me interesting in DnD with The Hobbit and inspired my very first character(a halfing thief/wizard who never made it past level 1), and R.A. Salvatore gave me the inspiration for me second and favorite character with Drizzt Do'Urden and inspired my love for drow. Other than that, not much inspiration.