Author Topic: Do you have an "Appendix N"?  (Read 3522 times)

Offline Agrippa

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Do you have an "Appendix N"?
« on: October 05, 2012, 06:25:10 PM »
When playing or DMing Dungeons and Dragons, or any other fantasy RPG, we all tend to draw on outside sources for ideas. They can be from books, comics (I'm lumping in manga), songs, cartoons, video games, TV shows and movies, all that matters for this thread is how they effect your game. Hell through in stage plays if you want. Don't feel shy, just post a list of your top inspirations for D&D and other fantasy RPGs. I'll take the liberty of posting a link Gygax's original Appendix N for all to read. In the mean time I'll get to work on my Appendix N.

Cartoons/Anime

Avatar the Last Airbender
The Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes
Batman the Animated Series
Disney's Gargoyles
Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Inuyasha (if for no other reason than I'd like to see if I can do a better job with the characters or setting material)

Books

Codex Alera
Discworld
Dragerea
Dresden Files
Elric Saga
The Nightside series
The Philip Marlowe novels

Comic Books/Manga

The Authority (from what I've heard about it)
The League of Extraoroinary Gentlemen Vol. I and II
Planetary (see The Authority)
Sandman
Scott Pilgrim

Live Action TV Shows

Burn Notice
Criminal Minds
Leverage
Grimm
Supernatural
The X-Files

Film

Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Marvel Cinematic
Sin City (have not read any of the graphic novels yet)

Video Game

Other

Offline Agrippa

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Re: Do you have an "Appendix N"?
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2012, 03:23:19 PM »
So I guess no one's really interested in my question.

Offline Quillwraith

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Re: Do you have an "Appendix N"?
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2012, 03:46:55 PM »
So I guess no one's really interested in my question.
Compiling a list like that isn't too quick a task. People may be interested but not ready to post.


Mine varies a lot from one campaign to another, so I can't give a general list.

Offline Agrippa

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Re: Do you have an "Appendix N"?
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2012, 03:58:40 PM »
So I guess no one's really interested in my question.
Compiling a list like that isn't too quick a task. People may be interested but not ready to post.


Mine varies a lot from one campaign to another, so I can't give a general list.

You don't need to post up a whole list all at once. It can be a work in progress.

Offline sirpercival

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Re: Do you have an "Appendix N"?
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2012, 05:24:29 PM »
I don't really think "everything in the entire world" is an appropriate list, though...
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Offline b100d_arrowz

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Re: Do you have an "Appendix N"?
« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2012, 03:33:10 PM »
My personal repository of extra knowledge:

Dresden Files
Godspeaker Trilogy
Legend of the Five Rings (Yes I know they have a d20 implementation for it now, and a well fleshed d10 system, but I first started pulling ideas before I saw those, and I like my ideas better :D)
Starcraft
Fallout series
Real world mythos
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Offline veekie

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Re: Do you have an "Appendix N"?
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2012, 04:59:18 PM »
Quite a lot I think.

Primary inspiration tends to be a heavy mishmash of RL mythology and legends, particularly for magic and setting. No specific mythos so much as taking the parts they have in common and particularly interesting chunks. Things like the Law of Contagion and Similarity, the interactions between the spiritual and the mundane, etc. It's extremely rich and easy to exploit for ideas.

Then for system, I map whatever I happen to be reading recently over the base mythology ideas. Most modern fantasy falls short, as they tend to have narrative systems(magic-as-unexplained-plot-device or magic-as-act-of-will, neither of which make interesting systems), but specific ability systems(or pretty much anything written by Brandon Sanderson) contribute here and there. Sometimes I stuff a bit of physics and other reading material into the metaphysics as the mood takes me.

For the style, I map mostly anime and manga over mythology. For the most part they don't translate well on a system level(abilities tend to be unique, with any significant characters breaking rules generally, plus a big chunk of "more energy"), but stylistically it provides for relatively dynamic action and novel themes at least.

Probably too vague to actually make an actual list though.
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Offline nijineko

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Re: Do you have an "Appendix N"?
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2012, 01:35:55 AM »
um. anything and everything. the arguments my boys use on each other can be fodder for the plot twists between the villain and the antagonist to the villain with the party being the purported protagonists, or a kids cartoon, or a book, a newspaper article, or some random comment overheard passing by someone on the street, to pick a few examples not at random.