Jumping on the Appendix N blogwagon at the last possible moment to talk a little about some of the media and other things that often inspires my work. The original Appendix N for D&D was, of course, a list of books and authors considered to have inspired Gygax, et al.

My writing process is so slow these days that I know I always forget inspirations unless I write them down as I go. Somewhere in the back of my brain is one of those ancient library card catalogs with all the bits and bobs I’ve squirreled away or that got lodged in there, waiting for me to use them, but by the time something finds itself in this cabinet, it is almost certainly divorced from its original context. Brains are fickle like that. So a couple entries on this list might be a bit vague – maybe you know what I’m talking about and can fill in the blanks for me.

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

The YA book series, not the awful movie. I keep coming back to the idea of moving cities. Alive cities. Cities that devour, a road that never ends, a post apocalypse of a different flavor.

Besides just the setting, though, this series has an unabashedly ugly protagonist and guess what? She still gets the guy. Theirs is a complicated relationship and I cannot begin to tell you how novel it was that not only was an ugly girl a hero, but she was loved? That is simply not the case in most media, especially children’s media.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films by Peter Jackson

Look, I’m not afraid to admit it. I love the books, too, but the movies were my introduction to the series and I cannot tell you how many times I have rewatched them – enough times the summer Fellowship was on VHS that my mom got mad at my brother and I for spending at least an hour a day in the basement in the pitch dark watching, and to this day I still have most of the dialogue memorized.

There’s a lot to be inspired by with this series but the main thing I have stuck in my craw is the idea of going on a journey but being so changed you can’t figure out where you fit anymore. Home isn’t home.

Jupiter Ascending by the Wachowski sisters

It could have been so good if it was good.

Aesthetically, I love this movie and I think I want the attention to detail in sets and costumes to come into play in my games (literally? Figuratively?? I don’t know, but the way this movie makes every character distinct and weird is aspirational).

“But what if it worked?” is my favorite form of inspiration.

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

The inescapable bigness and simultaneous smallness of childhood (and life in general) makes an impression. I think I reread these comics every other year.

A bunch of middle grade b-horror books but particularly the one where a guy makes a wish that goes wrong and he is turned into a tree but still has his thoughts and feelings and is terrified (sorry I don’t remember the name of it)

body horror. It’s a thing I love now. But this book, whatever it was, kept me up at night for multiple nights. Let me know if you know what I’m talking about, I’d love to revisit it.

wow gee LT is that all? What a short list!

we would be here all day if I were more thorough. But, let me just copy in a list of things on the inspirations lists for a few things I’m working on:

Big Trouble in Little China, The Fifth Element, Terry Pratchett’s Thud!, The Sevenwaters Cycle, The Father of Death by the Protomen, Bastion, Pathfinder, Pinochle, mafia games specifically narrated by my father, The Babysitters Club, Survivor, old Saturday Night Live sketches, The Westing Game, a board game called Hide and Thief, The Thing, The Good the Bad and the Weird, Schitts Creek, a community theater run of The Robber Bridegroom, my local conservation magazine, a friend’s unpublished hack of another friend’s game, the “mean tweets” segment of the late show, Batman and Robin (batnipples), Jeff Smith’s Bone, Graeme Base illustrations, and The Decemberists Hazards of Love

some of the stuff on that list is picked for themes, vibes, that sort of thing. Some is for one specific and evocative detail. Not all of it will make it into the Appendix N – or maybe it will. I started typing about how people look to a game’s inspirations to know what the game will be like, in genre or mechanics. But I think I want to see more lists that read less like a sell sheet and more like a collage at someone’s workweek. Even if that is less useful for me as a player trying to discern whether a game is for me or not, I like to see where the inspiration came from.

I am gonna get weirdly specific with it in my next Appendix N and I hope you will too.

cheers, LT