Dungeon Alphabet

This week I finished The Dungeon Alphabet by Michael Curtis.  The 4th printing of this book was released not long ago.  This book is a system-free book of ideas for people running players through dungeons in OSR fantasy roleplaying games.  It’s a marvelous book and I recommend it to game Read more

Heavy Metal Fantasy

In recent years there has been a lot of talk of mixing heavy metal music (or the heavy metal ambiance) with Dungeons & Dragons.  James Edward Raggi, founder of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, has said in interviews that mixing the two was his goal with his RPG company.  People Read more

The Poetic Edda

Taking a book off of Tolkien’s bookshelf, I read The Poetic Edda. This rendition was first published in 1908 and edited and translated by Olive Bray. Some nice illustrations from W. G. Collingwood grace the pages. It covered some of the same ground as Kevin Crossley-Holland’s The Norse Myths which Read more

The Princess and the Goblin

I had a chance to read one of the titles from the list of books that inspired Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The Princess and the Goblin was written by George MacDonald in 1872. It is written in a fairy tale style but its length and more modern writing Read more

Tolkien’s Own Appendix N

When working on my post on D&D’s Appendix N I thought about other great works whose lists of inspirations are now known.  JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings was inspired by ten books.  This list of inspirational works was not only compiled but also republished by Leaves of Gold Press.  This Read more

Hooked On Appendix N

In the back of the Dungeon Masters Guide for Dungeons & Dragons first edition there are appendices marked with letters. Number 14 is Appendix N. It is a list of fantasy and science-fiction authors along with some notes from Gary Gygax. Gygax’ notes state that the authors and titles in Read more