Discussion:Required reading

What is the best DnD literature of all time?

Sir Milo Teabag 11:57, 30 December 2007 (MST)

I am refering here not to things published by Wizards of the Coast (although those are included). I here refer to anything that stimulates the imagination of the DM, or maybe makes him laugh, or adds spice to his campaign in any way. Anything that every player should have on their bookshelf. If you wish, put a reason as well.

1. Lord of the Rings (hard to argue with this)
2. Beowulf (the BOOK! Not the movie!)
3. Order of the Stick (it's just funny)
4. ECS

Please Continue this. Thank you.

Chainer 18:05, 30 December 2007 (MST)

I'd add The Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan and The Drizzt Do'Urden saga by RA Salvatore. Robert Jordan's books tell stories like they should be told. A perfectly balanced medly of action, drama, comedy and suspense. RA Salvatore mixes loads of action with philosophy. Both authors write stories of epic proportions with fasinating characters any reader can fall in love with. Any good DM has to be a good story teller and be able to make what he creates real and interesting to his players.

Calidore Chase 22:44, 30 December 2007 (MST)

1. Raymond E Feists Riftwar Saga (Specifically the first two books)
2. Terry Brooks Shannara Series
3. Anne McCaffrey Dragonriders of Pern
4. Raymond E Feist Fairie Tale
5. Christopher Moore Lamb

Sam Kay 02:07, 31 December 2007 (MST)

1. The lord of the rings. My favourate book.
2. The Hobbit.
3. The Earthsea Quartet (A Wizard of Earthsea).
4. Age of the Five by Trudi Canavan.
5. The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan.
6. The Old Kingdom Series (Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen) by Garth Nix.
7. The Edge Chronicles, Paul Stuart and Chriss Riddel.

Yes, read the Wheel of Time, but don't believe what it says on the cover, and watch out for the books in which nothing happens. They get abit boring.

Not for the faint of heart

Many of these books are almost impossible for people to understand and should only be read by those of great reading skill.

1. The Silmarillion.
2. Unfinnished Tales.
3. The History of Middle Earth.

Wackymynd 15:05, 31 December 2007 (MST)

The Merlin Conspiracy and The Game, both by Diana Wynne Jones, have inspirational parts, but they still wouldn't rank very high. These probably aren't the only good ones she's written, though. Diana Wynne Jones is my favorite author!

EldritchNumen 16:53, 31 December 2007 (MST)

The Deathgate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is a must have. Excellent fantasy reading with a good mix of serious themes and a lighthearted nature.

Pwsnafu 22:43, 1 January 2008 (MST)

Apart from what's up there (I second Deathgate though)

1. Discworld series.
2. Hitchhiker series. More sci-fi, but has inspiration for unique magic items.
3. Witches of Eileanan series by Kate Forsyth. I highly push this.
4. A Song of Ice and Fire series. Focus on politics and character rather than high magic.

Chainer 18:08, 2 January 2008 (MST)

Lol, Yes some Wheel of Time books seem more to do about people talking and nothing happening but the series as a whole is well constructed. I've not read the Deathgate cycle but I shall. I hope its not like all the other books she has written. I always feel like I am reading a poorly runned D&D game instead of a story with plots, climax, resolution, etc.

Cronocke 21:54, 7 January 2008 (MST)

It's a shame this is limited to books, as I might recommend some anime series. Record of Lodoss War paints a somewhat generic story, but tells it as well as any TV series would. Slayers merrily lampoons both D&D and anime stereotypes, with a swordsman as dumb as a brick as a major character. Lastly, Ruin Explorers, which shows an alternative way to string a party together - separate groups, or individuals, who meet up again and again in different places, until banding together not out of friendship - they hate each other - but out of a common goal.

As far as books, hm. I've heard the Redwall series is good, but never took the time to read much of it. I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned, though. It may not be very magical, and the stories may get slightly repetitive eventually, but the series returns several times to the many generations who use a legendary, powerful sword forged of "meteorite metal"...

123098zxcmnb 18:45, 10 January 2008 (MST)

1. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien: LOTR is really the base for dnd. They are also an excellent series.
2. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien: Prequel to LOTR
3. Earthsea Trilogy, by Ursula K. Le Guin: Series about a wizard Ged. Very well written. Earthsea could even be used as a campaign setting.
4. The Lost Years of Merlin, by T.A. Barron: Series about merlin. Provides some interesting races usable in dnd.
5. The Tree of Avalon, by T.A. Barron: Again, provides interesting races, like the half eagle and fire people (I forgot their name).
6. Redwall, by Brian Jacques: Good series, around a world where good and evil rodents fight endless wars. They get a bit repetitive but they are quite good. Has unique magic items.

Flession 01:07, 12 January 2008 (MST)

First off, if someone can actually tell me how to post in the format you all are using, I would greatly appreciate it.

Second off. I have one thing to contribute to this that has not already been added: Dragonriders of Pern It's loosely where I got my screen name from, as well as the fact that if you enjoy dragons, you'll enjoy this...although I can't wait to see people implement the rules they follow for mating :D

Yes, Dragonriders of Pern is really good. Anne McCaffrey's other series, which does not seem to have a name but includes books like To Ride Pegasus that would be great for a psionics campaign.

Sir Milo Teabag 09:28, 12 January 2008 (MST)

All this looks good... I now am beginning to consider Song of Roland for this list. Also Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Sledged-20080112050130

Sledged (talk) 2008 January 12 05:01 (MDT)

Posted by Flession First off, if someone can actually tell me how to post in the format you all are using, I would greatly appreciate it. In the "edit" view of this page, there are three lines that read: <!-- DO NOT REMOVE OR EDIT THIS LINE NOR ANYTHING BELOW IT To make a comment, copy the following line and paste it above the "DO NOT REMOVE" line: === ~~~ <small><small>~~~~~</small></small> === Copy the line that starts with === then paste it above the first comment line.

There's no better laugh than the one that you're ashamed to share with your mother. —Stephen Notley, creator of Bob the Angry Flower A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof was to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. —Ford Prefect in "Mostly Harmless" by Douglas Adams

Flession 22:19, 12 January 2008 (MST)

Many thanks.

Kelly 09:16, 17 January 2008

I'm afraid to say that aside from Tolkien, I think a lot of the stuff brought up here so far is pretty derivative and uninteresting, especially Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan. And I love the Earthsea books, but they really are much more about philosophy and personal growth than the action-adventure that makes a DnD game. Here are some books that inspired Gygax and the other early game designers that created our hobby:

The Swords series by Fritz Lieber, seven books chronicling the adventures of barbarian warrior Fafhrd and the swordsman-thief The Gray Mouser. Brilliantly written stuff by one of the absolute masters of the genre.

The Eternal Champion books by Michael Moorcock, especially the Elric series. Elric is the original heroic fantasy antihero, the sorcerer ex-emperor of the amoral not-quite human Melniboneans, an albino who needs either drugs or his demon-sword Stormbringer to give him the strength to survive.

Jack Vance's Dying Earth books. Wonderful stories, and Vance's system of magic is the basis for DnD's. Also, Vance's character Cugel the Clever is one of the templates (along with the Gray Mouser) for the rogue character class.

All of the works of Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard, especially Smith's Hyperborea and Howard's Conan books.

Jirel of Joiry by C.L. Moore. Sadly not nearly as well known as the above works, Jirel is a warrior woman of medieval France, ruler of castle Joiry. Jirel is one of if not the first female sword-and-sorcery protagonist, created by Catherine Lucille Moore in the unenlightened 1930's, which is why she chose to hide her gender behind her initials.

Pretty much all the fantasy works of Poul Anderson, but especially The Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions. Anderson knew his Nordic, Celtic, and general medieval mythology and folklore inside and out, backwards forwards and sideways, and created amazing works from it. An interesting bit of trivia: the encounter with a troll "Three Hearts and Three Lions" was the direct inspiration for the DnD version of that monster.

"The Worm Ouroborous" by E.R. Eddison, another early classic of high-fantasy heroic adventure. Written in poetic, almost Elizabethan style - if Shakespeare had written sword and sorcery, it would be this. Difficult for the modern reader, but worth it.

One very important note: in most of the above works, the characters are adventurers. They go out looking for treasure and adventure (or particular magical knowledge, in Elric's case), find and fight strange creatures, blow their money, and do it again, as opposed to the stories of Tolkien and his many imitators, where the entire story revolves around a single quest to save the world. They are the OPC's -Original Player Characters.

Also very important, if for their influence if not specific stories that translate to DnD - Lord Dunsany, H.P. Lovecraft, William Hope Hodgeson, George Macdonald, Mervyn Peake, Robert Holdstock, Tanith lee's Lords of Darkness series, Roger Zelazny, and early Ray Bradbury.

As far as current writers go, China Mieville wins hands down as far as 'inspiration for gamers' goes. His books centered around the city of New Crobazoan (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and The Iron Council) are incredible, and would make an awesome fantasy/steampunk game setting.

Oh, and lastly, Cervates Don Quixote must be mentioned. The woeful knight is really the first role-playing gamer, in a way (okay, he's a LARPer, it's true), determined to live out his fantasies in a mundane and unromantic world.

Sam Kay 09:27, 17 January 2008 (MST)

If you don't like derivative things, then Dungeons and Dragons is not for you. Much of the game is construted upon ideas from other sources such as mythologies and books like The Lord of the Rings (even if the creators refuse to admit it). The fact is, the human mind is influenced by the things we see and read. A book can never be 100% origional.

I do admit that some attempt at origionality must me made for a book to be good. But at the same time, remaining true to the origionals is important. I like to see Tolkien's elves elseware (so long as the author hasn't ruined them), but I also like to see new ideas like, say, the bells of the necromancer in Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen.

Dmilewski 10:14, 17 January 2008 (MST)

1. WATCH some Shakespeare. (Shakespeare isn't for reading.)
2. Oz series by Frank Baum.
3. Mark Twain
4. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)

From these books, you garnish less about fantasy and more about character and situation. Especially, how personality is expressed in words and behavior. And that, my friends, is the core of Role-Playing.

You may not think that Oz has anything to do with today's fantasy, but you'd be wrong. Oz was the first wildly successful fantasy series. Think "Harry Potter in 1910". They're a good bit of fun, too. As D&D has always had its whimsical side, this is great fodder to feed that part of the game.

Silver Dragon 11:27, 27 January 2008 (MST)

I would really like to recommend Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. His works may seem bland at first, but as you get to know the characters better it gets really good. In the eighth, ninth, and the first half of the tenth, especially, it's really boring. In the eleventh, however... lets just say words can't describe it... except Robert Jordan's words... I really recommend this book.

Green Dragon 13:07, 27 January 2008 (MST)

Some other series I would recommend are the Belgariad and Malorian series by David Eddings. Although I have not read them for a number of years, I remember them as captivating and, overall, just fun.

84.108.164.233 06:08, 21 February 2008 (MST)

how can you ppl mention drizzt and not dragonlance?! regardless, i would recommend the elric saga by moorcock. excellent dark fantasy. in fact a few more by moorcock which shall remain unnamed. goodkind's sword of truth series is very good. for those with the patience for it, the chronicles of thomas covenant by donaldson.

Aarnott 07:27, 21 February 2008 (MST)

Silver Dragon: I would recommend the Wheel of Time except for one crucial problem. Robert Jordan died recently before he finished the last book! Someone might be finishing it for him, but it just won't be the same...

I think that the Dune series makes for great inspiration and in fact makes an excellent setting to run a campaign in.

Silver Dragon 21:46, 21 February 2008 (MST)

I know that he has died, (it is so sad), and someone is covering for him, but even if one does not read the last book, which should come out in 2009, it is still a great series.

Dsurion 19:42, 26 September 2009 (MDT)

I noticed a lot of what people think should be read is all typical High Fantasy, but that's not exactly a good idea. I would also HIGHLY dispute books where the main character (I hesitate to say protagonist, because sometimes you do have an anti-hero) doesn't die over a long span of books, like Drizzt. He even comes back to life after death! That sets up a bad precedent. People need to read Low Fantasy in addition to a lot of the above books. Joe Abercrombie and his First Law Trilogy comes to mind. Many of the Magic: The Gathering series novels are pretty awe-inspiring as well, especially The Brothers' War, and anything pertaining to the character Urza.

Chainer 12:25, 3 October 2009 (MDT)

Nothing should be "required" reading. Fantasy, horror, biographies, science fiction, non-fiction; everyone should read some of every genre and not judge a particular books or authors until after you've read their work. A well-rounded, experienced reader would be more knowledgeable and imaginative than someone who just reads this or that. Dsurion..... I thought I read every RA Salvatore book involving Drizzt and for the life of me, I can't remember if and when the character "came back to life after death."

  Hooper   talk    contribs    email   13:19, 3 October 2009 (MDT)

Romance Novels.

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