There came a point, when I was soaking
myself in the delightful text that is the Dungeon Crawl Classics role-playing
game, that I decided to go back and read the Appendix N fiction. I mean,
I had read quite a few authors and novels on the list, but there were also many
that I did not know, and works of fiction that had passed me by. If you don’t understand what I mean by
soaking myself in the DCC core rulebook, you either have not read it, or your
appreciation for the genre is very different from mine. Because you are reading this blog, I am going
to assume that you know what I mean.
Eventually, there came a point where I was
not just reading the list; I was studying it.
Whenever I worked on a new DCC project, it became integral to my
thinking that no fewer than three homages to Appendix N sources should be intentionally
included. I have tried to do this as
consistently as I can…although I admit that I allow for a greater breadth in
Appendix N sources than some others might.
For instance, I do not stop at the Mars and Venus books of Edgar Rice Burroughs…nor do I even stop
at Tarzan, The Moon Maid, and other
adventure fiction. Works like The
Oakdale Affair and The Efficiency Expert are fair game
in my books.
Within the 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon
Master’s Guide, Gary Gygax
mentions setting adventures on Jack
Vance’s Tschai and Burroughs’ Barsoom. Conversion notes are given for Boot Hill, indicating that perhaps the
westerns of E.R. Burroughs and the weird westerns of Robert E. Howard might also have fit into Gygax’s vision of
Appendix N. What is very clear, though,
is that a lot of stories in Appendix N fiction take place on other worlds.
And why not? Who would not wish to adventure on the Mars
of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Michael
Moorcock, or C.L. Moore? Who would not want to quest across the solar
system as envisioned by Leigh Brackett,
or travelled to far worlds like Skaith
and Tschai? Who would not want to be equal to – or even surpass!
– Eric John Stark, John Carter, or Northwest Smith? The canopy
is vast, and the characters loom enormously over the landscape of their worlds
and of our dreams.
The pulp magazines were full of stories like these. John Carter could not adventure across Barsoom alone - he must also investigate one of its moons, and then travel as far as Jupiter. Seeking out strange new worlds is a driving passion of many of the Appendix N authors. These sort of stories even outnumber "lost world" stories, like those of the Pellucidar series, various survivals in Robert E. Howard stories, and the Caspak series that begins with The Land That Time Forgot. Alien princesses and Low Canal Dwellers outnumber even the dinosaurs.
Likewise, Manly Wade Welman was not content to merely write about Hok the Mighty - he also wrote of aliens coming to take over that primitive world.
One of the first adventures I converted to
the Dungeon Crawl Classics system was from Gamma World, as part of a funnel
adventure. I am actually playing this
same conversion online, at Unseen
Servant. Fun, as far as it goes, but
it does not go nearly as far as it should.
It has been suggested that the structure of
the planes in AD&D was lifted from the works of Michael Moorcock. Reading through Appendix N, I do not believe
that this is completely accurate.
Moorcock’s work was influential, yes, but he was neither the first nor
the best at using multiple planes of existence.
I tend to think that works like The Carnelian Cube and The Fallible
Fiend, the Silver John
stories of Manly Wade Wellman, and
the writing of Philip Jose Farmer, Andre Norton, and Lord Dunsany, at the very least, were equally or more
important.
In the DCC core rulebook, Joseph Goodman suggests using other
worlds as destinations for adventures, exactly in the same way as various
heavens, hells, and elemental planes are used in many fantasy role-playing
games. I find this good advice, and I
think that Dungeon Crawl Classics is admirably suited for such play. Sure, you need stats for laser guns,
blasters, or similar weapons – possibly specific critical and fumble charts as
well – and unique classes for the alien races you might meet. But those things are actually little more
than local colour…the same sort of local colour, perhaps, that any fantasy
world should be given. The system
remains intact.
I am beginning to think that, running
parallel to my regular DCC campaign, I should devise a setting that intersects,
which is pure science fantasy of the type epitomized by certain Appendix N
authors. Not just a single world, such as
Barsoom, Venus, or Ganymede, but an interconnected system of worlds. Something that would make C.L. Moore or Leigh
Brackett feel right at home.
What do you think? Is this an idea anyone else would be
interested in hearing more about?
It has already conjured a myriad of shattered, inter-related but not connected, images im my mind. It might be amazing.
ReplyDeleteBeyond a doubt this is something that I will work on, but based on the response, the only people who will be interested are you and I. lol
DeleteThen I should chime in, too, making a nice triumvirate of interested people.
Delete