D&D General What is your personal Appendix N?

[Baron Opal II]

... the Great Courses series by Edwin Barnhart. A whole bunch of civilizations are really cool and interesting, and ready for gaming.

What's this? The Great Courses made a series on worldbuilding?

 

[Autumnal]

What's this? The Great Courses made a series on worldbuilding?

For my purposes, yes.

• Lost Worlds of South America
• Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed
• Ancient Civilizations of North America

Made in that order, and some minor benefit to consuming them in that order, though each substantially stands alone.

Barnhart also hosts the ArcheoEd podcast, which I watch on YouTube for the visuals.

These are just gold mines of useful info: lots about how people lived - what their homes were like, their clothes, their meals; who had power, how they got it, how they used it; what travel was like; on and on. It made picking up New Fires very easy and enjoyable.

 

[Voadam]

Foundational for me for D&D when I started at age 8:

The Hobbit.

Daulaire's Norse and Greek Mythology.

Disney's Robin Hood.

Professor Wormbog and the Search for the Zimperumpus Zoos.

Droofus the Dragon.

Super Friends.

Star Wars.

A library book I can't remember now on medieval and ancient weapons.

Animal books.

 

[Voadam]

Foundational for me now:

Army of Darkness.

Indiana Jones.

Conan (REH stories, Marvel comics, and the original movie).

Doctor Who.

Samurai Jack.

 

[Shardstone]

I think of all of Sanderson's books that I've read, I've liked Warbreaker the best. It's wild to me that he just has it up for free!

Warbreaker is also my favorite!

 

[Maenalis]

My take on the question:
If somebody asked me to recommend 10 "something" to them, so that they can prepare for their first D&D game, what would I recommend. If I have an entry already on one list, I don't recommend it on another list.

Well known Authors:

1. William Shakespeare
2. J.R.R. Tolkien
3. J.K. Rowling
4. C.S. Lewis
5. Jules Verne
6. Karl May
7. Dante Alighieri: Divina Comedia
8. Robert Graves: I, Claudius
9. Homer: Iliad, the Odyssey
10. Virgil: Aeneid

Historical Fiction Books:

1. Alexandre Dumas
2. Walter Scott
3. Bernard Cornwell
4. Edward Rutherford
5. Maurice Druon
6. Ken Follett
7. Patrick O'Brian
8. Robert Merle
9. Simon Scarrow
10. Henryk Sienkiewicz - With Fire and Sword

RPG Book Series:

1. Dragonlance series (Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman)
2. Forgotten Realms series (for example: R.A. Salvatore)
3. Eberron Books (Keith Baker)
4. Pathfinder (Golarion) series
5. World of Darkness series
6. Legend of the Five Rings series
7. Fighting Fantasy series
8. Warhammer Fantasy series
9. Lone Wolf gamebook series
10. Sorcery! Series

Fantasy Book Authors:

1. Raymond E. Feist
2. Glen Cook
3. George R.R. Martin
4. Brandon Sanderson
5. Terry Pratchett
6. Joe Abercrombie
7. Ursula K. Le Guin
8. Jim Butcher
9. Steven Erikson
10. Patrick Rothfuss

Movies:

1. Princes Bride
2. A Knights Tale
3. Stardust
4. Seventh Son
5. Robin Hood, prince of thieves
6. Indiana Jones series
7. Knights of the Roundtable / Excalibur
8. Braveheart
9. Pirates of the Caribbean
10. 300

Animations:

1. Shrek
2. Treasure Planet
3. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
4. Black Cauldron
5. Aladdin
6. Frozen
7. Kung Fu Panda
8. The Adventures of Tintin
9. Hercules
10. The Sword in the Stone

TV Shows:

1. Vox Machina
2. Avatar the Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra
3. Samurai Jack
4. Stranger Things
5. Blue Eye Samurai
6. Xena & Hercules
7. The Pirates of Dark Water
8. Gargoyles
9. Merlin, Camelot, Mists of Avalon
10. Spartacus

Video Games:

1. Baldurs Gate series
2. Icewind Dale series
3. Neverwinter Nights series
4. Divinity Original Sin series
5. Pillars of Eternity series
6. Dragon Age series
7. Planescape Torment & Torment Tides of Numenera
8. The Elder Scrolls series
9. Pathfinder Kingmaker & Wrath of the Righteous
10. The Witcher series

 

[GrimCo]

Some fantastic reads there. I'd like to add a couple:

Black Company - Glen Gook. Loves me the books and they have seriously impacted how I run games.

The Malazan Empire books - Steven Erikson - another series that has absolutely featured in virtually every single campaign I've run in some form or other since I read them.

Moorcock - specifically Krieghund and the World's Pain series. My absolute fav.

Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders series has also really fed into my absolute love for trying to do nautical campaigns (and my crestfallen disappointment when they never actually pan out. :'( )

I'll take this list and just add couple more. Droped China since it's not my cup of tea.

Manga/anime: Berserk, hands down one of, if not the best, grimdark fantasy out there. It makes Song of Ice and Fire PG13 by comparison. Records from Lodoss War for more light hearted fantasy.

Warhammer fantasy- i like Gotrek&Felix, Vampire wars, Mathias Thulman, Brunner the bounty hunter.

Real world history is big one.