#reading-list

[mask131]

Reading-list for an “old-school D&D” fantasy

Aka, here is the list of the fantasy books that MASSIVELY influenced the original D&D and its first editions. Or, if you want to put it another way, the books that were the ingredients to create D&D/that were copied by D&D.

# J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” (+ “The Hobbit”). The source of modern fantasy, and THE main influence and source of old-school D&D. In fact, the creation of D&D was basically the creation of “The Lord of the Rings: The Role-Playing Game”. Very famously (or unfamously), in its original edition, D&D included a LOT of elements taken from the work of Tolkien, that then had to be re-shaped due to being under the copyright of Tolkien’s work. In the first edition D&D you’ll find “hobbits”, “mithril” and “balrogs” for example - that D&D had to change to “halflings”, “mithral” and “balors” to legal reasons. The only Tolkien-specific creatures D&D could keep were the orcs. Overall a LOT of D&D comes from Tolkien: the original depictions of elves and dwarfs, the ents (sorry, treants), the wights, the symbols of the “eye of fire” and “white hand” for the gods the orcs worship... And of course, the “Ranger” class was originally just the character of Aragorn as a class.

# Poul Anderson’s “Three Hearts and Three Lions”. This book was one of the two sources for the alighnment system of D&D of “Order versus Chaos” in a fantasy world. The D&D trolls were also heavily influenced by the depiction of trolls in this novel, PLUS the “Paladin” class was influenced by the character of Holger Carlsen.

# Michael Moorcock’s “The Elric Saga”.The other main source of the “Order vs Chaos”, “Lawful vs Chaotic” alignment of D&D - but also the main inspiration behind the Drow and the D&D-shaped image of “Dark Elves” in general (in the novels, they are the Melnibonéan Empire). D&D also contains several other references to the Saga - for example “Blackrazor” is inspired by Elric’s iconic sword, “Stormbringer”.

# Robert E. Howard’s “Conan the Barbarian”. The source of heroic fantasy the same way Tolkien’s LotR was the source of epic/high fantasy - the Barbarian class of D&D (and the image of a Barbarian in fantasy in general) all comes from Conan. 

# Fritz Leiber’s “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser”. The origin of the “Sword and Sorcery” genre (at least, as called as such), originally intended as a parody of the Conan-style heroic fantasy genre, but then promptly becoming itself a serious and admired genre-creating classic, Leiber’s works were another major inspiration for D&D (the “Thief” class was heavily inspired by the character of the Gray Mouser), and there is a good number of supplements and books in D&D entirely centered around this book series - introducing the characters of the books, the gods of Newhon, or the city of Lankhmar, into the D&D world. 

# Jack Vance’s “The Dying Earth” series. The magic system of D&D was heavily influenced by how Vance re-imagined magic and spells in this unique sci-fi feeling fantasy: some spells and items are directly taken from the books (the prismatic spray, the ioun stones) and the entire concept of needing to “re-learn” or “re-charge” a spell once it is cast is the Dying Earth magic system (called by some “Vancian Magic”). 

# H.P. Lovecraft’s work (especially anything tied to the “Cthulhu Mythos”). Lovecraft’s brand of eldritch horror and alien fantasy has also been a big influence over the creatures and deities of early D&D - to the point that the various gods of the Cthulhu Mythos were included as one of the pantheons that could be used in the early editions of D&D (alongside other pantheons such as the gods of Newhon from Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, or the gods of the Conan world). 

# Gary Gygax, one of the creators of D&D, also listed other authors as direct influence for his game, but given I am less familiar with them I will just list them here: Fletcher Pratt (I think it might be his “Harold Shea” series, quite famous in the fantasy genre), L. Sprague de Camp, Edgar Rice Burroughs (the creator of some of the most famous American fictional characters, such as John Carter of Mars, or Tarzan) and A. Merritt. 

(Finally, not a literary work, but a series of movies that also influenced early D&D: the “Sinbad” movies of the mid-20th century. If you look through the creatures, monsters and illustrations of early editions D&D you’ll find several references to movies such as “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad“ or “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad”)

[murderbeast]

do you think a cornered mouse would dream of cheese

[victusinveritas]

[thorinds]

1000 Books You May Have Actually Read

[reclaiming-god]

thinking about this today

[specialagentartemis]

Also picking up new books you’ve never heard of before because the premise sounds neat or the cover is pretty or it’s on a themed library display or you’re just trying to read your library’s entire catalogue of 90s cyberpunk is just fun. Sometimes it’s not your thing but you get to mull over new ideas or the diversity of people and opinions and thoughts in the world. Sometimes you discover your new favorite book of all time

[rainphee-art]

dancing with a woman whose name you've never known

[some-pers0n]

Reading "DNI ableists" on a gif banner with flashing lights and red text in a nearly illegible font on a green/black sparkly checkered background and no ID whatsoever

[euphoric-dramione]

"Oh, you haven't read the classics..." I'VE READ THE CLASSICS

✨Dramione edition✨

Manacled by senlinyu

Rights and Wrongs by LovesBitca8

Isolation by bexchan

The Fallout by everythursday

Breath Mints / Battle Scars by Onyx_and_Elm

Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love by isthisselfcare

Wait and Hope by mightbewriting

Meet Your Match by morriganmercy

Measure of a Man by inadaze22

Love In A Time Of The Zombie Apocalypse by rizzlewrites

Secrets and Masks by EmeraldSlytherin

Remain Nameless by HeyJude19

Bring Him To His Knees by musyc

The Eagle's Nest by HeartOfAspen

Dragon's Heartstrings by pinkinku

[technically-human]

I like to think that after the Eclipse Cannon, Robotnik would try to show his love and appreciation more openly!

I also like to think that he would do it terribly and it would backfire constantly.

[melioristicbeast]

"Knock knock! You boys up-" "NO! You can't come in, he's not DECENT!"

Stiles stilinski makes goo eyes at and jealously hoards soft derek hale send tweet

Part two of the brainworm @nerdherderette's request gave me (: Derek in stiles' clothing - the pajama bottoms are my own though (10+ years old target purchase, sadly not available anymore or i would've purchased a backup pair)

In my heart of hearts soft derek in comfy clothes makes stiles go HEART EYES MOTHERFUCKER in a markedly different way from nudity (◡‿◡✿)

[minbon]

🔥MYG fics 🔥

So, here are the myg fics I've read so far in my one year in tumblr (these were not all, unfortunately, I can only trace back the fics from the blogs I follow, the random ones that I've encountered were not here but may be added soon if I ever encounter them again hehe)

••°••••

monachopsis by @personasintro (a,s) ♡

three tangerines by @kithtaehyung ♡(a,f,s_ brother's best friend au) [my fave yoongi fic so far ♡] ♡

minted by @kithtaehyung (a,s_gang au) [latest chapter is 🔥] ♡

Amor Vincit Omnia by @lubdubsworld (arranged marriage au, gang au)

Void by @btssavedmylifeblr (s_space au) [ot7, but the Yoongi in here is ughh] ♡

glimpse of us by @wolfvmin (angst_arranged marriage au, divorce au)

Friendcation (ao3) by @kingofbodyrolls ♡ (f,s_f2fwb2l, camping au) ♡ [this is so cutesy and so romantic]

A Single Daffodil by @evangelical04 (a,f,s_arranged marriage) ♡

Steam Series by @hoseoksluna ♡ (s_bf!yoongi ft. jk)

The Ball of Light by @hoseoksluna (a,f,eventual smut_brother!yoongi ft jk/other members) ♡

Girl Crush by @back2bluesidex ♡ (angst) [my fave angsty angst fic] ♡

Slide by @back2bluesidex (a,s,f_fwb2l) ♡

Sinful Lust by @oddinary4bts (a,s_bf!yoongi ft. jk)

anything by @jiminrings (a,f)

fail-safe by @jiminrings (a,f_brother's bestfriend, single dad au)

yoongi's lullaby by @jiminrings (a,f_bestfriend, soulmate au) ♡

Bittersweet by @chimcess (a,s,f_college au) [in Yoongi's POV throughout the fic] ♡

back-burner by @yoonpobs (a,s,f_slowburn, sister's bestfriend au) [i loooooove the slowburn in here] ♡

Tongue Like Candy by @jjungkookislife (a,s_brother's bestfriend au)

Hobi's Girl by @jjungkookislife (a,s)

love grows where you go by @hueseok (a,s,f_arranged marriage)

Illicit Favors by @yoongiofmine (a,f,s_f2l)

°°•°°°°

I love each and every fic on the list above, but I've marked my fave ones with some purple hearts ♡♡♡ ;)

Also... Here's an approving Yoongi for all of us mehehe.

[huh-enheim]

To "Chilchuck, party dad" and "Chilchuck, professional hater" and even "Chilchuck, union man" let me add: Chilchuck, HR manager.

Does he like the position of HR manager? Is he even any good at it? Haha well those are different questions entirely.

But the only other members with Normal ideas about dungeoneering as a job have quit, and the remaining bunch of autists with their wildly eccentric and badly communicated personal goals/boundaries are RAPIDLY "we're like a family here~"ing themselves towards catastrophic misunderstandings, workplace incidents, and/or federal crimes. So for all that he's private or abrasive...

...he spends a lot of energy trying to protect everyone's boundaries and keep the peace. Not just in a ~found family~ loving way, but in a more fundamental way, understanding that work takes trust, and trust takes work.

[badolmen]

They don’t even attempt to assassinate US politicians anymore. You notice that? Not since the anthrax scare back for… who was it, Barack? And even that… pathetic. This new generation has no respect for an honest hitman. I’m not sure this new generation has any honest hitman - you see that shit with Boeing? Sloppy, fucking disgraceful - you kill the whistleblowers before they get halfway to a lawsuit. What kind of fucking amateur is doing faked suicides the night before testimony? Goddamn greenhorns. Back in my day someone tried to shoot Ronald Reagan in broad daylight. There used to be bomb threats to Congress. I took out a few union leaders in the utilities sector myself. Today’s generation? Won’t even threaten to throw a punch - not even over on that - what’s it now, ‘X’? They got no guts. None! And they don’t even have poor impulse control to boot! Too much of that - that panopticon anxiety bullshit. “Oh what if I get a called out post???” People used to send the president letters full of bioweapons. In the mail! Today’s generation? Not a chance. All because of woke.

[punkaches]

And when you kiss me I am happy enough to die.