Appendix N, revised and expanded edition

An anthology of fantastical tales that inspired the creation of the world's greatest roleplaying game.

Edited by Peter Bebergal, this lovingly-assembled revised and expanded edition of Appendix N adds a new foreword by Arthur C. Clarke award-winning novelist Adrian Tchaikovsky, tales by A. Merritt and Andre Norton, a dark fantasy comic by Gardner Fox & John Giunta, and illustrations by revered master of the weird, Virgil Finlay, and Escape The Dark Castle's Alex Crispin.   

Drawing upon the original list of “inspirational reading” provided by Gary Gygax in the first Dungeon Master's Guide, published in 1979, as well as hobbyist magazines and related periodicals that helped to define the modern role-playing game, Appendix N offers a collection of short fiction and resonant fragments that reveal the literary influences that shaped Dungeons & Dragons, the world's most popular RPG. The stories in Appendix N contextualize the ambitious lyrical excursions that helped set the adventurous tone and dank, dungeon-crawling atmospheres of fantasy roleplay as we know it today.

This new edition, published on the occasion of D&D’s 50th anniversary, includes fascinating new stories, a comprehensive introduction, and a new foreword.

Includes work by Poul Anderson, Frank Brunner, Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter, Lord Dunsany, Gardner Fox & John Giunta, Robert E. Howard, Tanith Lee, Fritz Leiber, H. P. Lovecraft, David Madison, A. Merritt, Michael Moorcock, C. L. Moore, Andre Norton, Fred Saberhagen, Clark Ashton Smith, Margaret St. Clair, Jack Vance, Manly Wade WellmanNew Foreword TBC
Introduction by Peter Bebergal
Key To Upper Level

• How Sargoth Lay Siege To Zaremm by Lin Carter
• Tale Of Hauk by Poul Anderson
• Jewels In The Forest by Fritz Leiber
• Empire Of The Necromancers by Clark Ashton Smith
• Turjan Of Miir by Jack Vance
• A Hero At The Gates by Tanith Lee
• Tower Of The Elephant by Robert E. Howard

Secret Chamber

• Song Of Swords by Fred Saberhagen

Key To Lower Chamber

• The Dreaming City by Michael Moorcock (note: we have it as “Dreaming City” in the book)
• The Doom That Came To Sarnath by H.P. Lovecraft
• Tower Of Darkness by David Madison
• Straggler From Atlantis by Manly Wade Wellman
• The Man Who Sold Rope To The Gnoles by Margaret St. Clair
• Pit of Wings by Ramsey Campbell
• Black God’s Kiss by C. L. Moore
• The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save For Sacnoth by Lord Dunsany

Key To Secret Passage

• Sword Of Dragonus by Frank Brunner
• Afterword by Ann VanderMeer
• Notes On The Stories
• Appendix N: Inspirational and Educational Reading
• Acknowledgements

"A treasure chest of high adventure, deep delving, and oft-surprising pathos, Peter Bebergal’s Appendix N shifted my expectation for what Fantasy was, is, and can be, in both games and literature. A landmark; or perhaps a cryptic map, for future dungeoncrawlers."
—Stu Horvath, author of Monsters, Aliens and Holes In The Ground: A Guide to Tabletop Roleplaying Games from D&D to Mothership

"A wondrous journey through the weird fiction and early adventure stories that inspired the creation of Dungeons & Dragons. Following the map scrawled by the original Dungeon Master, Bebergal has assembled a trove of revered classics and obscure gems to delight novice adventurers and seasoned dungeon delvers alike."
—Gavin Norman, creator of Old-School Essentials

"An exquisite gateway into the netherworlds of Weird Fiction."
—David Blandy, creator of Eco-Mofos!!!Peter Bebergal is a writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His writing on speculative and fringe cultures have been published by the Believer, the Times Literary Supplement, the New Yorker, Boing Boing, and the Paris Review. He is the author Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural, Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll, and Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood.

Ann VanderMeer currently serves as an acquiring fiction editor for Tor.com, Cheeky Frawg Books, and weirdfictionreview.com. She was the editor-in-chief for Weird Tales for five years, during which time she was nominated three times for the Hugo Award, winning one. Along with multiple nominations for the Shirley Jackson Award, she also has won a World Fantasy Award and a British Fantasy Award for co-editing The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories. Her latest anthologies include The Time Traveler’s Almanac, Sisters of the Revolution, and Beyond the Bandersnatch: A Modern Bestiary of Untrue Tales, a forthcoming anthology of original fiction and art.