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This month, in honor of Gary Con, the Sanctum Secorum is proud to release a two part special.
In this first installment the Keepers of Mysteries sit down with Ernie Gygax to discuss Appendix N, Gord the Rogue, the early days of gaming and more. Learn of works that weren’t deemed good enough for inclusion in Appendix N, hear tales of Greyhawk and Gord, learn how Jim Ward hoodwinked Ernie! All this and more…
The second installment of the Gary Con special will air on March 24th (during Gary Con) and will be accompanied by the next issue of the Sanctum Secorum companion zine, dedicated to Ernie Gygax’s Appendix N choice, Hiero’s Journey as well as news from the Bearmageddon, and much more!
The Stacks
Appendix N
Gord the Rogue by Gary Gygax
Crowdfunding
DCC RPG Portuguese Language Edition (through Dec 4th)
Road Crew Appearances
* M Nicksic is running DCC funnels from 2-6pm Every Saturday at Tacoma Games in Tacoma. WA
* Congrats to Daniel Atson for his upcoming very first road crew game (March 10th) at Gathering Games in Tampa, FL.
* Troy Tucker is continuing to run DCC RPG sessions at the Magician’s Forge in North Port, FL.
Thanks to
The ambient background of the Sanctum Secorum was created using Horror Ambiance from Klankbeeld.
Sanctum Secorum’s theme music was created using Seating Incantation by Landmark Entertainment.
Gary Con poster art used with permission of Luke Gygax and Gary Con.
Thanks for sharing this, I would never have known about it otherwise. I’ve been on my own personal appendixn quest for several years now (on and off) — I still haven’t read everything on the list, but certainly a lot of it. A lot of food for thought here. I realize the Tolkien debate is a very polarizing and sensitive issue (which is a pity) and I have to give Ernie major cred here for not making a big thing of it (I am firmly in the “Tolkien’s influence is vast and all-encompassing” camp myself, but that’s another story). For those who haven’t listened to this, I think it’s all worth listening to (and I don’t even listen to podcasts). Particularly interesting was the discussion of what Neutrality (as an alignment) meant in practice in the early days of D&D. I’m glad my old favourite Clark Ashton Smith was discussed. I of course firmly believe Ernie when he says that CAS wasn’t present on EGG’s shelves, but it’s so mysterious, when I read CAS it is very often PURE 1st ed AD&D (just an example, the tale of Satampra Zeiros — it reads like a one-night AD&D game for two thieves) — on the other hand I am mystified by so much of appendixn — like, What on Oerth could this book/author have contributed to AD&D (other than that Gary enjoyed it)?! (Merritt could be mentioned here — I accept that he was clearly an influence, but reading Merritt I just don’t really pick it up, other than in a vaguely general way.) Ah well, I just started writing an essay. I’ll stop here, but I will just confirm what is briefly touched on, Tom Brown’s school days — I have been collecting quotes from EGG about his reading habits, and they include this:
“My inspiration came originally from about 15 years of reading fairy tales, children´s books, fables, Westerns, mythology, mysteries, folklore, detective stories including Arthur Conan Doyle´s Sherlock Holmes and Sax Rohmer´s Denis Nyland Smith, adventure tales, history, military history, SF and fantasy, Edgar Allan Poe–just about anything that seemed even vaguely interesting or informative. I have read literally thousands of books, and I still read a book or so a week, even when doing a lot of writing. These days I read mainly history and imaginative literature, but I have perused Marvin Minsky´s THE SOCIETY OF MIND and Julian Jaynes´ THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE BREAKDOWN OF THE BICAMERAL MIND not many years back. For light reading I am currently [2002] reading more tales of Irish ghosts and Thomas Hughes´ TOM BROWN´S SCHOOL DAYS.”
Awesome. Illuminating and fun. Along with many others I’m on a quest to read all Appendix N books along with fun derivative works. Of course adding all of Gary’s books.
[…] Later, when Jen, David Baity, and I began the Sanctum Secorum podcast (at the suggestion of Jim Wampler), Ernie appeared as a guest to talk about Appendix N and the old days of gaming. (http://sanctum.media/blog/index.php/2017/03/03/sanctum-secorum-22-gary-con-special-part-1-appendix-n…😉 […]