Another Appendix N Score

Every year, our local Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio station sponsors a charity booksale, in support of childrens' literacy projects. This is the second year of my attendance. Again, I came away with a nice collection of Appendix N science fiction and fantasy paperbacks. Here is a list of those paperbacks, for which I paid a buck a book:



• Anderson (Flandry of Terra, Flandry-Agent of the Terran Empire, Flandry-A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, The Man-Kzin Wars, Three Hearts and Three Lions)



• Anthony (A Spell For Chameleon)



• Aspirin (Shadows of Sanctuary, Face of Chaos)



• Burroughs (Tarzan of the Apes, Return of Tarzan, Beasts of Tarzan, Warlord of Mars, Gods of Mars, Thuvia Maid of Mars)



• Carter (Flashing Swords #5)



• deCamp (Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Adventurer, Conan the Buccaneer, Conan the Warrior, Conan the Usurper, Conan the Avenger, Conan of Aquilonia, Conan of the Isles, Conan and the Spider God)



• Doyle (The Lost World)



• Eco (The Name of the Rose)



• Eddison (A Fish Dinner in Memison, Mistress of Mistresses)



• Foster (Splinter of the Mind's Eye, The Time of the Transference)



• Glut (Empire Strikes Back)



• Haggard (The World's Desire, Heart of the World, People of the Mist)



• Howard (People of the Black Circle, Hour of the Dragon, Marchers of Valhalla, Swords of Shahrazar, Skull-Face, Red Nails, Black Canaan)



• Jackson (Fighting Fantasy)



• Harrison (The Stainless Steel Rat)



• Lee (The Book of the Damned, The Book of the Beast)



• McCaffrey (Dinosaur Planet)



• Moorcock (Legends from the end of Time)



• Moore (Jirel of Joiry)



• Norman (Slave Girl of Gor, Tarnsman of Gor, Time Slave)



• Norton (Quag Keep, Lord of Thunder)



• Nowlan (Armageddon 2419 AD)



• Offutt (Sword of the Gael, Demon in the Mirror)



• Perry (A Warlock's Blade)



• Saberhagen (Empire of the East)



• Smith, E.E. (Triplanetary)



• Stasheff (The Warlock Wandering, The Warlock is Missing, Warlock and Son, The Majesty's Wizard)



• Van Vogt (Quest for the Future)



• Vance (City of the Chasch, The Dirdir, Big Planet, Galactic Effectuator, The Blue World, the Anome)



• Zelazny (Hand of Oberon, Dilvish The Damned)



Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/andrew%20offutt
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Appendix N: Web Of The Spider

"Girl," Ishcon interrupted, "do you know who rules this world?"

After a moment's hesitation, Tiana replied, "No one rules the world. A bunch of kings and such-like hollow-headed men pretend to."

At that moment, a dark shadow glided across the floor. Only a trick of the shifting light of these damned greasy torches, Tiana thought: yet Ishcon glanced about and she saw the desperate fury of a trapped animal flicker in his eyes.

"You do not understand and are wrong, he said in a sibiliant whisper. "You are better off not knowing: never mind. I dare not explain."

Such is the plot set-up for Web Of The Spider, the third and final book in the War Of The Wizards trilogy. Like the other books in the trilogy, Web Of The Spider is co-authored by Andrew Offutt, one of a select group of writers mentioned in Appendix N of the 1979 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide.

Web Of The Spider was published in 1981, several years after the DMG was released. Co-authored by Andrew Offutt and Richard Lyon, the story clocks in at a respectable 268 pages, 60-plus pages longer than either of the first two books in the trilogy. The cover, by Rowena, shows a costumed Tiana, battling a fire-demon as she embarks on her quest to acquire the Skull Of He Who Sleeps. This book again features Tiana Highrider, Pirate Queen; Pyre of Ice and Ekron, two opposing sorcerers; and adds a new character, the nameless Gray Knight, whose face, memories and identity have been wiped clean by Pyre.

The Gray Knight is sent forth as Pyre's surrogate, in an effort to divine and prevent the latest plot of Ekron, whose earlier attempt, in The Eyes Of Sarsis, to awaken the Serpent of the World, had been foiled by Tiana and Pyre. Along the way, Pyre appears to the Gray Knight in mirrors, pools and other reflective surfaces, egging the Gray Knight on but never fully revealing what it is that the Gray Knight is expected to do.

Tiana, meanwhile, is on her own quest to discover who rules the world. Her companion: a skull, its jaws wired shut with silver, within which resides an impossibly-large ruby, nearly the size of the skull itself. Each time she removes the skull from its protective case, dread peril overtakes and nearly defeats her and her entourage.

And while the two sorcerers scheme against and battle each other, the real danger, the demonic ruler of the world, plots his final, horrifying, life-snuffing victory.

Like the other two books in the War Of The Wizards trilogy, this book is an entertaining, if imperfectly or perhaps ironically-rendered homage to the swords and sorcery genre. As fodder for role-playing game elements, this book is a gold-mine. Take, for example, the skull which Tiana finds. A better template for an artifact you will be hard-pressed to find. The island of the ruler of the world is truly a hellish place, and would be great fun to recreate as an adventure site. Temples to the Toad-god. Spider familiars that spin invisible nooses to strangle its master's betrayers. A ship crewed by the undead, which is the only safe passage to reach the ruler of the world. Desperate sea-battles against a fire-breathing dragon.

And then there is the mystery of the Gray Knight. He appears in the earlier books: how soon will you deduce his true identity?

Web Of The Spider is a fun read. While it's not for this book that Offutt is referenced in Appendix N -- that honour is bestowed upon him for his capable editorship of a fiction anthology, Swords Against Darkness III, for which he does not contribute a single story -- Offutt has a good grasp of swords and sorcery tropes, which he ably employs in his War Of The Wizards trilogy.Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/andrew%20offutt
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Appendix N: The Eyes Of Sarsis

Last week, as part of my exploration of Appendix N of the Dungeon Masters Guide, I reviewed Demon In The Mirror by Andrew Offutt and Richard Lyon, the first of three books in the War Of The Wizards trilogy. Demon In The Mirror was written in 1978, one year prior to the publication of the Dungeon Masters Guide, and introduced several Wizards, several of whom fit the stereotypical sorcerer archetype from swords and sorcery pulp fiction. Those Wizards are introduced below:

Derramel: The antagonist of the first book, Demon In The Mirror. The sorcerer Derramel killed and imprisoned the family of our heroine, Tiana Highrider. Her quest to recover Derramel's severed body parts and reassemble them, in order to finally kill him and rescue her brother, is chronicled in Demon In The Mirror.

Ekron: We see very little of Ekron the sorcerer in Demon In The Mirror, although he is the catalyst for the first tale, setting off a chain of events that leads to Tiana's quest.

Sulan Tha: The White Wizard. Tiana was directed to kill Sulan Tha to obtain the head of Darramel. Instead, Sulan Tha offered the head freely to Tiana. Sulan Tha makes everyone uncomfortable, as he can see into their souls, and all the bad things they have done in their lives.

Pyre: Through much the first book, Demon In The Mirror, the sorcerer Pyre dogs Tiana and interferes with her attempts to retrieve the severed body parts of Derramel. He is ultimately unsuccessful in preventing her quest.

The second book in the War Of The Wizards trilogy is entitled The Eyes Of Sarsis. Again, it is co-authored by Andrew Offutt and Richard Lyon, and is published in 1980. It is about 205 pages, so about the same length as Demon In The Mirror, and is a brisk read.

As the story opens, we find our heroine, Tiana Highrider regaling a tavern full of pirates with a tale of high adventure regarding her victory over the dark wizard Derramel. As she reaches the climax of the story, she is simultaeneously interrupted by an attempt on her life (directed by a white cat wearing an ensorcelled gem), the introduction to a clue to the mystery of The Eyes Of Sarsis, and an attempted arrest by the town guard on a trumped up charge. It is really not her day.

The reason for the trumped up charge: her King wishes her to quest on his behalf, to rescue his daughter, who was been taken prisoner by Ekron. A classic Dungeons and Dragons adventure hook – how many times have we used the trumped up charge as an excuse to force the party to take up an adventure?

The title of the book refers to Sarsis, serpent of the world, which Ekron is trying to awake. For what purpose, we do not know. Tiana's ally in preventing the awakening of Sarsis: none other than Pyre, her nemesis from Demon In The Mirror!

This book series is called the War of the Wizards trilogy for good reason. There is a battle waging between Ekron and Pyre, and Tiana becomes a pawn in their struggle. The second book suffers for it: like a bad Dungeons and Dragons adventure, Tiana and the reader feel themselves railroaded in this second chapter of the War of the Wizards trilogy. The first and third books are much better in this regard. The principle cause of the railroading is due to the Eyes Of Sarsis conceit itself. The possessor of the Eyes of Sarsis is able to create convincing illusions, so much so that Tiana is constantly being misdirected and manipulated. You feel like the reader of a tale, at the end of which, the author declares, "and then I woke up."

If you intending to read this series by Offutt, there is little opportunity to avoid this weak middle chapter. Despite its failings, however, there is some value to reading this book, from an adventure-building perspective. There is a human-populated jungle-city, ruled over by the last vestiges of the serpent race that once dominated the world. There is also a secret death cult operating near the docks of another city, that Tiana defeats.

Having already read the third book in this series, The Eyes Of Sarsis is worth the read, if only to set you up for the final chapter, Web Of The Spider.Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/andrew%20offutt
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Appendix N: Demon In The Mirror

Our exploration of the 1979 Dungeon Masters Guide Appendix N begins in the middle, a fitting place for Andrew Offutt, for reasons beyond mere alphabetic order. Offutt is neither the trailblazer nor capstone of fantasy literature, falling somewhere in the comfortable, hackneyed and squishy center.

On the surface, one has to wonder why Andrew Offutt is mentioned in Appendix N at all. The only Appendix N recognition he is afforded is in relation to the Swords Against Darkness anthology series, to which Offutt acts as series-editor and occasional contributor. In fact, Gygax’s Appendix N specifically mentions the third book in that anthology series. But within the pages of book three, Offutt’s singular contribution is in writing that anthology’s forward. In itself, authorship of a forward can hardly be worth mentioning, compared to the output of the other authors referenced in Appendix N.

If Offutt is not immortalized in Appendix N for his lucid and witty forwards, then for what? In fact, Offutt’s contribution to fantasy literature is much broader than mere editorship of an anthology series. He presides over the Science Fiction Writers of America Association from 1976 to 1978, and is widely published by 1979, having already written some 17 fantasy novels under his own name, with dozens more erotic fantasies to his credit, all published under pseudonyms. Some of Offutt’s fantasy novels are pastiches based on Robert E. Howard’s creations -- Cormac mac Art and Conan. Others are all his own, such as the War Of The Gods On Earth series, and the War Of The Wizards trilogy. Our reviews begin with the first book in Offutt’s War of the Wizards trilogy, entitled Demon In The Mirror.

Authorship of Demon In The Mirror is credited to both Andrew Offutt and Richard Lyon, and is published by Pocket Books in 1978, predating, by one year, the publication of the DMG. A slim volume of 190 pages (not unusual for pulp fiction), the cover art is by Boris Vallejo, and reveals a practically-nude Tiana Highrider, protagonist of our story, astride her faithful mount Windsong, in a scene from the chapter entitled Incident In Dark Forest.

As the story opens, we find Tiana, a pirate-captain of former aristocratic stock, coming into possession of a set of sorcerous books, and a severed hand belonging to the wizard Derramal, who betrayed and killed her parents when she was just a child. She consults with another sorcerer, who reveals that, although Derramal has been dismembered and his body-parts scattered across the world, he still lives. The only way to kill him, she is told (and also rescue her long-lost brother) is to re-assemble Derramal’s body.

Demon In The Mirror is a typical questing tale, with Tiana traveling from location to location, collecting the dismembered parts of Derramal, piecing together the mystery of the Demon In The Mirror, and battling unwholesome fiends, and minions of other sorcerers that block her way. Unsurprisingly, considering Offutt’s penchant for erotic fantasy, Tiana is captured more than a few times and is bound and staked out, naked and in full presentation, as an offering to fell beasts and lustful antagonists. As is to be expected in such tales, she always slips her bonds, through skill, wit or guile, just in time to turn the tables on her adversaries.

In the end, she discovers the secret of the Demon In The Mirror. And so will you, long before the secret is revealed in the final chapter. Are the clues too obvious? Perhaps not in 1978, but the patterns of fantasy writing are now so obvious, 30 years later, that many readers of this tale will know, half-way through the book, who the Demon In The Mirror really is.

I promised, of course, to review the Appendix N books, not as literature, but as resources for developing your own fantasy adventures. As a resource, Demon In The Mirror is a gold-mine. You have nun-turned-vampire-infested chapels, magic mirrors, tricks and traps aplenty, ghoul-overrun tombs, were-beasts, deadly animated gardens, foul bat-demons, magical flying armor, shadows killed only with shadow-weapons, islands overrun with illusion-creating spiders, bands of forest bandits, treasures described in luscious detail, and epic battles won by magic and strategy.

Offutt knows well, how pulp (and erotic) fantasy is to be constructed, and he ably employs the tools of the trade in Demon In The Mirror. The writing in Demon In The Mirror is hackneyed, even for a book published in 1978. But it’s a fun read none-the-less, and will give you a wealth of new ideas for your next gaming session.Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/andrew%20offutt
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Appendix N: The Usual Suspects

Appendix N of the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide recommends some inspirational reading. The authors that appear in Appendix N are a veritable who's-who of pulp, weird, sword and sorcery and fantasy writers.

Poul Anderson. Leigh Brackett. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Lin Carter. L. Sprague de Camp. Phillip J. Farmer. Robert E. Howard. Fritz Leiber. H. P. Lovecraft. Michael Moorcock. Andre Norton. Fred Saberhagen. J. R. R. Tolkien. Jack Vance. Roger Zelazny. Andrew Offutt.

Andrew Offutt? I have to admit, while I've owned a copy of the AD&D DMG since 1979, I have never registered that name as being on the Appendix N list of recommended authors. It is almost by accident that I can to be in possession of books by Andrew Offutt. While helping myself to all of the pulp fantasy I could get my hands on, at a recent charity book sale, I started grabbing just about every book on the table that was less than 200 pages, and printed before 1980.

The name Andrew Offut was not on my Appendix N radar as I scanned the book-sale tables, but I bought his books anyway: at a dollar apiece, it seemed like a good deal. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Offutt is one of the Appendix N authors. Not only did he write Web Of The Spider, and two other books in the War of the Wizards trilogy, he also wrote three Conan novels, the War of the Gods on Earth trilogy, several stories appearing in the Thieves World series, and was the editor of the Swords Against Darkness short-story anthologies.

A surprisingly prolific fantasy author. I'm looking forward to reading his stories, having discovered that he was sufficiently influential in the development of Dungeons and Dragons to warrant an entry in Gygax's Appendix N.Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/andrew%20offutt
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Exploring Appendix N

I blame Chevski.

While my return to the roots of Dungeons and Dragons began with news of the impending release of D&D 4E, it wasn't until I read angry posts on the WOTC forums, criticising an author of a blog entitled Grognardia, that the real journey began. I was perplexed by the vitreol and derision hurled at that blog's author, since what Chevski reportedly said made perfect sense: with 4E, WOTC was abandoning the historical D&D, reforging it as a miniatures battle game of mechanical elegance and efficiency, bereft of soul, context or purpose.

I spent an entire evening poring over Chevski's accumulated blog entries. My wife found me, furrow-browed and blearly-eyed, in front of the computer screen at 5 o'clock the next morning. Some of my favorite entries were Chevski's explorations of the fantasy fiction that served as inspiration for Gary Gygax -- the fantasy fiction found in Appendix N of the original 1979 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide.

I have been wanting to explore those books myself but, until now, laying my hands on a sizable collection of the fantasy books appearing in Appendix N seemed out-of-reach. That changed over the weekend, when I scored a broad assortment of slim pulp fantasy fiction books at a local book sale.

Along with all the other plans I have for this blog, I now have another: read at least one of those fantasy fiction books, each week, and post my thoughts on its applicability to old-school gaming. My reviews will be more workmanlike than sagely: I have not written a book review since my university days, some (cough) years ago. My goal: mine those books, for interesting themes and adventures.

So just remember, i'm not to blame for that even louder droning sound you'll be hearing, emanating from this blog over the next several months.Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/andrew%20offutt
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The Beginnings Of My Pulp Fantasy Collection

Every year, one of our local radio stations, CBC 1010, co-sponsors a charity book sale, the proceeds of which go to providing children with books and mentors.

I have never attended one of those book sales, until this year. As I arrived, I saw hordes of people, leaving with boxes of books, some of them using handcarts and trolleys to cart away several boxes at a time.

The line-up to enter the booksale was about 300 people long, and there must have been over 800 in the arena where the sale was being held. By the time I moved up to the front of the line, there were another 200 people behind me. My expectations were that by the time I entered the arena, all of the good books would have been already picked over.

But when I finally entered the arena, some 45 minutes after I arrived, I squealed like a girl (like a little girl, I tells you!), to discover a veritable treasure trove of Pulp Fantasy, virtually ignored by the other attendees. I picked up over 60 books (for a $1 each), including:

Brackett, Leigh: "The Sword Of Rhiannon"
Carter, Lin: "Thongor and the Dragon City", "Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus", "Zanthodon", "Tower at the Edge of Time", and "The Black Star"
Moorcock, Michael: "The Warlord of the Air", "The Masters of the Pit", "The City of the Beast"
Vance, Jack: "The Dying Earth", "Best of Jack Vance", "The Dragon Masters"
Norton, Andre: "Witch World", "Sargasso of Space", "High Sorcery", "Warlock of Witch World", "Exiles of the Stars"
DeCamp, L Sprague: "Land of Unreason", "Warlocks and Warriors"
Smith, Clark Ashton: "Genius Loci", "Lost Worlds", "The Abominations of Yondo"
Norman, John: Captive, Tribesmen, Hunters, Marauders and Priest-Kings of Gor
Eddison, E. R.: "The Worm Ourobouros"
Holmes, John Eric: "Mahars of Pellucidar"
Niven, Larry: "The Magic Goes Away"

And a host of others, including the pictured novel, above, called "Demon In The Mirror" by Andrew J. Offutt and Richard K. Lyon.

On the Back Cover of Demon In The Mirror, they have a recommendation from none other than Andre Norton:

"Not since Jirel of Joiry has there been a sword-wielding heroine like Tiana Highrider. For a long time the field of sword and sorcery writing has been waiting for a swordswoman who can stand beside Conan, Brak, the Grey Mouser ... It is good to know that this is only the first of what I hope will be many adventures to come."Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/andrew%20offutt
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