D&D General What Obscure/Lesser-Known Book Series Got You Into D&D?

[Ath-kethin]

I'm gonna break your rules, a little bit.

As a kid, I loved books on mythology - tales of Greek and Norse gods and heroes, told to me by my stepfather then siphoned into my brain by copious reading, filled my lil' mind. Movies like Dragonslayer and Ladyhawke did it too, and all of that led me to the Dragonlance Chronicles.

Now, that didn't lead me directly into D&D - in fact, the first I ever heard of the game was when my friend's mother refused to let him read my Chronicles omnibus because "it was Dungeons & Dragons." That statement confused me greatly at the time because as far as I could tell that wasn't true; nowhere in my book did it say anything of the sort. But I didn't worry about it, and the Chronicles led me to the Legends and deep into a Weis & Hickman fandom - I still adore the Darksword books and my all time favorite W&H series, the Rose of the Prophet.

All of this reading, plus other mostly forgotten stuff like the Seven Altars of Dûsarra series by Lawrence Watt-Evans, The Myth-adventures of Aahz and Skeeve by Robert Aspirin, and the Dragon Prince and Dragon Star series by Melanie Rawn, led me to the Earthdawn roleplaying game in 1993 or so. About a year after that I was introduced to my one true love, Dungeons & Dragons (I'd say don't tell my spouse, but I'm pretty sure it's no secret).

And I never looked back.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and Alexander's Prydain series and Louise Cooper's The Dark is Rising series.

 

[Kodiak3D]

Add me to the list of people who started with the Chronicles of Prydain.

That being said, my first introduction to fantasy worlds was reruns of The Beastmaster on HBO

 

[cbwjm]

Not sure on the book series, I think it was a natural progression from playing the fighting fantasy game books, including advanced fighting fantasy. I also read the magician by Raymond E Feist, dragons of Perth by Anne mccaffrey, and every Conan book I could find. Combine that with the various mythology books I used to read (probably started with mum's Norse mythology book that I used to read constantly) and I think moving into DnD was a given since it let me play the characters that I read about... more or less

 

[cbwjm]

I'm gonna break your rules, a little bit.

As a kid, I loved books on mythology - tales of Greek and Norse gods and heroes, told to me by my stepfather then siphoned into my brain by copious reading, filled my lil' mind. Movies like Dragonslayer and Ladyhawke did it too, and all of that led me to the Dragonlance Chronicles.

Now, that didn't lead me directly into D&D - in fact, the first I ever heard of the game was when my friend's mother refused to let him read my Chronicles omnibus because "it was Dungeons & Dragons." That statement confused me greatly at the time because as far as I could tell that wasn't true; nowhere in my book did it say anything of the sort. But I didn't worry about it, and the Chronicles led me to the Legends and deep into a Weis & Hickman fandom - I still adore the Darksword books and my all time favorite W&H series, the Rose of the Prophet.

All of this reading, plus other mostly forgotten stuff like the Seven Altars of Dûsarra series by Lawrence Watt-Evans, The Myth-adventures of Aahz and Skeeve by Robert Aspirin, and the Dragon Prince and Dragon Star series by Melanie Rawn, led me to the Earthdawn roleplaying game in 1993 or so. About a year after that I was introduced to my one true love, Dungeons & Dragons (I'd say don't tell my spouse, but I'm pretty sure it's no secret).

And I never looked back.

Those are some great books right there, I don't think I realised, or at least recalled that W&H wrote the rose of the prophet series. If it's the series I'm thinking of, I loved it. The Deathgate cycle was another favourite series of mine.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Those are some great books right there, I don't think I realised, or at least recalled that W&H wrote the rose of the prophet series. If it's the series I'm thinking of, I loved it. The Deathgate cycle was another favourite series of mine.

Death Gate was awesome, but it irked me a little that you could literally skip the first two books and not lose out on the story at all. And while the second book was really entertaining, especially for Dragonlance fans, there is almost no reason whatsoever to read the first one.

Though I also liked how the Spells and Magic book for AD&D 2e included the School of Geometry and the School of Song as options for wizards, in what I felt was a clear nod to the Patryn and the Sartan.

 

[jayoungr]

I'm seeing a lot of people talking about the Chronicles of Prydian. That series was one of my favorites when I was younger, a teacher introduced me to it in 3rd grade, along with The Castle in the Attic. The Book of Three was the first fantasy book I was ever chose to read on my own (my mother read the Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter books to me when I was too young to read). This brings back memories.

The last book in that series seriously scarred me. I'd never read anything before where half the cast got slaughtered!

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The last book in that series seriously scarred me. I'd never read anything before where half the cast got slaughtered!

The sequel to The Castle in the Attic is what scarred me. I read it when I was still in elementary school, and the giant rat that ate people gave me nightmares for months.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I didn't give the Chronicles of Prydain a shot until my twenties. I had them as a kid, and still have some of those original copies, but I never gave them a shot, and that's something I regret taking so long to do.

I blame this cover (kid me looked at a cover with a dragon, then a cover with a giant cat, then picked the book with the dragon on the cover):

 

[Mannahnin]

I didn't give the Chronicles of Prydain a shot until my twenties. I had them as a kid, and still have some of those original copies, but I never gave them a shot, and that's something I regret taking so long to do.

I blame this cover (kid me looked at a cover with a dragon, then a cover with a giant cat, then picked the book with the dragon on the cover):

I really dug them as a kid, though Taren Wanderer was over my head in parts. It's so, so good, though.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

They really are amazing and I wish I had read them when I was younger (see also A Wizard of Earthsea).

I really dug them as a kid, though Taren Wanderer was over my head in parts. It's so, so good, though.