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

[Dioltach]

Prydain and Earthsea were great reads for kids. Dark, scary, sad, and even though the hero wins, it's always bitter-sweet.

What really scared me was a book of Russian fairytales. Prince Ivan and the Witch Baby - that, and a TV series called Sapphire and Steel, fuelled my nightmares for years.

 

[Mannahnin]

Prydain and Earthsea were great reads for kids. Dark, scary, sad, and even though the hero wins, it's always bitter-sweet.

Earthsea was definitely above my head at the age I read it; I found A Wizard of Earthsea challenging, and really struggled with the next two. I'm planning to re-read them this year, though.

 

[Rhenny]

It is so cool to read through this thread to see all the great fantasy books people have read, many I also remember reading as well.

For me, it was D&D and fantasy novels simultaneously. I used the list of influences Gary Gygax made way back and read so many. My favorites back in the day were all Michael Moorcock books, especially the Elric series. I also loved the Fritz Leiber Gray Mouser and Fafhrd books. Quag’s Keep by Andre Norton was also a big influence. Later, I loved all the Thieves World compilations by Robert Asprin and the Guardians of The Flame novels by Joel Rosenberg.

 

[not-so-newguy]

i started playing at age 10 so my reading preferences were the likes of Beverly Cleary (RIP), my favorite book at the time was Harriet the Spy

As far as obscure fantasy novels that influenced me in my earlier days, then I'd have to go with Gord the Rogue books by Gygax.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I can remember the day one of the players showed up raving about this series he'd discovered about this albino with a powerful and cursed black sword. Oh, did he want to have Stormbringer in game...

One thing I'll point out is that while Elric is one of the fantasy greats and hardly obscure now, in 1980s Upstate NY, we were pretty much stumbling across this stuff by word of mouth and just picking stuff out because it had a cool cover or maybe a mention in Dragon. Anything outside of Tolkien was pretty much obscure to us.

My favorites back in the day were all Michael Moorcock books, especially the Elric series.

 

[Ashavan]

Chronicles of Prydain all the way. Back in 1980, my 4th grade teacher gave each kid in the class a present at a holiday party we were having, and she gave me a copy of The Book of Three. My best friend got The High King. (Or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, we both got Prydain books, and we figured out which was the first one in the series and started with that.) We both really got into it, and soon after that, his parents got him the original red-box Basic D&D set, and the rest is history.

 

[Mannahnin]

TBF, Lloyd Alexander/the Prydain books won a Newbery Award, so they certainly shouldn't be obscure.

But I'm certainly happy to see folks talking about them.

 

[SiCK_Boy]

Some people have already pointed out the Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy series, but in French, all of those 80s/90s gamebooks were published as a single collection of "Livres dont vous êtes le héros", which included not only Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy, but also The Grail Quest as well as the Avenger! (ninja adventures) series, amongst the most well known. Also Golden Dragon, and some Sherlock Holmes adventures.

The Scorpion Swamp is probably the first such gamebook I played.

The series eventually included more "typical" roleplaying games such as Dragon Warriors, "L'Oeil Noir" and Fabled Lands.

The Talisman (2nd edition) board game was also a huge influence in my interest for "fantasy" gaming and culture.

Prior to tasting that fantasy component (which also included Tolkien), I was already in love with adventure stories, like the Three Musketeers.

The old animated Lord of the Rings movie was also a classic, along with other movies such as Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and Willow.

 

[Sakuglak]

A book series that really inspired some of my D&D settings was the Night Watch series by Russian author Lukyanenko.

Night Watch (Lukyanenko novel) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

It's an interesting take on a fantasy cold war stalemate between not good or evil, but individual freedom versus the greater good.

Humans are mostly pawns before the might of the others but you must beware the urge to do good as the tit for tat struggle can be chess like.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The Night Watch series was so darn good. The moral complexity, the cynicism vs. hope, distrust of authority, and the fantasy worldbuilding, it all blended together perfectly. I wish the movie series had continued, too, rather than being just a two-film arc.

A book series that really inspired some of my D&D settings was the Night Watch series by Russian author Lukyanenko.

Night Watch (Lukyanenko novel) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

It's an interesting take on a fantasy cold war stalemate between not good or evil, but individual freedom versus the greater good.

Humans are mostly pawns before the might of the others but you must beware the urge to do good as the tit for tat struggle can be chess like.