SWORDS AND DEVILTRY: Appendix N Book Club
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Appendix N in AD&D was Gary Gygax's list of books that inspired him while writing Dungeons and Dragons. This book club is a place for us to discuss the books that inspire us while we plan, write, run, and play TTRPGs.
"Swords and Deviltry" by Fritz Leiber. 160 pages. Published in 1970. This book is a collection of 4 sword and sorcery short stories telling the origin Fafrhd and The Grey Mouser, the characters' separate origins and their first meeting in the city of Lankhmar. This series of books helped define the sword and sorcery sub-genre. The adventures of Fafrhd and The Grey Mouser embody a less-than-heroic, roguish style of adventuring, which is foundational to the player character archetype in D&D.
The books we are going to be reading in this book club are old. They depict some things that, while never ok, were commonplace at the time they were written and enjoyed. While any individual is welcome to read along casually and join in on the discussions, the goal for this book club is to read these books critically so that we can discuss them in terms of cultural relevance, how they helped inspire the Table-Top RPG hobby, and what we can learn from them for our own role-playing experiences. We are not going to dwell exclusively on the problematic portions of the books, but we believe it is important to acknowledge the mistakes of the past in order to learn from them.
"Swords and Deviltry" by Fritz Leiber. 160 pages. Published in 1970. This book is a collection of 4 sword and sorcery short stories telling the origin Fafrhd and The Grey Mouser, the characters' separate origins and their first meeting in the city of Lankhmar. This series of books helped define the sword and sorcery sub-genre. The adventures of Fafrhd and The Grey Mouser embody a less-than-heroic, roguish style of adventuring, which is foundational to the player character archetype in D&D.
The books we are going to be reading in this book club are old. They depict some things that, while never ok, were commonplace at the time they were written and enjoyed. While any individual is welcome to read along casually and join in on the discussions, the goal for this book club is to read these books critically so that we can discuss them in terms of cultural relevance, how they helped inspire the Table-Top RPG hobby, and what we can learn from them for our own role-playing experiences. We are not going to dwell exclusively on the problematic portions of the books, but we believe it is important to acknowledge the mistakes of the past in order to learn from them.
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Where is it happening?
7833 E 71st ST, Tulsa, OK, United States, Oklahoma 74133
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherCritical Hit Table-Top Gaming


















