Appendix N: Dragon Warriors, part three

Three more media offerings for that authentic Legend feel.

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

Excellent tale of ordinary folk amongst the plague. No fixation upon the armed gentry here. Eerie and character driven. Negative points for clumsy use of anagrams though.

No knights in shining armour here

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

Saxons and Danes for your Elleslandic games. The TV series as useful as the books if you can get over the shapes of the Saxon shields. The beliefs of the characters are what makes this important to me. Belief in a curse or the words of an oracle or sorcerer seems to change reality or the perception of it. The importance of the church is prominent here too. Plus there’s decent battles and drama and so forth.

Getting your shield wall on

Excalibur

John Boorman’s very atmospheric film about the eponymous blade. We get a spot on depiction of the costs of sorcery here. Merlin pays a heavy price for the magics he employs in the service of the family Pendragon.

Being a knight, not all it’s cracked up to be.

Appendix N: Dragon Warriors, part two

Continuing my discussion of useful media as it relates to Dragon Warriors RPG, part one located... well, these posts are sequential so, it’s the one before this..

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

Clarke’s short stories set in the same world as her more successful novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel. These really capture the whimsically dangerous nature of faeries. Also it’s the protagonists’ understanding of the rules of these interactions that allows them victories as opposed to any superior force of arms or similar.

The illustrations aren’t half bad either

The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer

Essential non fiction. What we get here is a book about the day to day life of medieval folk from a qualified historical perspective. It’s emminently readable with none of the dryness associated with scholastic history books.

Also check out the reviews. People love this book.

The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell

Interesting take on the Arthurian myth. The depiction of Merlin is particularly good. No one can be sure if his magic is real or not. Or is it that his trickery, wisdom and secret knowledge are a kind of magic in themselves?

More helmets should have cool intrinsic war masks

Appendix N: Dragon Warriors, part one

At the back of the original Dungeon Masters Guide amongst the tables for random harlot encounters and suchlike was the much discussed Appendix N. This being the literary antecendents of the Dungeons & Dragons game. For the modern reader/consumer of multi media I have tried to compile a short list of useful media for the running of Dragon Warriors type games based in Legend or a reasonable facsimile there of. These are less influences on the game as it was created but more influential in how a modern GM might run Legend, as I see it at least. We’re generally talking theme and atmosphere here, these are the things that inspire in me in the mood appropriate for DW. This is in four parts because of image size and tiny editing windows on blogger..

Robin of Sherwood

The classic British TV series. This is the definitive Robin Hood for me. It still holds up well to these eyes. There is magic here but it’s low key, perhaps due to special effects limitations. However it is all the more creepy because of it. The whole thing drips atmosphere. Excellent.

Nothing is forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten.

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

Cracking stuff based in Welsh myth. Fantastic but not overly so. These are children’s books, so not as grim as we might like for a Legend game. However the Cauldron Born and the Huntsmen of Annuvin are perfect. Like a Mabinogion in easily digestible form.

Straight outta Jewelspider 

Lyonesse by Jack Vance

Particularly his handling of fairies. Depicted as capricious and callous, albeit a bit rapey in places and thoroughly whimsical throughout. The adventures of Dhrun and Madouc are all about what we want here. The nature of wizards is very interesting too.

A classic