That and rereading a lot of Gygax, from the Dungeon Masters Guide to the Dragonsfoot Q&A threads, to Role-Playing Mastery, to The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, to his internet-unearthed contributions to ancient fanzines.
But really, issue #1 of Crawljammer is still built on the bedrock of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Well, not bedrock. Spacerock. Shifting spacerock catapulted into another dimension where guys can just hop in a plane and fly to Venus and join the resistance against an oppressive regime. With swords and ray guns and a flash of this-really-happened-and-I'm-not-making-it-up!
That's how I like to think of Crawljammer. Everything you've ever read in every comic book and fantasy novel and sci-fi epic is true. Embrace it. Crawl into its jam. Jam into its crawl. Burroughs-style.
May I recommend to you the stories of Leigh Brackett as well, and, although not specifically Appendix N, the Northwest Smith stories of C.L. Moore?
ReplyDeleteI have read some Brackett, but I know she's written a lot of stuff I still must read. C.L. Moore I know little about. I will check out some Moore action! Thanks!
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