In his Dungeon Masters Guide Gary Gygax gives us his Appendix N - literary works from which he drew inspiration for The World's Most Popular RPG. Many of the works on that list contributed one or more ideas, or helped shape Mr. Gygax's thinking, his creativity and imagination or his ability to tell a story. Some titles seem to have had more influence than others. The works of R.E. Howard were a particularly strong early influence and one that remained strong with Mr. Gygax throughout his life according to biographer Michael Witwer (Empire of Imagination). Reading Mr Gygax's work I think I see evidence of some of the other influences. It is hard to not think of White Box alignment while reading Michael Moorcock's Elric novels or certain of Poul Anderson's books. Three Hearts and Three Lions (Anderson) offers a paladin character that begs comparison to the paladin PC class in Greyhawk. The Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories of Fritz Leiber likewise put me to mind of the Greyhawk thief class. The magicians of Jack Vance's Dying Earth novels practice a magic which seems to have inspired the White Box rules for casting magic.
The Harold Shea stories of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt feature a system of magic that is quite different from Jack Vance's, but once again I see a probable influence on White Box. Harold Shea and his friends are mostly academics, psychologists, who discover how to use "magic" math formulas to move between dimensions. Shea and his colleagues theorize that magic works according to its own principles in other parallel dimensions and they experiment with various aspects of magical theory while traveling in several dimensions resembling periods of myth known in our dimension as Norse mythology, Elizabethan faerie, the Finnish Kalevala and Irish myth.
I first discovered Appendix N and began reading my way through it, seeking out authors and titles listed there and finding most to my liking, shortly after the release of the DMG. Reading Appendix N literature has, over the decades, helped me to appreciate where the authors of White Box were coming from and just what they hoped to achieve in offering their game of adventure to the world. Many of those ideas have served (and will continue to serve) as inspirations for posts on this blog. Until recently I had not read the Harold Shea novels. Other works by the authors have been known to me, but Harold Shea has escaped me. The Complete (Compleat) Enchanter has not been easy for me to find over the many years I have haunted used book stores from coast-to-coast keeping a look-out for anything on the list. I will chalk it up to bad luck, because having now read the other dimensional adventures of Harold Shea I can see that he was most assuredly one of Mr Gygax's favorites.
In the Harold Shea stories I think I see more clearly how White Box worked for its authors. The game performs a mental version of those same math formulas, transporting us to an alternate dimension or reality or setting or "milieu" as perhaps Mr. Gygax would have said. Harold Shea takes an idea, say a version of Norse Mythology, and poof! - there he is amidst the gods, giants and good folk of the Eddas. Magic works, matches and guns don't and Harold faces various challenges and has fantastic adventures while spending some brief time in this alternate dimension. As the final battle between the gods and giants unfolds, poof! - Harold ends up back in his apartment...his adventure ended until next time. The authors of Harold Shea give us this experience through reading a story. The authors of White Box give us a very similar experience playing a game, but the game takes us to the next level of engagement. In the game we can choose how we approach various challenges. In the game we roll dice and may prove powerful in victory or face defeat and new challenges. We have a little "skin-in-the-game" as the saying goes. This is not a new insight, but reading the Harold Shea stories the idea is brought into focus in a way I haven't experienced thus far. Perhaps it is my good fortune rather than bad luck to have found Harold Shea for the first time at this point in my life. Timing is everything!
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