AD&D Appendix N: Poul Anderson "Three Hearts and Three Lions"

 

I didn't read this gem until much later in my Dungeons & Dragons life, but I was simply amazed at how clearly the book shaped Gary Gygax's formation of D&D. It is actually one of my favorite genres of fantasy called "gate fantasy". It features the hero Holger who is fighting in World War II and gets transported to the legendary world of medieval France. At first, of course, I just assumed it as an early gate fantasy, the book was published in the early 60's. However, as I read on how found that the mixture of legend, myth and inner longing to be so powerfully evocative of my own feelings about what AD&D did for me so many years ago. 

For early D&D players Three Heart and Three Lions reads like a textbook of inspiration. Herein we have a world caught in the grip of the struggle between Law and Chaos. Chaos includes the realms of faery as well and the struggle of it's better creatures such as elves and dwarves who lie between the realms of men and the other. The portrayal of the doughty dwarf Hugi, Holger's companion, is so much more accurate to my view of dwarves than the four feet wide musclebound cubes presented in modern fantasy games.

Race Comparison 1e PHB

Dwarf in 1e Monster Manual

Today's Dwarf

Also included in the tale are numerous monsters that would become iconic within the AD&D monster manual such as nixies and trolls. In fact I dare say I never used nixies in my games, nor was familiar with them. But here they are with a clear idea for their use. Magic swords, polymorphing maidens, and the like were all here on fantastic display. The tale reads as a strange and lovely mix of fantasy and fairy tale, much like my own initial experiences with the game as a youth. 

Moreover, we have in Three Hearts and Three Lions a world that is steeped in legend and myth. The Cycle of Charlemagne, the Wild Hunt, Morgan le Fay and the Arthurian Cycle permeate the book as principal sources of dynamic action and drama. Some might have been puzzled by the inclusion of the Arthurian Mythos in the Deities and Demigods and fewer still used them that I knew of. But I now understood that Gary saw them as ripe pickings for fantastic adventures that could be had within then D&D. 

As the plot plays out we find Holger intimately interwoven with the deeds of the past. His role revealed as an ancient hero of yore, and that his defeat of the forces of chaos mirroring his defeat of the forces of the Nazis. The tale kept me spellbound in this regard. And played out for me the desire to be a part of such adventures, just like Holger. Indeed it was my strongest dream as a young man growing up in central Texas, to do so. AD&D gave me that opportunity. Cause such cravings within me to return to just such a fantasy world, who like Holger longed to return himself. 

Anderson clearly wove potential messages in his fanciful tale that give us pause today. Holger's return to Catholicism as a flight of fancy or an identification with the beyond is but one. However, what it gave Gary Gygax was clearly much fruit with which to offer to the world a chance to play at Holger's game and become Ogier the Dane ourselves. 

"Swords & sorcery best describes what this game is all about..."

This short phrase is from the first pages of the AD&D Players Handbook, first edition. It comes strategically as the first phrase in the portion of the book describing what the game is about. It would be over a year later that the Dungeon Masters Guide would offer Appendix N to DMs for "Inspirational Reading". It was a different age when Gary Gygax, and frankly all of the early tabletop gamers, developed their love for the speculative & weird. The paragraph above the list of recommended authors describes the age in which many of these men had grown up.

"my father ... spent many hours telling me stories he made up as he went along, tales of cloaked old men -who could grant wishes, of magic rings and enchanted swords, or wicked sorcerors and dauntless  swordsmen." I readily identify with this experience as my mother did much the same for me. I was her first child, and she admits to raising me on a steady diet of fantastic tales, legends and quaint childhood fantasies. This was a common experience for many raised long ago, and I would dare so there are still those who do so. Lucky is the child raised by an adult with an open storybook and a fertile imagination. 

And Gygax goes on to mentioned several of the very books we may have been read. The Brothers Grimm, Andrew Lang and the like. And then he cites comic books, which were in his age a mélange of fantasy and science fiction and horror, all three genres he cites as being big inspirations for the game. Such things that lead a child onward to mythology, medieval bestiaries, and the rich and deeply archetypal stories within. 

I think this alone can do much for giving an idea of what sorts of things were imagined as fodder for an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The list he offers here is less a prescription than it is a phantasmagoric garden from which "you will be able to pluck kernels from which grow the fruits of exciting campaigns." And he urges even more to expand beyond this mere list from "any other imaginative writing or screenplay," more ideas that may not be captured here. 

More than anything, for me, this list and this idea captures what the imaginative ground from which D&D grows. We all too often find ourselves constrained by the predominant fantasy of the day. We are indeed richly blessed with so much to choose from in a publishing world that daily offers up new wonders for us to select from, and an entertainment industry that makes such awe inspiring series of fantasy epics that we should stop and consider how lucky we are. And, might I add, with which Gary Gygax had a large part to do. However, the danger in having such wonderful selection is that we become overly influence on a certain kind of fantasy. JRR Tolkien for example, only one of famous Inklings, has come to exert such a strong influence over the genre that it can become near impossible to escape his shadow. I would dare say over half of today's fantasy offerings are hugely indebted to his vision, or what has become interpreted as his vision. For instance. As much as I love what Peter Jackson has done with the franchise, that was decidedly not my vision of the Lord of the Rings when I first read There and Back again or The Fellowship. In my mind's eye it had a much weirder and more dark fairytale quality than what is today called "High Fantasy". The movie Excalibur, is instructive for those who might wonder what sorts of visions arose from the 70's, or even the original animated movies which sought to capture Tolkien's epic. They have more in common with the infamous Wizards or Fire and Ice animated movies than they do with more modern offerings. 

Now, this is not to say "better" or that the late 70's and early 80's did not also have their "standard fare" or interpretation of what fantasy is. Only that it did not loom so large as some do today. So, I today recommend broadening our visions, stepping out of our proverbial fantastic comfort zones to enliven our fantasies. Much of the OSR creative field has captured some of this, and expanded the vision of what swords and sorcery can be, and I heartily encourage continued exploration in this vein. 

My TTRPG ADHD -- Why do we Quit Games?

So, my last post was a bit personal and perhaps a bit sad. It was hard to write truthfully. I am coming to grips with myself as much as my gaming, so it's bound to hurt a little bit. To summarize in a nutshell, I developed my gaming preferences pretty early in life, say age 12 to about age 17. I gamed past this date, but my "experience" of gaming during this age has always been a touchstone for what ideal gaming is like for me. I stopped gaming about 1994 or so, and came back to it in the early 2000's. When I did I wanted to game like I did back in the day. I've been chasing that dream ever since. Never quite achieved it, but came close a few times. 

In this journey I've wondered if it is the game I'm missing, since I haven't truthfully played AD&D with the rulebooks since I restarted. No other game quite offered me the same magic. But OSRIC came the closest and I really hoped HackMaster might fit the bill. But they didn't. So I began to wonder if what I was missing was good guy friends to game with. But I also had a chance at that and that didn't do it either. 

That brings me to today's post. Something that I haven't talked a lot about is my fascination with shiny new things. I am drawn to things I find new and intriguing. The mystery and chance to experience something new is a big part of who I am. And the flip side of that is my quickly waning lack of interest after a short time. I even recall buying several other games back in the day desperately trying to get my friends to try them as something new and fresh. Gamma World, Star Frontiers, Space Opera, Call of Cthulhu just to name a few. No one else was really interested though. I would even "stop gaming for a few weeks altogether, telling my friends I was done with gaming and wanted to focus on other things. Of course that never lasted more than a month or so. 

Now, on this last point, the Satanic Panic had screwed me up and cause me no end of confusion and doubt about my past times, but I've went into all that before. Now is not the time for a re-hash of that. But it certainly contributed to my occasional rejections of gaming. 

But my point here is, perhaps my vacillations in gaming recorded in the last post have more to do with my own ADHD like wishy washiness than it does about games or gaming friends. I mean this could certainly be the case. And it doesn't help. I mean let's face it, we all have enough challenges holding a gaming group together and committing to regular games. You add in some kind of flakiness like my indecision and low boredom tolerance and it becomes near impossible. 

So, is that a contributing factor? Well, sure it is ... but ... 

Gaming is so appealing to me partly because it is unpredictable. I love not knowing how things will turn out. Love seeing the story unfold in real time before me. There is nothing like it that I've found. Maybe LARPing, but that's just live action gaming after all. It is perfectly designed for people who love constant new experiences and the unexpected. I feel like I'm discovering non-stop when I play the game. So here we have a high return activity for somebody like me, I don't think it's just boredom that makes me give up on things. 

Now, I also have a rather low tolerance for certain kinds of stress. And as I've returned to gaming at a very different time in my life it has presented new challenges. I mentioned in yesterday's post, responsibilities and children, not to mention a marriage. All these high value things, and the responsibilities that come with them are certainly more valuable than a past time. But personal interests, past times, passions, and hobbies are valuable. So valuable we should strive to make them a part of our lives to be fully healthy. They are at least as critical as physical exercise. So what causes us to set aside those things that mean so much to us?

Now there are individual differences to be sure, but I believe that the most common reason is investment vs reward. When we are tired, overworked, stressed, or just wasted from dealing with life, taking the time to put on our jogging shorts at the end of the day, go the gym, write on our novel, or drive over to our friends house to game can all seem like just too much some times. The investment in energy to make it happen can just be a hill too far. Even though, most of us would admit that after doing so we always feel better. 

For me this has happened most recently with my Fifth edition D&D game. I play with my kids and one or two family friends. They have all really become gamers through fifth edition. I played some with my kids when they were younger, but 5th edition for them is like 1st edition is for me. And for that reason I will always be thankful to Wizards of the Coast, Peter Adkinson for his preservation and resurrection of the IP and those who continue to hold the banner of D&D and TTRPGs high--even when we disagree. My kids are the beneficiaries. And now they have some of the same memories I do of the best game on earth. 

Despite all this, though, I still quit GMing 5e for our group first and then let the campaign fizzle out. The investment for reward for me in terms of 5e was simply not high enough. I don't hate the game, but I also don't love it. I will occasionally get the itch so strong that we'll do a 5e one shot. Why 5e? Because that is what everyone else loves and expects. They would play a different game with me, but they'd be humoring me. And that's not a good feeling.

I have read numerous posts about trying to get people to try old school games, and it always includes some injunction like, once you get them to agree to play now you need to run a really good game so they learn to love your game too. I do not like the idea of putting my game on trial. I mean I'll fight for it, try and persuade people to play and advocate to my dying day. But I want to know you want it. I am not going to force it down your throat.