Appendix N Book Club
Jeff, Hoi, and a rotating roster of special guests discuss the adventure, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and weird fiction that inspires our gaming
Episodes
June 9, 2025 • 61 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Jack Vance's "Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden", incorrect uses of words or advanced neologisms, having less reading time in our adult lives, feeling like anything can happen, the Brothers Grimm, worlds where horrific things happen, toxic masculinity, Tolkien's influence, creating a sense of peril in combat, attacking the character sheet, the Dying Earth setting, proto-Arthurian stories, and much ...
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May 26, 2025 • 54 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss L. Sprague de Camp's "The Fallible Fiend", futtering spouses, the maps in front of fantasy novels, fleshed-out characters, missile weapons, Dave Arneson's rules, picking spells other than Fireball, flavorful book titles, historical fiction with magic, older styles of writing, fantasy novels as reflections of their time, and much more!
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March 17, 2025 • 58 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Gretchen Felker-Martin's "Manhunt", visceral horror-thrillers, section transitions, interchangeable characters, physical descriptions of characters, depictions of trans genitalia, sexualizing a wide varieties of body types, TERFs and anti-vaxxers, replacing PCs with NPCs, the Broo in Runequest, overland exploration in Forbidden Lands, parental access restrictions in libraries, and much more!
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February 17, 2025 • 58 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Katherine Kurtz's "Deryni Rising", sarcophagi, achieving literary liftoff, the Brandon-to-Demos scale, fantasy worlds with real-life historical cultures, female fantasy authors writing under their own names, scattered hidden magical races, Empire of the Petal Throne, AD&D psionics, counterspells, adventure hooks to clear a character's name, Dragon Magazine and White Dwarf Magazine on archive...
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January 28, 2025 • 57 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss James Enge's "Blood of Ambrose", obscure words from classic languages, Scooby Doo episodes, slowing down for character development, The Book of the New Sun books, magic from alchemy, flying horses, world maps, DCC spell corruption, blood that catches fire, other notable works by the author, trial and error, and much more!
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December 30, 2024 • 58 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss H. Rider Haggard's "She", the smell of the flame, Haggard's other works, "the things dudes won't do for a hottie", the city of Cambridge, the good earthy feminine logic, being torn between two ill-fated women, the lost race genre, the tombs of an ancient civilization, quaint local customs, being unalive (instead of undead), democracies and tyrants, and much more!
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November 24, 2024 • 59 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Charles R. Saunders's "The Quest for Cush", the Swahili glossary, the shame of the King County Library system, fiction as gaming supplements, inversions of traditional sword and sorcery, Burroughs's Mythic Africa, the Mary Sue problem, Greeks in Egypt, a dungeon under quicksand, responsible and dilligent city guards, Imaro as a demigod,, and much more!
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November 3, 2024 • 61 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Edgar Rice Burroughs's "The Gods of Mars", John Carter in a blond wig, repetitiveness in Edgar Rice Burroughs's works, French words, female characters' screen time, the Tree of Life, fainting characters, early examples of megadungeons, helpful ghosts, constantly escalating tension and perils, authors inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs, wish-fullfillment protagonists, and much more!
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September 29, 2024 • 69 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Dan Simmons's "Hyperion”, listening to audio books at work, Vaults of Vaarn, prescient fiction, choosing whether or not to continue on with fiction series, the Dying Earth, ambiguous endings, failed attempts at humor, the author's current politics, chase scenes, Shadowdark, roasting bestsellers, reading books outside of our comfort zone, plans for the future of the show, and much more!
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January 29, 2024 • 70 mins
This episode is dedicated to Rick Byrne. Please consider sending a gift to support Leukemia research at UCSF: UCSF Foundation, PO Box 45339, San Francisco, CA 94145 or make a gift online at makeagift.ucsf.edu. Please be sure to note that the gift is in memory of Rick Byrne to support the Leukemia research of Dr. Neil Dunivan.
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January 13, 2024 • 59 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Michael Moorcock's "The Mad God's Amulet, Michael Moorcock's love of arcane texts, action scenes, hyperviolence and gore, following expectations, whimsical supporting characters, battles over land and sea, reskinning monsters for science-fantasy, a device that can unlock any lock, the Devil's Rejects, our friend Rick Byrne, and much more!
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December 31, 2023 • 58 mins
Robert Poyton joins us to discuss Gustave Flaubert's "Salammbô”, October horror films, the etymology of Hygaxian words, Howardian prose, varied treasures, the French "oh là là", the literary influences of Clark Ashton Smith, the diversity of intersecting cultures in North Africa, African nations, horse nomads, cult generators, unearthly treasure hoards, and much more!
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December 17, 2023 • 58 mins
Tim Mendees joins us to discuss Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell”, the dangers of massive hardbacks, literary rabbit holes, the Dorset dialect, cursing those who have wronged us, classist hypocrits, the couragousness that comes with conviction, interdimensional travel through reflective surfaces, interesting and flavorful spells, failing sanity rolls, faerie rewards, and much more!
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September 3, 2023 • 59 mins
Brian Yaksha joins us to discuss Robert Asprin's "Thieves' World", the give and take of what you're going to give to the audience, fantasy shared worlds, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar, Aragorn's tax plan, Machiavelli, passing off as older for added credibility, rotating GMs, bespoke stat blocks, power levels, player character points of entry, random tables, and much more!
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August 6, 2023 • 58 mins
Goran Gligovic joins us to discuss Edgar Rice Burroughs's "A Princess of Mars", Asterix and Obelix, the Library of Wonder, Tarzan, being 30 for as long as you can remember, main characters as blank canvases, Robert E. Howard, the Fighting Man class in OD&D, when to embrace realism and when to eschew it, Frank Frazetta's action scenes, gargoyles taking a piss, a brightly dressed Elric, and much more!
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July 9, 2023 • 59 mins
Becky Annison joins us to discuss Lloyd Alexander's "The Book of Three", the Dungeons and Dragons movie, dwarven guides, Welsh myth, characters with firm personality hooks, spaghetti westerns, the Black Cauldron, clear linear mission paths, giving each character their moment, changing the stakes of successes, horror mechanics, destroying books or cards for art, and much more!
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June 11, 2023 • 58 mins
Brad Kerr joins us to discuss Jack Vance's "Cugel's Saga", virtual tabletops, Brom, pompous vocabulary, whimsical characters, world-class worldbuilding, being nickel-and-dimed by the boss, moving from one grift to the next, interesting mounts, making monsters more mysterious, D&D 4E, being your own boss, and much more!
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May 13, 2023 • 59 mins
Conner Habib joins us to discuss George MacDonald's "Phantastes", D&D's influence on a young person's imagination, Irish mythology, the art of Gervasio Gallardo, a focus on environment over character, main characters as blank slates, living in a perpetual state of wonder, how people are changed by their history of trauma, readers seeking the consequences of character actions, the woods as both a singular living entity and a collect...
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April 16, 2023 • 59 mins
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss William Gibson's "Neuromancer", hypnogogic images, heists with scifi crap on top, retrofuturism, slow-moving death, the Velvet Underground, Dan Brown novels, splitting the party, simstims, genetic engineering in RPGs, cyperpunk RPGs, sentient AIs, and much more!
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April 2, 2023 • 59 mins
Nathaniel Webb joins us to discuss William Gibson's "Neuromancer", D&D Next playtests, self-contained cities in a building, people writing fiction written by Chat-GPT, action/heist stories, ninjas and Rastafarians, getting the heist team together, the hacker's role in a cyberpunk game, Tom Clancy novels, quick dramatic actions, player-facing tools, cozy fantasy, and much more!
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