Thursday Thirteen – fantasy games and books

1…. Pen and paper D&D, although I’ve not had the chance to play the versions Mr Gygax was most comfortable with.
2…. Baldur’s Gate series – D&D brought to the PC, with occasional non-player character interaction that rarely fails in bringing out the grin
3…. Neverwinter Nights – D&D again, this one rewrote the book on how these games were done (as did Baldur’s Gate!)
4…. Dragonlance – and especially the writings of Richard A Knaak
5…. Elder Scrolls – never really got into these but this legendary series would most likely not have happened without the inspiration of D&D
6…. Greyhawk – template for many a fantasy world. Make the setting believable and you inspire great stories to come.
7…. Drizzt Do’Urden and company – R.A. Salvatore’s work is always worth a read, bringing that D&D world to life.
8…. The highly amusing Munchkin card game, inspired by the rules written by Gary Gygax.
9…. GenCon, the USA’s largest annual hobby game gathering, started by Gary Gygax.
10…. The Dungeons and Dragons animation series, co-produced by Gary Gygax.
11…. Warhammer – possibly my favourite role play system at the moment, if a little magic-light. Definitely the system that really brought fantasy battles to the masses, this time by Games Workshop.
12…. Ultima. Led the way in pioneering the Massive Multiplayer Online game, although Everquest was really the breakthrough here. The big one that everyone hears about now is just cashing in on what Ultima and Everquest broke the trail for. And those built on what D&D had started.
13…. Robert E Howard’s Conan stories