What better way to start off a column than we an appendix? But it’s a very special appendix. Appendix N.

Okay, okay, hear me out before I have to write “appendix” again. For those that don’t get the reference, the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide had a series of appendices. The fourteenth(!) appendix was N, and it was titled “Inspirational and Educational Reading.” I believe it was the first such example of indicating related products that can be read or played to inspire another product, and I’ve certainly added inspirational reading sections to both Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau.

But inspiration is a funny thing. It’s not always clear how something inspires you. Further, if you’re working on an ongoing line like Pugmire, things crop up that inspire you long after the initial genesis of the world. People are glad to reference games, books, and movies that I might find interesting. And some of my inspirations aren’t what you’d expect.

I only had so much room in the book — I doubt anyone would appreciate pages and pages of cool things to read when they could be getting on with fighting the Unseen with spell and paw — but now I have the perfect format to list what has been and continues to be inspirational to me. Here is my own version of Appendix N… “Appendix P,” if you will.

NOVELS AND ANTHOLOGIES

• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien and Zena Bernstein
• Watership Down by Richard Adams
• The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
• Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (for the political structures of Monarchies of Mau)
• City by Clifford D. Simak (seriously, if I had read this book first, I would have never written Pugmire for fear of it being a “City” ripoff)
• The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (for the blend of weirdness in a post-apocalyptic setting)
• The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber
• The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (for a breakdown of how animal characters can communicate depth)
• The Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard

COMICS, MANGA, AND GRAPHIC NOVELS

• Mouse Guard by David Petersen
• Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin by Yoshihiro Takahashi
• Rover Red Charlie by Garth Ennis
• ElfQuest by Wendy and Richard Pini
• Sam & Max Surfin’ the Highway by Steve Purcell (one of my touchstones of how to pitch the humor of the setting)
• Maus by Art Spiegelman (another great example of using animal characters to communicate depth)
• Kingdom of Dog by Christopher Lawson and Soo Lee
• Atomic Robo by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener (another humor touchstone)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird (the original black and white comics)
• Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai

CARTOONS

• Redwall by Raymond Jafelice and Luc Bihan
• The Secret of NIMH by Don Bluth
• Thundarr the Barbarian by Steve Gerber, Joe Ruby, and Ken Spears (for utterly bonkers post-apocalyptic imagery)
• Adventure Time by Pendleton Ward (same)

TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAMES

• S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks by Gary Gygax (an old-school D&D module)
• Gamma World by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet
• Mutant Future by Daniel Proctor and Ryan Denison (a neat retroclone that blends old-school D&D and Gamma World sensibilities)
• Mouse Guard by Luke Crane and David Petersen
• The Secrets of Cats by Richard Bellingham
• Marvel Super Heroes by Jeff Grubb (for great mechanics on how to encourage players to act like heroes and like a team)
• Tales of the Floating Vagabond by Lee Garvin, Nick Atlas, and John Huff (the first game I owned that encouraged me to be funny at the table)

VIDEO GAMES

• The Geneforge series (another weird blend of science fantasy)
• Kingdom of Loathing (even though I enjoyed it, it helped me sort out exactly the wrong kind of humor for me)
• Sam & Max seasons 1-3
• Ducktales (a great game that is very tight mechanically)
• Armello
• Owlboy
• Undertale (you can make friends with monsters!)
• Super Mega Neo Pug (proof that not all inspirations need to be GOOD)