I is for Inspiration

(Editor's note: damn... a few people doing the same topid. Oh well, great minds think alike... 8)

I know everyone always talks about the infamous Appendix N. Like everyone else, I have had a ton of inspirations, for a variety of games. I’m just going to riff off a whole list of books, movies, TV shows and movies that have inspired me, in no coherent order.
Books
- Robert E. Howard’s Del Rey omnibus series
- Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser books
- FRAGILE THINGS, ANANSI BOYS and AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman
- Terry Brooks’ THE WISHSONG OF SHANNARA, The Scions of Shannara Trilogy, and the first three books of the Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold! Series
- Glen Cook’s Black Company series
- Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Rifles series
- J.R.R. Tolkien, especially THE HOBBIT and THE SILMARILLION
- The first six Dragonlance books by Hickman and Weis
- William Gibson
- George Alec Effinger’s Marid Audran trilogy
- Mick Farren, especially NECROM, VICKERS, THE ARMAGEDDON CRAZY and THE LONG ORBIT
- John Ostrander’s run on SUICIDE SQUAD
- Mike Grell, especially GREEN ARROW: THE LONGBOW HUNTERS
- John Byrne and Chris Claremont’s first run on THE UNCANNY X-MEN
- Any Timothy Zahn or Michael Stackpole Star Wars novel (admission: I have a bookshelf in my room, which has 6 shelves on it. ALL of them hold STAR WARS novels (well, the last shelf holds my Star Wars d6 RPG stuff, and my Star Wars Encyclopedia). Up until earlier this year, I had EVERY Star Wars novel released (not the young adult or kid ones though), including the three Daley Han Solo books, the three Lando Calrissian books, and Splinter of the Mind's eye, and most of them in hardcover. I also have the complete run of Marvel's Star Wars comics (well, I DID... I sold them, but still have *cough* e-versions *cough* of them. I am a bit of a Star Wars junkie. Lately, I have realized, however.... most of the new Star Wars novels are SHITE. Too many based on video games, or just generally poorly written stories. I no longer want to buy shitty books. I have not read all of them yet, either... I read all the Rebellion era stuff (except for a couple that have come out lately), and I've read all the NJO stuff. I started reading the Clone Wars era stuff, but I have yet to find one I like. I haven't read any of the two timelines that come after NJO, even though I have all of them)
- The THIEVES WORLD novel series, especially the first three
- Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil, and the HARD BOILED mini-series
- Kevin Smith’s GUARDIAN DEVIL run on Daredevil
-

TV Series
- MIRACLES
- THE X-FILES
- MILLENNIUM
- THE CAPE (it's WAY better than HEROES. Sadly, I have a feeling it's being cancelled....)
- LOST
- BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (both versions)
- SAMURAI JACK
- JUSTICE LEAGUE / JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED
- AVENGERS: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST HEROES
- MANIMAL
- MISFITS OF SCIENCE
- FREAKS AND GEEKS
- ANCIENT ALIENS
- IN SEARCH OF
- MOST HAUNTED
- ROBIN OF SHERWOOD
- THE FLASH
- BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (well, mostly the Paracelsus arc)
- DARK SKIES
- SPACE: 1999
- SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND
- THE PRETENDER
Movies
- STAR WARS trilogy
- INDIANA JONES trilogy (THE CRYSTAL SKULL, not so much…)
- BRAVEHEART
- THE SEVEN SAMURAI
- UNDER SEIGE
- ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
- TRUE GRIT
- UNFORGIVEN
- PALE RIDER
- THE DARK KNIGHT
- ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES
- GHOST DOG
- SNEAKERS
- CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
- JURASSIC PARK
- BLADE RUNNER
- STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
- STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME
- STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
- MEMENTO
- TRUE ROMANCE
- KILL BILL, VOL. 1 & 2
- SAVING PRIVATE RYAN