My Appendix N: The House on the Borderland

The House on the Borderland, by William Hope Hodgson, is an early 20th century weird fiction story.  H.P. Lovecraft said that Hodgson was a huge influence, and to be fair, you can really see it in this novel.  I do not want to spoil this novel for anyone, but imagine late 19th century fiction being hijacked by a Dungeon Crawl Classics party.  If you are a fan of sci-fi or weird fiction in general, you should check this out if you haven't already, but there is also a lot to unpack in here for a GM.  As I read this, two huge things jumped out for me, at least as far as finding inspiration for my games and gaming through other mediums.  First is the use of the story being told through a found object, and the second was using a location as a character.  

When I think about it, telling a story through an item has long been a staple in my gaming.  There are several ways to do this, but in this particular story, it is a little different than say a story like the Lord of the Rings series.  Using an item to drive or provide narrative is an easy way to add a layer of mystery to games.  I am writing this on the eve of the release of the new 5e book, Candlekeep Mysteries, and I am willing to be that a few of those will have stories told through finding a book that will hold the key to some part of the story.  Something along these lines is also interesting to do, because a book could be only one source of information.  The book could also be completely misleading, and false.  To be honest, these are things I often think about when prepping a game, and this story really helped me look at the different ways how I can do that.  

As the name of the story suggests, there is a house in the story.  Location as a character makes for great RPG content.  Some of my favorite all time adventures are really driven by the location when I think about the Sunless Citadel, the Temple of Elemental Evil, or even Castle Ravenloft or Death House.  While I feel like I really shouldn't need to sell anyone on using a location as a major part of a game, reading this sort of expanded and reinforced some of the things I do and can do in sessions.   

Since I know a lot of people haven't read this, I want to stop right there with discussing the story.  There is a lot more I took from this, but digging into it will give away stuff.  I also was planning on writing this a little while ago, and it has been talked about on Goodman Game's site that also goes into this.  If you haven't read it, I would strongly recommend, especially if you run games.