E. Gary Gygax
American game designer and writer, co-creator of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, co-founder of TSR, and a leading influence on tabletop role-playing games.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. Dungeons And Dragons Fantasy Game Basic Rule Book
A concise introductory rulebook that lays out the core mechanics and procedures for tabletop fantasy role-playing, covering character creation and advancement, basic classes and races, combat and magic systems, monsters and treasure, and guidelines for referees on designing dungeons and running adventures; it provides sample encounters, maps, and rules for resolving actions, experience, and equipment to help players and game masters start and manage ongoing campaigns.
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2. Expedition To The Barrier Peaks
A group of frontier adventurers exploring a forbidding mountain range stumbles on the wreck of a strange, otherworldly craft and must fight its robots, mutants, and automated defenses as they probe dim corridors and laboratories, puzzle over alien devices, and salvage dangerous technologies and treasures; the story is a pulpy blend of sword-and-sorcery exploration and science-fiction discovery in which magic and medieval adventuring clash with futuristic machinery and unexpected hazards.
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3. S1 Tomb Of Horrors
A notoriously lethal dungeon adventure that challenges high-level parties with fiendish traps, deadly illusions, and cunning puzzles devised by an ancient demilich named Acererak. Rather than straightforward combat, the scenario rewards careful observation, deductive thinking, and cautious exploration as players navigate false doors, hidden pits, trapped treasures, and cryptic mechanisms, with many instant-death hazards and deceptions that punish greed and carelessness. Originally created as a tournament test of skill and wits, it emphasizes puzzle-solving and survival over balanced encounters, making cunning the key to escape.
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4. The Keep On The Borderlands
Set at a rough frontier stronghold protecting a wild border, the adventure sends low-level player characters from a beleaguered keep into nearby ruins and the notorious Caves of Chaos to investigate raids and strange creatures. Acting as a sandbox-style introductory module, it offers a mix of wilderness travel, social encounters with settlers and brigands, and dungeon crawls against goblinoids, kobolds, ogres, and other threats, with opportunities for exploration, negotiation, and combat as the party uncovers rival tribes' plots and ancient hazards. The keep serves as a base for rest and resupply while multiple entry points and branching encounters encourage varied play and replayability.
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5. World Of Greyhawk
Fantasy Game Setting
A foundational fantasy campaign-setting volume that maps a richly detailed continent of the world of Oerth, presenting its geography, climates, cultures, political boundaries, notable cities and factions, and a full pantheon of deities for use in tabletop role-playing. It summarizes epochs of ancient empires and recent wars, offers regional timelines and lore, describes monsters, magic and notable NPCs, and supplies adventure hooks, campaign notes and staging material to help referees run diverse campaigns across many levels.
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6. Monster Manual Ii
A companion bestiary for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, this volume collects a wide array of new and unusual creatures complete with game statistics, descriptions of appearance and behavior, habitat and lair notes, tactics, treasure and experience values, and evocative illustrations—serving as a practical resource for referees who want to broaden encounters, enrich campaign ecology, and introduce fresh adversaries and allies for player characters.
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9. Oriental Adventures
A tabletop role‑playing supplement that adapts core rules to an East Asian–inspired setting, offering new character classes (samurai, ninja, martial artist/monk, and others), culturally flavored spells, weapons, armor, monsters, and magic items, plus setting background, campaign guidelines, encounter ideas, and adventure seeds to help game masters run stories rooted in that milieu.
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10. Unearthed Arcana
A Collection of New Rules for Use with AD&D
A supplement for a tabletop fantasy role‑playing game that collects a wide range of optional material—new character options, additional classes and races, expanded spells and magic items, monsters, and variant rules—intended to broaden and customize play beyond the core rulebooks; it presents experimental mechanics and campaign tools for referees and players to adopt selectively, and was notable for both enriching play options and stirring debate about balance and compatibility with existing rules.
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11. Dungeon Masters Guide
A practical guide for running and shaping fantasy role-playing campaigns, offering comprehensive advice on designing dungeons and wilderness adventures, creating and balancing encounters, managing nonplayer characters and treasure, and adjudicating rules and player actions; it collects tables and examples for monsters, magic items, traps, and random treasure while presenting variant rules, campaign-building techniques, and refereeing philosophy to help a game master create coherent worlds, challenging scenarios, and engaging play sessions.
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12. Players Handbook
A foundational core rulebook for a fantasy tabletop role‑playing game that explains how to create and develop player characters, select races and classes, assign abilities, and advance in levels; it lays out mechanics for combat, skill checks, equipment, and magic, provides archetypes and spells, and offers guidance and reference material so players and game masters can run coherent adventures and resolve actions consistently.