We at the DMR Blog like to mark the occasion of significant anniversaries with a post. Usually we’re paying tribute to a famous author on his birth or death day, but today I’m going to talk about the twenty-fifth anniversary of a book which turned out to have a significant impact on my life. It wasn’t a work of fiction, or a self-help book, but a supplement for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

The Complete Book of Necromancers by Steve Kurtz was released in the spring of 1995, and came and went fairly quickly. Luckily a friend of mine snagged one shortly after it came out. Ostensibly the book was intended for the eyes of Dungeon Masters only, but of course we were hungry to add the new spells and powers to our player characters’ repertoires.

It wasn’t until three years later that I found a copy for myself and was able to read it from cover to cover. One thing stood out to me: Unlike all other 2nd Edition AD&D sourcebooks, The Complete Book of Necromancers explicitly admitted its inspiration from literary sources and encouraged players and DMs to do likewise. The 1st Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide had its Appendix N, which today is well-known and even revered, but other than Necromancers, there was nothing comparable in 2nd Edition.

Kurtz mentioned many authors throughout the book, but one name appeared far more frequently than any other.