When I was ten, I was gifted basic D&D by my parents, but failed to "get" it until a month later when I found Gamma World 1st. It was all down hill from there. During that time, I had just discovered Robert E. Howard, Tolkien, Lovecraft and Piers Anthony's Xanth. Subsequent influences at that young age included Robert Aspirin's Myth Adventures and Philip Jose Farmer.
Now, the overall influences on my gaming habit are too numerous to count, but I can look back and see trends in my "younger" days. When I went to college in 1989, for example, I studied anthropology and archaeology. My games and campaigns were suddenly much more tightly defined, and I ran adventures where the ancient past was more involving, or where historical elements became very important.
I also had a new round of "profoundly influencing" authors, who contributed to a more surreal and darker approach to many games, including Hunter Thompson, William S. Burroughs, Tim Powers and Neal Stephenson. These guys still influence me as much as Howard, Farmer and Lovecraft do.
These days, I'm probably most influenced by the new-wave science fiction of Ian Banks, Jack McDevitt, and Charles Stross. I'm also very happy with the state of modern horror fiction as defined by Brian Keene, Simon Clark, and others. Of course, now I've reached the point where I really can't tell you if my taste in fiction is inspired by my gaming habits or vice versa....it all seems to have melded just a bit to much!
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