Indispensable and Valuable Non-Fiction Sources

[Prisoner6]

Bulfinch's Mythology is a classical reference: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Bulfinchs-Mythology-Modern-Library-Classics/dp/0375751475]Amazon.com: Bulfinch's Mythology (Modern Library Classics): Thomas Bulfinch, Alberto Manguel: Books[/ame]

As is Edith Hamilton's Mythology: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Mythology-Edith-Hamilton/dp/0316341517]Amazon.com: Mythology: Edith Hamilton: Books[/ame]

 

[Prisoner6]

Bulfinch's Mythology is a classical reference: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Bulfinchs-Mythology-Modern-Library-Classics/dp/0375751475"]Amazon.com: Bulfinch's Mythology (Modern Library Classics): Thomas Bulfinch, Alberto Manguel: Books[/ame]

As is Edith Hamilton's Mythology: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Mythology-Edith-Hamilton/dp/0316341517"]Amazon.com: Mythology: Edith Hamilton: Books[/ame]

 

[Hella_Tellah]

Musui's Story: For games with a Japanese setting, this is a great source since it so wonderfully destroys most pre-conceptions of what samurai and Japanese society were actually like.

Seconding, thirding, and fourthing this recommendation. Must read for anyone interested in samurai. On the off chance that you're running your game in late 19th-Century Japan, Nakae Chomin's Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government gives you a really good look at Japan's competing political influences at the time.

For stuff on Rome--everyone eventually runs a game influenced by Rome--I count Henry Boren's Roman Society as the best look at how Roman culture worked--much more valuable to a game set in Rome than anything about the consuls and emperors. If it's a military game you're after, Caesar's Comentarii Bellum Gallicum remains very readable. If you're a bad enough dude to read Latin, it's also one of the nicest bits of prose written in Latin.

 

[Mark]

This might be helpful -

http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/21656-1000-non-rpg-websites-rpg-ideas.html

Add to it please, it somehow stagnated around 650 links.

 

[Tetsubo]

As a GM, one of the most useful books I have in my collection is -Pocket Ref- by Thomas J. Glover. It can be found in most hardware stores. Invaluable. I keep a copy on my desk and one at work. I've lost count of how many times it helped me during a game.

 

[TGryph]

As a Gurps GM, there are several items I keep on my bookshelf that have aidied me so much over the years in my campaign design that I would be lost without them, such as

A Good Thesaurus - a must for good descriptive writing

Various English to ? Dictionaries - very helpful for place and people names. If you have a country that speaks a Spanish sounding language, just converta good English sounding name to Spanish!

A Good Atlas - useful for design of land masses


TGryph

 

[Jack7]

Today, I just picked up these "travel guides" to the ancient world. I bought three; each one is a comprehensive travel guide to a certain location during a particular time period. There's one for Egypt, one for Greece, and one for Rome during 300 C.E. (the only exact date I remember).

They all go into things like the religious beliefs of the time, the political situations, and the exact map of the time. And it's all "in character". Really, I can't think of any other non-fiction source more suited for gaming. And I bought all three for around twenty bucks.

Wik, can you give titles, authors, etc?
They sound like they would be useful for both gaming and non-gaming purposes.

 

[Ydars]

I also have been heavily influenced by non fiction in my gaming, though not all is in books because some comes from my own experiences.

Sword-fighting; Talhoffer, Lichtenauer, Fiore de Battatia or "the flower of battle" by Fiore de Liberi (all of these are fight-books on how to sword fight written in the 12-14th century). Le Jue de Hache (the play of the axe"), I33 (Tower of London manuscript). Some of these are now available as modern commentaries. The Lichtenauer translation, by Christian Tobler is particularly good.

I have also done some test cutting with real swords and a fair bit of sword and buckler based marshal arts trying to reconstruct the old fight-book techniques. I once spent a week in Norway with a guy learning original 14th century longsword techniques. We lived in a reconstructed bronze age longhouse; fantastic!

I have a series of books on the various ages of history that refer to the Venerable Bede for Anglo-Saxon times and the Chronicles of Matthew Paris.

For riding knowledge, I draw on a trip I did to Mongolia where I lived on the plains with mongol families for about a month in Sept 07. I must have ridden many hundreds of miles and slept out of doors or in a Ger (mongol tent).

For bushcraft, l like the books by Ray Mears including "bushcraft", "wild-food" and "extreme survival"

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Stating the obvious, probably, but access to a good encyclopedia is always a plus, and the books major museums put out about their collections can be invaluable.

Those from the Smithsonian, British Museum of Natural History, MOMA, Leeds, Louvre, Vatican, Hermitage and others would contain info about world art, archaic arms and armor, flora and fauna, the modern and primitive worlds that simply can't be beat. With photos.

 

[pawsplay]

Thanks to Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade, I encountered A World Lit Only by Fire, a very interesting look at the High Medieval period and what distinguished it from what we would call the modern age.

Emperors and Gladiators covers not only the arena but some interesting facets of Roman virtu.

Burton's The Book of the Sword not only covers some early weapons, but dissects some of the vocabulary many people (especially gamers) take for granted. A look at the function of a sword, more than the taxonomy.

Aristotle's Poetics is good for anyone who wants think about thematics in art. I think RPGs are more like drama or poetry than they are novels, as their essence is in performance.

Hamilton's Mythology is good, and I prefer it to Bullfinch, which is also handy.

The Book of Five Rings should be read at least once by everyone interested in warfare in any time and any place, along with the Sun Tzu's classic The Art of War. There's a great cartoon book version of that I have.

Plato's The Republic is not only a powerful religious parable, but an interesting treatise on government and social virtue.