I get the best game ideas when I'm not focusing on gaming, so it's usually when I'm reading non-fiction.
The Enemy Within is a relatively new book about witch hunts. While I wasn't impressed with the book, every time I read one of the vignettes I thought about how cool it would be for the characters to get involved in a witch trial, whether as the victims, hunters, prosecutors, or jury. Even though magic works in fantasy RPG's, that doesn't mean everyone accused of witchcraft is guilty. Add in an "authoritative" book such as the Malleus Malficarum, can the characters find the real culprit, if any?
If I ever run another post-apocalyptic game, I will go through World Without Us with a fine-toothed comb first. Nearly every page gave me great ideas for a world where most people disappeared some time before. I love the image of decrepit skyscapers, most of the walls gone, covered in vegetation, occupied by feral cats feeding on the birds nesting in the heights, safe from the hungry predators below.
For travel to exotic locations, the first 50 pages of Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu is chock full of mythical peoples and mysterious locales, while much of the rest of the book is an interesting account of the political realities of the Mongol court.
You want a great story of ancient Egypt? Read pages 24-38 of Barbara Mertz' Red Land, Black Land. Her fictional ship captain journeys up the Nile, giving the author the opportunity to show off the land of Egypt and a few of the attitudes its people (likely) held. Want accounts of real temple builders and tomb robbers? Check out later chapters in the book. This stuff can be used in many types of games, not just an Egyptian-themed one.
wikipedia, like, from link to link.
