What books unrelated to TTRPGs are the most useful to you for TTRPGs?

[R_J_K75]

Not a "book" per say, but I've found comics to be an amazing source of inspiration.

My group and I considered running a combat/battle heavy campaign at one point because we weren't interested in a plot that was too involved. My immediate thought was to run to use the original Marvel Secret Wars as a template for the game. Never happened though. Maybe someday.

Wikipedia has made all of that obsolete,

I went back to college in Fall of 2005. At that time you weren't allowed to use Wikipedia as a reference or citation for papers, when I graduated in 2010 it was almost expected.

 

[pemerton]

JRRT, esp Lord of the Rings

REH, esp Tower of the Elephant, The God in the Bowl, The Scarlet Citadel

 

[Greg K]

I tend to reference the following books depending upon my needs:
Daniel Boxberger (editor), Native North Americans an Ethnohistorical Approach
de Bulj, Muller, and Ninjman, The World Today: Concepts and Regions in Geography
Ember and Ember, Cultural Anthropology
la Croix and Tansey, Gardener's Art Through the Ages 18th ed 1 Ancient, Medieval, and Non-European Art
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel
Fred Kleiner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages Non-Western Perspectives 13th ed
Oswalt and Neely, This Land Was Theirs: A Study of North American Indians
Stein and Stein, The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft 3ed (I just realized my copy is missing from the shelf)
von Sivers, Desnoyers, & Stow, Patterns of World History v1 to 1600
Werner, Myths & Legends of China

Michael Echanis, Basic Stick Fighting for Combat
Michael Echanis, Knife Self Defense for Combat
Leo T. Fong, Choy Lay Fut Chinese Art of Self Defense
Leo T. Fong, SIl Lum Kung Fu The Chinese Art of Self-Defense
Jane Hallander, The Complete Kung Fu Fighting Styles
Joo Bang Lee, The Ancient Art of Hwarang do vol. 1-3
Peter Lewis, The Martial Arts Traditions A Beginner's Guides to the Techniques of Kung Fu, Karate, Taekwondo, and Ninjutsu
Peter Lewis, The Martial Arts Origins, Philosophy, Practice
Willie Lin, TIen Shan P'ai Kung Fu
A. Pluger, Karate Basic Principles
Scott Shaw, Hapkido Korean Art of Self Defense
Bruce Tegner, Bruce Tegner's Complete Book of Karate Second Revised Edition
Doc-Fai Wong and Jane Hallander Shaolin Five Animals Kung Fu
Douglas Wong, Deceptive Hands of Wing Chun,

 

[Greg K]

I went back to college in Fall of 2005. At that time you weren't allowed to use Wikipedia as a reference or citation for papers, when I graduated in 2010 it was almost expected.

I am back in school for a new degree. While most of my instructors do not allow Wikipedia as a reference, I was surprised that one instructor allowed it as a primary source while two or three other have allowed Wikipedia as a secondary reference after a set number of academic or other acceptable primary sources

 

[R_J_K75]

I am back in school for a new degree. While most of my instructors do not allow Wikipedia as a reference, I was surprised that one instructor allowed it as a primary source while two or three other have allowed Wikipedia as a secondary reference after a set number of academic or other acceptable primary sources

Seems odd to me that its still not allowed as much as I thought it was. I may be misremembering then. The information on Wikipedia is pretty heavily vetted from what I understand. I always hated not being able to use a calculator, closed book tests. etc considering that there's not a boss on the planet that's going to say, "I need you to get me an answer, but no book, no computer and absolutely no calculator".

 

[pemerton]

In the pre-internet days I would not expect students to lean heavily on an encyclopaedia for their references. These days I wouldn't expect them to lean heavily on Wikipedia.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Seems odd to me that its still not allowed as much as I thought it was. I may be misremembering then. The information on Wikipedia is pretty heavily vetted from what I understand. I always hated not being able to use a calculator, closed book tests. etc considering that there's not a boss on the planet that's going to say, "I need you to get me an answer, but no book, no computer and absolutely no calculator".

I had back in the day an exsm on a simulation-course at universitet college where we were allowed to use everything except communicstion device, computers, and human consultants. They used the same exam every year. And ut only had 3 question, though one question had two parts. Part a: make a model fo a certain something, and part B: make a better more refined version. One guy had bought with him the papper someone else had written in s previous year (and had passed with excellence on). As time ran out (we had 5 hours, and more than half uof all students used all of it), he simpy adttachade that prior exam answer and handled it in as his answer. He passed (though not with excellence).

 

[R_J_K75]

I had back in the day an exsm on a simulation-course at universitet college where we were allowed to use everything except communicstion device, computers, and human consultants. They used the same exam every year. And ut only had 3 question, though one question had two parts. Part a: make a model fo a certain something, and part B: make a better more refined version. One guy had bought with him the papper someone else had written in s previous year (and had passed with excellence on). As time ran out (we had 5 hours, and more than half uof all students used all of it), he simpy adttachade that prior exam answer and handled it in as his answer. He passed (though not with excellence).

Im pretty positive the person in your example learned nothing if they just used or stole someone elses work. My point was whether its academically, professionally or recreationally sometimes knowing how and where to find a piece of information, come up with an answer and having the tools to do so is just as good as committing it to memory. Obviously though there are going to be situations where you arent going to have that luxury.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Im pretty positive the person in your example learned nothing if they just used or stole someone elses work. My point was whether its academically, professionally or recreationally sometimes knowing how and where to find a piece of information, come up with an answer and having the tools to do so is just as good as committing it to memory. Obviously though there are going to be situations where you arent going to have that luxury.

The point of an exam isn't teach something, and in a real situation, you will have access to tools. The question is rather do you understand the task and the information.

 

[Richards]

My worst college exam was a statistics course I took. We were allowed to use calculators, so no problem, right? The problem came when the solar-powered calculator I had been using - and which worked perfectly fine in the classroom in which all of the classes had been - didn't get enough power from the diffused lighting in the large auditorium in which the final exam was being held to actually work. So I had to take that exam without the benefit of my calculator, frantically doing all of my calculations by hand on the backs of the exam papers. It took so much longer that way I ran out of time before finishing all of the questions....

Needless to say, my score on that exam was not as high as it could have been, and I went out and purchased a battery-powered calculator later the same day. Lesson learned, the hard way.

Johnathan