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

[R_J_K75]

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

Wow, what a horror story. I took statistics, statics, physics and a few other math based courses and had alot of trouble with them. In fact I took all my math for that curriculum backwards from the advice from my guidance counselor no less. Im not good at math to begin with but I couldnt understand why I was having so much trouble. Without a calculator Id never have passed, and wouldve walked out of that exam if that had happened to me.

 

[The Green Hermit]

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.

As a teacher, you are wrong.

 

[R_J_K75]

As a teacher, you are wrong.

I never found rote memorization that effective, at least not for me.

 

[Ulfgeir]

As a teacher, you are wrong.

Well, that exam was explicitly NOT to check that we knew facts,, but rather how we would obtain the desired result, and understanding how we thought. And we had already done a rather large project on the course, which we had already handed in. And reusing your own or someone elses material is a staple in IT (nowadays, at least. Might not have been so back in the early/mid 90s)...

 

[The Green Hermit]

I never found rote memorization that effective, at least not for me.

It doesn't need to be rote memorization. The thinking, however, should come from your own brain.

 

[R_J_K75]

It doesn't need to be rote memorization. The thinking, however, should come from your own brain.

If I had to guess I would assume teaching techniques have evolved since I was in grammar school and high school. Which back then 99.9% of tests were based on whether you memorized the material or not.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Any "book on nature". Seriously...nature has the absolute BEST ideas, as well as the WORST ideas. Everything in between is pure 99% creation-juice!

Also, almost any "religious book". Religions of the world have some really interesting and 'out there' ideas about the "big picture". You have your nature books for 'mundane campaign world stuff'...so grab the nearest religious bible you have and dig into a wonderous well of 'multiversal campaign world stuff'.

Lastly, books on "supernatural" stuff. Books about ghost hunting, or 'recorded history' hauntings, and just plain ol' wierd "we-have-no-explanation" stories. The "Missing 411" series by David Paulides. There's a guy on Youtube who relays many of these stories and he does an AMAZING job at it. Fascinating, disturbing, and downright terrifying sometimes! Here: "MrBallen".. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtPrkXdtCM5DACLufB9jbsA

Those are the "broad brush" categories of books I read (or stories I listen to) in order to get ideas and a better understanding of what might be believable, fantastical AND interesting all in one.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[R_J_K75]

Lastly, books on "supernatural" stuff. Books about ghost hunting, or 'recorded history' hauntings, and just plain ol' wierd "we-have-no-explanation" stories

Definitely interesting stuff to mine for D&D and other RPGs. In the 80s me and my buddy used to laugh at the Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown books series commercials. They were hilarious, but the books were great. Paranormal shows are a dime a dozen on cable these days, some better and more believable than others.

The Curse of the Crying Boy Paintings has been on quite a bit recently.

The Crying Boy - Wikipedia

 

[MGibster]

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".

As an undergraduate, our instructor assigned us an article on Wikipedia about the Battle of Cowpens and critique it for accuracy, balance, etc., etc., and we found that it was well written. While Wikipedia wasn't a valid secondary source for a history paper, it's not a bad place to learn a little something about a subject you have very little knowledge of and it's great being able to mine the article for valid sources. I've found that most of the articles on Wikipedia are accurate but your really have to take care about controversial subjects.

And Wikipedia is a great place to find inspiration for gaming material. Just try to look up articles about archeological grave sites without being inspired to put something into a game. And there's plenty of fodder for inspiring a PC or NPC.

 

[pemerton]

While Wikipedia wasn't a valid secondary source for a history paper, it's not a bad place to learn a little something about a subject you have very little knowledge of

I would agree with this.