Which game books most inspire the "sense of wonder" in you?

I am so glad this thread was created. I have been wondering why my reading since lockdown has been so lackluster. And I think my sense of wonder has been harder to achieve and more muted when I reach it.

Something for me to ponder on (quite possibly with the help of an orb.) Lol

Umbran said:

Have you seen Swords of the Serpentine? It allows for skill spends not just for investigation, but also for action, which might fix that issue in other games.

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As a long-time Piratecat fanboy (including of course the Eversink saga) I was required by law to purchase Swords of the Serpentine.

It sat on my shelf for ages until PengraneCon several months ago when I finally got a chance to play it, and... solid B? I think Piratecat (and co-designer Emily Dresner) did a good job adapting Gumshoe to the more swashbuckling setting, but... it's still Gumshoe, a system designed primarily to solve the investigation problem, not the high-action problem.

That said! If you are not a long-time fanboy and don't know Eversink from EverQuest, you should definitely check out Swords of the Serpentine for the world building sense of wonder.

Joshua Randall said:

but... it's still Gumshoe, a system designed primarily to solve the investigation problem, not the high-action problem.

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When I was playing it (Piratecat was running the session) my Grey-mouser-esque character managed to grab his rope, and pull an acrobatic maneuver - leaping over the monster, looping the rope around the its neck as he arced over, and plummeting out a window to strangle the beast.

Seemed pretty high-action at the time. YMMV.

Bayern, for 2300CE. Introduces an Outside Context Situation which is part of why I consider 2300CE to really be cosmic horror, not adventure SF.

The paragraph in Mongoose's first 2300CE reincarnation from which I learned of an odd (and real!) property of a certain isotope of tantalum.

All (ok, most) supplements for The One Ring, of both editions, even though I no longer use the game system itself.

Tékumel. Just the concept and the fact that it exists in such detail.

Mercurius said:

Which brings me to the focus of this thread. Which RPG products inspire a sense of wonder in you? I don't mean which games, because that implies the playing of it. I am mostly curious about the products themselves - namely, books - that are more likely to generate the sense of wonder through opening them and diving into the world, story, landscape, what-have-you. Whether or not this arises during game play depends on other factors that are beyond the purview of this inquiry (e.g. the GM and to what degree they emphasize or try to generate the sense of wonder).

[...]

What about you?

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3e d20 Era Wonder: the wonder of someone new in the hobby

Eberron Campaign Setting (3e): there was a real novelty because it was the first new official D&D since I started playing D&D at the very beginning of 3e D&D and not a setting being recounted to me by grognards.

Arcana Unearthed (Monte Cook's Malhavoc Press): this alternate PHB back in the 3e era blew my d20 neophyte mind because it wasn't just repackaging Tolkienesque fantasy but, instead, drew on other fantasy literature

Book of the Righteous (Green Ronin): I go back to this book so often because this plug-in-play pantheon creates a sense of wonder through its adept use of myth and story

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D&D - Wizards Presents Worlds & Monsters (4e D&D): this was the book that explained the ethos of WotC's approach to world-building, cosmology, monsters, and setting in 4e D&D: i.e., Nentir Vale, World Axis, Dawn War Pantheon, etc. I love it precisely because it revitalized my already then jaded sense of wonder with D&D.

Numenera: the book drew me in with its sense of wonder about life surrounded by these relics of highly advanced ancient civilizations whose science is indistinguishable from magic

Stonetop: what is the mysterious fantasy world like for the ordinary people who live in this tiny Iron Age village?

Paleomythic - Stone & Sorcery: got my mind racing about what sword and sorcery would look like in a stone age setting

Earthdawn. So much great setting and adventure content.

Planescape. Still to this day Planescape and Sigil inspire some wonder and curiosity for me. I don’t know how would I run a game in it functionally, but for sheer creativity and sense of wonder it just sings.

Coriolis, and Symbaroum both get an honorable mention. My problem is they both feel designed to tell a specific story in, their meta-campaigns, so creative.

Pretty much everything published for DCC, particularly as I get older and dive deeper into OSR.

Queer Venger said:

Pretty much everything published for DCC, particularly as I get older and dive deeper into OSR.

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The modules are so, so good.