Essential books for starting a campaign

[Crothian]

My new campaign kicks off tommorrow and as I've been preparing I've also really been able to take a good look at some books to help me out. THe books I tend to use a a little more generic in nature but also really refelct the type of game I like to run.

Toolbox and World Builders: These two books I relaly like for the detail they allow me to use. Its fun to prepare from books like these that allow me to insert the extra level of sesonry and bringing the world alive. I should also add Tabletop Games Bits of series. THose are PDFs that have descriptions in them to help DMs.

The next type of book are the lists books. Ronin arts is pretty much the king of these. THe book of Unusualy treasure Ronin arts did with Bad Axe Games is the main one I use though I will refer to many of the different PDFs in the coming months. Like above it is really about just more little details that make can make a campaign relaly cool.

The third type of book I really use are generic palces. The Book of Taverns Necrmoancer put out is the perfect example. Atlas put out the Sacred Ground books as well and these places are also ready to be inserted into my game with ease.

Lastly, are the little adventure quirks. Mystic Eye games had a great 4 book series on this the Foul Locales. Atlas also has the EN Route books that I use. These types of books are filled with little adventures usually very site based.

So, what are the essential books for your campaign and why?

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

The book that I find myself using all the time is Seven Cities by Atlas Games. I've used maps, npcs, buildings, etc. from it. It's a great resource when I need a village, town, or city that will have some PC interaction, but is not important enough to warrent me taking the time to stat everything out myself.

Toolbox is also essential for my game prep, as are several of the Ronin Arts Dozen series.

 

[Psion]

Mystic Eye games had a great 4 book series on this the Foul Locales.

Did I miss one?

Anyway, to the question.

I find that whatever campaign concept have, I have a small cadre of books that help define the campagn. For my planar/seafaring game, those have been (largely) Spells & Magic, Seas of Blood, Portals & Planes, and Classic Play: Book of the Planes.

I also use Toolbox and En Route II.

More in the vein of what you are talking about, I am finding Green Ronin's Pocket Magica indispensible. Yes, it's 3.0. But having price listings of a big variety of items helps me quickly assign unique items to NPCs.

 

[trancejeremy]

Hmmm. I like the Book of Taverns, but I didn't find the taverns to be terribly generic, I think I ended up only using 2 of them. OTOH, I did find 7 Cities to be a pretty slick product and useful.

I find Arms & Armor from Bastion to be very very useful.

 

[Crothian]

Did I miss one?

Urban Blight
Behind the Gate
Beyond the Walls
Of Places most foul (I guess not technically part of the foul local series, but in the same vein)

 

[DMH]

Did I miss one?

Of Places Most Foul can be considered the first because it does have 3 or 4 Foul Locals.

As for the question, I build societies using Crime and Punishment, Dynasties and Demagogues, Beast Builder, the 2nd ed World Builder's Handbook, Aria and Aria Worlds (thanks Joe!) and I look through Occult Lore and AEG's Magic if I am aiming for a one type of magic setting. After I have the socio-political climate and magic thought out, then I start digging in other books, mostly monster ones to finish out the core idea of the setting.

I want to note that the first 6 books I mention are also important to me for sci-fi and sci-fan settings as well. My campaigns of Gamma World are rarely micro-enclaves of people in wastelands.

Edit- I forgot Guildcraft, Wilds and Wildscape.

 

[Psion]

Of Places most foul (I guess not technically part of the foul local series, but in the same vein)

Ah. I don't think I have one.

I keep looking for places to poke some of the other locales in, but few are popping up yet.

I think that the Foul Locales book could have used more succinct punchy summaries, so you could insert them at a short notice, like En Route. As it is, I almost feel like some of them really take thorough readings, and if I have that much time, I tend to make my own adventures anyways.

 

[Psion]

the 2nd ed World Builder's Handbook

That one truly is useful. It needs to be in every serious world-builder's toolkit.

And thanks to the miracle of ESD's, it can be!

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1484&

 

[DragonLancer]

2nd ed AD&D Worldbuilder's Handbook, and A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe are both important to my campaign designing. Outside of those two I start towards books like Frostburn, Sandstorm and the like. Manual of the Planes is another important one.