Five (or so) favorite RPG books for lore/reading pleasure

[Campbell]

Emerald Empire (L5R 5e)
Shadowlands (L5R 5e)
Demon - The Descent
Tenra Bansho Zero
Blades in the Dark

All great reads. All extremely gameable lore.

 

[Helldritch]

Strangely here are the few books that I read and re read times and times again.
RIFTS
Beyond the Supernatural
Temple of Elemental Evil
Vampire The Masquerade
World of Greyhawk: From the Ashes Box set.
Honorable Mentions: Ivid the Undying, Queen of Spiders, The Lost city and The Savage Frontier by Paul Jaquays.

 

[aramis erak]

Any game, any genre, any type of book. What are favorites for lore and reading pleasure? Meaning, which books could you pick up and get lost in for hours upon hours and either enjoy for considering gaming possibilities, or just the ideas themselves? While such books will trend towards settings, it doesn't have to be.

I've found myself rereading Palladium's Mechanoids trilogy and The Mechanoids... a lot of setting in odd ways...
Likewise, I find myself rereading Palladium Fantasy RPG,

Awesome setting work, mediocre system.

I also find myself rereading Gideon's Justifiers RPG... which, save for the enslavement angle, is an awesome gaming setting, and a good Sci-Fi premise.

Everything by Modiphius seems rereadable. I've a backlog of stuff to read where I bought the bundle of holding for the core, and haven't gotten through the supplements. Only current on STA...

 

[FriendlyFiend]

Planescape Campaign Setting (AD&D 2E)
Uncaged: Faces of Sigil (for Planescape)
The Yellow King (The Yellow King)
Bookhounds of London (Trail of Cthulhu)
Stonetop - Book Ii - The Wider World and Other Wonders (Stonetop)

 

[jdrakeh]

For lore specifically:

Black Pudding: Heavy Helping Volume I (Random Order Creations)
GURPS Madness Dossier (Steve Jackson Games)
GURPS Reign of Steel (Steve Jackson Games)
Maelstrom Storytelling (Hubris Games/Precis Intermedia)
Monster Care Squad (Sandy Pug Games)

 

[DeviousQuail]

Coriolis The Third Horizon - it's just so beautiful
Stars Without Number 2e - my intro to scifi ttrpgs and still inspires me while most others have fallen to the wayside
Old School Hack by Kirin Robinson - a reminder that simplicity is not my enemy

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I can think of a couple at least.

The One Ring 1st Edition. The whole thing, but especially the core books. The art is gorgeous, the lore is juicy, and the game itself filled me with ideas and made me very eager to play.

Heroes of The Feywild from late 4e. Probably my favorite D&D book to read, ever. Full of legends and folklore, fantastical locations, really makes the Feywild into a place you can be from and adventure in.

Galaxy Guide Nine by West End Games for their Star Wars RPG. It’s the one with popular musicians and cocktails. The whole series is fantastic, but the above makes it my favorite.

Races of Stone from 3.5. Goliaths, gnomes, so much cool ideas for cultural elements and stuff. Love it.

 

[innerdude]

1. Interface Zero 2.0 for Savage Worlds. The Deus Ex series of video games are my all time favorites. This gorgeous hardcover is pen and paper Deus Ex and it is amazing.
2. Star Wars Edge of the Empire. It really hits all the right notes in terms of the setting. The background information on the Imperial Security Bureau makes me want to play James Bond in space.
3. Ironsworn + Ironsworn: Delve. There's just something about the way Ironsworn presents it's exploration of the unknown that sets my imagination running.
4. Inner Sea World Guide. Yes it's a kitchen sink. But there's still so many easily graspable adventure hooks just waiting to be taken. Anything involving the Andoran Eagle Knights makes me happy.
5. D&D Rules Cyclopedia. There will always be a warm spot in my heart for the Known World.

 

[payn]

Paizo's Golarion setting Inner Sea Guide, Ultimate Campaign, and Game mastery Guide from PF1.

Fantasy Flight's World of Android RPG setting.

No book in particular, but I love Battletech setting lore when I can find it (RPG, Video Games, Novels).

 

[Yora]

Star Wars Gamemaster Guide for 2nd edition by WEG. The only gamemaster book I know that isn't a collection of tables and stat blocks and extended rules, but actually teaches how you run adventures. Single best RPG book ever, with advice that is always worth going back to.

Expert Rules for D&D. This little blue thing has all the knowledge and wisdom of how classic dungeon crawl adventures work.

Manual of the Planes for D&D 3rd edition. This one always provides me with endless idea for supernatural realms in any campaign setting I make.

Monsters of Faerûn for D&D 3rd edition. My favorite monster book ever. Lots of really cool monsters that are largely forgotten by the actual Monster Manuals. A few of them made it into the 5th ed. MM, but many other great ones are only in this or some obscure 2nd edition book. Every time I read it again, I remember monsters that I really need to try out in whatever campaign I'm just running.

Red Tide. Great resource on running sandbox games. Similar stuff as in Worlds Without Number, but I actually like this much more compact version a lot better.