Jürgen Hubert
First Post
Plenty of us set campaigns in a modern-day or near-future version of Earth - a vast setting with an abundance of possibilities and background information, of which only a minuscule fraction has been pressed into role-playing game books. For this reason, I'd like to start a thread about suggestions for non-fiction books that will help gamers understand this setting better. Possibilities include:
- Books on different countries and culture.
- Books that detail how criminals, mercenaries, armies, spies, diplomats etc. operate.
- Books about social, cultural, economic and technological trends likely to influence the coming years of the 21st century.
That covers a vast spectrum, but the limitation should be that these books should be applicable to gaming. For example, travel books won't qualify if all they do is list typical tourist traps in the countries they cover - they need to contain material that should be obviously useful to typical "adventuring situations" (if in doubt, make some suggestions for adventures and/or campaigns using the material in the book). If necessary, explain a bit why the book is relevant to this thread.
I'll start:
McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld by Misha Glenny: Details the vast, international criminal networks that have sprung up since the end of the Cold War, as well as how they operate. The usefulness of this book should be obvious.
Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh: Details the micro-level of the informal and often criminal economy of a poor neighborhood in Chicago. Should be required reading for anyone running a "street level" cyberpunk campaign, since this book essentially explains how "the Street" works.
Note: This was crossposted from RPGNet, so you might want to check out this thread, which already has quite a few suggestions.
- Books on different countries and culture.
- Books that detail how criminals, mercenaries, armies, spies, diplomats etc. operate.
- Books about social, cultural, economic and technological trends likely to influence the coming years of the 21st century.
That covers a vast spectrum, but the limitation should be that these books should be applicable to gaming. For example, travel books won't qualify if all they do is list typical tourist traps in the countries they cover - they need to contain material that should be obviously useful to typical "adventuring situations" (if in doubt, make some suggestions for adventures and/or campaigns using the material in the book). If necessary, explain a bit why the book is relevant to this thread.
I'll start:
McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld by Misha Glenny: Details the vast, international criminal networks that have sprung up since the end of the Cold War, as well as how they operate. The usefulness of this book should be obvious.
Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh: Details the micro-level of the informal and often criminal economy of a poor neighborhood in Chicago. Should be required reading for anyone running a "street level" cyberpunk campaign, since this book essentially explains how "the Street" works.
Note: This was crossposted from RPGNet, so you might want to check out this thread, which already has quite a few suggestions.
