Thanks for reminding me to pick up the new Paranoia stuff. I’ve been looking forward to it. I have no prospects for playing it, but I must read it.
Also from Mongoose, I recommend Encyclopaedia Arcane: Nymphology and The Quintessential Temptress, both of which are rude, crude, and quite amusing. Nymphology deals with sex-related magic, detailing such spells as Speedy Undress and Power Word: Orgasm. Temptress is a guide to PCing as a prostitute, including rules for running brothels. My last group actually used some stuff from Nymphology in the campaign, but the books are mostly for amusement. Both are pay-to-download PDFs.
On a more serious note, there’s Nobilis: A Game of Greater Powers. I picked it up with an eye to playing over the net with Steven Wright and a couple of others, but it fell through. It’s a good read, though–a very rich background with fun story snippets. The combat examples are wild. After all, you basically play a god, and fight with miracles related to your domain.
Check out www.rpg.now for a free copy of Ars Magica, which was the start of all things WW. The magic system in this game can’t be beat (of course, the Mage system is this distilled greatly into the Storyteller system), although Atlas games made this version really ugly and boring to read. I have a copy of 3rd ed which is great.
I was considering buying the new Vampire and WoD specifically to read although I balked at the price…
BattleTech has a very involved universe set in the 31st centruy. There are quite a few novels out there to go with it, though the source material is enjoyable enough on its own. Most of it is written from the POV of people in the BattleTech universe. And it has giant mecha.
I’m reading the Wheel of Time RPG rulebook right now, as it happens. Glanced throught it when I bought it a couple years back, never really read it. It’s a really well-put-together piece of work, gamewise and settingwise.
Doubt I’ll ever actually be able to get a game together, though. 'Cause if you follow the literary lead for adventure pacing, it’ll take six years to reach second level, and who wants to deal with that?
I bought the DnD “Manual of the Planes” a few months ago, and I haven’t played a roleplaying game in years. I just like reading about all the different locations and universes and whatnot.
I’m the kind of reader whose appreciation for a fantasy novel doubles if there’s a cool-looking map included; I guess this is related.
If you don’t mind reading things as PDFs drivethrurpg.com offers a place to download a lot of books that might be hard to find and cost too much to order in hard copy. Better yet they have some free books. Yup, they want to get you hooked on RPGs. I believe Exalted and Witchcraft are both free still, both are pretty good reads. Though Exalted is regarded as highly addictive among RPG fans. This may require playing it.
Unknown Armies is a good read. The game is a post-modern horror game, filled with weirdness. Also, one of the writers of the game wrote and self published a UA novel recently. I think the first 200 copy run of Godwalker is sold out, but he may do another run soon.
Nobilis is, as mentioned, very good and very odd. The writer of that also wrote a good deal of an Exalted supplement (Sidereals) and an upcomming one (Fair Folk). She is a bit crazy, but very fun to read. Her posts on RPG.net are gold.
Finally, Adept Press (www.sorcerer-rpg.com) offers the most interesting games to read in terms of understanding the act of playing RPGs and thinking about how RPGs are designed. Sorcerer and Trollbabe are both quite interesting, but I think they are easier to appreciate if one actually plays them. The author has stated that two of the sorcerer supplements (Sorcerer’s Soul and Sex & Sorcery) only make sense if read by individuals actively engaged in playing the game, as they talk about a lot of metagame issues.
On another note I am sadly limited to only reading RPGs at the moment. I have no gaming group. I’ll have to see if I can build one out of my coworkers. This is especially true of Trollbabe, which I just downloaded. I have played Sorcerer, and it enhanced the reading of Sorcerer’s Soul quite a bit.
Back during and before the days of the 1991(?) Secret Service raid on the Steve Jackson Games offices, they ran a single-line BBS from their offices in Austin. IIRC, it ran on an Atari, on homegrown code, was named the Illuminati BBS, and offered simple email and various message areas, and a 30-minute per day time limit.
One of the message areas was a MPSIMS-thread-like forum, with the name Illuminati University. And pretty much all of the material for the sourcebook was drawn from the improv roleplaying that went on there… the campus, the characters, the situations, the sacrificial freshman class… everything.
I didn’t participate much, since it was a very cliquish group of insiders and hard to break into. But it was still great fun to read.
Actually I thought I was a weirdo for doing this! Glad to see I’m not the only one. A well-written, complex, detailed world will draw me in anytime.
I have a bunch of Shadowrun stuff, some Call of Cthulhu, Gurps Cyberworld, Orpheus and the “ghoul” supplement for VtM. I’ve also read a lot of Werewolf material in the bookstore (I ain’t made of money, I can’t buy everything. ).
Never got into Mage; it didn’t seem to make much sense.
Since the WotC stores all closed, though, it’s getting hard to find anything but D&D locally. Are there any decent game stores left in the DC area?
Last summer after I moved, I went through and re-read through all my old Traveller paraphernalia - this was the old “black book” version mind you - all the rules and modules and magazine supplements. Your basic bedside reading.
Lately I have been burning through some of the Warhammer 40,000 novels, the “Gaunt’s Ghosts” series in particular. They are quite the little page turners, I must confess.
Haven’t touched any D&D material in years but I know I have a big stack of Dragon magazines from the 80’s somewhere. Hmmm
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The way they want you to have Acrobat Reader and the DRM stuff even for the free stuff is a bit annoying. I don’t have Windows and I don’t want it; Acrobat on Linux does not appear to provide the Rights Management features they want.
Pity, I was curious about some of the freebies they offer.
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Man, I tried downloading some of their stuff today and boy did it suck. Of course, it was probably Acrobat not initializing the DRM stuff, but I’m still blaming those guys.
Also, I understand that they are scanned images resulting in freakin’ huge delays in everything you do with them.
Cool idea though and I checked and the only two free things worth looking at were Witchcraft and Traveller 2300. And not really Witchcraft.
I can think of no better excuse to remind people of Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game. I ran one game of it, and the players hated it. But I must admit that they weren’t properly prepared for what to expect. In retrospect, I should have explained to them that the game would be like Paranoia, only you get to co-operate. It’s a game written by people who see the “Are you a god?” scene as the essence of the Ghostbusters – Call of Chthulu starring Wyle E. Coyote and The Road Runner. It’s hillarious if, um, you happen to be the Ghostmaster.
If you can find it, pick it up. The humor will be familiar to fans of Paranoia, even though it’s not so dark. I haven’t had a chance to see the Men in Black RPG WEG put out before it went belly-up, but I have a strong suspicion that it’s more or less a new coat of paint on Ghostbusters.
Wandered by my local gaming store a few hours back and noticed some idjit had sold his copy of Chaosium’s 5th edition HP Lovecraft’s Dreamlands hardcover sourcebook. After squealing like a little girl I picked it up for half off list. I’ve just spent two happy hours reading maybe a quarter of it.
It basically feels like a drugged up Moorcockian setting with all the depressing bits removed, a bit of squiddy horror mixed in and then run through the surrealization machine a few times. Although I am not a big fan of Lovecraft’s dreamlands stories (they always felt somewhat…forced…compared to his other fare), it’s a great read.
I just wanted to mention that I have two copies of the Paranoia Second Edition rulebook on my shelf – one dog-eared and falling apart from all the times I’ve re-read it, and one pristine and untouched, to be used when the first copy is finally beyond the Reach of The Computer to save…
One RPG supplement that I’ll bet no one has read would be the Tooniversal Tour Guide from Steve Jackson Games. It’s a supplement to their Toon role-playing game, and documents ten “game worlds” you can use in your campaigns. “Doc” Cross’ manic writing style is infectiously giggle-worthy from cover to cover…
I’ve whiled away many a pleasant hour reading D&D books at Borders. Just fascinating stuff, particularly the ones that really delve into real-world issues (exp. Book of Exalted Deeds). IMHO, not worth upwards of $30 if that’s all you’re getting them for, though.
One thing I find particularly interesting is seeing how entire paradigms can change seemingly overnight. For example, the Hero Builder’s Guide makes it clear that dwarf sorcerers and wizards have it hard due to the dwarven mistrust of magic. Sorcerers are at best pitied, and often leave their homes out of shame. Wizards are utterly mistrusted and loathed by their communities and must live their entire lives apart from their race. The book even goes so far to say that playing a dwarven wizard actively defies some of the most deeply-held beliefs about the game. I saw nothing wrong with this; every race is different, and some choices are better for some people than others. In Races of Stone, however, not only are sorcerers and wizards accepted in dwarven society, so is magic itself! I’m sure there are other examples, but this is the one that really made me say, whoa, where’d that come from?
The original Paranoia stuff was every bit as much fun to read as to play.
So was the original Toon stuff.
GURPS’ sourcebooks are great; not only fun, but often very educational, particularly their historical stuff (Arabian Nights, Egypt, Rome) and their generic technology books (High-Tech, Low-Tech), and even their genre stuff (*GURPS Swashbucklers * reads like a highly compressed history of Europe during the period of musketeers and piracy on the high seas).
RIFTS isn’t as educational, but is every bit as much fun to read. Never played it, though.
White Wolf’s stuff is written, I think, as much to read as it is to play. Nobody does flavor text like these guys.
WOTC, it’s true, reads like an instruction manual, but at least Dungeons and Dragons has some really good art these days. The Hastings bookstores in my area are unloading the old 3rd edition books for less than $5 each.
I recently picked up a d20 setting called Dragonmech. In this world, the lunar gods have moved the moon closer to earth and have sent raiding parties and meteor showers to scour the surface. The dwarfs were the first race to fight back, using enormous city sized mechs powered by steam. Soon other races began building mechs in different styles and sized, powered by clockworks, muscle, or magic - these last are sort of like golems with a cockpit. New character classes evolved to fill the needs created along with these mechs. It’s a very weird and cool setting, especially if you’re into steampunk.
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