Non-gaming references for your games

[tkdguy]

I often use books not related to gaming as reference guides for my campaigns. I have a ton of MERP material for my Middle-earth campaign, but if I didn't I would be okay using just Karen Wynn Fonstad's work, The Atlas of Middle-earth and Robert Foster's book, The Complete Guide to Middle-earth. Likewise, I can use Bulfinch's Mythology and Le Morte D'Arthur as primary sources.

 

Encyclopedias are handy resources. I once used an old edition of Encyclopedia Britannica to find out information for my Castle Falkenstein game.

 

Has anyone else done the same thing? If so, which sources have you used?

[Duke Bushido]

Not really helpful, I suppose, but I used to use my grandfather and great uncles for references for historical settings.  Yes: I'd drag through the libraries and my encyclopedias and even really old repair guides and catalogues and whatever else, but it's way different reading "this is how it worked and what it did" than it is getting an understanding of how it was viewed, interacted with, and how it impacted day-to-day life.

 

Back just before the turn of the century, I'd figured I'd waited long enough for Hero Games 2e much-advertised title "Privateer," and had a hare-brained notion to write it myself.  Bought up several old books on sailing vessels-- their use, customs, maintenance, etc---

 

Never did find the time to write it, and I have long-since sold the books to nautical collectors. 

 

 

[Tjack]

   I actually used books like Goodfellas, Casino, and others on the Mafia when working out how the Saietta’s would operate and Culthulu novels on their demonic aspects.  “Leave the ritual knife, take the cannolis.”

[Barton]

For my current Teen Champions game I used the animated series DC Superhero Girls (from several years ago, not the current series), and the Disney movie Sky High, for my game set in a superhero high school.

[Spence]

I like to run a lot of pulp so the WPA city guides are great. 

 

For other games I use a lot of history books.  I don't like to try and make the game too realistic, after all we are playing for adventure.  But knowing what was there helps weave a better story.

 

I especially like and have an extensive library about ships up to the 1950's.  Not books listing who did what, I frankly could give a hoot about that, but books on the technology and the how/why things were done.  I guess that is why I have such a disgust for the existing RPG products out there. 

 

To give you an idea of what I mean, imagine if a company put out a supplement based on the chariot races in coliseum.  The product is advertised as a historically based fantasy supplement.  The sample vehicles are Chariot, Horse, Motorcycle, Formula Race Car.  Yep, because they are all types of transportation it's all good.  Never mind what we announced and that we couldn't be bothered to do 15 minutes of research.  Pure lazy garbage.

 

Anyway, good solid history books, not about who, but the tech and methods, are a great aid to building up a game. 

 

 

 

[Cygnia]

I've got books on historical weaponry and crafting mysteries on my shelf.

[rravenwood]

22 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Back just before the turn of the century, I'd figured I'd waited long enough for Hero Games 2e much-advertised title "Privateer,"

 

Hiya Duke.  If you're referring to the "Privateer" advertised in the early issues of Adventurers Club (and elsewhere, if fuzzy memory serves), that was actually a boardgame which Hero Games ended up distributing for a while (I have no idea about how or why that happened...).  I don't think I played it myself, but I know I at least saw it being played at a convention back in the mid-80s.  According to boardgamegeek.com, it ended up being renamed at some point to "Pirateer": https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/386/pirateer.

[Scott Ruggels]

I have a large wall of books on weapons, costumes, uniforms and old military manuals. I have a fairly deep interest in WW2, but my D&D playing had me picking up Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance weapon and fighting techniques. Most of it is art and illustration references, as that was my job in the RPG industry, but a lot has been useful dim my games. Yup 

[Tjack]

   I mentioned this in another thread somewhere. When I was starting up a campaign for a 1930’s Justice Inc. campaign I went looking through the main branch of the library at their audio tapes of old radio programs for inspiration for my premier episode. And I hit the jackpot!.  
  I found a recording for the Sam Spade radio show an episode that was a sequel to the Maltese Falcon written by Dashiell Hammett!  It brought back Casper Gutman and Joel Cairo for one more thrilling adventure. 
  I bring this up because I recently found that someone on YouTube has put the one hour program on line it’s called “The Kandy Tooth” it’s a lot of fun if you like that style, 

[Ternaugh]

On 7/16/2021 at 1:24 PM, Tjack said:

   I mentioned this in another thread somewhere. When I was starting up a campaign for a 1930’s Justice Inc. campaign I went looking through the main branch of the library at their audio tapes of old radio programs for inspiration for my premier episode. And I hit the jackpot!.  
  I found a recording for the Sam Spade radio show an episode that was a sequel to the Maltese Falcon written by Dashiell Hammett!  It brought back Casper Gutman and Joel Cairo for one more thrilling adventure. 
  I bring this up because I recently found that someone on YouTube has put the one hour program on line it’s called “The Kandy Tooth” it’s a lot of fun if you like that style, 

 

 

The Internet Archive has a ton of old radio shows available for free: https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio  

The Adventures of Sam Spade: https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Sam_Spade_Singles

Orson Welles - The Shadow: https://archive.org/details/RkoOrsonWelles-TheShadow-RadioRecodings

 

 

[tkdguy]

How embarrassing, I forgot all about this thread!

 

Here are a couple of other resources.

 

Magazines are a great source. You can find magazines about geography, history, architecture, etc. They may give you ideas on your next adventure or just provide photographs you can show as visual aids for your game.

 

On that note, just make a scrapbook for your campaign. Long before I had regular access to the internet, I cut out photographs from newspapers and magazines and glued them to a blank notebook. That way I could show the players a particular location or NPC. While I haven't done this for Fantasy  HERO, I made one for my Castle Falkenstein game. One of my friends is a good artist, so he drew many villains and other NPCs for his game.

 

Edit: Don't worry about showing cars or telephone poles in your Medieval fantasy game. Just tell the players to ignore those details and concentrate on the big picture.

[Cygnia]

I'm a HUGE fan of "Forged In Fire" when it comes to historical weaponry

[tkdguy]

2 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

I'm a HUGE fan of "Forged In Fire" when it comes to historical weaponry

 

You can find some of the stuff here:

 

https://www.budk.com/

 

The swords are generally wall hangers, although the knives are more serviceable. Still, if all you need are visuals, get a catalogue to show your players how that magic sword they found looks.

[Cancer]

My wife is the executor for the estate of an old family friend (he died back in February, age 93, a former test engineer for Boeing), and we've been cleaning out his house, mostly getting rid of stuff to prep it for sale.  (For example, we threw away a literal garbage can full of 3.5-inch floppy disks ... he never threw anything away.)  But there are some odd things I've kept out.  (Note added later: my wife was a lawyer so she knows what needs to be done and how to go about it, and is one of the four heirs named in the will -- the others are our two kids, and my wife's sister -- so she has the authority to do these things.  We're not just stealing/trashing a dead guy's stuff.)

 

He had kept lots and lots of his old textbooks, manuals, and so on, and I lifted a few off of his shelves.  One example is a student's geography textbook from the 1930s.  The title includes the word "atlas" but there's lots more text discussion than exists in atlases I am used to seeing.  Leaving aside entirely the changes in the political boundaries (not to mention entities), even discussions of the mineral resources and character of the landscape are really different from what one sees in current books of the same sort.  (Some eye-opening chauvinism is apparent also, but that's not part of this discussion.)

 

Not from his house, but from an estate sale long ago I picked up a copy of a book "Cooking On Shipboard" from one of the wartime agencies during WW2, which was clearly intended to be the working instructions for novice cooks, people who had ended up in the position of ship's cook in a Liberty ship or a new destroyer or whatnot.  It includes not-very-helpful directions on how to turn a side of beef into cuts one can cook and serve (not very helpful because the halftone pictures are almost completely useless for figuring out where the saw cut is supposed to start on that beef side), how to plan menus (more useful, especially since it gives you a clear view of how much in the way of various foodstuffs was in the ship's galley), and lots of recipes which are all templates and are intended to be scaled up or down as needed for your ship: every one of them is for 100 servings.

[Cancer]

Another weird thing we found in his desk, a business card.  No idea if it is real or not, or even when it was made (the context in which it was found means I doubt it is from before the 1960s or after the 1990s, but that's a guess).  The name on the card is not one I have seen anywhere else, in his house or elsewhere.

 

[tkdguy]

Here's one resource I had forgotten about and just rediscovered. I once planned to do a Highlander/World of Darkness crossover set in Medieval Europe. Since werewolves are available as player characters, and the Auspice (lunar phase during the werewolf's birth) is an important part of the character, I printed out a list of dates of the new moon and full moon from 1172 to 1231. Pity I never got to run this game.

 

 

[tkdguy]

Years before Wikipedia existed, I needed information on the Seven Weeks' War for my Castle Falkenstein campaign. Not having a home computer, I had to find my information in a library; fortunately, I was working at a university at the time. But this war is considered a minor conflict (although it had major repercussions), so the latest editions of the various encyclopedias in the library didn't have that information. I finally found the information I needed in the basement. A 1911 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica had information about the war in detail. Not only did I use it for my Castle Falkenstein campaign; I also used it as background for my character in an online Highlander game I had joined. I still have the  photocopies

 

Another look at the set held some interesting revelations. Einstein was nowhere to be found in the books, but a detailed explanation of the Aether Theory, including equations, was there.

[Cygnia]

I've been watching the Fascinating Horror channel on YT for inspiration in some twisted bits.  The video on the Nutty Putty Cave Tragedy, for example, offered the terrible outcome of spelunking going wrong...

[Spence]

On 7/29/2021 at 10:11 AM, Cancer said:

One example is a student's geography textbook from the 1930s.  The title includes the word "atlas" but there's lots more text discussion than exists in atlases I am used to seeing. 

 

My parents had an old "Atlas" from the 40's and what we consider an Atlas and what they once were are definitely not the same.  I really wish I had gotten it. 

On 8/10/2021 at 4:45 PM, Cygnia said:

I've been watching the Fascinating Horror channel on YT for inspiration in some twisted bits.

 

I stared at this for a bit before I suddenly realized YT was YouTube

 

Sometimes the old just creeps up on you.........

[tkdguy]

I just found this video:

 

 

[tkdguy]

 

[tkdguy]

If you have old calendars that have photos of nature, save them, or at least the ones you like. You can show your players the areas their characters are in. Even if the photos include people in modern clothing, you can use it to give the players a sense of scale.

 

If you photograph dioramas, you may also be able to use some photos as backdrops to work with your miniatures and terrain.

[Spence]

Another really great series is the Howdunit series of writers guides.

They are basically writers guides in multiple disciplines. 

 

Here are the titles I have.

Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit) Mactire, Sean P.

Police Procedural: A Writer's Guide to the Police and How They Work (Howdunit) Bintliff, Russell

Armed and Dangerous: A Writer's Guide to Weapons (Howdunit Series) Newton, Michael

Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries (Howdunit Series) Page, David W.

Scene of the Crime: A Writer's Guide to Crime Scene Investigation (Howdunit Series) Wingate, Anne

Police Procedure & Investigation: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit) Lofland, Lee

Cause of Death : A Writer's Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine (Howdunit Series) Wilson, Keith D.

Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons (Howdunit Series) Stevens, Serita Deborah

Howdunit Forensics, Lyle, D P

Book of Poisons: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit Series) Stevens, Serita and Bannon, Anne

 

I mostly run investigative style games so these were fantastic resources to give things a gloss of believablity. 

 

 

 

[Cygnia]

21 minutes ago, Spence said:

Another really great series is the Howdunit series of writers guides.

They are basically writers guides in multiple disciplines. 

 

Here are the titles I have.

Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit) Mactire, Sean P.

Police Procedural: A Writer's Guide to the Police and How They Work (Howdunit) Bintliff, Russell

Armed and Dangerous: A Writer's Guide to Weapons (Howdunit Series) Newton, Michael

Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries (Howdunit Series) Page, David W.

Scene of the Crime: A Writer's Guide to Crime Scene Investigation (Howdunit Series) Wingate, Anne

Police Procedure & Investigation: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit) Lofland, Lee

Cause of Death : A Writer's Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine (Howdunit Series) Wilson, Keith D.

Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons (Howdunit Series) Stevens, Serita Deborah

Howdunit Forensics, Lyle, D P

Book of Poisons: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit Series) Stevens, Serita and Bannon, Anne

 

I mostly run investigative style games so these were fantastic resources to give things a gloss of believablity. 

 

 

 

I have all these books...Hubby side-eyes them all the time.

[Tjack]

45 minutes ago, Spence said:

Another really great series is the Howdunit series of writers guides.

They are basically writers guides in multiple disciplines. 

 

Here are the titles I have.

Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit) Mactire, Sean P.

Police Procedural: A Writer's Guide to the Police and How They Work (Howdunit) Bintliff, Russell

Armed and Dangerous: A Writer's Guide to Weapons (Howdunit Series) Newton, Michael

Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries (Howdunit Series) Page, David W.

Scene of the Crime: A Writer's Guide to Crime Scene Investigation (Howdunit Series) Wingate, Anne

Police Procedure & Investigation: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit) Lofland, Lee

Cause of Death : A Writer's Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine (Howdunit Series) Wilson, Keith D.

Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons (Howdunit Series) Stevens, Serita Deborah

Howdunit Forensics, Lyle, D P

Book of Poisons: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit Series) Stevens, Serita and Bannon, Anne

 

I mostly run investigative style games so these were fantastic resources to give things a gloss of believablity. 

 

 

 

 

23 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

I have all these books...Hubby side-eyes them all the time.

    I would find it hard to believe that you two aren’t on a few lists somewhere.