Hey! Listening on the post kickstarter wrap up for into the Wyrd and Wild, the hosts were asked a question that I really kind of wanted to go into myself.
"What are your favorite 10 RPG books / supplements? That aren't D&D"
And with recent introspection, paired with looking back at my old things and projects. I wanted to reminisce for a moment. I'm probably gonna stretch the question a tad and dive into works that has really caught my imagination. They will be in a random order because they're all special, and I write better in this stream of consciousness way. Enjoy!
(also writing blog posts is kind of taxing and I wanna make this approachable so all my updates aren't just on instagram, so hey no pictures beyond the pretty header by Jean Giraud.)
Fighting Fantasy: The Citadel of Chaos
A natural place to start as these 90s books were my introduction into fantasy. While not holding as many amazing illustrations of other entries like the Deathtrap Dungeon, this one was one of my favorite CYOA books of my childhood. I spent a long time reading these, drawing maps and making my own drafts for adventures. And how you started out by making the character your own by picking your spells was something that really stuck a chord with me, these days I would probably point people the digital releases of Sorcery! for more of the same, but the Citadel still lurks in the back of my mind.
Vincent Baker's Apocalypse World 1st Edition
My first real RPG where I was the GM. It was the first game that helped break down what the task of GM'ing consisted of, and its move and narrative momentum systems helped frame the action for me a lot better than a skill modifier list ever could. And the entire dry and remoreseless tone of the writing really helps you feel the world before you've even begun playing. I love how it gave players various items, locations and power-bases that could all be targeted by the plot. And the whole system of writing down threats as motives moves and what not made GMing seem a lot more like picking reasonable responses within the framework you have made, than having to do homework. And now the second edition is a mainstay on my shelf.
A Market in the Woods
Exploring the various powered by the apocalypse games and supplements, the series of monster manuals produced by Johnstone Metzger always struck me as above and beyond, as each entry contains not only wild and vivid illustrations but also background, potential plots you can tie it into and suggestions and speculations on the beasts you can use as prompts to build upon. Especially his entry is something because it all takes place in and around the same secluded black fae market, detailing surrounding lands, plots and so forth. Discovering that these aren't just single entries but there actually is a whole setting in there if you connect the dots is something else! They have also made other entries with such spectacular names as Wizard-Spawned Insanities and Terrors of the Ancient World.
Mutants and Death Ray Guns the Revised Edition
Probably the second biggest wargame I've ever gotten into. Its a 88 page book with a holistic approach, including both core rules, campaign rules, different warbands, hobbying advice and suggested vendors for getting miniatures. I love how easy it is to homebrew stuff and profiles for, and how warband creation is semi-randomized to circumvent players being munchkins. It becomes weird and improvisational and while someone might roll a rocket launcher early on, you can simply murder them and steal it for yourself. I can trace so many things back to this book, its how I discovered Ramshackle games and my now great friend Curtis, same goes for discovering Thunderchild miniatures and all the weird brainchildren of Jaycee Fairclough. And this book was sort of my primer for the later release The Spawn of Xichtul (go buy it so I have money for silly things <3), that I actually ended up penning for the very company that made MDRG in the first place.
Wyrdman: A Wasteman Supplement
Wasteman is one of the miniatures games I regret missing out on during its initial kickstarter, but during the time I had enough in MDRG, but the miniatures were amazing and had a character completely of their own. And through the power of prolonged proximity I of course got the rules too, because surprise I could use all my MDRG minis for this game too. Wyrdman is where the setting and vision really blossomed for me, introducing dimensional pilgrims, their reckless monster slayers known as hazmatadors, the now mainstay Mutie Bruties and all kinds of new weird skills weapons and magic glimpsed betwen the worlds. This is where I started feeling its character more clearly and found weird posses to call my own. Its also where I made what I suspect will be life long friends in Jaycee, Ben and all the other amazing people in the tight lil community.
Furies of the Barrens
An d20 OSR based on the Black Hack made by Ganesha Games, makes of Mutans and Death Ray Guns. I was quick to jump into this when seeing its announcement, this was my first more traditional d20 focused RPG that provided math and guidance in a format that honestly didn't seem to require a math degree. But the world really caught me, a bastard child of Moebius and Heavy Metal art of the 70s and 80s, it features a desolate desert planet ruled by sorcerer-warlords wielding salvaged ancient tech and dark legions. The game world was vivid and had mechanics focused on survival as well as alien visitors, cannibal marauders and desert spirits you could contact through drug fueled visions. It was a desert-haze stoner album of a game that could've had a soundtrack by 1000mods, Truckfighters or Out of the Earth. I even wrote a few additional enemies early in this blogs life, which lead to me penning an entire expansion worth of content on the request of the games author. An expansion that due to one reason or another sadly didn't end up seeing the life of day, but I'm still somehow hoping a revised edition will be made, one with my name on the cover and the things I had dreamt up side by side with its other content.
MÖRKBORG
I mean, who doesn't know of this now golden-standard zine? The rules are almost skeletal, they are there but doesn't overstay or get bloated discussing minutia. Instead the pages are smothered in striking art and downright visceral descriptions. Its a book with a lot of 'seeds', the rules might go over the basics and the descriptions layout the world for you, but most of its content invites the GM to run with it. It doesn't hand any of the players a script, but instead provides a stage and expansive wardrobe then sets the moonlighting and give you an enthusiastic shove.
BUNKER #2
Another quite recent release is the second issue of the BUNKER trilogy. The first issue is grand and really sets the world, but its the second one that really got me hook and sinker. Its world of post-apocalyptic chivalry where people live among the ruins of ancient humans who destroyed the world through climate change, now you are plastic smiths, bear-raisers and knights sworn to woods who forge your legends fighting the terrible things left among the pollution and remnants of billionaire play-bunkers. I love how its medieval and not mired in guns or weird science, but at the same time it has its own clear world and mythology. And I love how nearly everything can draw their roots back to the worlds creation mythos that was the environmental disasters and heartless profiteers.
Never Going Home
If you have seen well, any recent posts on my blog you know this world intrigues me, to the point that this nerd might have categorized and rated every singe enemy profile just because. But part of why it tickled me is two-fold. One is that I have kind of wanted to make a Occult WWI setting. In school I've heard plenty of WWII, and its one of those things constantly used to showcase american heroism (though to be fair the they didn't join before the Reich was already loosing). But The Great War is something else entirely, its the first time humanity went into war at that massive a scale, it was hellish and a big mess that nobody really one. Some people were just lucky to survive, and to throw in superstition, rituals and dark magic only drives home the point of people lost in this catastrophe of someone elses making, while also highlighting the combined cruelty and ingenuity of mankind. So yeah they already halfway had me with just the art and setting blurb. But what made it stick beyond that is how clever its mechanics are, how you have several different stats each of which will kill you if you die, how the narratives and missions focus on comradery, and how the temptation of darker things is always around the corner. How resources and loot is made more abstract things that you, along your humanity have to give up along the way. Its a roleplaying game where combat could be made front and center but is instead made on equal footing with other parts of it, because fighting is more about brushes with danger and death than draw out roll-comparisons.
How many was that?
To be fair I'm not entirely sure if I made the 10 entries or whatever. But I wanna stick to books I have, because phew there is some cool things coming up too. Some other settings have caught my attention and persisted in doing so, and instead of listing those, I discovered I've already done so earlier.
So yeah, if you are stilll word-parched, here you go.
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