RPG Books That Rock My World
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 09:59
Tags:
- Guide to the Technocracy (Mage: the Ascension, White Wolf)
- Delta Green (Call of Cthulhu supplement, Pagan Publishing)
- 7th Sea Players Guide (7th Sea, AEG)
- Tradition Book: Verbena (Mage: the Ascension, White Wolf)
- In Nomine (In Nomine, Steve Jackson Games)
- Castle Falkenstein (Castle Falkenstein, R. Talsorian Games)
- The Memoirs of Auberon of Faerie (Castle Falkenstein, R. Talsorian Games)
Author Comments:
I've played too many roleplaying games in my life. These are the base books and supplemental works that I consider to epitomize damn good work. White Wolf haters take note-- those two books for Mage are brilliant, regardless of the shit in the rest of the line (Digital Web, Technomancer's Toybox, the original Convention books, Traditions: Virtual Adepts come to mind).
World-builders take note: AEG's 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings universes, and Talsorian's Falkenstein stuff, are insanely detailed and wonderful guides as to How It's Done.
I have to agree on the Technocracy book; it's a great work, even if I wouldn't touch Mage with a ten-foot pole.
The book that still, to this day, impresses the hell out of me is Underground, by Ray Winninger. Dystopian superheroes in one of the most satirical capitalistic futures ever portrayed (Cannibal fast food! Scientology the state religion of Germany!). Readers of American Flagg or Snow Crash will feel right at home, except for the part where Neal Stephenson somehow forgot about people who can spit hydrochloric acid at will.
More importantly, Underground was one of the first RPG manuals to be published in full color throughout, complete with color-coded sidebars. The color wasn't just impressive, it was necessary to the book's graphic design.
If you ever get a chance to just look at the book, do so. I still marvel that this game didn't catch on, even if only for people to browse through and drool at it; it remains the high point in graphic design for the entire industry.
Graphic design that failed for me: the version of Kult that came out sometime around '97. My eyes were bleeding...
Falkenstein has some nifty stuff graphicwise, though. Cyberpunk 2020 also fails for me because it looks like it was pasted up on a photocopier platen. ;)