Books to read for RPG script writers

There’s a lot of exciting adventure and detective books. But reading some of them, I notice elements which fit RPG adventures nicely. I mean that sometimes described situations can be great quests, heroes can be bright NPCs, and things can be mighty artifacts and so on. I feel that most of cRPGs could be more attractive if script writers read books of that kind. Now I’ll name some “special for RPGs” classical novels, I’ve read recently.

1. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft.

Actually this book is not of a great artistic value and on the whole I didn’t like it, but protagonist makes a great journey in it. He visits some areas which are described quite detailed and to my mind it could be a worthy setting.

2. Dracula by Bram Stoker

Well, as you can see it’s full of vampires-related details. I suppose Troika learnt it thoroughly, making Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. I’ve read the book before playing the game and I noticed some parallels. For example in the game the vessel with a sarcophagus is called “Queen Elizabeth”. In the book Dracula made a voyage by sea on a ship with the same name (as far as I remember). The book is quite unsophisticated, but it hits the mark.

3. Investigation by Stanislaw Lem

It’s an Arcanum style book to my mind: both are full of global conspiracies and mysteries (do you remember dwarves secret about half-ogres?). Lem describes situation with animated dead and it’s investigation. An old-style England atmosphere fits perfect. Thread of that kind would adorn any RPG project.

4. Kim by Joseph Rudyard Kipling

This book is full of Indian things. And its plot is quite tangled too. Reading this novel can bring a lot of oriental ideas to game scenario.

To be continued…

Feel free to tell about your "special RPG" books in the comments

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