Resources For Every GM: Reference Books Part 4

Good morning everyone!  I am a couple days late due to a great D&D session with someone we haven't gotten a chance to play with in a couple years, but here I am nevertheless. Today, I have some more reference books for you to add to your collection, but this time they aren't our general reference books. This time the books that I am including are references to world made up by other creative minds. They are companions to some of our favorite places to visit!

Tobin's Spirit Guide (Erik Burnham):  Recently, a new official Ghostbuster's version of this book came out. Written by Burnham (with the help of Stantz and Spengler of course!) this edition features some of our favorite spirits from the Ghostbuster's franchise.  It also includes a variety of other common mythological creatures like household spirits or poltergeists. Each entry features a Ghostbuster's rating of spirit class level and what the spirit may be comprised of or where it is located / anchored. Additionally the entries feature some great bits of real-world mythology. Building upon that the way in which they can be angered or appeased and how dangerous they are. The book is written almost has a field guide, and (barring the lack of stats) is the best bestiary or monster manual you could ask for to run a Ghostbusters campaign. All you would need is a book on the Ghostbuster's gear. Even if that isn't your goal, the ideas you could pull from this book are numerous and inspiration on how to had even more incorporeal danger to your world, immense!

The (Complete) Tolkien Companion (J.E.A. Taylor):  My version of this resource is a bit outdated. I don't have the "Complete" in my title. Given that much of the source material still exists as part of Tolkien's work, itself, I don't see a need to get the revision too quickly. Though it is on my list. This book is an encyclopedia, there really is no other way to describe it. My copy is over 500 pages long and there is barely any pictures included at all. Maybe I do need an updated version. Anyway, this is your go-to resource for any questions you have about Middle Earth. Beyond the Lord of the Rings, beyond The Hobbit, and beyond even the Silmarillion, there is a vast fount of knowledge and lore these stories are built upon. Tolkien was a world builder and language developer, and the tales run deep in the land of wizards and hobbits. I know there are other resources you can find out there, but this is probably the most dense there is. If you really want a comprehensive reference to one of the foundation stones to modern fantasy adventure, this is it.

The Hyrule Historia (Eiji Aonuma, Akira Himekawa):  Honestly, this is probably my favorite of these three resources. It is as large and dense as the Tolkien Companion, but includes the fun (and more) that you can get from Tobin's Spirit Guide. There are four major sections to this book, divided up amongst specific topics unlike the other two. The first of these is a large section discussing the Skyward Sword, its lore, ideas, and concept art. While amazing, I am disappointed by how much space this single game takes up, but the rest of the book helps make up for it. The second section is my favorite. The Legend of Zelda series has been tackled game by game, with little to no connection between any of them aside from general themes and feeling. Even these deviate for each game making playing the game feel both familiar and unique. For those who have even played a few of the games and completed even less (sadly me), you still come to understand every one of them is connected somehow. This section is a timeline. It orders the eras of the world, describes what happens and when, from the creation all the way through the voyage upon the ocean in Windwaker and a New Hyrule in Spirit Tracks. For the first time there is a timeline of events, and yet still some connecting pieces and lore to be discovered. The third section of the book goes through 25 years of concept artwork. It is fantastic to see how things have changed and how different artists perceived the world.  This section provides a ton of inspiration for GMs. Following up on that is a catalogue of the games, what generation they are, and the story they tell. And finally, the last part is a comic for you to enjoy telling a part of the Skyward Sword story.

Klingon, Cards & Dice, Partnerships, And More!

Another day, another week, another month.  It's August and we seem to be at the height of table top season and gaming season in general.  A lot of great stuff has already happened this summer, but in the past week a bunch more has come to pass and, with GenCon coming, there will only be more to talk about!  Today I continue a path towards more information sharing on my news posts.  I wish I could throw a post out for each thing I hear about and want to share, but I just don't have the time.  Perhaps I will do two news posts a week come Fall.  Until then, what I can do is give a run down on some of the things from the past week!


New Resources!

A couple new resources have popped up from Dungeons & Dragons.  First off a new Unearthed Arcana came out last week that features a great little resource for those DMs who want things to be a little easier.  Especially when they are short on time for prep.  The article is titled Quick Characters and can be found over here.  With it you can make some characters for your last minute game and not stress on making too many decisions.  Everything is randomly generated with dice and you are told what to assign and pick, including spells.  Granted, the only options included are from the Basic Rules, but with this framework you could easily expand the options you have for yourself.  Before you yell about today's UA, don't worry I am going to cover that next week!

In addition to the Quick Characters UA supplement, Wizards and Roll20 announced that they would be partnering up to make things even easier for your online games.  You can find more about that over here.  While Fantasy Grounds has been the virtual table top with D&D licensing for a while now, there will now be more options for those of us who us Roll20.  Beginning with the Lost Mine of Phandelver and (soon) the Storm King's Thunder, you will gain access to real D&D materials.  Eventually, I believe, they plan on working out the ability to purchase not only more adventures but assets like maps for your own varied games.


Games, Games, More Games

There are three major announcements that I want to cover concerning new games from last week that I am particularly excited about.  The first is a table top game that isn't an RPG.  However, it calls to my collector's core and my love of Star Wars.  Coming from Fantasy Flight Games, this is an actual collectible trading card game.  That's right it isn't a living card game, booster packs are random and mysterious die.  You heard that right too; the game features dice in addition to cards.  There are of course your games like Magic or Pokemon that pit two players with their own prepared decks against one another, but this game adds a what-if aspect by featuring a variety of heroes and villains from Star Wars and the added mechanics of utilizing dice.  Rey and Kylo Ren starter sets will show up alongside boosters that contain 5 cards and a die this November.  Personally I'm excited to see how dice change the way such games work, as well as the potential forms of play that will evolve from the rules.  Checkout more about Star Wars Destiny here!

Second announcement is a new sci-fi RPG.  Well, an old one made new.  Sasquatch Games is developing a new version of Alternity which featured settings like Gamma World, Star Drive, and Dark Matter in its day.  The publisher is keen to say that this is not a new edition, a remake, or a reboot.  This is going to be its own thing.  It will focus on creating and exploring new worlds and using what they have learned from working on systems from throughout the D&D editions, the original game, and from the systems they have published like Apocalypse World.  News will come out of GenCon about this and we will begin to get previews and updates on their website as we close in on next years release.  For now, check out this announcement.

Last RPG announcement is about the Lord of the Rings.  While many of us have heard of the One Ring RPG, not all of us have played it.  While it has been on my radar, there are a number of things that tend to grab my attention for forcefully.  Game systems with new, unique worlds and awesome new mechanics tend to be at the forefront of such things.  While worlds like Star Wars and Star Trek are exciting to journey into, the world of Middle Earth is much more contained, and learning a whole new rule set to play in it...  Well, it keeps the One Ring lower on my list.  However, Crucible Seven is going to be releasing the Adventures of Middle Earth.  Mentioned earlier this year, we now have an official announcement about the D&D 5E OGL port of Middle Earth and I couldn't be more excited.  I know much of LotR lore, I know 5E, and I love to see more resources for my 5E home games.  To know the publisher has LotR RPG experience is just the icing on the cake.  If you want to know more or pre-order, just head over here.


A New Language & News With The Wandering Alchemist

Before I get into what is coming this week on this site, there is one more announcement I am really excited about.  My inner nerd is just jumping with unbridled joy.  I heard about Duolingo adding a Klingon course.  Now, the news has been out for about a year now, if you look at the status page, but things are hopefully going well.  The recent update on their status page, here, was from 4 months ago, but it does have a bit of info on what they have been doing including syllabus work and language database entry.  For those interested in learning the language you can keep an eye on its status here, as well as sign up to be notified when they're done (hopefully by the end of the year)!

Now what about this page?  This week will feature an article tomorrow, resources on Thursday (of course), and two new episodes from our Edge of the Empire game.  I cannot yet reveal what will show up tomorrow, but I do think we are going to go with internet resources on Thursday.  We are also recording this month's D&Donuts this week.  It is a bit later than I hoped, but it and all the other Patron rewards WILL go up as soon as possible along with updates on other projects coming down the pipeline.  Thankfully the summer is winding down now and balance is being restored.  Stay tuned for more!