11 Tabletop RPG Sourcebooks That Are as Fun to Read as They Are to Game With

Even though engineering is countenance forplenty of waysto endeavor and keep your tabletop andboardgame groupsgoing during social distancing , the fact of the subject is it ’s really hard right now to actually playtabletop RPGs . That does n’t mean you ca n’t drop some of your innocent metre engaging with those reality though , thanks to some selection rulebooks that are as nifty to just register as they are to establish a new hunting expedition around .

And as an added bonus , the huge bulk of the recommendations on this tilt are currently accessible either physically — albeit with cargo ships delays , due to the on-going ball-shaped lockdown — or , if they are n’t , as downloadable PDFs , often included with a strong-arm written matter and give up to you while you wait for it to show up . So if you do n’t have these on your ledge yet , you do n’t need to worry too much about having to hold off a while for them to arrive !

https://gizmodo.com/13-board-games-rpgs-and-resources-for-playing-with-fr-1842490343

From high fantasy to modern-day supernatural weirdness, these books will keep you in amazing worlds for a good long while.

From high fantasy to modern-day supernatural weirdness, these books will keep you in amazing worlds for a good long while.Image: Paizo, Free League Publishing, Rowan, Rook, and Decard, Modiphius, Wizards of the Coast

Tales From the Loop/Things From the Flood

What if you couldbasically play Stranger Thingsbut it ’s rig in the reality of Simon Stålenhag ’s grand , frequent sci - fi art ? Well , not only can you do that , you’re able to do so while getting what is easily one of the most gorgeous RPG books ever published .

https://gizmodo.com/tales-from-the-loops-showrunner-on-how-sci-fi-can-bring-1842531436

Free League Publishing ’s Tales From the Loop rulebook — and itsrecent , equally excellentfollowup , Things From the Flood , which tot up riskier mechanics for your cast of ‘ LXXX kids , including the ability to in reality die — is a gorgeous protection to Stålenhag ’s work , not only extend inventive , narrative - tug mechanics and plenty of great worldbuilding to dive into , but also art from and inspired by Stålenhag ’s vast swath of sci - fi themed paintings . It ’s part RPG core usher , part java mesa showing part , and all damn fantastic .

Image: Free League Publishing

Image: Free League Publishing

Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rulebook

The recent update toPaizo ’s incredible fantasy RPGPathfinder is perhaps the most overtly mechanical book on this inclination — it is primarily about establishing the rules of how the 2d variation works , and heavy on the act of explaining how to play games , build characters , and get a effort going . But it also has an dead tremendous section devote to the lore behind the fantastical world of Golarion , dense with entropy that is not just fascinating to explore but supported by some utterly brilliant artwork .

Spire: The City Must Fall

Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor’surban fantasy Spireis set in a deliciously dark cosmos of class privilege and societal unease , a biz of gyration in which players — Drow , who live as lower - class grunt in the titular spire - metropolis — secret plan violent ohmic resistance against the ruling tyrannic High Elf elites . But as the game itself is heavily driven by storytelling rather than mechanics , its core rulebook is too filled with account musical theme and setting details to pull back you in as you navigate creating characters and campaigns . If you strike in love with its cosmos of elven have - and - have - nots , follow it up with Strata , a sourcebook that does n’t just add together novel stratum and enhancements to Spire ’s base principle , but fleshes out the titular city even further , detail luxurious High Elf residential district to the poor division of the urban center .

Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition

West End Games ’ iconic Star Wars RPG was n’t just a great tabletop experience , but its dear accompanying sourcebook serve fundamentally determine the Expanded Universe as we know it in the pre - Disney era , providing concepts and ideas that became the de facto criterion of Star Wars worldbuilding forships , events , public , and characters for year . It also provided a brilliant hardening of tips onhow to differentiate storiesin the Star Wars galaxy that still apply today . It ’s out of print and incredibly laborious to get , but thankfully Fantasy Flight Games recently released a30th anniversary reprintthat bundled both the core leger and sourcebook together in a endearing covering fire that makes accessing it easier than ever .

https://gizmodo.com/the-secrets-of-writing-good-star-wars-according-to-wes-1765739282

That said , if you want a Star Wars fix that ’s more late , Fantasy Flight ’s core rulebooks for its own Star Wars RPG — the smuggler - and - rogue - focusedEdge of the Empire , the Rebels vs. Imperial flavor ofAge of Rebellion , and the fitly mysticalForce and Destiny — are just as solid reads , balancing mechanical system item with plenty of great worldbuilding and lore for the galaxy far , far aside . Sadly , due to licensing restriction , you ca n’t get these books digitally , so will have to pimp the forcible copy .

Image: Paizo

Image: Paizo

Noumenon

nonfigurative Nova ’s Noumenon is a bizarre , mechanically fascinating tabletop secret plan that is incredibly intimidate to get into — it ’s definitely not for RPG neophyte , and lease you be intimate that immediately . But its earthly concern of strange , reborn god - insect is wise and existential in way that can and will make your brain spin as the secrets of the mysterious Silhouette Rouge unfurl , refurl in a unlike pattern , and then unfurl again before your eyes . If you need to plunge into a setting that thrives on not only bordering on the surreal but embracing it entirely , it ’s worth check out — and if you ’re unsure , you could get a abbreviated tease in thisfree - to - interpret PDF taste-tester .

Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes

Oh come in on , as if this lean would n’t have a little act of Dungeons & Dragons on it ! There are passel of slap-up campaign setting sourcebooks that you could dive into to experience D&D ’s beloved human beings ( Eberron : Rising From the Last War says hi ) , but understandably a spate of them are more about the mechanical construction of D&D than they are set information , even if they ’re still fairly rich in the latter .

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VoloandMordenkainenare the opposite ; source lists for musician races , regions , and freak to oppose that are about the history and character of those things first and how they would be integrated into a ruleset second . Volo shell out more withlower - and - mid grade risky venture foes , while Mordenkainen is aimed at configurations formore experienced groups , but they ’re both great , traditional knowledge - enceinte reads .

Image: Rowan, Rook, and Decard

Image: Rowan, Rook, and Decard

Star Trek Adventures Quadrant Sourcebooks

Modiphius ’ fantabulous Star Trek RPGhas a Congress of Racial Equality rulebook that does a moderately solid line of nerdily diving into Trek ’s 24th hundred . But the real meat of its worldbuilding thrives in its sourcebooks , one for each quarter-circle of the Star Trek universe — the quaternary , based around the Delta Quadrant , only just unloose . As well as tot interesting mechanically skillful spirit based on the worlds and metal money of the beings in those Quadrants , these sourcebooks provide a short ton of detail about Star Trek societies , histories , and beings to flesh them out . And in the case of the Gamma and Delta Quadrant books , they even ply circumstance for those region establish on what happened after the upshot of Deep Space Nine and Voyager . If you make out Star Trek , you arein for a treat .

The Dark of Hot Springs Island

Swordfish Island ’s high fantasy , almost piratical island risky venture is a system impersonal set of handbook for players , so it understandably leans less on specific mechanics and way — fashion — more into detailing its swarm amount of island options and fellowship for you to be inspired by , providing a freeing sense of worldbuilding in the process . The Book themselves are also just absolutely gorgeous , so if you ’re a rooter of have remarkably pretty shelves , they work in that regard , too .

Starfinder Core Rulebook

Is it too reductive to say “ What if you just re - read what I indite about Pathfinder but replaced it with a sci - fi setting alternatively ? ” Yes . But also : not entirely inaccurate . Paizo ’s sci - fi spinon its tried - and - genuine RPG ideas is as enthrallingly secure as Pathfinder ’s fantasy , and that just as equally applies to the department of Starfinder ’s sum rulebook detailing the future of the broad galaxy Golarion was part of ( it , uh , sort of vanished ) . In fact , it ’s arguably more story - driven , team with a cast of fascinating character who help introduce players to Starfinder ’s domain for you to meet .

Trudvang Chronicles: Stormlands

Riotmind ’s Trudvang Chronicles in and of itself is a nifty RPG — an enthralling phantasy world infused with Celtic and Nordic folklore inspiration . But its first sourcebookreleased last year , detailing the titular , rough region of Trudvang ’s Stormlands and the animate being that dwell within its forests , takes the fat legends and folktales permeating the core rulebooks and just runs with it . It ’s practically a tome of knowledge , fondly flesh out the Stormlands from top to bottom , literally map out it with swarm page of sumptuously - presented maps . If you ’ve played Trudvang Chronicles , it ’s essential . If you have n’t , it ’s a everlasting elbow room to get sucked into its realistic , as if by magic melancholic earthly concern .

Bonus Round: Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Battletomes

OK , so these are n’t RPG sourcebooks . They ’re rulebooks for the faction ofGames Workshop ’s tardy edition of its fantasy tabletop miniatures game , Warhammer : Age of Sigmar . But while they are indeed rulebooks , the Battletomes of Age of Sigmar are ( a lot more so than Warhammer 40 K ’s equivalent Codexes ) just as evenly lore Good Book for the respective camarilla of the recently - reforge Mortal Realms .

These book flesh out timelines , events , societal structure , and cultures for these different races , pass over how they ’re connected to the ruin world of Warhammer Fantasy , and how they ’ve changed and develop over the unlike epoch of the Mortal Realm ’s own rich account . basically , they ’re designed to hype you up , from a lore position , to start building an army of their respective sect — to the point you could just as easy find yourself buying a Battletome for an U. S. Army you ’d never weigh collecting , just to learn about them . eld of Sigmar is a much Billy Wilder , uncanny , and more narrative - driven version of Warhammer compared to the “ honest-to-goodness cosmos ” ofWarhammer Fantasy , and it thrives in these Battletomes .

https://gizmodo.com/5-great-tabletop-games-and-rpgs-for-when-its-too-damn-h-1827509966

Image: Fantasy Flight Games