Good books for fluff

[PetterTomBos]

I've been running and playing D&D for some time, and came across "fief" a book on medieval society. It has been some time since I read it, but I felt it had RPGs in mind.

Are there other good books of fluff out there? System-undependant? Or good D&D/w.e. books that is interesting no matter the system? For example : if I'm ever to run anything Zombie, I'm inclined to do it in some system, but have the zombie survival guide dictate alott of the fluff!

[Totally Guy]

I'm reading "The Time Traveller's Guide To Medieval England". It's a history book but it gives a whole lot of cultural expectation of medieval people that aren't obvious. Most history books end up going on and on about the kings and queens and neglect the general population.

There's not much in the way of blasty mages in it though.

[Ozreth]

As far as d&d books go AD&D 2e is the king of fluff. There are
So many 2e books that have little to no numbers in them. They are great to pick through especially If you run in a published setting.

[The Big Dice]

1st edition Legend of the Five Rings. It's a fantasy game that reads like a fantasy novel. Even now, with fourth edition in print, people still get directed to the Way of the Clans books for the definitive writings on the various factions of the game.

[Eldan]

I've found that the Planescape Monstrous Compendia are awesome for monster fluff. Actually, any Planescape book is awesome for fluff, but a lot of them are quite specific for a non-planar game.

[dsmiles]

If you want 3e/3.5e, I've found Arcana Unearthed to have some awesome fulff. Also, some selected Mongoose books have good fluff. The Slayer's Guide to ... is a pretty good series of fluff books.

[Yora]

I like both the 3rd and 4th Edition Manual of the Planes. I don't even know the rules of 4th Edition, but the MotP is a great book to read.

[PetterTomBos]

If you want 3e/3.5e, I've found Arcana Unearthed to have some awesome fulff. Also, some selected Mongoose books have good fluff. The Slayer's Guide to ... is a pretty good series of fluff books.

The slayers guide to... line seems awesome :)

"The Time Traveller's Guide To Medieval England".

Sounds terrific :)

Iit's when shopping for gaming supplies (and jelly belly beans! :D) I really would wish to be american.. (Might turn to means that require a boat and eyepatches tho ;) )

[Gnoman]

You could try A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court. It's a bit hard to read in the original Twain, but there's several young readers translations that have pretty much everything. There's also Dumas, which is a great way to practice hiding plot points. (For example, read The Count of Monte Cristo without annotations and see how long it takes you to figure out one of the characters is a lesbian.)

[Odin the Ignoble]

I really liked the fluff from the AFMBE books, even if I found the system to be subpar.

Good fluff kind of depends on what sort of game you want to play. Captain Blood, isn't going to help much if you're not doing a pirate themed game.

[Cespenar]

Exalted books are pretty good and expansive on the fluff, I'd say, and most of the books contain some very short comic book style sections which are perfect for giving off the feeling and 'air' of the setting.

[The Tygre]

The Slayer's Guide to ... is a pretty good series of fluff books.

Oh, hez yeah they are! I've got practically the whole collection, even Sahuagin and Minotaurs. Personal recommendations for the Slayer's Guide to Undead and the Slayer's Guide to Dragons, both written by the late, great Gary Gygax.

[Janus]

As far as d&d books go AD&D 2e is the king of fluff. There are
So many 2e books that have little to no numbers in them. They are great to pick through especially If you run in a published setting.

I'm a huge fan of the 2e Monstrous Manual. It really makes each monster feel like an actual creature with a real place in the world, not just a bag of XP.

[Dornath]

Fiendish Codex 2 has some great stuff on the creation for Devils in 3E.

Another great game for fluff is Dogs in the Vineyard. And I've been told by my GM, Apocalypse World. AW is a little NSFW. Seriously... avoid children.

[dsmiles]

Oh, hez yeah they are! I've got practically the whole collection, even Sahuagin and Minotaurs. Personal recommendations for the Slayer's Guide to Undead and the Slayer's Guide to Dragons, both written by the late, great Gary Gygax.

My personal favorite is The Slayer's Guide to DMs.

[DontEatRawHagis]

Warhammer both classic and 40k.

My Orcs are lightly based on Warhammer and Warcraft. They have two Gods(Mork and Gork), their skin darkens and they grow taller with age, and they die after a few years of not fighting.

The idea is that Orcs are born fully grown and live to about six without fighting. The oldest orc that my group will meet is a troll sized one that is over 20 years old. The idea being that their God has live longer than any Orc and is gargantuan.

[Lesingnon]

Races of the Wild was a great book for fluff, it was really good at portraying the life style of the elves, halflings, and raptorans. And I still love the little sections that each species had with common sayings and the naming chart, might actually be the part of the book I've referenced the most. I assume the other Races of the ______ books would be just as good.

Also, for any game where you might need to get into a canine/lupine mindset (like Werewolf: the Forsaken) I found the books in the Codex Alera that involved the Canim to be very helpful.

[Britter]

Though I don't enjoy playing it, I think Exalted has some really evocative fluff. It is good stuff. It would play great in Risus, in my opinion. Just a fine world. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it.

I love the setting material published for 2e DnD. Birthright and Planescape are my favorites, with Dark Sun close behind. Very neat stuff.

As for fiction, man there is just too much. Some of the best are Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamorra Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, George R.R. Martins Song of Ice and Fire, and the original Robert Howard Conan stories (Phoenix on the Sword is one of my favs, but there are many good ones. Just be forewarned that racism and misogyny are par for the course with Howard)

My all time favorite fluff comes out of the 2nd and early 3rd edition Shadowrun books, though the stuff post Dunklezahn's will was not so good and we don't talk about the Year of the Comet in my house. the rest of it is really good in my opinion. Not sure how applicable it is too a wide variety of genres, but I am heavily influenced by it in almost everything I run. I just loved it all.