Real world sourcebooks?

[2D8HP]

I've been mining Ian Mortimer's "Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England" for setting backround, and I have just started reading his "Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England".
What real world history, geography, travel etc. do you make use of?

[sktarq]

I have an older set of books called the Cultureshock series which is basically for people who are moving to another country and how to handle business meetings, dealing with neighbors, proper treatment of waitstaff etc.
I don't know if they are still around but they have very useful in modern games for making people and places feel vibrant. (was especially feel good to find people from that place recognized the work)

also the Timetables of History which says all kinds of things that were going on in Politics, Science, Religion, Tech all over the world in a given year. (which makes say comparison of 7th C India to 7th C China to 7th C Morocco really easy) which is useful source for ideas and kicks my natural brainstorming up a couple notches-The one by TIME publishing I found to be less eurocentric than the Touchstone/Grun one I have at the moment.

Historical Atlases - I use a ton of these

History of *(Resource)* Red Dye? Salt? Cocaine? Oil? Oak? Indigo? Hemp Plants? Cotton? Cod? Scottish Lichen Dyes? Oysters? Pork/Pigs? Pearls? Diamonds? Carpets? Opium? Got 'em all (and still collecting) I have at least twenty books of this type. And yes I did start with Salt, Drugs, and Colors

University of Oklahoma livestock breed site (as well as Wikipedia and places like the AKC site) to break breeds of sheep, horses, dogs, cattle into regional variation in the world. . . Mention it when the players travel-have pictures in a file and show them what the local cow they are sharing a stable with and suddenly they not only get the sense of "not at home we are in XXX" but even just renting crash space from a local farmer to stay the night in his barn turns into a memory and source of jokes for the months.

Also for modern games (like World of Darkness) I go through most of a travel section on the target city/region. With a bit of digging most bigger cities have guidebooks or sites that go neighborhood by neighborhood - these changes can be amped up a bit for game but hold to the spirit of it and also gives a good idea of what to pull out of the bum when the party "heads north" unexpectedly thinking the guy at the counter made a comment that proves he is in cahoots with the enemy (paranoia is fun and all but can be taken too far) and even better the good ones will cover just about all of the city at least somewhat and also culls a list of odd interesting places to work from.

[nrg89]

History books like the ones previously mentioned are good examples of source books, almost a must have if one wants a world that feels as believable as our own. I can't recommend such sources enough.

Two books which have influenced me a lot when it comes to world building, and might be more of an original pick, are Guns, Germs & Steel and Children of the Sun.

The first one is an exhaustive argument that Europe's dominance over recent history stems from natural resources, geographical position and it's flora and fauna. It's stirred up a lot of controversy since historians and anthropologists think it glosses over culture too much, and it also paints history with very broad strokes, but it's mostly been received well. If you want an empire conquering a smaller area you could use some examples from the book to explain how it became much more powerful.

The second one is a very short documentation over all the different revolutions of energy usage we have had as humans, starting with fire, then agriculture, continuing with sailing, fossil fuels and much more in between ultimately ending with nuclear power. Again, it's very illuminating to read that Europe's population started growing very rapidly once the potato was widely adopted, and how this also brought new vulnerabilities (the Irish Potato Famine being a prime example) because it goes to show that some things we take for granted were absolutely mind boggling to our ancestors. The book is full of these examples.

[LudicSavant]

One I started reading fairly recently: The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin. Not sure how it turns out as a whole... still reading. So far it has been interesting, however. It addresses the way in which humanity's understanding of the natural world progressed, and has a lot of fun cultural bits that you can use for your games.

Some helpful influences were Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen (which addresses a lot of the dreadful inaccuracies taught in US grade school history classes. "Columbus didn't really discover America and definitely isn't the guy to thank for knowing the earth's round" is the tip of a large iceberg) and A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn (you know how history is written by the winners? This book tries to tell it from the losing perspective). I've also read some of Jared Diamond's work, which was already mentioned by another poster.

[Belac93]

Two books who have influenced me a lot when it comes to world building, and might be more of an original pick, are Guns, Germs & Steel

I second this book. If you are too lazy to read it, there is a free video series, with most of the basic ideas, right here on youtube.

[sktarq]

Actually if you are going to delve in to Jared Diamond I'd recommend you start with "Third Chimpanzee" which was his previous work. Guns Germs and Steel is basically an expansion of several chapters in this book and also goes into physiological and neuro-physiological issues between humans and apes that have extra significance in a multi-intelligent-species world. I will say "Collapse" his book. After Guns, Germs, and Steel is good if you want to build for worlds with dungeon delving, but like all his books iis something more of book to read to shape how you approach world building than a reference during.

Also "it seemed like a good idea at the time" both the book and similar ones which break down the idea that history politics etc is based on rational ideas and how that can drive stories and settings

[Knaight]

From a RPG resource perspective, the GURPS source books for real world things are goldmines. From an inspiration perspective, I've used all sorts of things, from things I've seen hiking to pictures of more exotic locations to more than one engineering textbook.

[Ravian]

I remember picking up a really good encyclopedia type book on the Victorian era that was particularly helpful for a gothic game I once ran.

I also remember doing extensive research on the city of San Francisco for a World of Darkness game. I've never gone to the city and live on the other side of the country, but I still generally remember all the neighborhoods and can generally identify which ones are particularly nice, quirky, or run-down.

In general I like to do a great deal of research otherwise for my games.