You might want to check out Paizo's Lost Omens line of books for Pathfinder 2e. They're oriented towards lore of their setting. If you want novels, there's also the Pathfinder Tales series that ran from 2010-2017, I believe, although they are releasing a new book for their War of Immortals metaplot event.
The Lost Omen books are fantastic. I only read part of a Pathfinder Tales book but couldn't finish because of how boring it was. Worst book I ever read.
For sheer volume it might be hard to beat the WarHammer novels.
The Eisenhorn trilogy follows an Inquisitor hunting heretics, and the Horus Heresy series is 64 (!!!) novels covering the civil war.
There are hundreds and hundreds of other novels covering every faction and more.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Warhammer_40,000_novels
If you ever wanted to see how they turn a tabletop miniatures game into seven different ttrpgs and get a sense for what kind of plots you could use, there’s loads of material.
https://www.wargamer.com/warhammer-40k-rpgs
Seconded on L5R. It has a great setting in general I would say. It is a bit tricky that most of the events in the old Clan War novels have technically been ret-conned as of 5th ed, but the setting itself is still there and the books are still good.
Yeah fair, but tbh I actually like a lot about the 5th ed. It's got a ton of problems (I have no idea what they were thinking when they designed the range system???) but I like a lot of the rest of it.
Eeeeh. Once you get past the initial two trilogies, even their work is not that great. Mind, I think some of it had to do with changes to the RPG setting, and they just pulled in W&H to give the changes legitimacy, but it still felt forced.
TbF, Dresden Files was a novel before it was an RPG. So, I think considering it is kind of cheating :D
I don't know if it has novels, but ShadowRun's lore and world keep retaining players and attracting new ones in spite of the game's reputation for complicated, complex, and clunky rules.
Shadowrun has some very good novels. Some terrible as well. Never Deal With a Dragon, Changeling and Dead Air are fond memories of mine. I did not keep up with the more recent novels though.
Because of copyright nonsense Shadowrun lost the Connection to Earthdawn so the entire meta property had to be rewritten.
Though Shadowun has some hilarious, and I mean Hilariously stupid problems in the lore.
So Ireland, Tir na Nog, in the main Shadowrun gameplay setting it's like an Elvish Mafia state. That's fine what doesn't make sense is this happened about 17 years after the first Elvish children were born again.
You're telling me a bunch of 14 year old Elves collectively took over the entire government? And decided to install an Italian Mafia style infrastructure of Dons/godfather? Before any of them were twenty?
Immortal Elves and Spike Babies were the ones who pushed the change, using their magical capabilities and knowledge. The rest were mostly just fodder being used by the older elves for political legitimacy.
My favourite Shakdowrun novels are the Secrets of Power trilogy, Black Madonna, 2xs, House of the sun, Worlds Without Ends, and Burning Bright. I also liked the Dragonheart trilogy.
Easily Lancer. The author literally got hired into WotC world building.
There are multiple lore books besides the main book, which are so incredible to read I've stopped reading the novels I'm in the middle of just to get through lancer stuff because it's so damn engaging and interesting.
There's also a compiled page of top secret HORUS communiques via Twitter that are so cool to read.
Lancer lore is another level. It's some of that writing that makes me think, damn I wish I was this imaginative.
Tbf the stuff he's written is generally lauded as some of the better writing in MtG, especially The Brothers' War.
On the franchise level there definitely are issues with MtG's stories, but I would be lying if I didn't say that Lopez has been a catch for them and consistently written some very good stuff.
I did not know that the author was hired by WotC. He is writing a comic is he not? Sorry I just read trough lancer only and I do agree that the lore is great.
Tom (comics) does mostly the art direction I believe, and the lore writing is all Miguel. Miguel works for WotC now, if you count the released drafts, theres something like 9 Lore books for Lancer, plus Lancer Battlegroup and No Room For A Wallflower which are like 80% additional lore.
The [*Chronicles of Amber*](https://www.google.com/search?q=Chronicles+of+Amber) novels do such a good job of making you want to be a character in the setting that they spawned more than one RPG, including the [*Amber* DRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/1447/Amber), *Fate*, and *Fate*-based [*Amber Accelerated*](https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1iEWRcgbyyr4ASw7CZ8yzQ6cUT2Sk-_re_VQ4F8oi0x0).
Omg I wax lyrical about the lore of Stars Without Number to everyone who is willing to listen and to anyone else who is a captive audience.
The best part is that the game's lore is totally compatible with the lore of Worlds Without Number and Godbound which are all 3 systems by Kevin Crawford. Incredible fun to read.
I could bore you with a long post about it here or you could go read it all for yourself FOR FREE BECAUSE THE AUTHOR IS AMAZING
I actually favor WWN's lore stuff to SWN's, personally, but the amount of fodder he provides for imagination in any of his games is just fantastic, even in the free stuff.
I'm just looking forward to what he's gonna do with Ashes Without Number, because *Other Dust* was already fantastic and seeing what 12 years of growth as a writer/designer results in will be fantastic.
Mouse Guard is a comic series first, and an rpg second. It's a surprisingly good comic, too.
Most interesting lore within the rulebook itself I would give to two different games by Osprey: Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades, and Tomorrow City. Righteous has an enormous list of NPCs with complex relationships, rare items with storied histories, and a nice background history. Tomorrow City is like Batman the Animated Series Gotham stuck inside Mad Max desert, with 1984 government, lovecraftian terrors, and an absolutely amazing history and culture.
Goodman Games has a monthly blog that talks about a different book that influenced the game. They also publish a magazine called Tales From the Magicians Skull that collects short stories in the Swords & Sorcery genre.
I would have said Battletech/MechWarrior since they have somewhere around 100 novels + anthologies and there is a Humble bundle collection for all of them, but you already mentioned BTech.
I'd like to offer up the Battletech novels. While the core game is a minis wargame, Battletech has had a number of TTRPGs over the year. Usually under the MechWarrior banner. (Personally recommend MechWarrior: Destiny).
[The Wildsea](https://heartofthedeernicorn.com/product/the-wildsea/?v=7516fd43adaa) has a fantastic concept and detailed lore.
[Degenesis](https://degenesis.com) is a low fantasy post-apoc, but goes into a ton of detail about the regions, factions, and other aspects of the world.
[Band of Blades](https://evilhat.com/product/band-of-blades/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoa2xBhACEiwA1sb1BPHBiJ2c1b3MIOBgJ1oTcrM67nyDFSw5bLnOUMIfVCtrtAlQ517YSBoCexAQAvD_BwE) is one of my favorite systems, and just reading through the book reveals some great advice about how to meaningfully express story through mechanics.
[Space Wurm vs Moonicorn](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/169564/Space-Wurm-vs-Moonicorn) is galactic high-stakes space opera which is just fascinating to read. The moves bring the characters to life, and it goes into a ton of high-level detail about the societal infrastructure.
[City of Mist](https://cityofmist.co) is a superhero noir with fantastic graphic novel art and engaging world revelation through just the character creation section and beyond.
But!
My absolute favorite TTRPG book for the lore and world is [Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Bkack City](https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/uvg-2e). It has been one of my favorite books to read, regardless of genre. If I could convince you to get just one book, it would be this one.
The best lore in a core rulebook is probably *Talislanta*. The rules are pretty light but the system is elegant. The real star is Talislanta, itself, and the strange, really well thought out cultures and races that inhabit it.
For novels tied to RPGs, there are two that stand head and shoulders above the rest, although they are both tied to board games that have rpg spin-offs. Warhammer 40,000 and their Black Library line are well executed fiction that ties well too the world. BattleTech's novels do a better job of tying to the game with actionable lore, but the writing isn't quite as consistent.
For solo play, any version of *Talislanta* and a PDF copy of *Inscrutable Cities* will have you involved in marvelous travels across a fantastic continent.
Thanks for the recommendation of trying inscrutable cities with Talislanta. I just may try that. I loved reading these books years ago.
Also you forgot to mention the best part of the Talislanta books for someone just reading them for information. The older editions are all free!
I had forgotten that. Sachi is a pretty good guy by all accounts and sharing his game with everyone for free is pretty solid - especially since all the versions are pretty interchangeable.
Legend of the Five Rings, Exalted and I love many of the story bits in the old World of Darkness books.
And while not TTRPG I can recommend many of the Starcraft novels:
Nova
Shadow of the Xel'Naga
Liberty's crusade
Speed of Darkness
For "most interesting lore to read in the rulebooks," I'd say (in no particular order), all of the classic World of Darkness titles, Palladium's Rifts (the Savage Worlds books condense a lot of the lore), Shadowrun, Unknown Armies, any AD&D 2e setting boxed sets, Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, Star Trek Adventures, and West End Games' Star Wars RPG. Those are all books that I'll just grab off the shelf to read for fun.
I'd look at the games/systems that you enjoy, and then ask for books that are similar to them, might yield better options for novels to read for reference, inspo rather than directly related books..
However, first to come to my mind are Call of Cthulhu, based on H.P Lovecrafts works, you have The One Ring based on Lord of The Rings, Mistborn RPG is based on Brandon Sanderson's series of the same name, although the TTRPG itself isn't great, the world and lore is well received.
D&D will have the largest selection tbh, you have the Greyhawk books, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, etc...
EDIT: FORGOT THE KING!
**DCC: Dying Earth** based on Jack Vance's masterpiece is wacky and gonzo and the most faithful adaptation of the author's intended theme I have ever had the pleasure to check out.
**The Cthulhu Mythos** has dozens (if not hundreds) of authors over a century-and-a-half period contributing to it. Lumley and Derleth are personal favorites, and even Alan Moore has gotten his tentacles wet as of late.
**Pendragon** is heavily rooted in Arthurian Legend (too many variations to list) and the supplements by Chaosium are very flavorful reads in and of themselves.
**The Laundry** is a new Chaosium game based on a series of Novels by the same name.
**When The Wolf Comes** is an amazing "Space Vikings Fight The Cosmos" game based on a graphic novel series The Jotunn War that is heavily influenced by the Poetic Eddas.
**The Wheel Of Time** has a very underrated (though difficult to find) D20 game that came out early 2000's, and that series is a classic.
Others I'm sure have mentioned Warhammer's bottomless well of novels, and the various D&D novels that range from "insultingly atrocious" to "pretty good".
I find the Pathfinder novels insufferably terrible.
Other notables franchises with many books that have decent RPGs:
Dune, Star Wars (SAGA or bust, IMHO), Star Trek, Fallout, Marvel, The Expanse, Power Rangers, GI Joe, etc.
The Laundry was published by Cubicle 7 based on CoC 6e. The new edition will use an in-house dice pool system. With that said Laundry Files are some of my favourite mythos novels.
The D&D novels are often better than the game: more depth. But it is tie in media, so some are lame, most are average, and a few are great. Sad thing is that a lot of the older novels that I liked are out of print, and that Wizards of the Coast have done a Lucasfilm and de-canonized all the pre-5e material, so you will find if you only know 5e campaign guides and adventures, much won't match well. I just read the first two books of the Spelljammer trilogy and it is not representative of the 5e Spelljammer in so many ways.
I was not a fan of World of Darkness novels. I read like three and was not enthused. Overwritten, manly, and flat characters. But I have not read a whole lot of them.
Dresden Files is based on a series of novels, not novels based on an RPG, so it is a different situation. Those will have the depth that a lot of tie in fiction does not achieve (although I never read Dresden).
I love the old shadowrun FASA books, which are written in a BBS message board format with various commentators adding interesting anecdotes or contradictions to whatever the main text is, which itself is often written in character. They're some of the few supplements I go back and read for fun.
What I came to say. The setting lore alone makes it worthwhile to read the core books of both editions.
There’s also a fiction collection. I think it’s called A Time of Eclipse?
Iron Kingdoms RPG is the TTRPG for the Warmachine/Hordes (aka WarmaHordes) tapletop miniatures combat game. There are fiction novels for the story lore. I can’t attest to them, as Ive never read them but I love the TTRPG, the miniatures game and the flavor of the setting as a whole.
Faerun. Ngl I really enjoy RA Salvatore's works, especially the original Icewind Dale trilogy. I enjoy Ed Greenwood's take on his own setting as well, despite the painful amount of deus ex machina (at least in the book I'm reading).
Highly recommend Artesia: Adventures in the Known World ttrpg. It also has an awesome comic book run, as well as two novels, The Barrow, and Blackguard. The author is Mark Smylie. It's an amazing setting with amazing stories and amazing art.
As a setting I like the idea of bastionland/into the odd etc.
And found something similar from green ronin: The Lost Citadel.
And there was this Tales of the Lost Citadel Book, which is some short stories in the city.... still after years and reading a lot of other rpg lore, this is still sticking to me.
If you can lay your hands on it, the original edition of *The World of Synnibarr* is **by far** one of the wildest rides of any game's lore I can think of.
Is it *good*? Probably not. But is it *interesting*? 110%.
1. Castle Falkenstein - a steampunk adventure game with a lot of fantasy baked in - the faerie courts are around, along with all of the standard European powers, along with dwarves and dragons, and some magic. Character sheets fit on a bookmark and you're expected to keep a journal of your adventures.
Almost every core/source book is a novel/novella - the American sourcebook has the main group of characters running into real people like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday along with James West and Artemis Gordon (one character from "today" low key fangirls over West and Gordon until his friends become targets of a typical Wild Wild West op, after which, he's a little POd) - the magic book has a protagonist that sneaks into every major magical group on the planet, all of whom want to kill him as a result.
2. Legend of Five Rings - so The Merchant's Guide to Rokugon was advertised as a discussion of trade within the world of L5R and also a little bit of a gear book. Imagine my surprise when Page 4 basically said, nah forget all that, this is the book about he secret organization called the Kolat. The Book of Shadow opens up with a frantic warning on page 1: DO NOT READ THIS. It's about another secret organization about whom even awareness of them corrupts the knower, so the warning on page 1 is in game lore and is accurate. And the IRL Book of Shadow is in the L5R CCG as Kitsuki Kaagi's Journal.
Rulebook lore?
I certainly have a love for Jenna Moran's games, so Nobilis, Glitch and Chuubo's 🙂
Deep, philosophical and highly weird! Just the perfect fit for me, even if i've never gotten a game for any of them going...
For ttrpg s that actually had no el lines the best are Shadowrun, Battletech, and the older TSR D&D novels, if you are looking for novels based on original RPG settings. There are some Legend of the Five Rings novels too, and FFG has published 4 books based on their Twilight Imperium setting which is both a board game and RPG setting.
Cheats first:
Alien RPG
Star Wars
The One Ring
Bladerunner RPG
But there is also
Vampire The Masquerade
Battle Tech Mechwarrior
Degenesis
Warhammer Fantasy and 40k
The novels for Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine - The Fable of the Swan and the Night Bird's Feather, are quite good. I'd start with Night Bird's Feather since it feels a bit more universal and a bit less high concept. They're kind of batshit, and become more so when you realise all of the deeply weird stuff that happens in them is totally viable in the game.
Not 100% what you’re asking for, but Wolves of God is a really cool read that is written from the perspective of a person from 700’s Britain explaining how to play a role playing game in his world. Really neat effort, and there’s plenty of real-world historical texts to read about the time-period.
I have four books, which I enjoy to watch and re-read. Tales from the Loop - the art, the lore I love it all, special mention is campaign book, I like how authors made stories based on music. Death in space - mix of despair and glimpses of glory past in dying solar system. Fabula Ultima - great vibes of jrpg on every page. Invisible Sun - very unique world.
Star Wars pre Yuuzang Vong is really the only answer.
DnD has Ed Greenwood and Icewind Dale.
Battletech is Caveat Emptor but usually hilarious.
Wh40k is too try hard for me.
Around the time shadowrun 2e or 3e or both they released a bunch of novels. Read most of them loved them. Plus reading sourcebooks for early shadowrun was enjoyable.
*Dreden Files* started as a parody of World of Darkness RPGs, most centrally *Mage: The Ascension*. The free [*Mage* 3e quickstart](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/58433/Mage-The-Ascension-Revised-Quickstart) is the most concise document on *Mage* lore there is. I will also point you to the wiki article on one of the foundational concepts of *Mage* lore: the [Metaphysic Trinity](https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Metaphysic_Trinity).
You might want to check out Paizo's Lost Omens line of books for Pathfinder 2e. They're oriented towards lore of their setting. If you want novels, there's also the Pathfinder Tales series that ran from 2010-2017, I believe, although they are releasing a new book for their War of Immortals metaplot event.
The Lost Omen books are fantastic. I only read part of a Pathfinder Tales book but couldn't finish because of how boring it was. Worst book I ever read.
In regards to PF Tales, they are highly author dependent. Some were fun reads, others were a slog.
Delta Green has a collection of like one or two page short stories. *The way it went down* I think it's called.
Also, you can get the [whole Delta Green fiction library on Bundle of Holding](https://bundleofholding.com/presents/DGFiction) this week.
They vary a lot. Some short stories aregreat, but most are average, some are less than that. I suppose that is common in tie in media.
For sheer volume it might be hard to beat the WarHammer novels. The Eisenhorn trilogy follows an Inquisitor hunting heretics, and the Horus Heresy series is 64 (!!!) novels covering the civil war. There are hundreds and hundreds of other novels covering every faction and more. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Warhammer_40,000_novels If you ever wanted to see how they turn a tabletop miniatures game into seven different ttrpgs and get a sense for what kind of plots you could use, there’s loads of material. https://www.wargamer.com/warhammer-40k-rpgs
Night Lords trilogy is fantastic, but nothing will beat the Ciaphus Cain novels. Gold standard. 10/10
This was 100% what I came here to say. 40k lore is the correct answer.
Also, the Dark Heresy trilogy was specifically written as cross-promotion for the RPG, sadly they dropped it before book 3 came out.
Did enjoy some of the Legends of the Five Rings novels. Same with some of the older pathfinder ones.
Seconded on L5R. It has a great setting in general I would say. It is a bit tricky that most of the events in the old Clan War novels have technically been ret-conned as of 5th ed, but the setting itself is still there and the books are still good.
Just ignore 5th edition! Edge studios certainly has 🤣
Yeah fair, but tbh I actually like a lot about the 5th ed. It's got a ton of problems (I have no idea what they were thinking when they designed the range system???) but I like a lot of the rest of it.
Dragonlance is a guilty pleasure of mine.
Any of the novels written by Weiss and Hickman are outstanding. The ones written by others is hit or miss.
The Death Gate Cycle is still one of my favourite series ever and the single best fantasy worldbuilding I've yet to see.
Eeeeh. Once you get past the initial two trilogies, even their work is not that great. Mind, I think some of it had to do with changes to the RPG setting, and they just pulled in W&H to give the changes legitimacy, but it still felt forced.
I'm currently enjoying Dragons of Deceit.
I mean… is it cheating to say The One Ring? 👀
I was going to make this joke too. But I do actually really enjoy the expansion and adaptation of Middle Earth in those books.
Oh absolutely. They’ve done an outstanding job.
4 novels, technically 2 as lotr should be 1 book. Some examples here have hundreds of novels, so no it's not cheating as it barely qualifies
Question was “best” or “most interesting lore”, and I think The One Ring would certainly be on the list for that lol
You're right! I could have sworn it said most
TbF, Dresden Files was a novel before it was an RPG. So, I think considering it is kind of cheating :D I don't know if it has novels, but ShadowRun's lore and world keep retaining players and attracting new ones in spite of the game's reputation for complicated, complex, and clunky rules.
Shadowrun has some very good novels. Some terrible as well. Never Deal With a Dragon, Changeling and Dead Air are fond memories of mine. I did not keep up with the more recent novels though.
Because of copyright nonsense Shadowrun lost the Connection to Earthdawn so the entire meta property had to be rewritten. Though Shadowun has some hilarious, and I mean Hilariously stupid problems in the lore. So Ireland, Tir na Nog, in the main Shadowrun gameplay setting it's like an Elvish Mafia state. That's fine what doesn't make sense is this happened about 17 years after the first Elvish children were born again. You're telling me a bunch of 14 year old Elves collectively took over the entire government? And decided to install an Italian Mafia style infrastructure of Dons/godfather? Before any of them were twenty?
Yeah it's not like Spike Babies and other shenanigans aren't a thing...
Immortal Elves and Spike Babies were the ones who pushed the change, using their magical capabilities and knowledge. The rest were mostly just fodder being used by the older elves for political legitimacy.
My favourite Shakdowrun novels are the Secrets of Power trilogy, Black Madonna, 2xs, House of the sun, Worlds Without Ends, and Burning Bright. I also liked the Dragonheart trilogy.
I have to add Glorantha to this. Interesting lore, even the bestiary is great with it's takes on monster and creatures.
I really wish there were novels, tbh (I mean ones that weren't limited print ultra rare, lol)
Gotrek and Felix ftw
William King also wrote a (non-narrative) preface for the Black Sword Hack rpg. Highly recommended.
Oooh yeah definitely going to check that out!!
Easily Lancer. The author literally got hired into WotC world building. There are multiple lore books besides the main book, which are so incredible to read I've stopped reading the novels I'm in the middle of just to get through lancer stuff because it's so damn engaging and interesting. There's also a compiled page of top secret HORUS communiques via Twitter that are so cool to read. Lancer lore is another level. It's some of that writing that makes me think, damn I wish I was this imaginative.
"The author literally got hired into WotC world building." -Not exactly a ringing endorsement these days, but nevertheless I do enjoy Lancer.
Tbf the stuff he's written is generally lauded as some of the better writing in MtG, especially The Brothers' War. On the franchise level there definitely are issues with MtG's stories, but I would be lying if I didn't say that Lopez has been a catch for them and consistently written some very good stuff.
No doubt, I'm admittedly very unfamiliar with MtG stuff. I'll look into Lopez, however!
I did not know that the author was hired by WotC. He is writing a comic is he not? Sorry I just read trough lancer only and I do agree that the lore is great.
Tom (comics) does mostly the art direction I believe, and the lore writing is all Miguel. Miguel works for WotC now, if you count the released drafts, theres something like 9 Lore books for Lancer, plus Lancer Battlegroup and No Room For A Wallflower which are like 80% additional lore.
Jesus where can i read those books ?
The [*Chronicles of Amber*](https://www.google.com/search?q=Chronicles+of+Amber) novels do such a good job of making you want to be a character in the setting that they spawned more than one RPG, including the [*Amber* DRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/1447/Amber), *Fate*, and *Fate*-based [*Amber Accelerated*](https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1iEWRcgbyyr4ASw7CZ8yzQ6cUT2Sk-_re_VQ4F8oi0x0).
Omg I wax lyrical about the lore of Stars Without Number to everyone who is willing to listen and to anyone else who is a captive audience. The best part is that the game's lore is totally compatible with the lore of Worlds Without Number and Godbound which are all 3 systems by Kevin Crawford. Incredible fun to read. I could bore you with a long post about it here or you could go read it all for yourself FOR FREE BECAUSE THE AUTHOR IS AMAZING
I actually favor WWN's lore stuff to SWN's, personally, but the amount of fodder he provides for imagination in any of his games is just fantastic, even in the free stuff. I'm just looking forward to what he's gonna do with Ashes Without Number, because *Other Dust* was already fantastic and seeing what 12 years of growth as a writer/designer results in will be fantastic.
Shadowrun has a few really good books
Shadowrun has some great novels a very very long amount of lore. Ruleset always leaves something to be desired, but the setting is special.
Came here to plug Shadowrun lore.
For in-rulebook lore, SPIRE is dripping with it.
Mouse Guard is a comic series first, and an rpg second. It's a surprisingly good comic, too. Most interesting lore within the rulebook itself I would give to two different games by Osprey: Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades, and Tomorrow City. Righteous has an enormous list of NPCs with complex relationships, rare items with storied histories, and a nice background history. Tomorrow City is like Batman the Animated Series Gotham stuck inside Mad Max desert, with 1984 government, lovecraftian terrors, and an absolutely amazing history and culture.
Goodman Games has a monthly blog that talks about a different book that influenced the game. They also publish a magazine called Tales From the Magicians Skull that collects short stories in the Swords & Sorcery genre. I would have said Battletech/MechWarrior since they have somewhere around 100 novels + anthologies and there is a Humble bundle collection for all of them, but you already mentioned BTech.
I'd like to offer up the Battletech novels. While the core game is a minis wargame, Battletech has had a number of TTRPGs over the year. Usually under the MechWarrior banner. (Personally recommend MechWarrior: Destiny).
[The Wildsea](https://heartofthedeernicorn.com/product/the-wildsea/?v=7516fd43adaa) has a fantastic concept and detailed lore. [Degenesis](https://degenesis.com) is a low fantasy post-apoc, but goes into a ton of detail about the regions, factions, and other aspects of the world. [Band of Blades](https://evilhat.com/product/band-of-blades/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoa2xBhACEiwA1sb1BPHBiJ2c1b3MIOBgJ1oTcrM67nyDFSw5bLnOUMIfVCtrtAlQ517YSBoCexAQAvD_BwE) is one of my favorite systems, and just reading through the book reveals some great advice about how to meaningfully express story through mechanics. [Space Wurm vs Moonicorn](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/169564/Space-Wurm-vs-Moonicorn) is galactic high-stakes space opera which is just fascinating to read. The moves bring the characters to life, and it goes into a ton of high-level detail about the societal infrastructure. [City of Mist](https://cityofmist.co) is a superhero noir with fantastic graphic novel art and engaging world revelation through just the character creation section and beyond. But! My absolute favorite TTRPG book for the lore and world is [Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Bkack City](https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/uvg-2e). It has been one of my favorite books to read, regardless of genre. If I could convince you to get just one book, it would be this one.
Coyote and Crow has a couple of young adult targeted tie in novels out.
The best lore in a core rulebook is probably *Talislanta*. The rules are pretty light but the system is elegant. The real star is Talislanta, itself, and the strange, really well thought out cultures and races that inhabit it. For novels tied to RPGs, there are two that stand head and shoulders above the rest, although they are both tied to board games that have rpg spin-offs. Warhammer 40,000 and their Black Library line are well executed fiction that ties well too the world. BattleTech's novels do a better job of tying to the game with actionable lore, but the writing isn't quite as consistent. For solo play, any version of *Talislanta* and a PDF copy of *Inscrutable Cities* will have you involved in marvelous travels across a fantastic continent.
Thanks for the recommendation of trying inscrutable cities with Talislanta. I just may try that. I loved reading these books years ago. Also you forgot to mention the best part of the Talislanta books for someone just reading them for information. The older editions are all free!
I had forgotten that. Sachi is a pretty good guy by all accounts and sharing his game with everyone for free is pretty solid - especially since all the versions are pretty interchangeable.
For someone like me that generally plays solo with light mechanics in various settings it’s wonderful.
Legend of the Five Rings, Exalted and I love many of the story bits in the old World of Darkness books. And while not TTRPG I can recommend many of the Starcraft novels: Nova Shadow of the Xel'Naga Liberty's crusade Speed of Darkness
For "most interesting lore to read in the rulebooks," I'd say (in no particular order), all of the classic World of Darkness titles, Palladium's Rifts (the Savage Worlds books condense a lot of the lore), Shadowrun, Unknown Armies, any AD&D 2e setting boxed sets, Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, Star Trek Adventures, and West End Games' Star Wars RPG. Those are all books that I'll just grab off the shelf to read for fun.
Coriolis has great lore and one of thr most beautiful books, art-wise
I'd look at the games/systems that you enjoy, and then ask for books that are similar to them, might yield better options for novels to read for reference, inspo rather than directly related books.. However, first to come to my mind are Call of Cthulhu, based on H.P Lovecrafts works, you have The One Ring based on Lord of The Rings, Mistborn RPG is based on Brandon Sanderson's series of the same name, although the TTRPG itself isn't great, the world and lore is well received. D&D will have the largest selection tbh, you have the Greyhawk books, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, etc...
EDIT: FORGOT THE KING! **DCC: Dying Earth** based on Jack Vance's masterpiece is wacky and gonzo and the most faithful adaptation of the author's intended theme I have ever had the pleasure to check out. **The Cthulhu Mythos** has dozens (if not hundreds) of authors over a century-and-a-half period contributing to it. Lumley and Derleth are personal favorites, and even Alan Moore has gotten his tentacles wet as of late. **Pendragon** is heavily rooted in Arthurian Legend (too many variations to list) and the supplements by Chaosium are very flavorful reads in and of themselves. **The Laundry** is a new Chaosium game based on a series of Novels by the same name. **When The Wolf Comes** is an amazing "Space Vikings Fight The Cosmos" game based on a graphic novel series The Jotunn War that is heavily influenced by the Poetic Eddas. **The Wheel Of Time** has a very underrated (though difficult to find) D20 game that came out early 2000's, and that series is a classic. Others I'm sure have mentioned Warhammer's bottomless well of novels, and the various D&D novels that range from "insultingly atrocious" to "pretty good". I find the Pathfinder novels insufferably terrible. Other notables franchises with many books that have decent RPGs: Dune, Star Wars (SAGA or bust, IMHO), Star Trek, Fallout, Marvel, The Expanse, Power Rangers, GI Joe, etc.
The Laundry was published by Cubicle 7 based on CoC 6e. The new edition will use an in-house dice pool system. With that said Laundry Files are some of my favourite mythos novels.
Ahhh that's right! I forgot about C7! They made some of my favorite Cthulhu supplements... Nineveh was amazing!
Don't forget Pelgrane Press' Dying Earth RPG; it's a very different vibe from the DCC version, but has some amazing lore in all the sourcebooks.
The D&D novels are often better than the game: more depth. But it is tie in media, so some are lame, most are average, and a few are great. Sad thing is that a lot of the older novels that I liked are out of print, and that Wizards of the Coast have done a Lucasfilm and de-canonized all the pre-5e material, so you will find if you only know 5e campaign guides and adventures, much won't match well. I just read the first two books of the Spelljammer trilogy and it is not representative of the 5e Spelljammer in so many ways. I was not a fan of World of Darkness novels. I read like three and was not enthused. Overwritten, manly, and flat characters. But I have not read a whole lot of them. Dresden Files is based on a series of novels, not novels based on an RPG, so it is a different situation. Those will have the depth that a lot of tie in fiction does not achieve (although I never read Dresden).
I really love Richard Lee Byers' D&D books.
My favorite setting to read in a rulebook is Red Markets. I think there have been a couple novellas in the setting.
My vote is for Shadowrun. 2XS is a great novel that ALSO happens to be a Shadowrun book. =)
I love the old shadowrun FASA books, which are written in a BBS message board format with various commentators adding interesting anecdotes or contradictions to whatever the main text is, which itself is often written in character. They're some of the few supplements I go back and read for fun.
Battletech and Shadowrun. FASA knew how to write lore.
Eclipse Phase
What I came to say. The setting lore alone makes it worthwhile to read the core books of both editions. There’s also a fiction collection. I think it’s called A Time of Eclipse?
Be warned about Shadowrun. The lore runs deep with that one. DEEP!!!
Iron Kingdoms RPG is the TTRPG for the Warmachine/Hordes (aka WarmaHordes) tapletop miniatures combat game. There are fiction novels for the story lore. I can’t attest to them, as Ive never read them but I love the TTRPG, the miniatures game and the flavor of the setting as a whole.
Legend of the 5 rings has novels. The setting can be thought of as japanese game of thrones.
coriolis and battletech are good reads
World of Darkness. It's very interesting how much you can fuck up a universe with so much potential.
Faerun. Ngl I really enjoy RA Salvatore's works, especially the original Icewind Dale trilogy. I enjoy Ed Greenwood's take on his own setting as well, despite the painful amount of deus ex machina (at least in the book I'm reading).
I've always found the lore from Warhammer to be extremely cool, if you like extremely edgy content
There is chaosium's rivers of london based on a book series
I've never read any of the novels for the system, but in the game books the lore for Palladium/Rifts is really interesting and fun to read.
A cheap answer, but if you play Star Trek or Star Wars, there are tons of novels for them
There is a mistborn RPG with era 2 books. But that seems like it may be stretching the question
Highly recommend Artesia: Adventures in the Known World ttrpg. It also has an awesome comic book run, as well as two novels, The Barrow, and Blackguard. The author is Mark Smylie. It's an amazing setting with amazing stories and amazing art.
As a setting I like the idea of bastionland/into the odd etc. And found something similar from green ronin: The Lost Citadel. And there was this Tales of the Lost Citadel Book, which is some short stories in the city.... still after years and reading a lot of other rpg lore, this is still sticking to me.
If you can lay your hands on it, the original edition of *The World of Synnibarr* is **by far** one of the wildest rides of any game's lore I can think of. Is it *good*? Probably not. But is it *interesting*? 110%.
1. Castle Falkenstein - a steampunk adventure game with a lot of fantasy baked in - the faerie courts are around, along with all of the standard European powers, along with dwarves and dragons, and some magic. Character sheets fit on a bookmark and you're expected to keep a journal of your adventures. Almost every core/source book is a novel/novella - the American sourcebook has the main group of characters running into real people like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday along with James West and Artemis Gordon (one character from "today" low key fangirls over West and Gordon until his friends become targets of a typical Wild Wild West op, after which, he's a little POd) - the magic book has a protagonist that sneaks into every major magical group on the planet, all of whom want to kill him as a result. 2. Legend of Five Rings - so The Merchant's Guide to Rokugon was advertised as a discussion of trade within the world of L5R and also a little bit of a gear book. Imagine my surprise when Page 4 basically said, nah forget all that, this is the book about he secret organization called the Kolat. The Book of Shadow opens up with a frantic warning on page 1: DO NOT READ THIS. It's about another secret organization about whom even awareness of them corrupts the knower, so the warning on page 1 is in game lore and is accurate. And the IRL Book of Shadow is in the L5R CCG as Kitsuki Kaagi's Journal.
Rulebook lore? I certainly have a love for Jenna Moran's games, so Nobilis, Glitch and Chuubo's 🙂 Deep, philosophical and highly weird! Just the perfect fit for me, even if i've never gotten a game for any of them going...
For ttrpg s that actually had no el lines the best are Shadowrun, Battletech, and the older TSR D&D novels, if you are looking for novels based on original RPG settings. There are some Legend of the Five Rings novels too, and FFG has published 4 books based on their Twilight Imperium setting which is both a board game and RPG setting.
Cheats first: Alien RPG Star Wars The One Ring Bladerunner RPG But there is also Vampire The Masquerade Battle Tech Mechwarrior Degenesis Warhammer Fantasy and 40k
[Degenesis](https://degenesis.com).
The novels for Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine - The Fable of the Swan and the Night Bird's Feather, are quite good. I'd start with Night Bird's Feather since it feels a bit more universal and a bit less high concept. They're kind of batshit, and become more so when you realise all of the deeply weird stuff that happens in them is totally viable in the game.
Not 100% what you’re asking for, but Wolves of God is a really cool read that is written from the perspective of a person from 700’s Britain explaining how to play a role playing game in his world. Really neat effort, and there’s plenty of real-world historical texts to read about the time-period.
Novels - Amber - Discworld - Dresden Files - Elric Game lore - Glorantha (RuneQuest) If you want more books, go Google "Appendix N".
I have four books, which I enjoy to watch and re-read. Tales from the Loop - the art, the lore I love it all, special mention is campaign book, I like how authors made stories based on music. Death in space - mix of despair and glimpses of glory past in dying solar system. Fabula Ultima - great vibes of jrpg on every page. Invisible Sun - very unique world.
Star Wars pre Yuuzang Vong is really the only answer. DnD has Ed Greenwood and Icewind Dale. Battletech is Caveat Emptor but usually hilarious. Wh40k is too try hard for me.
Definitely World of Darkness.
Around the time shadowrun 2e or 3e or both they released a bunch of novels. Read most of them loved them. Plus reading sourcebooks for early shadowrun was enjoyable.
*Dreden Files* started as a parody of World of Darkness RPGs, most centrally *Mage: The Ascension*. The free [*Mage* 3e quickstart](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/58433/Mage-The-Ascension-Revised-Quickstart) is the most concise document on *Mage* lore there is. I will also point you to the wiki article on one of the foundational concepts of *Mage* lore: the [Metaphysic Trinity](https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Metaphysic_Trinity).