Books to inspire your next campaign

There are a lot of amazing fantasy books out there. Epic fantasies in sprawling lands where evil creatures hide around every corner, but heroes always emerge to save the day. These books can either be perfect if you don’t have enough (D&D) adventures in your life or as the source of inspiration for your world-building, for NPC’s or for your next campaign. In my opinion everyone shout go read the following book series. I’ll tell you why you should read these (without going into spoilers) and how you can use these books for your future D&D sessions.

Kingkiller Chronicles

I have shouted it from the rooftops and I will do so again here: I LOVE THESE BOOKS!! In it you learn the story of Kvothe and how he overcame hardship after devastating hardship to eventually become an unrivaled wizard. He overcomes every obstacle by not only pushing his magical ability to the limits, but by employing his wit, all available resources and rolling some nat 20’s. Amazing writing by Patrick Rothfuss, I can’t wait for the third book of the trilogy to come out.

For your game: The way magic is visualised is amazing, the characters are strong and diverse and the world is fleshed-out and complete, but the reason I would give as to why you should read it is because it keeps you at the edge of your seat and is truly EPIC.

Farseer Trilogy

This trilogy of books is set in the world in which all of Robin Hobb’s books take place. It is a world of new magic and magic long forgotten. With kingdoms and races, dragons and other fantastical creatures. It doesn’t shy away from painful moment, which makes it only sweeter when heroes overcome the harsh reality of this world. Piece by piece the veil of the enormous world gets lifted until it all comes together, not only for a complete picture of the world, but for the adventurers that mearly try to live, love and overcome any obstacle in it.

For your game: This book series is amazing in creating compelling characters. Despite the different types of magics in this world, the thing that stands out and stays with you after reading these books are the people in it. Read Robin Hobb’s books and you will fall in love with the heroes and hate the villains with a burning passion.

Gentleman Bastard

Heroes are well and good, but sometimes it is really fun to read the story of crooks, thieves and downright bastards who only do what they do for their own selfish reasons. In this trilogy you follow Locke Lamora as he grows up to become this worlds best thief as he swindles, steals and cons his way into the purses of commoners, barons, rulers of the criminal underworld. This story is set in a fantasy world with magics and alchemy in which relics of an ancient race are still present. Writer Scott Lynch can get brutally graphical in his descriptions and is also able to make you laugh and sigh in relief when the plans of the self titled ‘Gentleman Bastards’ finally come together.

For your game: If you want inspiration for creating different types of heists, a criminal underworld and a compelling narrative that doesn’t need to revolve around creatures of world-ending threats to be good than you should definitely give these books a try.