poplitiko: A Guide to how to begin playing Role Playing Games, And what essentials do you need for the most Fun!

RPGs & tools to enhance your play
By Alex Ness
September 1, 2025

This is a small contribution to my desire to cover more aspects of RPGs and tangents of its play. The image directly below shows games I played from 1978 to about 1989, I liked most of those shown, but most of the time, games that were outside the typical play rarely lasted long. So, first edition D&D and Gamma World were most played. Tunnels & Trolls saw a lot more solitaire play. The four games that never worked with my various gaming groups... but I still liked them were Ars Magica, Bushido, Gang Busters and Chivalry and Sorcery. There was nothing horrible about them but for the fact that little things didn't work for most of the players. If everyone wants to play a less perfect game and not play an untested game, ultimately the numbers count. So I can say, I had a level of interest in all shown, and I suspect that not playing a game didn't mean not a good game.

SOME BOOKS THAT FUEL THE INTEREST AND FUN

For me, perhaps others, books are personally appreciable. You might prefer journeys or treks, quests or the warriors path. My point is that Drizzt, Conan, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, and their wonderful authors work in ways that your RPG needs. Elizabeth Moon, Dennis L. McKiernan, RA Salvatore, Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, Michael Moorcock, and Ursula K Le Guin provided me with numerous moments of, holy crap I know I can't get enough sleep, but I want to know who this chapter ends...

These, like all other suggestions, are subject to taste, availability, interest and every other variable. I like High Fantasy, and mostly sword action and lower power sorcery stories. I usually like heroes, but honestly, Elric is a dark son of a B, and Kane is not only just as nasty, he is physically powerful, mentally powerful, and skilled in all aspects of adventure. It is entertaining because it is well done, but it only goes so far.

GAMING IDEAS CONSIDERED IN JOURNALS

Unlike other of my reviews, my goal in presenting these works isn't to support or help focus upon what these magazines do. D8 is a gaming magazine for people who read Vertigo comics from DC. White Dwarf began as a UK based game mag, with TSR and Indy properties originally being the brands focused on. I particularly enjoyed when WD was talking about D&D but more than that. The ideas shared, built, explored, were ones I'd never heard US gamers chat about the ideas found in White Dwarf. Dragon was the magazine for TSR brand games, and some discussion that wasn't game/brand specific. Shadis was a great independent game mag. It had tools for the GM, humor, and discussion of concepts that help a game feel more, and be played smarter. Adventurer was a UK game mag, but focused on indy topics. I really enjoyed it. It was less direct information for official rules or full games, I found they were worth the expense of the magazine. Sadly it went kaput somewhat sooner than I'd like. White Wolf magazine was interesting, well written too. It had a flavor of being something basic now, but just wait, it is going grow and mature soon. I liked the editorial POV, it told readers, hey, stick around or you'll miss out.

THE BOOKS TO LEARN FROM THE GAME DESIGNERS

Wolfgang Bauer wrote a work to help the Game Master conceive and develop new concepts. There is a reasonable aim at the GM rather than players, because while a player can muddle through and pick up the important points, a GM who isn't well polished, will rarely succeed. D&D's co creator, Gary Gygax wrote a work call Role-Playing Mastery. It was rather filled with baloney, but it looked good. Ian Livingstone actually wrote a work that was reverse of the previous work. The concepts were well presented, but went nowhere near deep enough. Heroic Worlds by Lawrence Schick, was a work that did not feel like a work to take new gamers by the hand and teach them how it all works. No it didn't but it did describe and explain how games flow, create new ways of having fun, and theories behind RPG gaming are explored with essays from guest designers and talents. The complete guide to Role-playing Games is in fact usable for new players, but helps focus the concept of play in this appreciation of all of the games out at the time. For me, I was happy to read each one, but Gygax's work didn't matter, Bauer, who is a talented designer didn't really surprise or inspire people with his work. How much you appreciate these probably has more to do with what you are trying to find with these.

THE COMIC BOOKS TO READ AND SHARE TO LIGHT THE FIRE

I asked numerous contacts and friends who were RPGers and also comic book readers. What comics would you suggest that when you complete them, will make you want to go get your dice right now. I chose those to participate as much because they weren't alike as for their similar interests. The choices below are well picked, 6 came from me, 6 came from the friends. I say this because I asked many, and few responded. But thank you to William Ashley Vaughn, Rich Chapell, and Russ Stewart.

ElfQuest is a saga of a people dropped into the middle of a world, and trying to find their way out. The Ring is an opera written by Richard Wagner, featuring Northern European cycles of myths. Artesia is a work that is beautiful, well written, beautiful in every frame, and has such detail, you can enjoy it, a story of a woman queen, great master of diplomacy, battle and spells.

The Portent is a mythic tale, a prelude to a great warrior's rise, and his early periods before he fully mastered his skills. Empire Lanes is an early work for Peter Gross of a group of adventurers are catapulted through a dimension, found in a Bowling alley. A number of single frames are showing Duluth MN in the background. Castle Waiting captures the spirit of fun and worth exploring medieval tales. They also show how the modern eye can show a focus and outlook that offers more depth by such offerings.

Knights of the Dinner Table is a work/series that appeared in the 1990s, by Jolly Blackburn, in Shadis Magazine, in Dragon Magazine, and eventually landing in Kenzer and Company. The glory of it shows the common player types that can be easily viewed and actions that remind most readers of the way they play. The humor of KODT is hard born in, and we often see ourselves in such a work. The humor is over the top, well aware of the limits of each player's depths and shallows.

Elric's a character who is powerful, if troubled, emotional with failings, dark moods, and an awareness of his call to be the last emperor of his people. In general Elric comics are a powerful work for artists find Elric to be a character that stirs. Red Nails is the story of Conan that is my favorite, and in particular, Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith didn't miss one chance to utilize the power of the look and words by Robert E. Howard.

Slaine the Horned God is an excellent comic, it might not work for others who like more straight forward heroes and tales, but it is excellent in that the Celtic cycles of tales, the hero CuChulain bore a spear that if it was used in combat, might drive the hero to kill all who move upon the battlefield. It wasn't a straight forward tale, no, instead it was true to its ancient roots.

Mice Templar is a high fantasy cycle of mythic heroes. Upon a backdrop of heroic orders testing the challenge of who would be future of the leadership. It involves prophecy, and truly, anything but tropes or worn out ideas. The work is truly stunning.

Girl Genius Steampunk tells a swift moving tale, with deep veins of science, geography, archeologist, basement physics research, and much more. Told with many aims, the work has a playful nature, but doesn't fail to tell a serious story, with action, brains, and various powers.