D&D Accessories: D&D Books That Technically Aren’t D&D At All
Let’s take a look at the D&D adjacent books, the cousins of the D&D books. The books that make you a better player and RPG themed pun machine.
My shelves of tabletop RPG books are more varied than you may think. I have a lot of books of different games ranging from very genre and play style. But I also have a collection of books that aren’t really RPG books. They’re related to RPGs. Sort of the odd cousins of my regular books, but not entirely out of place. They’re the not-D&D D&D books. Will they help you play D&D, or any other RPG for that matter? No. But they’re for D&D by and for D&D players. After all, we’re not ALWAYS playing D&D. Sometimes we’re thinking about playing or preparing to be playing D&D.
1. The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide by James D’Amato
This is a resource that I actually find especially helpful both in tabletop games and writing. The backstory guide breaks down creative character creation into simple steps and questions. What’s their history? Their motivations? Their most dear childhood memory? If you find those questions challenging when it comes to making a new character, this can be an incredibly helpful book for you. James D’amato also has a Gameplay Guide and Micro-RPG collection available for all of your better-RPG-playing needs.
2. Drawing Dragons by Sandra Staple
There are a million art guides for various fantasy creatures, characters, and armor, but this one felt too on the nose not to pick. I doodle a lot at the D&D table, so why not make those doodles decent? And if dragons aren’t your favorite or don’t come up in your campaigns, grab a different guide and learn to draw your character! Everybody at my table loves to try to draw their own character or even illustrate inside jokes or bits of our adventures. One or two members of our group are actually good at it. And having a picture of your character’s finest moment from last week’s session is one of those top-tier feelings.
3. A Dragon Walks Into a Bar by Jef Aldrich and Jon Taylor
Yes, I absolutely do own this and yes it is as delightfully corny as you’d imagine. If you’ve listened to any of Jef & Jon’s podcasts you’ll recognize their fantastic/terrible sense of humor. And if you need to pay those groan-worthy jokes forward, here’s your way! Inflict bad puns upon your players. Ask them why dragons don’t like to eat paladins. (It’s because they taste lawful.) Will your friends boo and throw popcorn at you? Perhaps! But that’s part of the fun!
4. The Monsters Know What They’re Doing: Combat Tactics For Dungeon Masters by Keith Ammann
Tactics can be hard. You won’t always know the in and outs of every monster’s abilities or the best battle plan to implement on the fly. That’s where this dungeon master’s tactics guide comes into play for you. Not everybody looks at D&D and thinks about all of the extra homework they want to put in to make those encounters seem perfect and effortless. But if you are that DM who looks at the opportunity to put in a little (or a lot) more work, you can make it look like The Monsters Know What They’re Doing.
5. Fantasy Towns by Matt Davids
Prep work is the secret, silent homework of the DM. If they’ve made it look effortless, they’ve ever put in an absurd amount of work or are professional-level good at improvisation. And either way, you should appreciate the heck out of that DM. But for the DM who has other things going on in their lives, a shortcut here or there is more than okay. This book will give you fifty towns with maps, history, government structure, economy, imports, exports, and every other weird thing your players may ask about. Plus each town comes with three unique adventure ideas.
What not-D&D D&D books are your favorite? Do you like to use a lot of supplemental material to plan out combat scenarios and characters, or do you prefer to have a bad pun prepared? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
