If this ought to be in the "Inspirations" forum go ahead and move it.
I'd been thinking of this for a while, but LordBP's comment on Shark's thread put me back in mind of it.
Quote from: LordBP on April 03, 2024, 07:38:27 PM
These books are good reads on it.
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Medieval-Village-Frances-Gies/dp/0062415662 (https://www.amazon.com/Life-Medieval-Village-Frances-Gies/dp/0062415662)
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Medieval-City-Frances-Gies/dp/0062415182 (https://www.amazon.com/Life-Medieval-City-Frances-Gies/dp/0062415182)
The entire series is worth reading.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085Q9VCYG?binding=paperback&ref=dbs_m_mng_rwt_sft_tpbk_tkin (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085Q9VCYG?binding=paperback&ref=dbs_m_mng_rwt_sft_tpbk_tkin)
Like most people who received a traditional education in history, most of what's on my shelves is in the "Kings, Dates, Battles" school of history. Perfectly valid as history, and potentially useful as worldbuilding inspiration, but recently I've been trying to seek out history books which give better insight into the nitty gritty of the past: How people, lived, thought, traveled, ate, fought, etc. Partially I want to do this just because this interests me, but equally as a resource for making my games more immersive and internally consistent. Thought opening making this a thread might be useful to people.
To kick this off, a couple of recommendations of my own:
The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers, by George Macdonald Fraser. It's actually next on my reading list, but I'm optimistic that a book about what is essentially renaissance guerilla warfare will have lots of information relevant to RPG adventurer activities. https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Bonnets-Anglo-Scottish-Border-Reivers/dp/160239265X/
The Conquest of New Spain, by Bernal Diaz. A firsthand account of Cortez' campaigns in Central America. Not only an account of a very adventurer-like campaign, but I found it a huge insight into how premodern people thought about such things. https://www.amazon.com/Conquest-New-Spain-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441239
By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions, by Richard Cohen. I haven't read this since I was a kid, but vividly remember it being full of accounts of duels, brawls, and street-corner affrays. https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Gladiators-Musketeers-Swashbucklers-Paperbacks-ebook/dp/B000XUDGEO/
I know it's a niche, but I got a lot of mileage out of this book for my Incan-based game.
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Andes-Chav%C3%ADn-Inca-World/dp/0500204152
In general, books with pictures where you can show what a house or fort or temple or clothes look like can be really useful. Players love seeing things illustrated - it adds to the verisimilitude.
Not a book, but a website full of historical maps, many of which are Public Domain (but not all). Highly recommended.
https://www.davidrumsey.com
Here are some YouTube channels that have some good videos/documentaries that may be useful.
https://www.youtube.com/@ChronicleMedieval/videos (https://www.youtube.com/@ChronicleMedieval/videos)
https://www.youtube.com/@HistoryHit/videos (https://www.youtube.com/@HistoryHit/videos)
https://www.youtube.com/@DWDocumentary/videos (https://www.youtube.com/@DWDocumentary/videos)
https://www.youtube.com/@odyssey/videos (https://www.youtube.com/@odyssey/videos)
https://www.youtube.com/@TimelineChannel/videos (https://www.youtube.com/@TimelineChannel/videos)
https://www.youtube.com/@FallofCivilizations/videos (https://www.youtube.com/@FallofCivilizations/videos)
Great idea for a thread!
I particularly enjoyed A Time Traveller's Guide Medieval England (https://www.abebooks.com/9781845950996/Time-Travellers-Guide-Medieval-England-1845950992/plp?cm_sp=plped-_-2-_-image). Written by a historian, but in a way that makes it an easy and very interesting read. The warrior noble elite had a thing for flowers. People generally truly enjoyed inflicting cruelty on animals. You could just buy nobility for yourself. It's full of neat little gameable facts like that.
Another YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/@InterestingHistory./videos (https://www.youtube.com/@InterestingHistory./videos)
This may be AI generated and I caught a few things that were wrong, so I wouldn't count on it being totally correct, but I'll leave it here.
Stepping out of book world, I highly recommend the "A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry" Blog by Brett Devereaux. https://acoup.blog/
Devereaux is a military historian, but he focuses a lot on logistics, material culture, and the nitty gritty, so there's a lot of information relevant to how a historical environment works at ground level. He also likes to cover a lot of pop culture stuff which pertains to fantasy.
Some of the blog posts have been put to audio, here: https://www.youtube.com/@AGreatDivorce
The original stories, the "source material" from where your initial enthusiasm for high adventure came from. Movies, comics (of course) as well. My introduction to the world of fantasy and science fiction came through numerous paperbacks I was able to get my hand on. Heavy Metal magazine figures prominently in my science fantasy head-canon. I find rereading Moorcock or Herbert or RL Stevenson or Gibson puts me back in the worlds they built, and the dramatic effects they created which made them stand out from all other authors. Reading a great story written by a great storyteller fills my GM tank up with all sorts of great ideas, and oh yeahs...
Wrong place for that statement.
Couple more good YouTube videos.
Some books from the above videos.
An economic and social history of later medieval Europe, 1000-1500 Steven A. Epstein
Daily Living in the Twelfth Century Urban Tigner Holmes Jr.
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England Ian Mortimer
Daily Life in the Middle Ages Paul B. Newman
Growing Up in the Middle Ages Paul B. Newman
Travel and Trade in the Middle Ages Paul B. Newman
Daily Life in Medieval Europe Jeffrey L. Forgeng/Singman