Imagination Sourcebooks

 “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

— Albert Einstein

Early efforts at creating my own
roleplaying game material.

I recently culled a few roleplaying books from my collection to trade for credit with Noble Knight Games. Some were predictable titles I once desired but have since decided just didn’t interest me anymore for a variety of reasons: my attitudes toward genres changing, noting I’d not played them, or realizing I’d never really put them to use either as inspiration or at the game table. Better to trade them for other game items that engage me at this moment. Reflecting on what to release from my library reminded me how roleplaying games ultimately rely on our imaginations. Beyond a core rule book and perhaps a few remarkable sourcebooks for a game line, we could ostensibly run a lifetime of campaigns based off our own creativity within the scope of a familiar game world...devising in one form or another a kind of “imagination sourcebook” for our version of a particular game. And while it’s sometimes nice to have “official” source material or a scenario to guide us, ultimately what plays out at the game table relies on our own imaginations to bring the setting to life.

Most of the games I’m trading come from two game lines, one I somewhat expected to let go and another I did not. Since I first read them in high school I’ve enjoyed Michael Moorcock’s Elric novels and a few others in the Eternal Champion series. I’m sure at some point I bought the core Elric! Dark Fantasy Roleplaying and a supplement or two, but most I acquired in trades during my time at West End Games. I’ve since read Moorcock’s work occasionally — and still enjoy it — but today I’ve little interest roleplaying in a grim world where the forces of Chaos painfully and inevitably overwhelm everything (I often feel I’ve been live-action roleplaying that for some time now). So parting with those game books seemed like the natural decision.

I’m always torn contemplating trading off any material from West End Games (WEG), even those published before or after my time working there...even more so for game lines to which I contributed. But when I surveyed the titles for the Indiana Jones game I realized how infrequently I’d consulted them.

I’ve previously discussed WEG’s Indiana Jones license, how it began as a more complicated Masterbook title and all-too-slowly transitioned to a D6 System game line; how I’d proposed re-launching it in D6 as a revised and expanded-style product before the company went bankrupt; and how my idea for a D6 Indiana Jones and the Valley of the Pharaohs sourcebook ultimately emerged as my Pulp Egypt system-neutral sourcebook. When I look at my collection of WEG Indiana Jones books, only a few stand out as keepers: obviously my own Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook (though admittedly it’s rather mediocre), Indiana Jones Artifacts (a solid inspirational reference), and the Indiana Jones Adventures, which transitioned the line to D6 and includes some good one-shot scenarios (including one of my solo adventures). I keep the Masterbook World of Indiana Jones book as the closest to a core game book for that line (despite my disdain for the system). Most going in the trade pile consisted of adventure collections or sourcebooks that don’t interest me.

Charting Our Own Course

Reflecting on Pulp Egypt brings me back to the concept of the “imagination sourcebook” we’re all capable of assembling. I’d always found ancient Egypt fascinating. Raiders of the Lost Ark focused that on other eras (both pulp and Victorian, which I explored through R. Talsorian’s Castle Falkenstein). I’ve run numerous scenarios for WEG’s Indiana Jones games, with whatever rules, though I favor the D6 System. In designing these I drew on my existing and expanding knowledge of World War II, the Indiana Jones franchise, and ancient and modern Egypt. Few game sourcebooks existed; perhaps the one that stands out is The Cairo Guidebook by Marion Anderson for Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu game. But for the most part — whether writing for WEG or my own publications — I was creating game material from my own imagination, substantially fueled by my research into real-world elements and other inspiration. I poured that knowledge into Pulp Egypt and drew upon it when creating the pulpy Heroes of Rura-Tonga.

Roleplaying gamers have been creating their own source material and scenarios since the very beginning. Those associated with early companies brought them to formal publication; but how much material didn’t make it into an official game book? How many unpublished gamers have entire campaigns and worlds floating around in their heads, if not written down in binders and folders of notes? How many “dead” games, long out of print, live on through the efforts of gamers making up and sharing their own material? Goodness knows hardcore WEG Star Wars roleplaying game fans have kept the game alive thanks to their numerous contributions uploaded to the internet.

In the late 20th century corporate game publishing depended on regular releases to maintain company cash flow. At its height WEG published two or three Star Wars game books each month, not accounting for one ever month or so for other game lines. For fans and collectors that added up to a lot of books...but it sustained the corporate publishing model on which the early roleplaying game industry relied. (One might also argue it flooded the market and caused untenable situations with returns from distributors and retailers....) But the internet opened up a new means of publishing, in a way, allowing anyone, especially those without corporate contacts, to share their material with others. It doesn’t have to be a formalized, publication-ready sourcebook for sale. Maybe it’s just one element: a map, monster, encounter, adventure hook, gear or magic item, location, gamemaster character, random table. It can just be an amalgamation of references and ready knowledge in our minds on a roleplaying game setting we ourselves devised. Maybe everything’s in our head. Perhaps we’ve written notes and maps. Maybe we have a wiki or other electronic record of everything we expand as our adventures fill out more of the game world. There’s still an obvious bias to monetize one’s hobby and enthusiasm for things like game materials as reinforced by platforms like DriveThruRPG and Patreon. But the internet provides a platform where we can share our imaginative source material with gamers all over the world.

In writing this it is not my intention to rail against roleplaying game publishers with numerous sourcebook releases or even those like myself who charge for their materials released outside the traditional publishing framework; gamers should invest in resources that engage them. But I hope to remind everyone that roleplaying games especially rely on our imaginations in their preparation and enjoyment.

I look back on my earliest days in the hobby, the early 1980s, and how much inspiration I got from a handful of products that fueled numerous adventures beyond those simply presented on the pages. How many (admittedly goofy) adventures did we run through the Caves of Chaos or my own levels of the Cave of the Unknown from B1 The Keep on the Borderlands? How may ocean voyages did we undertake on the Sea of Dread or expeditions wandering through the hexes of X1 The Isle of Dread? How many random-encounter-inspired or character-based adventures did I run in Sanctuary from the Thieves’ World boxed set? These products served as springboards for our imaginations, but ultimately our creativity brought them to life — and beyond — at the game table.

And still as a young gamer I created original material of my own based on those game resources in my collection and my own enthusiastic imagination: the previously mentioned original levels for the Cave of the Unknown; islands in the Sea of Dread; dungeons of my own design; a host of maps and notes that didn’t make it to the game table; even my own horribly amateurish gaming fanzine.

We should take heart that, even when we can’t afford or don’t want to spend money on roleplaying game supplements, having the basic rule book inspire our imaginations can be enough for fulfilling campaigns. We don’t have to play within the “official” limitations of what’s formally published...we can simply make up our own material to fill in the areas we want to explore in the game setting. When we’re familiar with a favorite rules system making up stats and other game elements becomes second nature; while having some examples helps, they’re not required. We can even find inspiration to devise our own systems for creating characters and running game adventures in our original worlds or settings further inspired by our favorite media.

We all manage our own resources as best we can according to our own limitations: money, time, effort, imagination. Some of us feel more creative than others, some may have more financial freedom to spend on game materials, some time and effort to indulge in preparation for our future gaming. As always, your mileage may vary, we do what’s best for ourselves given numerous considerations. But it offers some freedom knowing we can always fall back on our imaginations instead of or beyond what “official” publishers release to the marketplace.

“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.”

— Carl Sagan