Medieval & Fantasy Minecraft Roleplaying

Greetings Explorer, Navigate into the Lobby!

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Be sure to "Get Whitelisted" to join the community on server!

Book Recommendation Summer 2020

Tideborne

Not A Pirate
Retired Staff
Tideborne
Tideborne
I've been thinking lately about some books that I believe have genuinely improved my role play ability and helped me delve deeper into the the setting we have.

The first one that immediately comes to mind is the Swords and Sorcery classics such as Fafrd and the Gray Mouser much lesser known then its counterparts such as Conan the Barbarian.

mignolaillmetbs_7764.jpg
I was wondering if anyone else had some books, short stories or even movies that have had an impact on their time here on Hollowworld that I could look into this coming summer.
 

BoredBrit

Bored Brit
BoredBritishGuy
BoredBritishGuy
Legend
The Dwarves by Markus Heitz-
It’s a five part series of which I’ve read four. Written by a German writer it feels dry much like an all dwarf party dnd adventure at times.
It really helped me immerse and get into playing Dwarves throughout my time here.

Literally any book by Rick Riordan-
Yeah, they’re modern. But their focus on mythology and Gods has been a source of continued inspiration and fun when I comes to my role playing in the Divine facets of the server. Not necessarily having helped how I role play but rather helped the substance of what I role play.

The Gentlemen Bastards by Scott Lynch-
A trilogy with more on the way (supposedly). Brilliant series about a close knit band of con artists. The setting is bloody brilliant and the characters are awesome. They’ve shaped a lot of my role play especially when it’s come to playing Moriarty or Jonathan Windsor- the thief types. Taking inspiration from characters, homes and even their toolkits has helped me have a much more enjoyable thief role play in the past.

The tales of Dunk and Egg by George RR Martin-
Hey, the man was going to end up on somebody’s list. Literally a series about a simple knight and his squire. Some of the initial inspiration for Uriel was found in this book both in his earlier mannerisms and how I wrote him. Great series that I’d reccomend to anyone with an interest in medieval low fantasy. It is much, much less heavy and dark than Game of Thrones and for that reason alone I prefer it tenfold.
 

Gib

Lady
Mystic
catadellic
catadellic
Mystic
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker. It's a movie as well, but I think the book is almost more real and harrowing. It's written as a series of letters, which I found really fascinating, especially as you are able to visibly see how Celie's literacy developed through the novel and being able to see how she grows as a person. It makes me think a lot about character development here and trying to make it as real as possible.

Another one would be One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I'm fascinated by Soviet Russia and Stalin so it really sparked an interest in me. It's compact and short - you could probably read in in a day or two - but it's just filled to the brim with small details. I think it expresses well the human temperament when facing adversity, and especially the interaction between the characters. I often think back to it when role playing.

While neither of these relate to the setting of the server, I do think they give a really raw and genuine depiction of characters who may easily have similarities with the characters here within the server.
 
Last edited:

Solus

object oriented
Staff member
Admin
Retired Owner
oboy, do I. These are not in any order.

Brandon Sanderson's work is great. Estes241 introduced the series "The Stormlight Archive", and it's real great with lore and magic. It's not a complicated series at all, just lengthy. If you're into a magical world, with indepth characters, this is the one I'd recommend. It reminds me of HW with its different landscapes and cultures. Sanderson also has basic rules on writing a magic system, which influenced me a little when I was taking care of lore at the time. (Give and take, etc).

The Mistborn Series - This totally inspired the Ashstorms I vaguely mentioned in an event once, and the 'Mistwalker badges' I introduced for the Forlorn event. Also by Sanderson.

I read Patrick Rothfuss's tale with Winds of Winter and the Wise Man's Fear, next. It gets odd in the latter half of the 2nd book, and no sign of a 3rd one, but the first was nice and unintentionally inspired the time I made series of giant spider events. It has nothing to do with giant spiders for more than a chapter, though. Medieval exploration themed.

The Broken Earth Series - I recommended this a few times.. I think. A magical group of people are enslaved in this dying earth and the series mainly revolves around two women. It's real dark and raw. Some parts were uncomfortable because it gets deep in the topic of abuse, but I overall enjoyed the story. It reminded me of Formistry- as the magic highlighted was moving the earth. And the two women involved reminded me of some roleplay I had. It was more acceptable for me to see some conflict from a different way. It has some scifi-medieval theme to it, and dying earth is a technical HW theme

Andrzej Sapkowski - The Witcher Series.. More recent on my list. Influenced my one-shot series 'monster of the month'. Never played the games, though, and the books are different than it, as far as I know. The short stories were nice and quick to read. You start off with the short series, too, not the main series.

The Lies of Locke Lamora - I didn't actually like this one until towards the end. I had to drag myself into reading the first book in the series. It's all theif/pirate related, which may interest you Tideborne and apparently brit liked the series. So there's that.

I've read a few more somewhat related, but not fully related to HW. List is still being worked through.
 
Last edited:

BoredBrit

Bored Brit
BoredBritishGuy
BoredBritishGuy
Legend
The Lies of Locke Lamora - I didn't actually like this one until towards the end. I had to drag myself into reading the first book in the series. It's all theif/pirate related, which may interest you Tideborne and apparently brit liked the series. So there's that.
honestly? I feel that first bit. it was really hard to get into the start, theres a lot of timeline jumping and I had to listen to an audiobook recording of it until I actually got into the story about a quarter of the way through. once it gets into the present day Locke and leaves the back and forth of telling his backstory- I really got into it. plus the entire description of their base in camorra is just.. wow. it inspired a lot of my thief RP
 

Solus

object oriented
Staff member
Admin
Retired Owner
honestly? I feel that first bit. it was really hard to get into the start, theres a lot of timeline jumping and I had to listen to an audiobook recording of it until I actually got into the story about a quarter of the way through. once it gets into the present day Locke and leaves the back and forth of telling his backstory- I really got into it. plus the entire description of their base in camorra is just.. wow. it inspired a lot of my thief RP
I can get that. I can't say I'll try the rest of the series anytime soon, but the first book at least felt worth the time spent to read by the end
 

BoredBrit

Bored Brit
BoredBritishGuy
BoredBritishGuy
Legend
I can get that. I can't say I'll try the rest of the series anytime soon, but the first book at least felt worth the time spent to read by the end
(Last off topic response I promise)
I would honestly only recommend them if you thoroughly enjoyed the first. They’re really good but they can kind of feel a bit disjointed and connected only by the characters involved not the actual stuff they get up to. I read somewhere that the entire series so far is just a prequel to the story Lynch actually wants to tell, but I don’t know if that’s true and if it is, I’m not entirely keen on the idea for some reason.
 

Tideborne

Not A Pirate
Retired Staff
Tideborne
Tideborne
The Lies of Locke Lamora - I didn't actually like this one until towards the end. I had to drag myself into reading the first book in the series. It's all theif/pirate related, which may interest you @Tideborne and apparently brit liked the series. So there's that.
I'll have to check it out.
 

Axex

Lord of House Hawklight
I have two series' I'd recommend in terms of historic/fantasy fiction, The Chivalry Series by Christian Cameron, and The Black Company by Glen Cook, both are more gritty takes on military stories. The Chivalry series is set during the hundred years war, and shows just how brutal war can be, particular for the lesser folk. Black Company is one of the original grim-dark military fantasy series' that I recommend to anybody.

Oh and Christian Cameron also writes as Miles Cameron, and his Traitor Son Cycle series is a brilliant military/fantasy series.

Another series I'd recommend for anyone playing a gangster/criminal/detective/law-keeper character is the Low Town series, which is genuinely fantastic noir-fantasy that centres on a drug dealer and former soldier as the main character.

In all of these there's a sense of realism, even in a fantasy one, which I have try to strive for in my roleplay. They also involve complicated and realistic relationships and characters, which have helped build my own.

Also let's be real, I blatantly ripped the Order of the Fallen Radiant/Knights Radiant from Stormlight Archives but hey, 16 year old me wasn't the most creative person.
 
Last edited:
Top