Here are 76 books that Guardians of the Flame fans have personally recommended if you like
Guardians of the Flame.
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Although I was part of a large family, I frequently felt alone growing up. While my siblings were busy playing sports or running around with their friends, I sat by myself in the basement, reading fantasy stories. Eventually, I began creating my own worlds and published the Riddle in Stone series and Sword of Betrayal. I suppose I’m still trying to find a place where I fit in.
The Door into Fire is the first book in the Tale of Five series by Diane Duane. Set in the Middle Kingdoms universe, it follows the adventures of a sorcerous swordsmith who is desperately trying to master the power of the blue Flame while protecting the person he loves from annihilation. The Door into Fire is saga of power, magic, and friendship readers of epic fantasies will love.
A sorcerous swordsmith desperate to achieve true power. His stubbornly nonmagical sword. His princely runaway lover. His hungry new fire elemental. Put them all together, and what can possibly go wrong?Herewiss is the only man in centuries to possess the Power of the blue Flame, but he can’t use or control it — not even to help his friend and lover Freelorn, prince of Arlen, exiled from his native land and pursued across the Middle Kingdoms by the usurpers' allies. Invoking perilous sorceries and the even more dangerous assistance of the fire elemental Sunspark, Herewiss manages to rout the armies…
Although I was part of a large family, I frequently felt alone growing up. While my siblings were busy playing sports or running around with their friends, I sat by myself in the basement, reading fantasy stories. Eventually, I began creating my own worlds and published the Riddle in Stone series and Sword of Betrayal. I suppose I’m still trying to find a place where I fit in.
For forty years, Lord Gambin has ruled his lands with an iron fist, crushing all that get in his way. Now he is dying and chaos rages through his realm. What will happen when he is no more? The Sword of Winter is a before-its-time epic that addresses issues caused by societal changes and technological advancements. Many of the topics it discusses are still relevant today.
RANDALL, Marta: The Sword of Winter. New York, Timescape, 1983. BOOK CLUB EDITION. Hardcover with dust jacket, 241 pp. Subject: Novel / Fantasy. Book and jacket condition: Very Good. A bit of foxing to the top-side of the book. Very faint traces of wear to jacket's extremities. All interior pages clean and unmarked. Stirring heroic fantasy by a modern master of the genre.
Although I was part of a large family, I frequently felt alone growing up. While my siblings were busy playing sports or running around with their friends, I sat by myself in the basement, reading fantasy stories. Eventually, I began creating my own worlds and published the Riddle in Stone series and Sword of Betrayal. I suppose I’m still trying to find a place where I fit in.
Reputed to be one reason why J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, and H.P. Lovecraft began writing fantasy, The Book of Wonder is a collection of short stories by Irish fantasy writer, Lord Dunsany. With gnoles, mail-clad warriors, and dragons, it is in many ways the foundation of what we consider classical fantasy stories. Unfortunately, it doesn’t often get the credit it deserves.
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
Although I was part of a large family, I frequently felt alone growing up. While my siblings were busy playing sports or running around with their friends, I sat by myself in the basement, reading fantasy stories. Eventually, I began creating my own worlds and published the Riddle in Stone series and Sword of Betrayal. I suppose I’m still trying to find a place where I fit in.
Leif Langdon is a modern-day explorer who discovers a hidden valley in Alaska and is thrown into a fantastical land where two strange races of people worship an evil Kraken. Leif’s arrival casts the alternative world into chaos—including awakening a powerful incarnation of Leif himself. Originally published in 1932, Dwellers in the Mirage is a classic fantasy story few contemporary readers have had the privilege to enjoy.
MERRITT'S MASTERWORK – OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD!
Two men in one body! That's how Lief Langdon had always felt. One part of him was a modern day adventurer, the other was a strange half-memory of another life where he was a High Priest sacrificing living people to Khalk'ru, a demon god from another time and space. Then Langdon stumbled through the mirage into a hidden Arctic valley, where he fell under the spell of Evalie, as beautiful outwardly as she was inwardly, and her friends the Little People, elfin warriors constantly warring with Lur, the Witch-Woman, and her demon…
Starting with Tolkien’s novels as a child, I’ve devoured countless SF&F stories. My love of the genre, particularly high fantasy, combined with the irritatingly fashionable trend of so many fantasy authors to stop writing their stories partway through and leave we readers high and dry, motivated me to start writing, to see if I could create something that I was missing as I hunted for new material to read. As an intense hater of winter, spring always signified to me a time of hope, of new growth, of opportunity, of the ending of difficulty, and the start of a time when all things were possible.
The 3rd and final book in the Dragonlance Chronicles installment, Weis & Hickman finished an incredible tale inspired by their Dungeons & Dragons role playing group.
Elves, humans, dwarves, and kender must work together to beat back the rise of an evil goddess seeking its way into the world to ensave its inhabitants. Having been a Dungeon Master for many years, I devoured these books, and remain appreciative to this day that role playing geeks love to read novels as well.
The third title published in the Dragonlance line is now being released in a trade hardcover edition for the first time ever. Featuring the stunning art and design that graced the cover of the paperback edition, this new version is the final edition in the hardcover release of the entire Chronicles trilogy. This release also continues the planned release of all the core Dragonlance titles from Weis & Hickman in trade hardcover, allowing fans and collectors alike the first-ever chance to obtain the entire set in hardcover.
In the 1980s I was bullied for playing Dungeons and Dragons. Kids like to bully each other, but this was different: The bullies felt they had been given a moral license to pick on D&D players because pastors, talk-show hosts, and politicians were all claiming it was a Satanic, anti-Christian game. Those claims were my first inkling that adults did not know what they are talking about. After getting a PhD in the sociology of religion, I was finally able analyze and articulate why religious authorities felt threatened by a simple game of imagination.
If you want to know about the origins of Dungeons and Dragons but are intimidated by Jon Peterson’s massive tome, this is a good alternative.
Ewart’s writing is fun and enjoyable to read. This book also came out right before the release of 5th edition D&D. Readers who first learned that edition may be interested in Ewart’s coverage of playtesting and design.
The Hobbit meets Moneyball in this definitive book on Dungeons & Dragons—from its origins and rise to cultural prominence to the continued effects on popular culture today.
HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS.
Ancient red dragons with 527 hit points, +44 to attack, and a 20d10 breath weapon, to be specific. In the world of fantasy role-playing, those numbers describe a winged serpent with immense strength and the ability to spit fire. There are few beasts more powerful—just like there are few games more important than Dungeons & Dragons.
Even if you’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, you probably know someone who…
I have been a fan of the horror genre since I was a kid. Even though sometimes I was so scared, I had to sleep with the light on or not sleep at all. Something about the darkness and the unknown has always seemed so alluring. I can't even count the number of horror movies I've watched or books I've read. That feel of the hair standing up on your arms or the back of your neck is a thrill like no other.
A hybrid Dungeons & Dragons fantasy novel and a gruesome supernatural horror story meet head-on in this story of a Stoner whose job it is to save the world with his RPG skills. You guessed it, the world is doomed. As is the case with most of Communale’s novels, the absurd meets the hilarious to produce the terrifying.
Jake loves his job working for a local family-owned craft ice cream factory. That is, until he’s transferred to the company’s main facility on the other side of town. The new workplace means new rules. And that means no more showing up on the job stoned and having two beers for lunch. The new position makes him uncomfortable and, while he’s told there are numerous coworkers, they never seem to be around much when he’s there. When his best friend goes missing and his new supervisors show up at a party, Jake begins to dig deeper. All of the strange…
Escapism is my drug of choice. As a child, I was angry that my existence was confined to this reality, and I did everything I could to find a way out. Stories made it bearable. Whether it was Thor’s Bifrost, the wardrobe of Narnia, or the mirror in Stephen R. Donaldson’s Mordant’s Need duology, I was hooked. Now, I tell my own stories of escape. I create and invite others to find solace, adventure, love, and passion in fantasy realms, outer space, and reinvented parallel realities. This door is always open.
I didn’t know I wanted a story about a girl and her talking animal friends, but when it turns out that all of them have been enslaved by an evil witch and are shackled by her torturous magic, I couldn’t put it down.
Seemingly insignificant creatures decide to try and take their fate back, all while their frailty remains. I found myself invested in the whimsy of the fairy tale juxtaposed with the horrors of enslavement. Watching the girl called “Thing” navigate the human condition was beautiful and painful, and several times, I held my breath, unsure what the outcome would be.
This story is an unusual tale of hopelessness transformed into determination and a beautiful bond formed through shared trauma and circumstance.
A band of outcasts begins an arduous journey through a world of evil witches, walking trees, and miraculous gems along a path that will reunite them with their true destinies
TTRPGs are such a powerful medium for storytelling, and a tool that can be used by therapists to help their clients. Learning how to run games can seem daunting, these books have all helped me with learning how to run games more effectively. From thinking about stories, to exploring tropes, using storytelling techniques, and sharing the narrative with players this collection of books will help you on your journey of building worlds and telling stories.
Understanding story structure, narrative drive, and world-building are incredibly helpful when running tabletop role-playing games.
As you run games you will often find that the players do not do what is expected and as the Game Master (GM) you have to adjust the story as you go. Understanding common story tropes and character arcs can help GM’s with building their world, their campaign, and adjusting the story as needed.
Hickson uses examples from literature, anime, and popular media to help illustrate the different themes explored in his series.
Writing advice tends to be full of 'rules' and 'tips' which are either too broad to be helpful or outright wrong. With over 35,000 copies sold, On Writing and Worldbuilding: Volume Idiscusses specific and applicable ideas for your writing, from effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire. Volume II, a sequel with a host of new topics, released in December 2021.
On Writing
Prologues
The First Chapter
The Exposition Problem
Foreshadowing
Villain Motivation
Hero-Villain Relationships
Final Battles
The Chosen One
Hard Magic Systems
Soft Magic Systems
Magic…
I’ve been a gamer all of my life and am a teacher of elementary school students. After finding the LitRPG genre I wished to share this with other kids... like the one I had once been. Most parents in the genre push full 200k books on their children with an expectation of found love. While I imagine it works for a few of them, I rather expect that the majority of those attempts end in failure. Kids have their own world and their own sense of humor. I write to them, to inspire them and make them laugh, to make them entertained even as I teach them universal morals and lessons about the world.
Lone Wolf is a book that is also a game. A LitRPG for Kids, originally written in the 80s, it is the start of a wonderfully long series of illustrated books that both allowed children to choose their actions as the protagonist of the story and also gave them choices on how to develop the hero and make him progress.
It’s a model of book that I really would like to see more of today.
Lone Wolf might be the series that started me on my gaming path, and it is a magical and beautiful quest that teaches about honor, teamwork, and clever tactical planning.
Even better, the author made the series free online in 2015. So it is now available all over the internet and even as a number of free phone apps.
You are Lone Wolf. In a devastating attack the Darklords have destroyed the monastery where you were learning the skills of the Kai Lords. You are the sole survivor. FLIGHT FROM THE DARK You swear revenge. But first you must reach Holmgard to warn the King of the gathering evil. The servants of darkness relentlessly hunt you across your country and every turn of the page presents a new challenge. Choose your skills and your weapons carefully - for they can help you succeed in the most fantastic and terrifying journey of your life. The LONE WOLF adventures are a…
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