A ton of role-playing game books found their way under the Geek Tree this year thanks to Christmas and my birthday. It was heavy on Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks, but there’s also a touch of Cthulhu … and a swig of Hellboy Firewater to wash it all down.
Creature Codex (Amazon / Website) – Kobold Publishing’s Creature Codex (Amazon) is easily the heftiest of the book. It’s their follow up to the equally massive Tomb of Beasts, and like that book has hundreds of monsters for your Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition campaign.
The Fall of Delta Green – (Amazon / Website) – Ken Hite’s take on the DELTA GREEN, in which a black ops government agency investigate (and covers up) cases involving the Cthulhu Mythos. Powered by Robin Laws’ GUMSHOE, the self-contained game and setting covers DELTA GREEN’s fall from its status as a formal agency to a loose conspiracy of government operatives. I’d originally hoped to buy it directly from Pelgrane Press at PAX Unplugged, but they sold out of the book. Thankfully I got it for my birthday instead.
Hellboy Firewater – (Website) – Cinnamon whiskey with Hellboy branding. I kid you not.
Dungeons & Dragons Adventures Outlined Coloring Book – (Amazon / Website) – You’d be surprised just how relaxing sitting down and coloring can be. This book is filled with D&D-inspired artwork by Todd James; coupled with a nice glass of wine, it makes for an exceedingly chill evening.
Dungeons & Dragons Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage – (Amazon / Website) – The mega-dungeon known as Undermountain is revisited in this D&D 5th Edition hardcover supplement. The dungeon inspired my own campaign’s Obsidian Maze and I can’t wait to read through this book and its 23 levels of deep-delving goodness. I also got the companion map folio (Amazon) for the book, which features card stock sheets representing every level of the dungeon, maps of the subterranean town of Skullport, and more.
Dungeons & Dragons Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica – (Amazon / Website) – The first official D&D sourcebook for Magic: The Gathering covers the world-city of Ravnica and its renowned guilds. I’ve played enough magic to be vaguely familiar with Ravnica; I mostly got the book to mine content for other campaigns.
Things from the Flood – (Amazon / Website) – In Tales from the Loop, artist Simon Stålenhag introduced us to an alternative 1980s set in coastal Sweden, where a particle accelerator known as the Loop caused all manner of weird anomalies to appear throughout the countryside. In Things from the Flood, the Loop is long closed. It’s the 1990s and the optimism and wonder of the ’80s give way to darker emotions and unsettling horrors as the Loop floods and strange things fight their way to the surface. It’s not as compelling a read as Tales from the Loop, but still damn good.
Bloom County: Brand Spanking New Day – (Amazon / Website) – Berkley Breathed second Bloom County collection of the modern era. As a huge Bloom County fan who loves the strips resurgance, I was super happy to see this under the Geek Tree.
Die Hard 5-movie collection on Blu-Ray – (Amazon) – When it comes to Christmas movies, in my book it’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and then Die Hard. That said, in all these years I never owned a copy of the movie. Now I do … and the rest of the series to boot!
So what was under your geek tree this year?