Inspirations and Perspirations

The things that have shaped our game, both conciously and unconciously. The purple icons are also links, often to somewhere you can purchase the item in question. A portion of the proceeds goes to suport Sanguinus Curae. The rest goes into Amazon's deep pockets.

Type
Inspiration | Perspiration

Medium
Book | Movie | Music | Photo | Web

Focus
New York City | Vampire

	Blackbird, Jennifer Lauck	An excellent memoir. It's useful for understanding the really, really shitty things that can happen to the average human in the World of Darkness - and probably do.
	Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress	A good science fiction novel (the first in a series of three) about the reaction of ordinary humans to those who are perceived as superior and gifted. Anyone wondering why the Masquerade is the most important of the Traditions should read this.
	Bury Me Standing, Isabel Fonseca	A history of the Roma that goes beyond popular legend. Read it if you want to play a Ravnos or just have the Rom in your game.
	Carrion Comfort, Dan Simmons	Carrion Comfort, Dan Simmons - Vampires who feed off the psychic emanations of their victims. Okay, high art it ain't, but there are some really excellent horror scenes - mostly focusing on the character who, it becomes clear by the end, is a truly terrifying Malkavian. Useful for Hunter games, and also useful for those who worship Dan Simmons to see that he isn't always at such a pinnacle of unattainable genius.
	The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas	This great adventure tale has it all: complex enemies, a sweeping quest for revenge, and a complicated plot that all ties together neatly at the end.
	The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon	More conspiracy, but this time it's tragi-comic. Includes a wonderful sub-plot about an alternate postal system - Nosferatu, anyone?
	Dangerous Liaisons, Choderlos de Laclos	The version with Glenn Close and John Malkovitch. Sexy, decadent, and just macabre enough to be inspirational. A must-see for any Toreador player, in case people weren't sure how a deadly and charismatic character can really mess with people's lives … for fun.
	Dark Cities Underground, Lisa Goldstein	A terrific inspiration for strange and mystical subplots. Like Neverwhere, a city behind the city - but this one is not only lovely and dark, but it has Egyptian overtones. Setite plot, anyone?
	The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs	How the architecture and planning of cities affects the life that goes on in them. Terrific for understanding how the flow of your city's history will play out on its streets.
	Drawing Down the Moon, Margot Adler	For those like me, who aren't otherwise involved with Wicca or Pagan practices, a complete and scholarly look at the religion. It can get a bit dry, but it's a great source for reference.
	The Egyptian Book of the Dead	More great Tremere (or Setite!) resources. We recommend a copy with a translation AND transliteration, so you can read out spooky-sounding passages at short notice. Unfortunately this one is the best we could find so far.
	Flood, Andrew Vachss	Gritty modern noir on the streets of New York City. Wonderful descriptions of the horrors of the sex trade in the city and of the people who live below the law.
	The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene and Joost Elffers	A must-read for any Ventrue player or anyone else who wants political or social power. Includes a number of general principles, plus historical and contemporary examples, explanations of how to implement them in different arenas, and some ideas for how to counter each tactic. Invaluable!
	Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco	Conspiracies, conspiracies, conspiracies. When in doubt, the Rosicrucians did it. Very useful for an Illuminati-type game in which everyone is betraying everyone else, and secretly working with the enemy.
	The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City, Roger Sanjek	A wonderfully colorful history of the Elmhust and Corona neighborhoods of Queens. The chapter on crime is especially interesting.
	Geek Love, Katherine Dunn	Must-read Malk material: how to be a charismatic, scary, and very, very insane leader of a small cult.
	Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace	Most of the elders in the city have lived here for more than 100 years and so must be intimately involved with the history of the city. Hey, it won the Pulitzer Prize too.
	The House of Medici, Christopher Hibbert	Excellent resource for any Dark Ages game set in Italy, plus authentic historical scenes of politics, betrayal, and excess! What's not to love?
	Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem	The best reference work on Jewish mysticism. Great resource for Tremere players!
	LA Confidential, James Ellroy	More gritty street-level corruption and guilt in high places, with a forties noir feel. Lots of excellent police procedure and internal department intrigue. Plus, a damn good story. Highly recommended! A terrific place to start with Ellroy, though The Black Dahlia and The Big Nowhere are also very good.
	Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov	How to make a monster sympathetic. Despite Humbert's horrific actions, you can almost sympathize with his tormented desires. Recommended for Malkavian players and any player interested in creating self-deluded characters.
	Lords of Chaos, Aaron Landry et. al.	"Came the Proper Nine at the Proper Time, Holding That Which Holds Them." A learning experience about how to (and how not to) run a good game.
	The Manchurian Candidate	Because someone should always be controlling things from behind the scenes. Plus the character who is actually controlling things is the ultimate Toreador. (Gotta love 'em!)
	The Manhattan Hunt Club, John Saul	I haven't read this one, but I hear that it has a wonderfully decadent premise. A society of Manhattan's blue-bloods hunt the homeless through the sewers of Manhattan, fox-hunt style, and kill them when they find them. Vampires anyone?
	MapQuest	Geography is destiny. Being able to handout acurate maps of people feeding grounds greatly adds to the feeling of realism in the game.
	Mindblindness, Simon Baron-Cohen	A good book for Malk players. The best work on autism written for the layperson.
	The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels beneath New York City, Jennifer Toth	There are whole communities of people who live almost entirely underground. How could this not be included in the game?
	Mulholland Drive, David Lynch	Incomprehensible plot, but awesome mood. Runs the gamut from horror to decadence - two of my favorite themes!
	New York by Night, Quail	Not the White Wolf source book, but an excellent fan made resource. The broad outlines of the Santa de Luzarches served as an inspiration for our Cathedral.
	Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich	What life is really like in the underclass. Good for creating realistic mortal characters, and fleshing out the world of the less socially secure Kindred.
	PJ Harvey	Songs about passion and loss. Many of our important NPCs can be associated with Polly Jean's songs.
	The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli	The original work on political nastiness and survival.
	La Reine Margot, Alexandre Dumas	Byzantine politicking that incorporates tactics from rabble-rousing to seduction to outright murder. Replace the various members of the French royal family with members of a Prince's court and you've got a ready-made chronicle! Plus Margot herself is really, really cool.
	776 Nastiest Things Ever Said, Ross and Kathryn Petras	Tory bitchery. Need I say more?
	Sin City, Frank Miller	More noir, this time with pictures! A truly excellent graphic novel about the hard life in a gritty town.
	Sinfest, Tatsuya Ishida	A great online comic that inspired two of our classic NPCs. Have you ever wondered what Max and Sugar do when Parker isn't around? Now you can find out. We've collected links to all the Cat and Dog comics here.
	Strangers in Paradise, Terry Moore	One long lesson in the art of making characters live. The whole Katchoo-Darcy subplot can be a great source of inspiration for a really, really nasty Ventrue. This is one of my favorite books ever. (Start with second volume.)
	Symbols and Their Meanings, Jack Tresidder	Terrific for, say, creating the symbology and mythology of a millenia-old cult of elder vampires. Not that we'd know anything about that.
	Use of Weapons, Iain M. Banks	Elegantly constructed, minimalist horror. Alternate chapters tell the story from the beginning and from the end. When you realize the central trauma the book is structured around, you will first shudder violently; then you will fall down and worship Mr. Banks; then you will attempt to emulate him in your own games. Well, that's how it happened with us, anyhow.
	William Pitt	England's youngest Prime minister ever. "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." Pitt was a shrewd politician and a great humanitarian, when it suited his purposes.