Leadership In Role-Playing Games: Dark Provinces

 

Leadership in Dark Provinces is not a position of permanent authority, superior competence, or social dominance. Instead, leadership is treated as a form of legitimized influence exercised under conditions of uncertainty, scarcity, competing priorities, and incomplete information. The game draws inspiration from Adaptive Leadership, a leadership framework developed by Ronald Heifetz and later expanded with Marty Linsky at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Adaptive Leadership proposes that leadership is not primarily the act of providing answers or directing followers. Rather, leadership involves helping groups confront difficult realities, navigate competing values, distribute unavoidable sacrifices, and remain functional while tackling problems for which no perfect solution exists. Leadership is therefore understood as a process rather than a status, and every player in Dark Provinces is expected to experience both leadership and followership throughout the campaign.

This philosophy is reflected directly in the game's mechanics. The Leader role rotates continuously, ensuring that no individual permanently controls the group. However, the Leader role is not always available. Trust serves as the game's measure of social legitimacy. Players whose Trust falls below -3 are ineligible to act as Leader, regardless of how many cards, resources, or personal rewards they possess. In this way, the game distinguishes between authority and legitimacy. A player may be individually successful while simultaneously becoming less capable of influencing collective decisions if they have lost the confidence of the group.

The Leader possesses several important powers during play:

• Chooses the party's next destination and therefore helps determine which Challenge the group will face next.
• Commits the initial HEXACO Trait Card around which the group may organize its response to the Challenge.
• Proposes the initial interpretation of the problem and guides discussion during the planning phase.
• Breaks ties when necessary.
• Distributes Loot earned from successful Challenges.
• Serves as the focal point for numerous Trait Card effects, synergies, penalties, Trust adjustments, and Stress effects.
• After a successful Challenge, the Leader may grant +1 Glory, +1 Trust, or −1 Stress to a single player, whether that player was a Partner or a Free-Rider.

These powers represent influence, legitimacy, and responsibility rather than command authority. The Leader cannot dictate participation, determine which cards other players commit, or guarantee success. Instead, the Leader helps determine which problems are confronted, how those problems are framed, and how the group's limited resources are distributed.

Leadership is also deeply connected to the game's HEXACO-based Trait Card system. Trait Cards do not represent skills, abilities, or professions. They represent behavioral approaches to solving problems under pressure. Every Challenge asks players to decide not only whether they will participate, but how they will approach the situation. The Leader's initial Trait Card therefore acts as a form of problem framing. An Honesty–Humility approach may emphasize fairness, legitimacy, and transparency. An Emotionality approach may emphasize caution, protection, and mutual support. An Extraversion approach may emphasize confidence, momentum, and coordination. An Agreeableness approach may emphasize cooperation and de-escalation. A Conscientiousness approach may emphasize structure, planning, and reliability. An Openness approach may emphasize creativity, adaptation, and discovery. Different situations reward different approaches, reinforcing the game's central lesson that no single HEXACO dimension is universally superior.

The Leadership Award at the end of a successful Challenge represents the Leader's ability to allocate social resources within the group. Glory represents recognition and contribution. Trust represents legitimacy and credibility. Stress relief represents recovery and future capacity. The recipient may be either a Partner or a Free-Rider because effective leadership is not simply about rewarding past contributions. Leaders must also consider future challenges, player capacity, emerging risks, and the long-term health of the group. A heavily stressed Partner approaching a Blow-Up may require immediate recovery. A player with declining Trust may need reinforcement to remain an effective contributor. A Free-Rider may warrant support because the group depends upon cards, resources, or capabilities they have preserved for future Challenges. Leadership in Dark Provinces therefore involves judgment about the allocation of scarce resources rather than the simple reward of desirable behavior.

This reflects one of Heifetz's central observations: many of the most important problems faced by groups are adaptive challenges rather than technical problems. Technical problems have known solutions and established procedures. Adaptive challenges require people to make difficult trade-offs, reconsider priorities, distribute burdens, and determine which values should take precedence. The prisoner's dilemma at the heart of Dark Provinces creates precisely these circumstances. Universal participation is often unsustainable, while excessive free-riding eventually undermines group success. Leaders must continually navigate questions such as: Who should carry today's burden? Who should conserve capacity for tomorrow? Who requires recovery, recognition, or support? These questions cannot be solved through formulas alone. They require judgment under uncertainty.

For this reason, players have strong incentives to avoid allowing their Trust scores to collapse. Trust is not merely a scoring track. Trust determines access to leadership, and leadership determines access to influence. Players who maintain sufficient Trust remain eligible to shape where the group travels, which challenges it confronts, how problems are framed, how Loot is distributed, and where recognition, legitimacy, and recovery are directed. Players who lose that legitimacy may continue to gain personal rewards, but they increasingly lose the ability to influence how the group confronts future challenges. Losing leadership eligibility therefore represents not simply a personal penalty, but a loss of access to one of the game's most important forms of decision-making.

The leadership lesson of Dark Provinces is therefore not that leaders deserve greater rewards than other players. Rather, it is that leadership is the process through which groups coordinate competing behavioral approaches, allocate scarce resources, manage pressure, preserve legitimacy, and adapt to changing circumstances. Success depends not simply upon solving today's problem, but upon maintaining enough trust, capacity, and cooperation to confront the next challenge together. In this sense, leadership is not the reward for success. Leadership is the mechanism through which groups decide how success, sacrifice, responsibility, recognition, and recovery will be shared.

Why I Designed Dark Provinces: Reimagining the Role-Playing Game

 

Dark Provinces began with a simple question:

Why do tabletop role-playing games devote enormous mechanical attention to combat, but comparatively little attention to personality, leadership, trust, cooperation, legitimacy, investigation, and decision-making?

After decades of role-playing game development, we have highly refined systems for swinging swords, casting spells, tracking hit points, optimizing builds, and resolving combat encounters. Yet many of the activities that dominate real human experience—leadership, persuasion, cooperation, resource allocation, trust, social conflict, and moral decision-making—are often handled through a single die roll, a GM ruling, or pure improvisation.

Dark Provinces is my attempt to address those limitations. It is not simply a new setting or a new ruleset. It is an attempt to rethink several foundational assumptions of tabletop RPG design and explore what happens when personality, leadership, cooperation, and problem-solving become first-class game mechanics.

Problem 1: Dice Often Obscure Decision Quality

Most RPGs use randomness as their primary resolution mechanism.

A group may spend twenty minutes developing an excellent plan, gathering information, coordinating responsibilities, and accounting for risks, only to fail because of an unlucky die roll. Conversely, a poor plan may succeed because somebody rolled well.

Randomness can be fun. It creates uncertainty and tension.

But if we are trying to understand leadership, cooperation, judgment, and decision-making, randomness often obscures the very thing we want to examine.

Dark Provinces replaces dice-driven resolution with a deterministic challenge system.

Consider a challenge involving a starving settlement. Players must decide:

• Which approach to take.
• Which Trait Cards to commit.
• Who will become a Partner and contribute.
• Who will Free-Ride and preserve resources.
• Which synergies to activate.
• Which risks to accept.

The outcome emerges from those decisions.

If the challenge succeeds, players can usually explain why.

If it fails, players can usually identify the choices that produced that failure.

Success and failure become products of judgment rather than luck.

Problem 2: The Dungeon Master Bottleneck

Traditional RPGs depend heavily upon a Game Master.  The GM typically:

• Creates adventures.
• Controls information.
• Reveals clues.
• Determines challenge difficulty.
• Adjudicates ambiguity.
• Controls pacing.
• Represents the world.

A great GM can create wonderful experiences. The problem is that every campaign depends upon finding one. The GM often becomes:

• the host
• the organizer,
• the referee,
• the content creator,
• the rules expert,

Many groups fail not because players lose interest, but because no one wants to carry that burden.

Dark Provinces was designed to function without a permanent GM.  Challenge Cards create situations.  Maps generate exploration choices.  Scouting mechanics reveal information.  Outcome tables determine results.  Leadership rotates.  The system itself performs many of the traditional functions of a referee.  This distributes responsibility across the entire table and eliminates the "Forever GM" problem.

Problem 3: Combat Is Mechanized. Role-Playing Usually Isn't.

This may be the single most important design problem that motivated Dark Provinces.

Most RPGs have detailed procedures for combat.  There are rules for:

• attacking,
• defending,
• damage,
• movement,
• armor,
• spells,
• initiative,
• status effects.

Now compare that to:

• trust,
• leadership,
• legitimacy,
• persuasion,
• cooperation,
• emotional regulation,
• negotiation.

Many systems reduce these activities to:

"Describe what you do."

or

"Roll Persuasion."

Combat receives a sophisticated game system.

Role-playing often relies on improvisation.  I wanted the opposite.  I wanted role-playing to become procedural. 

The HEXACO Solution

Dark Provinces uses the HEXACO personality framework as the foundation for its Trait Card system.  The six dimensions are:

• Honesty-Humility
• Emotionality
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
• Openness

The game is not trying to diagnose personality.  Instead, HEXACO is used as a framework for modeling behavioral approaches to solving problems.

Imagine a challenge involving civil unrest.  Different approaches might emerge:

• Honesty-Humility:  Establish legitimacy through transparency and fairness.
• Emotionality:  Focus on protection, security, and reducing fear.
• Extraversion:  Create momentum through confidence and visible leadership.
• Agreeableness:  Reduce conflict and create compromise.
• Conscientiousness:  Build procedures, accountability, and structure.
• Openness:  Explore alternative solutions and challenge assumptions.

These are not role-playing prompts.  These are game mechanics.  The Leader commits an initial HEXACO Trait Card, establishing the framework around which the group organizes its response.  Role-playing is no longer separate from the rules.  Role-playing becomes part of the rules.

Problem 4: Character Statistics Often Matter More Than Character Choices

Traditional RPGs frequently define characters through:

• attributes,
• classes,
• levels,
• equipment,
• powers.

The numbers often become more important than the decisions.  Many systems also create "good" and "bad" characters before play begins.  A player who rolls exceptionally high attributes starts ahead.  A player who rolls poorly starts behind.

In Dark Provinces, characters are defined primarily through behavioral approaches.  A cautious character is not weaker than a bold character.  A skeptical character is not inferior to an optimistic one.  Different approaches become useful under different circumstances.  The goal is not to determine who has the best numbers.

The goal is to determine which approach best addresses the problem.

Why Trait Cards Instead of Character Sheets?

This design philosophy led directly to another question:

If behavior is more important than statistics, why use a traditional character sheet at all?

Most character sheets become collections of numbers.  Players must scan large blocks of text looking for relevant abilities.  Trait Cards work differently.  Your options exist physically in your hand.  You can immediately see:

• the approaches available to you,
• potential synergies,
• adaptive responses,
• expedient responses.

The cards become a visible representation of your character's personality and experiences.  Instead of searching through a sheet, players manipulate the actual behavioral tools available to them.  The deck effectively becomes the character.

Problem 5: Exponential Power Scaling

Many RPGs create dramatic increases in power over time.  A first-level character with 10 hit points who advances to 20 hit points has effectively doubled their durability.  Later increases continue this pattern.  As characters become stronger:

• old challenges become irrelevant,
• numbers inflate,
• vulnerability disappears,
• encounter design becomes increasingly difficult.

Dark Provinces takes a much flatter approach.

A player typically begins with approximately eleven Trait Cards.  After their first advancement, they now possess twelve.  That is roughly a 9% increase in options rather than a 100% increase in survivability.  Advancement broadens capability rather than multiplying power.  Characters become more flexible rather than becoming superheroes.

Problem 6: Combat Dominates RPG Design

Many RPGs become combat-focused because combat receives most of the mechanical attention.

This often leads to the "murderhobo" problem.

Violence becomes the default answer because violence is the most developed system.  Dark Provinces intentionally shifts attention elsewhere.  Combat exists.  But it is simply one challenge type among many.  Most challenges involve:

• leadership,
• logistics,
• investigation,
• governance,
• resource management,
• infrastructure,
• social conflict,
• ideology,
• legitimacy,
• crisis response.

A broken irrigation network.  A factional dispute within a temple.  A refugee crisis.  A famine.   A breakdown in trust between institutions.

These are every bit as important as combat encounters.

The central question becomes how should we respond to a problem rather than how do we kill the thing?

Problem 7: Cooperation Is Usually Assumed Rather Than Studied

Most RPGs assume the party works together.  Few examine why cooperation succeeds or fails.  Dark Provinces builds a repeated prisoner's dilemma directly into play.

Every challenge requires players to choose between:

Partner	Free-Rider
Contribute.	Contribute nothing.
Spend resources.	Preserve resources.
Assume risk.	Gain short-term advantages.
Help the group.	Reduce personal costs.

Neither choice is universally correct.  If everyone cooperates all the time, players cannot recover enough health between sessions to succeed at the next game session.  If everyone free-rides, challenges fail and the doom clock advances.  The game is therefore not merely cooperative.  It is about managing cooperation itself.

Problem 8: Leadership Usually Exists Outside the Rules

Every RPG group eventually develops leaders.  Usually these leaders emerge informally.  The loudest player.  The most experienced player.  The person comfortable making decisions.  Most systems barely acknowledge this reality.  Dark Provinces turns leadership into a formal game mechanic.

Leadership automatically rotates, and trust determines eligibility.  Leaders:

• choose destinations,
• determine which challenges are faced,
• commit the initial HEXACO approach,
• distribute Loot,
• allocate recognition and support.

Leadership becomes a practical exercise in legitimacy, influence, and responsibility.

Players who squander Trust lose the opportunity to lead, regardless of their personal success. 

Problem 9: Mysteries Should Be Solved, Not Granted

Many investigative RPGs place all information behind the GM.  Players discover clues when the GM decides to reveal them.  I wanted exploration and investigation to emerge from the system itself.  This idea owes a great deal to games such as Magic Realm, where exploration emerges from interacting with mechanics rather than following a scripted narrative.  In Dark Provinces:

• locations are visible,
• regions are categorized,
• maps communicate information,
• scouting cards reveal future opportunities and risks.

Imagine a player using a scouting Trait Card to examine an upcoming location before the group travels there.  The information is gained because the game system permits it, not because a GM felt it was time to provide a clue.  Players solve mysteries through investigation rather than GM fiat.

Why Challenge Cards Instead of GM-Written Encounters?

Challenge Cards serve a similar purpose.  Traditional campaigns often depend upon handcrafted encounters prepared by a GM.  Challenge Cards instead provide:

• consistency,
• portability,
• replayability,
• procedural mystery,
• predictable structure.

 The Challenge defines the pressure.  The players determine the response.  The card does not tell the group what to do.  It tells the group what problem must be confronted.  This distinction is important.  The game structures situations without prescribing solutions.

What Dark Provinces Gives Up

Every design choice involves trade-offs.

Dark Provinces intentionally sacrifices several things common to traditional RPGs:

• Deep tactical combat.
• Large numerical progression.
• Heroic power fantasies.
• Character optimization as a primary activity.
• Extensive magic systems.
• Infinite improvisational freedom from a human GM.

Those sacrifices were deliberate.  In exchange, the game places greater emphasis on:

• leadership,
• cooperation,
• personality,
• trust,
• investigation,
• legitimacy,
• adaptive decision-making,
• collective problem-solving.

Some players will prefer the traditional model.  That's perfectly reasonable.  Dark Provinces is trying to answer a different set of questions.

What Dark Provinces Is Really About

At its foundation, Dark Provinces asks what if role-playing games focused less on character power and more on character approach?

The game is built around the belief that personality, leadership, cooperation, trust, and decision-making deserve the same mechanical attention that RPGs have traditionally devoted to combat.

Rather than asking "How powerful is my character?"

Dark Provinces asks "How does a group solve difficult problems when trust is fragile, cooperation is costly, information is incomplete, resources are scarce, and every solution creates new trade-offs?"

The deterministic challenge system, HEXACO Trait Cards, rotating leadership, prisoner's dilemma, Trust economy, Stress system, exploration mechanics, and GM-less structure all exist to explore that question.  Whether the game succeeds is ultimately for players to decide.

But that is the problem it was designed to solve.

Dark Provinces: the prisoner’s dilemma

The prisoner’s dilemma is a foundational concept in game theory used to study cooperation and self‑interest. In its simplest form, two individuals must independently choose whether to cooperate (partner) or defect (to act selfishly, or free-ride). A dilemma arises because:

• Mutual cooperation (partnering) produces a collectively good outcome.
• Mutual defection (free-riding) produces a collectively disastrous outcome.
• But free-riding is individually tempting, because if one free-rides while the other partners, the free-rider does best of all.

Even though cooperation would benefit everyone, rational self‑interest pushes individuals toward defection or free-riding —especially when trust is uncertain.

The key insight is that individually rational decisions can produce disastrous group outcomes. The prisoner’s dilemma is not about villains or bad people; it is about incentive structures. When costs and benefits are unevenly distributed in the short term, cooperation becomes fragile even among well‑intentioned participants.

Importantly, real-world prisoner’s dilemmas are rarely one‑shot. In repeated or group versions, additional dynamics emerge: trust, reputation, retaliation, exhaustion, inequity, and burnout. Nuanced uses of the prisoner’s dilemma therefore focus less on individual transactions and more on how systems slowly corrode or stabilize cooperation over time.

Where the prisoner’s dilemma lives in Dark Provinces

Dark Provinces explicitly states that its core loop is a repeated prisoner’s dilemma embedded in a cooperative survival game. This is not metaphorical: the prisoner’s dilemma appears as a formal decision point every challenge round, embedded right in the rules.

Each challenge forces every player, independently and secretly, to choose between two roles:

• Partner (cooperate): commit a trait card, share the risk, contribute to the group’s success.
• Free‑Ride (defect): commit no card, avoid immediate cost, but still benefit if the group succeeds.

This choice occurs after discussion but before resolution, and before the vote is held, it is simultaneous and private. No player knows who will cooperate until the reveal. That simultaneity is critical: it recreates the uncertainty that makes the prisoner’s dilemma function.

Payoff asymmetry: why free-riding is rational

Dark Province's "Universal Outcome Table" makes the prisoner’s dilemma mathematically explicit.

On a successful challenge:

• Partners expend two trait cards and gain:
• +1 Glory
• +1 Trust
• Free‑Riders expend one trait card and gain:
• +3 Glory
• −1 Trust
• +1 Stress

This asymmetry is deliberate. Free‑riders gain three times the glory of partners while avoiding the immediate cost of expending an additional trait card, which represent your health in the game. Glory is the primary individual scoring and recovery currency for your health, so in the short term, free-riding is often the better individual choice.

Critically, the game does not hide or soften this incentive. The game is explicitly structured such that free-riding is often rational and is intentionally rewarded. This mirrors the prisoner’s dilemma’s central tension: the strategy that helps you most right now harms the system that keeps you alive.

Even in failure, the asymmetry persists:

• Partners suffer more stress than free‑riders.
• Free‑riders still lose trust, but avoid the heavier cost of commitment.

This means partners generate fewer rewards relative to free-riders on success— and it is also the riskier strategy on failure.

Why cooperation still matters: cumulative systems

If the Dark Province’s prisoner’s dilemma rewards stopped at individual payoff, the game would collapse into opportunism. It does not, because it’s long‑term systems convert repeated defection into systemic collapse. Four cumulative tracks enforce group‑level consequences:

Trust (individual, persistent)

Trust loss from free-riding is small per challenge, but trust gates leadership, credibility, and several trait synergies. Players with very low trust cannot be leader and lose the reward distribution and other powers that come with the leader position. Over time, habitual free-riders lose influence even as they hoard glory.

Stress (individual, escalating)

Stress accumulates from challenges and use of expedient p traits. At 10 stress, a blow‑up occurs: an adaptive q trait of that player permanently mutates into an expedient p trait. This models burnout and erosion of healthy behavior. Stress does not care why it was accumulated—only that pressure is escaping somewhere.

Reputation (collective moral ledger; cumulative external judgment)

Reputation functions as an additional cumulative system that translates repeated cooperation or exploitation into the group’s standing in the world, extending the prisoner’s dilemma beyond the party itself. Unlike trust, which is individual and directly affects coordination, reputation is collective and external: it records how the group’s patterns of action are perceived by factions, institutions, and the broader social environment. In game‑theoretic terms, Reputation introduces an iterated audience effect: choices made to optimize short‑term individual payoff (especially free-riding supported by exploitative or deceptive traits) may succeed tactically, but gradually degrade the group’s credibility, invoking harsher penalties, fewer options, and hostile reactions in future challenges. Because reputation modifies outcomes, faction responses, and final scoring multipliers, it ensures that cooperation is not only a private bargain among players but also a public signal assessed over time. This mirrors real repeated prisoner’s dilemmas in social systems, where free-riding does not only erode trust among peers but also reshapes how outside agents allocate risk, tolerance, and enforcement. In Dark Provinces, reputation therefore closes the loop between internal incentives and external consequences: a group that survives by habitual self‑interest may still persist for a time, but it does so under worsening conditions, until the cost of lost legitimacy outweighs the gains of defection and the system collapses under its own moral debt.

Doom (collective fail clock)

Doom advances on failures and panic events. If doom reaches its threshold, the campaign ends in total loss regardless of individual scores. No amount of personal glory can outrun doom.

These tracks ensure that while free-riding is locally optimal, excess free-riding destabilizes the system that makes success possible.

What is HEXACO? Replacing traditional ability scores

 

HEXACO is a modern psychological model of personality that describes human behavior using six broad dimensions, each expressed across a spectrum rather than as a fixed category. Instead of assigning people to rigid types, HEXACO captures patterns of tendency—how individuals usually think, feel, and act, especially when under stress.

The six HEXACO dimensions are: H — Honesty–Humility; E — Emotionality; X — EXtraversion; A — Agreeableness; C — Conscientiousness; and O — Openness to experience.

In psychology, HEXACO is used to study cooperation, ethical behavior, leadership, risk‑taking, stress responses, and social breakdown. A defining feature of the model is that it treats personality as situational and dynamic. Traits do not disappear, but the way they express themselves shifts depending on pressure, incentives, fear, and exhaustion.

That idea sits at the heart of Dark Provinces: Broken Waters.

This is not a game about heroes who always act optimally. It is a game about people making decisions inside pressure and uncertainty—about trust eroding, leadership emerging or failing, and stress turning good intentions into dangerous shortcuts.

From Ability Scores to Personality Dimensions

Traditional fantasy role‑playing games rely on a familiar set of six ability scores—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. These attributes measure capacity.

Dark Provinces replaces that framework with HEXACO dimensions, which measures disposition.

Not "How strong are you?" but "When force is needed, do you push, hesitate, coordinate, or exploit?"

Not "How intelligent are you?" but "Do you plan carefully, improvise boldly, or notice patterns others miss?"

Not "How charismatic are you?" but "Do people trust you, follow you, resent you, or feel manipulated by you?"

Abilities describe what a character can do in isolation. HEXACO dimensions describe what a character is inclined to do in a situation—and what it costs them.

Adaptive and Expedient Traits, and Stress

Each HEXACO dimension in the game has two kinds of expression: Adaptive q expressions and Expedient p expressions.

q Adaptive expressions are represented by the Water symbol and represent sustainable responses to pressure. Like water, they endure, adapt, and preserve. They may not always provide the greatest immediate advantage, but they help people and institutions survive over time.

p Expedient expressions are represented by the Fire symbol and represent consuming responses to pressure. Like fire, they can provide power, urgency, and transformation when needed, but they leave consequences behind. Fire is not evil. Sometimes it is necessary. But it always burns something to produce its effect.

Adaptive q expressions represent healthy, constructive, and cooperative uses of a trait. These traits usually contribute +1 to a challenge and support stability, trust, and coordination.

Expedient p expressions represent risky, selfish, distorted, or extreme uses of that same tendency. They offer more immediate power — often +2 or more — but impose costs—stress, trust loss, reputation damage, and other long‑term consequences.

Expedient p traits do not represent low HEXACO scores. They represent maladaptive or expedient expressions of a dimension under pressure. Both high and low HEXACO tendencies possess situational strengths and weaknesses. Challenges will occasionally reward strengths associated with either end of a HEXACO dimension, while Expedient p traits model behavioral distortions that emerge when pressure, incentives, or stress overwhelm adaptive functioning.

Stress is the engine that pushes characters toward expedience. As pressure mounts, the distance between what is wise and what feels necessary begins to shrink. Characters do not become villains—but they may become sharper, colder, louder, or more reckless than they intended.

Dark Provinces and the prisoner's dilemma

PSYCHOLOGY, GAME THEORY, AND THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA

The design of Dark Provinces is explicitly informed by modern psychological theory, especially the HEXACO dimensional model of personality, alongside game theory—most notably the prisoner’s dilemma. These frameworks are not flavor or metaphor. They are embedded directly into the mechanics.

The system is deliberately structured so that, in many moments, defection (free‑riding) is the rational individual choice, but may have disastrous group consequences.

When a challenge succeeds, players who defect (free-ride) gain more glory and conserve their scarce resources. Over the short term, defecting increases a character’s chance of surviving to the next challenge—or even the next session.

The game does not punish this behavior. It rewards it.

At the same time, defecting erodes trust, increases stress across the group, and weakens the party’s long‑term capacity. If too many players choose self‑preservation, challenges begin to fail outright. Challenge failure accelerates stress, damages reputation, advances doom, and triggers cascading penalties that no individual can escape.

The system creates an intentional tension:

• Cooperate too consistently, and you risk burnout, deck mutation, or personal collapse.
• Defect too often, and the group enters a death spiral that no one can personally outpace.

There is no stable equilibrium where everyone cooperatively survives indefinitely. The question is not whether cost will be paid, but who pays it, when, and for how long.

A GAME OF PERSONALITY UNDER PRESSURE

What distinguishes Dark Provinces is that these choices are not abstract. They are mediated through the HEXACO personality dimensions, which shape how characters experience stress, risk, power, empathy, and restraint. Personality is not a roleplaying prompt—it is a mechanical resource that changes under pressure.

The game does not ask players to be “good” or “heroic.”

It asks them to be strategic about cooperation, knowing that both selfishness and self‑sacrifice carry consequences.

Dark Provinces: The Summons

From distant provinces, desert watch-posts, crowded sanctuaries, and forgotten shrines, you journey to Zarahemla at the command of the High Custodian of Dogma, whose authority is exceeded only by that of the Hierophant himself. As inquisitors of the Faith, some among you extirpate dangerous deviations hidden within neglected scrolls and half-forgotten recitations. Others expose corruption and sedition through relentless interrogation. A few employ methods neither gentle nor temporary.

You are ushered into a sepulchral vault deep within the Custodian's Palace, where ancient mosaics molder beneath the wan glow of bronze incense lamps and fragrant smoke coils into unseen darkness. There the Custodian lets fall a single name:

Adam-Ondi-Ahman.

That city stands upon the marches of the Hierocracy. Through its’ defiles pass foreign caravans, pilgrims, merchants, prophets, visionaries, and liars. Adam-Ondi-Ahman has long borne an infamous reputation as a haven for heretics, madmen, dissidents, and seekers of forbidden things.

Now dark reports trickle in.

An ancient Abban heresy, believed extinguished centuries ago, is said to have arisen anew. Forbidden symbols appear upon walls and sepulchers. Lost writings resurface. Names long erased from doctrine are spoken openly once more. Nor are these rumors the only cause for alarm. Springs diminish without cause. Cisterns fail where they should remain full. Ancient channels, abandoned for generations, carry water once again. In a land where all waters move according to Abba’s will, such irregularities invite questions.

The Custodian falls silent.

As the weight of his words settle upon you, the bells of Zarahemla toll faintly beyond the palace walls. Their distant echoes seem less a summons than a knell.

Each of you understands why you have been gathered.

Adam-Ondi-Ahman is not merely troubled.

It is remembering, and the Hierocracy fears what may awaken with it.

Dark Provinces: What this game is

What this game is

Dark Provinces: Broken Waters is a cooperative dark fantasy religious-horror role‑playing game about social conflict, leadership, moral pressure, and collective survival, informed by modern psychology, game and leadership theory. It is played without a game master, replacing traditional RPG narration and adjudication with structured challenges, shared authority, and a rotating leader role. No single player controls the world. Instead, the world applies pressure equally to everyone at the table, and the consequences of that pressure are resolved openly by the system.

At its heart, Dark Provinces is not a game about defeating enemies or optimizing characters. It is a game about how people behave when cooperation is necessary but costly—about how trust forms, erodes, and sometimes collapses when fear, scarcity, and responsibility accumulate.

You will succeed or fail not because your characters are powerful, but because the group can—or cannot—remain aligned long enough to survive what comes next.

A role-playing game without a game master

Rather than a game master presenting scenes and determining outcomes, Dark Provinces uses challenge cards to structure play. Each challenge card represents an urgent situation: a religious dispute, a logistical failure, a social rupture, a moral dilemma, or a physical danger shaped by environment and belief.

The challenge card defines the pressure, not the solution.

Players debate how to respond, vote on whether to face the challenge at all, and then secretly decide whether they will cooperate (partner) or defect (free‑ride). A different player acts as leader for each challenge, proposing an approach, and leadership rotates constantly and confers no lasting authority.

Because no one stands outside the system, every decision carries social weight. Trust matters. Reputation matters. Memory matters. The game tracks not only what you accomplish, but how you treat one another while doing it.

You are inquisitors

The players take on the roles of inquisitors—unacquainted agents, assembled and empowered by distant religious and political authorities to investigate instability, heresy, and institutional breakdown across the provinces. You are outsiders with unspecified authority, sent to examine temple activities, inspect sacred systems, mediate factional disputes, quell unrest, and pursue rumors of heresy and blasphemy.

Your mandate is deliberately ambiguous.

You are expected to restore order, but also to uncover truth. You are authorized to act but are rarely protected from the consequences. Your presence creates tension simply by its implicit threat and unclear authority, and every answer you uncover risks destabilizing something else.

The game does not assume you are righteous. It does not assume the institutions you serve are honest. It asks what happens when inquisitors must choose between truth, stability, obedience, and survival—and when no option satisfies all four.

Dark Provinces: Broken Waters

You thread your way through a serpentine defile of vermilion, carmine, and imperial purple. Rose and cinnabar cliffs ascend to vertiginous heights, admitting only a ribbon of azure sky.

Here and there, oleanders lift their venomous blossoms above hidden springs, while ghostly tamarisks and dark cypresses draw emerald life from watercourses, lending an improbable luxuriance to the living rock.

Then, at the final twist, the canyon walls draw apart, and you come at last to the threshold of Adam-Ondi-Ahman.

For a moment you stand, mute and unblinking, forgetting both duty and doctrine, before a vision of such grandeur as to be a dream of some elder age made manifest.

Vast façades, sepulchers, and temple-fronts are hewn from the cliffs themselves, so that the city appears less a habitation than a revelation long imprisoned within the mountain. Colossal blocks, porticos and cyclopean tombs glow with hues of amber, porphyry, and wine-dark crimson beneath the funeral splendors of sunset, while hanging gardens and terraces cling wherever water whispers from rock.

It is a scene seemingly wrought by the dreams of despots and the labors of forgotten gods.

Yet beneath its beauty lingers an indefinable melancholy, as though the city conceals some ancient truth that faith and empire alike struggle to keep entombed, an immemorial corruption that has necessitated your coming.

Appendix N: September 2025 Edition

 

It's long-since-past the time that this Appendix N list needed to be updated.  Several additional books have been added to the collection, including some sought-after Poul Anderson titles.

Abbey, Lynn: Daughter of the Bright Moon; The Black Flame

Adams, Richard: Watership Down; Shardik

Ahmed, Saladin: Throne of the Crescent Moon

Akers, Alan Burt: Renegade of Kregen 13

Alexander, Lloyd: The Book of Three 1; The Black Cauldron 2; The Castle of Llyr 3; Taran Wanderer 4; The High King 5

Anderson, Poul: Ensign Flandry; Flandry Of Terra; Agent of the Terran Empire; The Long Night; Three Hearts and Three Lions; The Broken Sword; The High Crusade; A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows; The Last Viking 1; The Last Viking 2; The Last Viking 3; Fantasy; Hrolf Kraki's Saga; Rogue Sword

Anthony, Piers: A Spell for Chameleon; Split Infinity; On A Pale Horse; Ogre, Ogre

Ariosto, Ludovico: Orlando Furioso

Asimov, Isaac:  I, Robot; Foundation

Asprin, Robert A.: Thieves World I; Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn II; Shadows of Sanctuary III; Storm Season IV; The Face of Chaos V; Another Fine Myth

Bakker, R. Scott:  The Judging Eye

Barker, M.A.R.: The Man Of Gold; Flamesong

Baum, L. Frank: The Wizard Of Oz, Emerald City Of Oz, Land of Oz

Beagle, Peter S.: The Last Unicorn; A Fine And Private Place

Beckford, William:  Vathek

Bedford-Jones, H: 

Bedier, Joseph: Tristan and Iseult

Bellairs, John: The Face In The Frost

Bellamy, Francis R.:  Atta

Bester, Alfred:  The Stars My Destination

Blackwood, Algernon:  The Dance of Death

Bloodstone, John: Thundar Man Of Two Worlds

Bloch, Robert: Strange Eons; Mysteries of the Worm

Bok, Hannes: The Sorcerers Ship; Beyond the Golden Stair

Brackett, Leigh: Eric John Stark, Outlaw Of Mars; The Best Of Leigh Brackett; The Sword Of Rhiannon; The Ginger Star 1; The Hounds Of Skaith 2; Reavers of Skaith 3

Bradbury, Ray:  The Martian Chronicles

Bradley, Marion Z: Warrior Women; Sword and Sorceress I; Sword And Sorceress II; Sword And Sorceress III, Sword and Sorceress IV; Sword and Sorceress V, Sword and Sorceress VI, Sword And Sorceress VII; The Planet Savers 1958; The Sword Of Aldones 1962;The Bloody Sun 1964; Star Of Danger 1965; The Winds Of Darkover 1970; The Forbidden Tower 1977; Stormqueen! 1978; Seven From The Stars;

Bramah, Ernest:  Kai Lung's Golden Hours; Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat 

Brooks, Terry: The Sword of Shannara; The Elfstones of Shannara

Brown, Fredric: The Best Of Fredric Brown; What Mad Universe

Brunner, John: Secret Agent Of Terra; Stand On Zanzibar, Traveller in Black

Brust, Steven: Jhereg; Yendi; Teckla; Taltos; Phoenix; Brokedown Palace. The Phoenix Guards

Budrys, Algis: Rogue Moon

Bulmer, Kenneth: Kandar

Burroughs, Edgar R.: Land of Terror; Pellucidar; Tanar of Pellucidar; A Princess Of Mars 1; The Gods Of Mars 2; Warlord Of Mars 3; Thuvia, Maid Of Mars 4; Chessmen of Mars 5; The Mastermind of Mars 6; A Fighting Man of Mars 7; The Moon Maid; Out of Time’s Abyss; Jungle Girl, Land of Hidden Men; Pirates Of Venus; Lost On Venus; Carson Of Venus; Escape On Venus; The People that time Forgot; The Mucker; Return of the Mucker; Tarzan Of The Apes 1; The Return Of Tarzan 2; The Beasts of Tarzan 3; The Son Of Tarzan 4; Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar 5; Tarzan and the Lost Empire 10; Tarzan and the Lost Empire 12; Tarzan at the Earth's Core 13; I Am A Barbarian

Butler, Octavia: Parable of the Sower

Cabell, James Branch: Figures Of Earth; Domnei; Cream Of The Jest; The Silver Stallion; Jurgen, A Comedy Of Justice; Something About Eve; The High Place

Campbell, J Ramsey: Demons by Daylight

Card, Orson Scott:  Ender's Game; Seventh Son; Red Prophet; Prentice Alvin; Alvin Journeyman

Carter, Lin: Thongor and the Dragon City; Thongor Against the Gods; Thongor and the Wizards of Lemuria; Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus; Thongor and the End of Time; Thongor In The City Of Magicians; Zanathon; Tower at the Edge of Time; The Black Star; Beyond The Gates Of Dream; Down To A Sunless Sea; Journey to the Underground World; Giant of World's End; Enchantress of World's End; Pirate of World's End; Immortal of World's End; Barbarian of World's End; Warrior of World’s End; Flashing Swords 1; Flashing Swords 2; Flashing Swords 3; Flashing Swords 4; Flashing Swords 5; Dragons, Elves and Heroes; Golden Cities, Far; Imaginary Worlds; The Spawn of Cthuhlu; Discoveries In Fantasy; Great Short Novels Of Adult Fantasy; New Worlds For Old; The Young Magicians; Lost Worlds; Tolkien, A Look at Lord of the Rings; Years Best Fantasy Stories 1; Years Best Fantasy Stories 2; Years Best Fantasy Stories 3; Weird Tales 1; Weird Tales 2; Weird Tales 3; Weird Tales 4

Cervantes, Miguel: Don Quixote

Chalker, Jack L.: Midnight at the Well of Souls 1; Exiles at the Well of Souls 2; Quest For the Well Of Souls 3; The Return of Nathan Brazil 4, Twilight at the Well of Souls 5

Chandler, A. Bertram: The Road To The Rim; The Hard Way; The Wild Ones; The Inheritors; The Gateway To Never; Star Courier; To Keep The Ship; Matilda's Stepchildren; The Rim Of Space;

Chant, Joy: Red Moon And Black Mountain

Cherryh, C.J.:  Ealdwood; Downbelow Station

Chesterton, G.K.:  The Man Who Was Thursday

Clarke, Arthur:  Rendezvous With Rama

Conklin, Groff: The Graveyard Reader

Cook, Glen: The Black Company, Shadows Linger, The White Rose

Cooper, Edmund:  Double Phoenix

Crawford, F Marion:  Khaled

Daley, Brian: Han Solo At Star’s End; Han Solo’s Revenge; Han Solo And The Lost Legacy

Davidson, Avram: The Phoenix And The Mirror; The Island Under the Earth; Masters of the Maze

deCamp, L. Sprague:  The Virgin & The Wheels; The Tritonian Ring;The Complete Compleat Enchanter; The Compleat Enchanter; Lovecraft, A Biography; Swords And Sorcery; Spell of Seven; The Fantastic Swordsmen;  Warlocks and Warriors; The Fallible Fiend; Conan The Barbarian; Conan And The Spider God; Lest Darkness Fall;The Carnelian Cube; The Emperors Fan; The Reluctant King; The Unbeheaded King; The Goblin Tower; The Castle of Iron; The Clocks Of Iraz; The Queen Of Zamba; The Hand Of Zei; The Hostage Of Zir; The Virgin Of Zesh; Tower of Zanid; Rogue Queen

Derleth, August: The Trail of Cthulhu

Dick, Phillip K: Eye In The Sky, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Dickson, Gordon R.: Dorsai!; The Dragon and the George

Donaldson, Stephen: Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Lost World

Drake, Asa: Warrior Witch of Hel; Death Riders of Hel; Werebeasts of Hel

Drake, David:  Hammer's Slammers

Dumas, Alexandre: The Three Musketeers

Dunsany, Lord: The King Of Elfland’s Daughter; Over the Hills and Far Away; The Charwoman's Shadow; Don Rodriguez; At The Edge Of The World; Beyond The Fields We Know; 51 Tales

Eco, Umberto: The Name Of The Rose; Foucault's Pendulum

Eddings, David: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen Of Sorcery, Magician’s Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, Enchanter’s Endgame

Eddison, E. R.: The Worm Ouroboros; Mistress of Mistresses; A Fish Dinner In Memison; The Mezentian Gate

Ende, Michael: The Neverending Story

Eriksen, Stephen: Gardens Of The Moon, Deadhouse Gates

Farmer, Philip Jose: The Maker Of Universes 1; The Gates Of Creation 2; A Private Cosmos 3; Behind The Walls Of Terra 4; The Lavalite World 5; Hadon Of Ancient Opar

Fiest, Raymond: Magician

Finney, Charles: The Unholy City; The Circus of Dr. Lao

Foster, Alan Dean: Nor Crystal Tears, Splinter of the Minds Eye; The End of the Matter; The Tar-Aiym Krang; Bloodhype; Orphan Star; For Love Of Mother-Not; The Time Of The Transference

Fox, Gardner: Kothar Barbarian Swordsman; Kothar and the Conjurer's Curse; Kothar and the Wizard Slayer; Kothar and the Magic Sword;Kothar And The Demon Queen; Kyrik Warlock Warrior; Kyrik Fights The Demon World; Kyrik and the Lost Queen; Kyrik and the Wizards Sword; Warrior Of Llarn; Thief Of Llarn

Funke, Cornelia: Inkheart

Gardonyi, Geza: Eclipse of the Crescent Moon

Gardner, Craig Shaw: A Malady Of Magicks

Garner, Alan: The Moon Of Gomrath; The Weirdstone of Brisingamen; Elidor

Gautier, Theophile: One of Cleopatra's Nights

Gemmell, David: Legend

Goldman, William: The Princess Bride

Glut, Donald F: The Empire Strikes Back

Green, Roger: King Arthur

Gygax, Gary: Saga of Old City; Artifact of Evil; Sea of Death; City Of Hawks; NIght Arrant; Come Endless Darkness; Dance of Demons; The Samarkand Solution; The Anubis Murders; Death In Delhi;

Haggard, H. Rider: King Solomon's Mines; The People Of The Mist; The World's Desire; When The World Shook; She And Allan; She; The Return Of She Ayesha

Haldeman, Joe:  The Forever War

Hambly, Barbara: The Time of the Dark; The Walls Of Air, The Armies of Daylight; The Ladies of Mandrigyn, Dragonsbane

Harrison, Harry: The Adventures Of The Stainless Street Rat; The Stainless Steel Rat

Harrison, M. John:  The Pastel City; A Storm Of Wings; In Viriconium; The Centauri Device; The Machine In Shaft 10

Heinlein, Robert: Glory Road; The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress; Starship Troopers

Herbert, Frank:  Dune; Dune Messiah; Children Of Dune

Hickman, Tracy: Dragon Wing

Hodgson, W.H.: The House On The Borderland; The Night Land; Boats Of Glen Carrig; Carnacki The Ghost Finder; The Ghost Pirates

Holdstock, Robert:  Mythago Wood

Holmes, John Eric: Mahars of Pellucidar

Horwood, William:  Duncton Wood

Howard, Robert E.: Cthulhu; Sword Woman; Almuric; The People Of The Black Circle; Red Nails; Shadow Kingdoms; People Of The Dark; Beyond The Black River; The Hour Of The Dragon; Black Hounds Of Death; Conan 1; Conan Of Cimmeria 2; Conan the Freebooter 3; Conanthe Wanderer 4; Conan the Adventurer 5; Conan the Buccaneer 6; Conan The Warrior 7; Conan The Usurper 8; Conan The Conqueror 9; Conan The Avenger 10; Conan Of Aquilonia 11; Conan of The Isles 12; Solomon Kane, The Hills Of The Dead; Solomon Kane, Skulls in the Stars; Skull-Face; Black Canaan; Swords Of Shahrazar; Marchers Of Valhalla, The Book Of Robert E. Howard; The Second Book Of Robert E. Howard; Tigers Of The Sea; Bran Mak Morn; Son Of The White Wolf; The Last Ride; The Lost Valley Of Iskander; Black Vulmea's Vengeance; The Vultures Of Whapeton; Pigeons From Hell; The Sowers Of The Thunder; The Iron Man; The Gods Of Bal-Sagoth; Wolfshead; Kull, Fabulous Warrior King

Hughart, Barry:  Bridge of Birds

Hull, E. M.: The Sheik

Hyne, C J Cutliffe: The Lost Continent

Jackson, Steve: Fighting Fantasy; The Warlock of Firetop Mountain 1; The Citadel of Chaos 2; The Forest Of Doom 3; Deathtrap Dungeon 6; Curse Of The Mummy 27; Armies Of Death 36

Jakes, John: The Last Magicians; Brak The Barbarian; Mark of Demons; The Sorceress; The Fortunes Of Brak; Mention My Name In Atlantis; When Idols Walked; Six-Gun Planet; Master of the Dark Gate; Witch of the Dark Gate; The Planet Wizard

James, M.R.: Ghost Stories

Kay, Guy Gavriel: The Summer Tree; Tigana

Kline, Otis Adelbert: Swordsman Of Mars;  Outlaw Of Mars; Planet of Peril; Port of Peril, Prince of Peril

Kuttner, Henry: Fury; The Mask Of Circe; Elak Of Atlantis, The Dark World, Robots Have No Tails

Kurtz, Katherine: Deryni Rising; Deryni Checkmate; High Deryni

Lamb, Harold: Omar Khayyam; Cyrus the Great; Alexander of Macedon; Theodora and the Emperor; Charlemagne

Lanier, Sterling: Hiero’s Journey; The Unforsaken Hiero

Laumer, Keith:  Retief, Envoy To New Worlds; A Plague Of Demons; The Big Show

L’Engle, Madeleine: A Wrinkle In Time

Le Guin, Ursula: A Wizard Of Earthsea; The Left Hand Of Darkness; Tehanu; The Farthest Shore

Lee, Tanith: The Book Of The Damned I; The Book Of The Beast II; The Birthgrave; The Dragon Hoard; The Storm Lord,  Night’s Master, Death’s Master; Vaskor, Son of Vaskor

Leiber, Fritz: Swords and Deviltry 1; Swords Against Death 2; Swords In The Mist 3; Swords And Wizardry 4; The Swords of Lankhmar 5; Swords and Ice Magic 6; The Knight and Knave of Swords; Heroes And Horrors

Lem, Stanislaw:  Solaris

Lewis, C.S.: The Voyage Of The Dawntreader; The Silver Chair

Lindsay, David: A Voyage To Arcturus

Livingston, Ian: The Forest Of Doom 3, Deathtrap Dungeon 3; Armies Of Death 36; Curse Of The Mummy 27

Long, Frank Belknap: The Hounds of Tindalos

Lovecraft, H.P.: The Doom That Came To Sarnath; The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath; The Shadow Over Innsmouth; At The Mountains Of Madness; The Lurker At The Threshold; The Tomb; The Watchers Out Of Time; At the Mountains of Madness Omnibus 1; Waking Up Screaming; The Dunwich Horror; The Case of Charles Dexter Ward; The Lurking Fear

Lumley, Brian: The Burrowers Beneath; The Transition Of Titus Crow;Spawn of the Winds; The Clock of Dreams; In The Moons Of Borea; Khai of Ancient Khem; Hero Of Dreams

Lynch, Scott: The Lies of Locke Lamora

MacDonald, George:  Lilith; Phantastes; The Princess And The Goblin; The Princess And The Curdie; Evanor; At The Back Of The North Wind; The Wise Woman

Machen, Arthur:  Tales of Horror and the Supernatural Vol 1; Tales of Horror and the Supernatural Vol 2; The Three Imposters; The Great God Pan

MacLiesh, Roderick:  Prince Ombra

Malory, Sir Thomas: Le Morte D'Arthur

Martin, George R.R.: Dying Of The Light; A Song Of Ice And Fire

Mason, David: Kavin's World

Matheson, Richard: I Am Legend

McCaffery, Anne: The Ship Who Sang; Dinosaur Planet; Dragonflight 1

McKiernan, Dennis: The Dark Tide; Shadows of Doom; The Darkest Day; The Iron Tower

McKillip, Patricia:  Riddle-master of Hed; Heir of Sea and Fire; Harpist in the Wind

McKinley, Robin:  Hero And The Crown; The Blue Sword

Meredith, George:  The Shaving Of Shagpat

Merritt, A.: The Ship Of Ishtar; The Seven Footprints Of Satan; The Moon Pool; The Metal Monsters; The Face In The Abyss; Dwellers In the Mirage; Creep Shadow Creep

Miller, Walter: A Canticle For Leibowitz

Mirrlees, Hope:  Lud-in-the Mist

Monaco, Richard: Parsival or a Knights Tale

Moorcock, Michael: Legends From The End Of Time; The Jewel In The Skull; The Mad God’s Amulet; The Sleeping Sorceress; The Runestaff; The Lord of the Spiders; The Masters of the Pit; The City of the Beast; The Warlord of the Air; Stealer Of Souls; Stormbringer; Elric of Melnibone; Elric At The End Of Time; The Vanishing Tower; The King Of Swords 3; Sword of the Dawn; The Sailor On The Seas Of Fate; The Sword Of The Dawn; Count Brass

Moore, C.L.: Northwest Smith; Jirel Of Joiry

Moore, Wallace: The Blood Stones; The Caves of Madness; The Lights of Zetar

Morris, Janet: Returning Creation; High Couch of Silistra 1; The Golden Sword 2; Wind from the Abyss 3; The Carnelian Throne 4

Morris, Kenneth: The Three Dragons

Morris, William: The Well At Worlds End I; The Well At Worlds End II; The Wood Beyond the World; The Water of the Wondrous Isles; The Sundering Flood; The Glittering Plain; The House Of The Wolfings; The Roots Of The Mountains

Mundy, Talbot: Tros Of Samothrace; Avenging Liafail 2; Helene;  Liafail; Helma; The Praetor's Dungeon 3; Queen Cleopatra 5; The Purple Pirate 6; The Lion of Petra; Caesar Dies

Niven, Larry: The Man-Kzin Wars; A World Out Of Time; A Gift From Earth; Tales of Known Space; Neutron Star; The Magic May Return; The Magic Goes Away; The Flight of the Horse; Ringworld; World Of Ptavvs

Norman, John: Tarnsman Of Gor 1; Outlaw Of Gor 2; Priest-Kings Of Gor 3; Nomads Of Gor 4; Assassin Of Gor 5; Raiders Of Gor 6; Captive Of Gor 7; Hunters Of Gor 8; Marauders Of Gor 9, Tribesmen Of Gor 10, Slave Girl of Gor 11; Beasts of Gor 12, Explorers of Gor 13; Fighting Slave of Gor 14; Time Slave

Norton, Andre: Quag Keep; Exiles of the Stars; Warlock of Witch World; High Sorcery; Witch World; Sargasso Of Space; Lord Of Thunder

Nowlan, Philip F.: Armageddon 2419 A.D.

Offutt, Andrew J.: Demon In The Mirror 1; Eyes Of Sarsis 2; Web Of The Spider 3; Conan, The Sword of Skelos; Conan The Mercenary; Swords Against Darkness I; Swords Against Darkness II; Swords Against Darkness III; Swords Against Darkness IV; Swords Against Darkness V; The Iron Lords 1; Shadows Out Of Hell 2; The Lady Of The Snowmist 3; Sword of the Gael 1; The Undying Wizard 2; The Sign of the Moonbow 3; The Mists Of Doom 4; When Death Birds Fly 5

Page, Gerald: Heroic Fantasy 1979; Years Best Horror Stories VII

Peake, Mervyn:  Ghormenghast; Titus Groan; Titus Alone

Piper, H. Beam: Space Viking; Little Fuzzy; Fuzzy Sapiens; Fuzzies And Other People; Lord Kalvan Of Otherwhen

Poe, Edgar Allan:  Collected Stories

Powers, Tim:  On Stranger Tides; The Anubis Gates

Pratchett, Terry: The Colour Of Magic; The Light Fantastic; Equal Rites; Thud!; Mort

Pratt, Fletcher: Land Of Unreason; The Blue Star; The Well of the Unicorn; The Carnelian Cube

Rohmer, Sax: Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu; Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu; Hand of Fu-Manchu; The Yellow Claw; The Golden Scorpion; The Day the World Ended; Dream Detective; Brood of the Witch Queen; Secret of Holm Peel

Rothfuss, Patrick: The Name of the Wind

Saberhagen, Fred: The First Book Of Swords; Second Book Of Swords; Third Book Of Swords; Empire Of The East; Changeling Earth

Salmonson, Jessica: Amazons!

Sanderson, Brandon: The Way of Kings; Words Of Radiance

Saunders, Charles: Imaro

Schmitz, James: The Witches of Karres; The Demon Breed

Shackleford, Jack D.: Tanith

Shea, Michael: Color Out Of Time; A Quest For Simbilis; Nifft The Lean; The Incompleat Nifft; The Mines of Behemoth; The A`Rak

Shea, Robert: The Eye in the Pyramid; The Golden Apple; Leviathan

Sirota, Mike: Master Of Boranga; Conquerors of Reglathium 2

Smith, Clark Ashton: Lost Worlds Volume 1; Lost Worlds Volume 2; OutOf Space And Time 1; Out Of Space And Time 2; The Abominations of Yondo; Genius Loci; Poseidonis; Zothique; Hyperborea; Xiccarph; Tales Of Science And Sorcery; The City of the Singing Flame; The Last Incantation; The Monster of the Prophesy; Other Dimensions 1; Other Dimensions 2

Smith, David: Red Sonja 1; Red Sonya 2, Demon Knight; Red Sonja 3, When Hell Laughs; Red Sonya 4, Endithor's Daughter; Red Sonya 5, Against the Price of Hell; Red Sonya 6, Star of Doom; Black Vulmea, The Witch of the Indes

Smith, L. Neil: Lando Calrissian and the Midharp of Sharu; Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka; Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Osean

Smith, E.E. ‘Doc’: Triplanetary

Spenser, Edmund:  The Faerie Queene

Springer, Nancy: The White Hart; The Silver Sun

St. Clair, Margaret: The Shadow People; Sign of the Labrys

Stapledon, Olaf:  Last And First Men; Starmaker

Stasheff, Christopher: The Warlock Wandering; The Warlock Rock; A Warlock's Blade; Warlock And Son; The Warlock Is Missing; Her Majesty's Wizard; King Kobold

Stewart, Mary: The Crystal Cave; The Hollow Hills; The Last Enchantment

Swann, Thomas: Green Phoenix; The Goat Without Horns; The Forest Of Forever; Day Of The Minotaur; Cry Silver Bells; Moondust; The Gods Abide

Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver's Travels

Taylor, Paul: The Elder Edda

Tenn, William: Of Men and Monsters

Timlett, Peter: The Seedbearers

Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Hobbit; The Lord Of The Rings

Tolkien / Middle Earth Quest: Night of the Nazgul; Legend of Weathertop; Rescue in Mirkwood; Spy in Isengard; Treason at Helms Deep; Mines of Moria

Twain, Mark:  A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Tubb, E.C.: The Winds Of Gath 1; Derai 2; Toyman 3; Kalin 4; Jester Of Scar 5; Lallia 6; Technos 7; Veruchia 8; Mayenne 9; Jondelle 10; Zenya 11; Eloise 12; Eye Of The Zodiac 13; Jack Of Swords 14; Spectrum Of A Forgotten Sun 15; Haven Of Darkness 16; Prison Of Night 17; Incident of Ath 18; The Quillian Sector 19; Web Of Sand 20; Iduna's Universe 21; The Terra Data 22

Van Arnam, Dave: Star Barbarian; Lord of Blood

Van Vogt, A.E.: The Voyage Of The Space Beagle; Quest For The Future

Vance, Jack: The Languages Of The Pao; The Dragon Masters; The Best of Jack Vance; The Dying Earth; The Eyes of the Overworld; Cugel’s Saga; Rhialto The Marvelous; Trullion, Alastor 2262; Wyst, Alastor 1716; Marune, Alastor 933; The Faceless Man 1; The Brave Free Men 2; The Astura 3; Lyonesse 1; The Green Pearl 2; Madouc 3; The Face 4; The Blue World; Galactic Effectuator; Big Planet; City Of The Chasch 1; Servants of the Wankh 2; The Dirdir 3; The Pnume 4;The Last Castle; The Palace of Love; The Book of Dreams

Verne, Jules: The Mysterious Island; A Journey To The Centre Of The Earth;

Voltaire:  Candide

Walpole, Horace:  The Castle of Otranto

Walton, Evangeline:  The Island of the Mighty; The Children Of Llyr; The Song Of Rhiannon; Prince of Annwyn

Wagner, Karl E: Bloodstone; Death Angel’s Shadow; Dark Crusade; Legion From The Shadows

Warhammer: Horus Rising; False Gods; Galaxy In Flames

Weinbaum, Stanley; The Black Flame; A Martian Odyssey

Wellman, Manly Wade: The Old Gods Waken; The Hanging Stones; The Lost And The Lurking; After Dark; Silver John; Who Fears The Devil?

White, Theodore: The Once and Future King

Williams, Robert M.: Jongor of Lost Land; Return of Jongor; Jongor Fights Back!

Williamson, Jack: The Trial Of Terra; The Legion Of Space; The Reign of Wizardry; Golden Blood

Wolfe, Gene: The Shadow of the Torturer 1; Claw of the Conciliator 2; Sword of the Lictor 3; The Citadel Of The Autarch 4

Wollheim, Donald: Avon Fantasy Reader 1; Avon Fantasy Reader 2

Zelazny, Roger: Nine Princes In Amber; The Guns of Avalon; Sign of the Unicorn; The Hand of Oberon; The Courts of Chaos; Jack Of Shadows; Dilvish, The Damned; The Changing Land; Isle of the Dead; Trumps of Doom; Blood Of Amber; Sign Of Chaos; Knight Of Shadows; Prince of Chaos, The Chronicles Of Amber 1