The Pages
Every book gathers stories. The Netherbook gathers the hobby itself. Within these pages live the ideas, traditions, and inspirations that make a game come alive: where to begin, how to weave atmosphere around the table, and where the games we cherish first found their roots. You are invited to leaf through the pages of the Netherbook, this tome of near infinite wisdom, and discover the many paths the hobby has taken. Yet the Netherbook is never truly finished; it grows with every new entry, its story written further by all who contribute to it.
Here you will find starter guides for new players, practical articles on running games and building atmosphere at the table, the history behind the roleplaying games we love, free tools and random tables for your next session, a glossary of hobby terms, and essays connecting games to the books, films, art, music, and places they came from.
On this page
- Before you roll
- Starter guides
- At the table
- A little bit of history
- The Workshop
- Where stories meet
- The glossary
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Before you roll
Everything that comes before the first session. Practical, friendly guides for the questions a starter guide does not cover: how to choose your first game, what you really need, how to find people to play with, and how to take that first step without getting lost.
- How to choose your first tabletop RPG
- What you actually need to start playing
- How to find people to play with
Starter guides
New to the table? Start here. Clear, friendly guides that walk you into a game without assuming you already know the language. What you need, how it plays, and what makes it worth your evening. Browse the full collection of starter guides for dozens of games, from Call of Cthulhu and Dungeons & Dragons to Mörk Borg, Vaesen, and many more.
At the table
The craft of running a game. Small, practical pieces on building tension, describing a room, giving a character life, and the hundred quiet choices that turn a session into something people remember. One idea at a time, ready to use next session.
- Tension is waiting
- Atmosphere is detail
- Stakes are everything
- An NPC is one want
- Yes is momentum
- The spotlight moves
A little bit of history
Every game is an answer to something. Here we trace where the games we love came from: what they rebelled against, what they changed, and what their design says about the people who made them. Less a timeline, more a set of stories.
- From army to hero - the birth of TTRPG
- From classroom to dungeon - where the d20 came from
- From dungeon to headline - the Satanic Panic
- From referee to game master - where the DM comes from
- From hero to victim - the history of Call of Cthulhu
- From cradle to grave - life and death in Traveller
- From progress to the past - the Old School Renaissance
- From gift to fight - the Open Game License (OGL)
- From table to screen - how actual play changed the hobby
- From contract to kitchen table - the indie RPG revolution
- From pledge to print - how crowdfunding rebuilt the hobby
- From full table to table for one - solo and journaling RPGs
- From mailbox to map table - the age of play by mail
The Workshop
Tools for at the table. Random tables, characters with a hook, ways to open a session. Small, generous things you can grab and bring to your next game. Take what you need.
- Beyond the tavern - bringing your party together
- Beyond the backstory - NPCs your players remember
- Beyond the failure - fail forward tables
- Beyond the loudest voice - sharing the spotlight
- Beyond the wall - saying yes to players
- Beyond the clock - making time press
- Beyond the room - details that do work
Where stories meet
Roleplaying games set beside the work they grew out of, a book, a film, a record, a painting, a place, a whole way of telling. Not this game resembles that story, but this game is an answer to the same desire. A door from the works you love to a table where they come alive.
- Where cosmic dread meets the table - Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu
- Where doom metal meets the table - the sound of Mörk Borg
- Where folklore meets the table - the art of Vaesen
- Where sci-fi horror meets the table - the fear of Alien
- Where the board game meets the table - the world of Root
- Where language meets the table - the time of Arrival
- Where comedy meets the table - the nonsense of Monty Python
- Where childhood meets the table - the machines of Simon Stålenhag
- Where the map meets the table - the year of The Quiet Year
- Where the meadow meets the table - the calm of Wanderhome
- Where the saga meets the table - the fate of Age of Vikings
- Where history meets the table - the ages of Microscope
The glossary
Every hobby has its own language. This glossary gathers the words you meet on the shelves, in a rulebook, or around the table, from GM and OSR to sanity and hexcrawl, and explains them in plain terms with an example.