How to Commit Larceny Without Feeling Guilty
Every Game Master should be a thief.
Sincerely. I believe that deep down, every GM is a thief with very sticky fingers just waiting to pilfer their weasely black hearts out. Not the kind your players would hire to pick locks or empty noble pockets. I mean the creative kind. Game Masters should steal constantly to fill our creative coffers.
Steal what, you say?
A villain from that new movie. A haunting moment from a horror story. An unforgettable conversation from a podcast. A mystery from a detective novel. A city from history. A monster from folklore. A joke from a friend. A plot twist from your favorite show.
“Good Writers Borrow, Great Writers Steal”
– T.S. Eliot
We should collect these fragments, toss them into the constantly bubbling cauldron that is our imagination until a strange alchemical reaction regurgitates them out onto our tables, and leave our players convinced we’ve invented something completely original.
That’s the secret sauce.
The best Game Masters aren’t the ones with the biggest imaginations. They’re the ones who know how to steal.
Read Widely. Steal Shamelessly.
People often ask where inspiration comes from. The answer is: everywhere. My favorite source just happens to be literature.
I’m a lifelong voracious reader thanks to an early love of books passed on by my mom. I’m rarely found without a book (or three), and my favorite conversation starter is, “what are you reading.” One of the (many) things I love about reading is how well it meshes with my other favorite hobby, tabletop RPGs.
Every book teaches me something. Sometimes it’s how to build an unforgettable villain. Sometimes it’s how to pace a mystery. Sometimes it’s how to write dialogue that feels so natural you forget you’re reading. Sometimes it’s how to create dread without ever showing the monster.
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
– Stephen King
And sometimes it teaches us exactly what not to do. Bad pacing. Flat characters. Unconvincing romances. Worldbuilding that overwhelms the story. Bland monsters. Forgettable scenes.
Books don’t have to be masterpieces to be valuable. Every success and every failure contains a lesson for GMs willing to pay attention. Not every book becomes a favorite, but every book adds to my creative library.
Why The Eldritch Library Exists
The Eldritch Library is where my two favorite hobbies collide. I love reading. I love tabletop roleplaying games. This site is my attempt to prove they belong together.
When I review a novel, I certainly care whether it’s entertaining. I’ll talk about the writing, characters, themes, pacing, atmosphere, and all the things you’d expect from a book review. But I’m always asking another question:
What can I steal for my table?
Maybe it’s an NPC. Maybe it’s a dungeon. Maybe it’s the convoluted mechanics of a good mystery. Maybe it’s the way an author slowly earns an emotional payoff. Maybe it’s simply a reminder that players don’t remember stat blocks nearly as well as they remember conversations around the campfire.
I’m going to be very honest here…every review I write is a heist. I’m hunting through each story looking for the ideas that survive translation from page to tabletop. I hide those items in my Cloak of Many Pockets and then I bring those ideas back here to share with my fellow thieves.
Hopefully, you’ll steal a few of them too.
More Than Book Reviews
Despite the name, this isn’t just a website about books. You’ll also find articles about:
- Tabletop RPG systems
- Game Master philosophy
- Adventure design
- Worldbuilding
- Encounter design
- Campaign structure
- Digital tools
- Whatever else helps us tell better stories together
Sometimes I’ll write about why darkness should actually be dark. Sometimes I’ll argue that resting inside a dungeon should almost never be safe. Sometimes I’ll spend several thousand words explaining why a seemingly insignificant conversation between two fictional teenagers can teach us more about NPC design than another list of random personality traits ever could.
Everything has the same goal: Helping all of us tell better stories.
Steal Beyond Fantasy
One of the biggest mistakes I see Game Masters make is reading only fantasy. Don’t get me wrong…I love fantasy. I’ve read a LOT of fantasy novels over the years, but if all you consume is fantasy, eventually every kingdom starts looking the same.
Read mysteries to learn pacing. Read horror to learn suspense. Read romance to understand relationships. Read historical nonfiction to create believable politics. Read memoirs to understand people. Read science fiction to imagine impossible futures. Read literary fiction to discover how quiet moments can carry enormous emotional weight.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.”
— George R.R. Martin
The wider you read, the more original your games become. Ironically, originality often comes from stealing from places nobody else is looking.
About the Librarian
By now, you’re probably wondering who I am. I’m a lifelong GM better known online as the Eldritch Librarian.
I’ve been playing tabletop RPGs since the late 1980s and running games for more than thirty years.
I’m also a compulsive reader, collector of far too many RPG books, coffee snob, occasional pipe smoker, dog enthusiast, and the proud owner of a to-be-read pile that has long since evolved into a structural engineering problem.
Some books will earn five stars. Some will earn one. I’ll happily recommend both because even the books I dislike usually have something worth stealing.
So…
Whether you’re looking for your next favorite novel, trying to become a better Game Master, curious about a new RPG system, or simply searching for ideas to surprise your players, I hope you’ll find something here worth taking.
That’s really what The Eldritch Library is all about. We’re all professional thieves. The stories we steal from become the stories we tell.
So read widely. Steal shamelessly. Then make something your players will never forget.
P.S.
Before anyone reports me to the Literary Police, let me clarify: the larceny in this article is entirely tongue-in-cheek. I’m not advocating plagiarism or passing someone else’s work off as your own. Quite the opposite.
Take the ideas you love. Pull them apart. Figure out why they work. Mix them with a dozen other inspirations, your own experiences, and the stories your players create at the table. That’s where originality lives, not in creating something from nothing, but in transforming what inspired you into something uniquely yours.
I steal scenes, I steal opportunities. I am the ultimate thief. I got sticky fingers, man. They all call me The Thief.
– J.B. Smoove
And whenever you share your inspirations, cite your sources. Recommend the books you loved. Point people toward the games that shaped your thinking. Celebrate the creators whose work sparked your imagination. That is one of the founding principles for the Eldritch Library and why I write these reviews.
After all, every good thief knows to leave the library in better shape than they found it if they don’t want to get caught!
As always….read – reflect – repeat.
Teller of tall tales, hoarder of tabletop roleplaying books, smoker of pipes and cigars, unapologetic coffee snob, devoted admirer of dogs, occasional writer, political doom-scroller, and voracious reader.
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