Inspiration for Roleplaying

Joined: 01 Dec 2007 Posts: 331

Need some help for an idea? Like to get a bit more information on Los Angeles, perhaps as some inspiration for a character that you're writing? Enjoy the list below!

Reference Books
American Automobile Association: California Tourbook
Norman Dash: Yesterday's Los Angeles
Federal Writer's Project: The WPA Guide to California
Jankowski, Martin Sanchez: Island in the Streets; Gangs and American Urban History
McFarland and Company: Los Angeles Historical Directories 1988
McWilliams, Carey: Southern California Country; An Island on the Land
Nadeu, Remi: City Makers
Newmark, Harris: Sixty Years in Southern California
O'Flaherty, Joseph: An End and a Beginning; the South Coast and Los Angeles
Padilla, Felix: The Gang as an American Enterprise
Reid, David: Sex, Death and God, in LA
Reiff, David: Los Angeles: Capital of the Third World
Robinson, W.W: Los Angeles from the Days of the Pueblo
Smith, Jack: The Big Orange
Starr, Kevin: Materials Dreams; Southern California through the 1920's
Taylor, Carl: Dangerous Society
Vigil, James Diego: Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California

Fiction
Mary Austin: The Ford
Nathaniel West: The Day of the Locust
Ross MacDonald: The Drowning Pool
Raymond Chandler: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A Confidential, Farewell my Lovely

Movies
The Decline of Western Civilization I & II
To Live and Die in LA
The Boyz 'N' the Hood (An excellent view of life in L.A ghettos)
Chinatown (For it's view of the early LA Water Wars)
Grand Canyon (Life in LA as seen by Hollywood)
L.A Story
The Lost Boys
The Player
Down and Out in Beverly Hills
Hollywood Wives
Born in East LA
Blade Runner
Barton Fink
Valley Girl
Xanadu
Roller Boogie
Where the Day takes You

Television
L.A Law (Life in Glass Boxes. Watch for Wyrm Influence)
Enos (The /real/ LA Law)
South Central
Melrose Place (YES)
CHIPs