Lately I've been doing a lot of reading about 13th century China, particularly the events surrounding the Mongol conquest of the Song and the events leading up to it. Full disclosure, the reason I am doing this (besides interest!) is that I'm going to be running a historical fiction d&d campaign set in this period. Since this isn't for any official academic purposes I'm not super concerned about accuracy, but I do want to be as accurate as I can for the sake of my own understanding of the period.

To get to the question, I've been able to find and read a fair number of nonfiction books about the period, but I was wondering if it would be of any benefit to look into some historical fiction books? I thought that as long as I am viewing them critically, reading a historical fiction book or two might help me get some sense of the "feel" of the period that could augment my understanding of the nonfiction I have read. I also thought reading some fiction might help guide my further research by at least helping me figure out what to look up (for example, I'm struggling to find good resources on how the Yuan Jiaochao and Song Hauzi currencies actually functioned in day-to-day transactions).

Obviously it depends on the authenticity of the book in question, but in general what do you think? Can good historical fiction, used alongside nonfiction, can have a place in amateur research? Or is it a perception-poisoning pitfall to be avoided?