D&D General Troll Lord Games reprinting Gygax's world-building books; any one have the old ones? Are they good?

[Retreater]

Irrelevant. We were here, arguing about he evil of 3.5.

I was here too. But I was on a desktop PC in a home office or my workplace. I didn't have access to the Internet in the middle of a game session at my friend's house when the party wanted the name of the random baker they went to visit.
In any case, if I were to order the book today it would be for nostalgia and the Gygax name.

 

[MerricB]

Honestly, I don't think any of them are good. There are bits and pieces of them you may find of use, but they feel inessential.

There are late Gygax products worth picking up; these are not those.

Cheers,
Merric

 

[Shiroiken]

What is special about the Book of Names? Since its publication, it seems more and more publishers have realized that including random lists of names is a big help you can give to DMs. Is there something special about these names in particular?

Primarily useful for DMs when world building. Since it provides names based on historical regions, you can have different regions use different naming sources. For example, in my Greyhawk campaign the Baklunish use Arabian names, the Suel use ancient Roman names, the Oeridian use either German or English names, and the Flan use Celtic names. It gives the regions a more realistic feel when it comes to names.

 

[Clint_L]

"Good" is subjective. Authors like Sly Flourish put out much more cogently written and useful world-building guides, IMO. But Gygax is the OG, and there's a nostalgic charm to his work, at least for me. As others have noted, The Book of Names can be a very fun and handy resource, especially if you don't like anything digital at the table.

 

[haakon1]

the party wanted the name of the random baker they went to visit.

The first time they ask: Fliznorp Partypoop of Ohm
The second time: Fred

 

[LordEntrails]

Primarily useful for DMs when world building. Since it provides names based on historical regions, you can have different regions use different naming sources. For example, in my Greyhawk campaign the Baklunish use Arabian names, the Suel use ancient Roman names, the Oeridian use either German or English names, and the Flan use Celtic names. It gives the regions a more realistic feel when it comes to names.

But aren't their now numerous online tools that can do this same thing? And aren't limited to a few hundred or thousand names per genre?

I get how it was awesome, but it sounds obsolete now.

 

[darjr]

FYI, this is still embroiled with the issues of the lawsuit and Toll Lords being allowed to bring back Gary’s works.

If you want them to bring back more, you can help by backing this kickstarter. If you’re on the fence anyways.