The Most useful of All Sourcebooks is Here (TLG PR)

[Troll Lord]

TROLL LORD GAMES PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Stephen Chenault
Troll Lord Games
Phone: (501) 661-0449
Fax: (509) 272-3375
Email: troll@trolllord.com
Website: www.trolllord.com

Gary Gygax's "World Builder" Now Available

LITTLE ROCK, AR __ Jan. 03, 2002 __Troll Lord Games announced today that "Gary Gygax's World Builder,"is now available for immediate shipment from Impressions Marketing and Advertising and Troll Lord Games (http://trolllord.com/id175.htm).

The World Builder covers Outdoor settings, indoor Living settings, merchandise with a completely illustrated armor and weapons section, as well as new d20 source material. Todd Gray remarked "There is more information contained in this book than you can possibly imagine. This is far and away a head above anything TLG has previously published."

Distributors or retailers interested in placing additional orders should contact Impressions at aldo@impressionsadv.net or by phone at
(925) 240-0862. More information about the entire Troll Lord Games catalog of products can be found at the Troll's Den www.trolllord.com.

About Troll Lord Games
Troll Lord Games debuted at Gencon 2000. Alongside it's hallmark d20 line and The Codex of Erde, TLG publishes Fiend Games, Gary Gygax. For more information, visit our web site www.trolllord.com.
Copyright 2001, Troll Lord Games. "d20 System" and the d20 System logo are Trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast and are used with permission.

 

[Sixchan]

The World Builder covers Outdoor settings, indoor Living settings, merchandise with a completely illustrated armor and weapons section, as well as new d20 source material. Todd Gray remarked "There is more information contained in this book than you can possibly imagine. This is far and away a head above anything TLG has previously published."

Umm, does it actually cover building Worlds? i.e. Geography and History advice, how magic affacts the situations in your campaign, and bits on Politics, too?

 

[der_kluge]

Great! MSRP?

 

[Nathal]

Re: Re: The Most useful of All Sourcebooks is Here (TLG PR)

Umm, does it actually cover building Worlds? i.e. Geography and History advice, how magic affacts the situations in your campaign, and bits on Politics, too?

The book is a guide to filling your standard D&D style (or Lejendary Adventure style) game with descriptions that enhance your presentation of the campaign setting so that the players get a greater sense of immersion. Yes, it has tons of information on geography---all you would need to create realistic landscapes (including water sources above and underground). History "advice" it does not specifically cover, that being the domain (I believe) of the next book in the series, Living Fantasy (these books in the "Gygaxian" series work together well but none requires the other). It does cover facts that would aid in constructing a believable game setting: governmental types, royal offices, servants & staff, possible officials of a typical fantasy Temple, a useful list of titles of Royalty & Nobility (Western European and otherwise), and many other facts and elements that would help to flesh out the details.

The book also contains a HUGE "spell types generator" for use in dreaming up new spells for ANY fantasy game setting, which means that it acts as a brainstorming tool not confined by strict rules on spell construction (as that aspect is well covered in other supplements in the D20 realm). I suspect that the intricacies of "magic in society" will be a topic well covered in Living Fantasy. The focus of the WB is more like a painter's pallet, a brainstorming aid, or a verisimilitude toolkit.

As my co-author Gary [and don't ask "Gary who?"] summed up the book in another forum, "The WB book is a compilation of many lists and facts--things that I know I want to have at my fingertips when I'm designing a community, an adventure, or writing a story...and didn't have on tap. So, with the urging and co-authorship of Dan Cross, we went to work and gathered all the information we could think of that would be useful when writing. As Dan said, it is a "descriptionary" sort of work. I'll be glad when I have it in hardcopy so I can quit searching the electronic ms, files I now use."

In answering another similar question on that same board I wrote in response:

"Gamers should find that this book allows one to accomplish---effortlessly---what is often a fun but difficult (or at least time-consuming) aspect of DMing: World Building (facts), thinking of "things" to put into all kinds of rooms (library, lab, torture chamber, privy, etc), populating areas with appropriate flora and fauna, determining simple treasures while running "on-the-fly", etc. It can be used in preparation of a campaign, to help dream up surroundings for characters in a novel, or even as a quick reference during a game in answer to simple questions like, "what is the building's construction? Is it unique?"

Although I am sufficient to the task of building encounter locations and other areas , I wanted a handy menu of "descriptors" to lend everything verisimilitude! Buildings, trees, clothing, geography, herbs, facts and charts on society and weather and...etc...

Note that the book does not rely on random generators, because it is organized in a thematic way, components of the whole sublisted in some instances (like building construction broken down into wall types, door types, window types, etc).

~Dan Cross

 

[Sixchan]

Okay, cool. I might check it out if I have enough money.

 

[Inzae]

What's not being said

What the esteemed and very pen happy Mr Dan Cross is not saying is that there are 6 other books coming out to back this one up. I can't keep up with all of them as they are not on my menu but I do get word of them every once in a while.

These other books do, I believe, cover much of what you ask. But to do all of it in one book would have been way to moumental a task and a 800+ page book would hardly be affordable or necessarily useful.

Perhaps Dan (nudge nudge wink wink) you could give us a hint about what Mr Gygax and yourself have on the stove.

Actually I think the next two books have the coolest subject matter.

Sorry to put you through this dan but I am witless at the moment and trying to finish a module.

Livin to Love
davis

 

[Nathal]

Re: What's not being said

What the esteemed and very pen happy Mr Dan Cross is not saying is that there are 6 other books coming out to back this one up. I can't keep up with all of them as they are not on my menu but I do get word of them every once in a while.

I was too verbose? Sorry about that! But hey, you missed one thing. Read my post again, as lost in my overwrought verbiage are the following words: "History 'advice' it does not specifically cover, that being the domain (I believe) of the next book in the series, Living Fantasy (these books in the "Gygaxian" series work together well but none requires the other."

Perhaps Dan (nudge nudge wink wink) you could give us a hint about what Mr Gygax and yourself have on the stove.

Um...Gary and various other excellent co-authors (like Jon Creffield) have tons of stuff on the plate. I honestly don't know if it's my place to say much about them other than they look VERY COOL! Like Living Fantasy I can't wait to get my paws on. I do have an idea that I have not yet proposed, one I hope you and Gary will accept, but that is another matter.

Actually I think the next two books have the coolest subject matter.

I loved Canting Crew too!

Sorry to put you through this dan but I am witless at the moment and trying to finish a module.

I can take the abuse.

 

[Nathal]

Re: What's not being said

Perhaps (nudge nudge wink wink) you could give us a hint about what Mr Gygax and [whomever is the co-author] have on the stove.

Heres a cut & paste from the Troll's site. They all look COOL to me.

Gary Gygax’s Living Fantasy*, Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds Vol III
by Gary Gygax

An essential handbook for all those who engage in Fantasy Role-Playing Games, from building whole worlds to populating communities. This work deals with the socio-economic classes, from nobles to knaves. The who, what, where, when, why and how of life in the late medieval-renaissance fantasy milieu is fully detailed herein.

Gary Gygax’s Essential Places*, Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds Vol IV
by Jon Creffield with Gary Gygax

From lowly brothel to exquisite palace, with stops at the gladiatorial arena, gaol, courthouse, cathedral, wizardly college, innumerable shops, many businesses and dozens of other buildings on the way, Gary Gygax's Essential Places provides the game master with detailed descriptions and floorplans of every locale a fantasy metropolis might need.


Gary Gygax’s Nation Builder*, Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds Vol V

by Alan Kellog with Gary Gygax

Nation Builder is the story of a kingdom and its people. An instructional tale of using Gary Gygax's Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds to create kingdoms, republics, city states, regions, and lands for use in your fantasy campaign.

 

[JohnRTroy]

Basically, WBG has the following useful items:

1) A list of various historical weapons and armor, with definitions and drawings, along with rules for handling the new ones in both d20 and LA.

2) Loads of descriptions regarding stuff that would appear in a quasi-realistic fantasy setting, including the following:

* Types of clothing worn.
* Slang or unusual terms.
* Random tables to describe physical appearances.
* Various lists of things that you'd find--this is most like the lists you would find in the 1st Edition DMG. What you'd find
* A huge amount of information about Gems and Herbs, including the common folklore at the time. Not that much in game rules, but more or less for the gamer who wants to extrapolate stuff from that.
* List of measurements of the times.
* Definitions of such things as ships, boats, weather and climate patterns, musical instruments of the time, etc. For instance, there is a list of trees by climate area, a good reference when buidling your world.

Basically, if you're a fan of GURPS books for the amount of research they place into a subject, think of this as a good book to get "fantasy/medevial flavor". Think of it as a dictionary of all the stuff you'd love to reference for your games, without having to purchase the several books.

The next book will probably be very interesting. Basically, it takes into account how the civilization of a fantasy world that is what we would consider "classic" or "traditional" (taking place in a world that still has castles and feudalism in the period of the late middle ages) would be organized. Many people are ignorant to how things really worked back then, and while a lot of that stuff may remain background in gaming campaigns, this provides a level of realism to the typical fantasy world.

After all, Knights weren't just guys who put on full plate armor and battled other people, and have you ever wondered how a Wizard would intergrate into a socieities economy?

 

[Inzae]

Thats on our website??

Where did you find that? I never even go to our website LOL.

Guess that'll stop as I am taking over web development next month... speaking of which....

Davis