For some reason yesterday was an amazing day for traffic to the blog. Over double it’s normal traffic.

Often these are rare blips. It doesn’t become the new norm.

Super small and cozy blogs like this, which don’t review stuff, cover news, or write in-depth insightful posts, are thankfully rare.

It means I can write about stuff I like, do a series of posts like this #RPGaDAY2020. Basically whatever I’m currently into, then that’s what I blog about. And that changes over time.

But you and I are here for one thing only today. And that’s to my poorly formed thoughts on the theme that was chosen for day 22 of the #RPGaDAY2020 when it was run back in August. That theme is …

I could talk about magic items and treasure within D&D. And if I was a betting man and could be bothered to google it. I’d bet good money that is the approach that a good few folks took when they hit today’s theme (back when people were doing this at the correct time).

Me I’m going to talk about real life rare items.

One that if it was in print I would be saying should be in every DM’s library. That rare item is Gary Gygax’s Extraordinary Book of Names.

I’ll admit I don’t own a physical copy of this book. I’d love to. But like most things that are out of print and unlikely to be printed again, the second hand price is astronomical. At the time of writing around £250 on Amazon!

This isn’t a book that is just made up from lists of names. It has essays on names and naming. The lists of real names are organised by origin not nationality. Plus there are lists of fantasy names. Each list has naming customs, pronunciation guidance. There are also tables you can roll against. It’s a great source of inspiration to help bring an NPC to life. With a name a picture starts to form of just who that NPC is.

The Gary Gygax’s Extraordinary Book of Names is still relevant today and easily used in conjunction with current systems. Which makes it an even rarer book, and no doubt pushes up its price even more.

But even old scenarios or supplements for long gone RPG systems or old versions of existing systems can be pretty hard to get hold of. Such as the two Judge Dredd RPG scenarios Judgement Day and Slaughter Margin. Although the cost of these is a bit more affordable.

Why would you want these sort of things?

Well you could be on a retro RPG kick and want to relive those halcyon days of yester year. Sadly through the mists of time your copies got lost for whatever reason.

Or you could be playing a current version of the system or IP and want to use the old material as a source of inspiration in the current version. Or you want to update an adventure you have fond memories of to play with the new rules.

Collecting rare out of print RPG publications for whatever reason can be expensive. But also rewarding.

Ok that’s enough of these ramblings. More tomorrow.