During the course of a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game adventure I ran recently, the party defeated an evil wizard. Pretty de rigueur stuff for a fantasy tale. The player running the team wizard wanted to claim their fallen foe’s spellbook, which is also pretty standard. Other characters want cool new magic items, but wizards are always looking for new spells. I wanted to give him something batter than just the list of prepared spells the villain had handy, so I told him I’m put together a document and get back to him.
Over the course of a couple of weeks I thought about wizards’ spellbooks, and realized that they’re pretty boring. When found they are just a list of spells, maybe with a little color by way of some unusual binding or a lock or something. In just about every illustration of a spellbook in any fantasy roleplaying game, they’re depicted as huge, dusty tomes. According to the Pathfinder rules, a blank spellbook weighs 3 pounds. But also according to the rules, each spell only takes up on page. What’s in the rest of the spellbook?
Seriously, a blank hardcover journal that you can buy at a bookstore or a craft store weights far less than 3 pound, and typically has 100 pages. Most wizards don’t know 100 spells, even the high-level ones. Low-level wizards will reserve blank pages, but I can’t image that they wouldn’t make other notes in there. Observations. Sketches. Maybe ideas on possible magic items, concepts for new spells, experiments with alternate material components.
I became intrigued by what else could be in a spellbook besides spells. It certainly adds all kinds of verisimilitude, a tad more depth, some background on the world, even plot hooks. Having spellbooks with more meat to them sounds like more fun. It beats giving a player a list of spells, which they will translate from the found spellbook to their own spellbook, then throw away.
So I’m currently working on a collection of spellbooks for Pathfinder, which I will release through Asparagus Jumpsuit. I’ve already got dozens outlined, that offer not only pre-made spell lists (handy for non-player characters and new player characters) but bits of information that give bonuses to Knowledge checks, allow the reader to improve Skills and Feats, serve up plot hooks for gamemasters to develop, and add some entertainment value to the game.
What do you think? Any other tips or information? Add your thoughts in the comments below. And if you like this post, please share it via the social media buttons below, so others can join the the conversation!
This is a fantastic idea! It really gives found spellbooks a lot more flavor, something for the player to actually keep track of. I haven’t had a chance to implement it yet in a game but I do the same thing with spellbooks in the system I’ve been designing as a hobby. As you say, it’s always so disappointing for a player to get just a list of 5 – 15 “new” spells when they find a spellbook. Even if the book was just 100 pages, that’s a lot of blank space.
If my digital sketches didn’t look like exaggerated stick figures, I’d be trying to submit some ideas for you.
I’m thinking of all the “crazy journals” used in movies or tv shows as short-hand to show that a character has become delusional. There are “crazy walls” like in A Beautiful Mind, with pieces of yarn or string between various articles or photos covering a wall, usually overlapping each other. Here are some more examples of that: http://crazywalls.tumblr.com/
I noticed the same theme on Walking Dead recently, a character whose personal journal starts off listing names and short diary entries, but degenerates into tight slash marks on the remaining pages. (This was a particularly weak, unconvincing example.) Seems like there have been other examples of this on tv and movies, but the only other one that comes to mind is “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” repeated for dozens of pages in The Shining.
I don’t know if you’re thinking of a document as “color” or atmosphere, like the prop hand-outs they used to include in James Bond rpg, or ideas for actual in-game effects, but I imagine some spellbooks could have symbols or marks that looked meaningless or irrationally obsessive, but might carry hidden meaning. Clues or puzzles buried in them. Or just frustrating red herrings that look meaningful.
They’re going to be written up as if they’re magic items, with spell lists, bits of color, and other benefits and drawbacks.
I just have to ask why it always has to be a book, you know? Why not runes or an ogham stick or iching coins or anything? Tattoos? Ritual scarring? Is the PC willing to skin the enemy wizard for that spell book? Does it lose any of its power when cured?
Wow. That escalated quickly. Sorry.
I have at least one spellbook that’s not a book. It’s a mummified corpse covered in tattoos. I am also considering things like large bas relief works that can’t be moved, an inscribed staff, and other items.
Also, what language are they in? Is there a magical lingua franca that all wizzzards use, or are some ancient elven, some draconic, some one language, but with the written iconography and glyphs of a second? Like HIgh Elven written phonetically in a pidgin short hand of low dwarven and obscure humanoid pictograms.
Way ahead of you, Esteban. Not only will I list what language each spellbook is written in, I will also note when it’s in a weird or ancient dialect (giving a penalty to Spellcraft checks when transcribing the book), how good or horrible the wizard’s penmanship was (Spellcraft bonus or penalty), whether the illustrations and diagrams are helpful or a distraction, and even offering skill bonuses (a book full of spells for astral and dimensional travel also gives the reader a +2 bonus on Knowledge (Planar) is they read the whole thing).
You better believe that if I were running that found-a-spellbook scenario, the PCs would find the setting-appropriate equivalent of a copy of Playboy tucked into the middle of that innocent looking Tome of Eldritch Evil.
Hey, wizards got needs too.
That would be hilarious. Wouldn’t be appropriate with my current as-available group due to their ages (running for youngest brother-in-law and his friends on occasion) but great for older audiences.
Go home sloth, you’re drunk! LOL!
So far I’m at 30 pages and 88 books, and I’m not done. There will be things like that — covers that don’t match the contents, things to be found between the pages, odd notes scribbled in the margins, strange doodles, bits of information that give skill bonuses…