Gaming Bookshelf Meme (aka RPG Book Porn)

I know I'm a little late to the party for James's Bookshelf Meme, but I'm just not ready to dig into client work for the day yet, so I'm procrastinating by tackling the meme.

My problem is that I don't really have one or two bookshelves I refer to most often. What I tend to do is gather any relevant books that I might be using at the time, and stack them just to the right of my computer (either on top my scanner, or on top my paper shredder which I haven't used in three years, literally). That way, if I want to go to Starbucks to work, I can just grab them on the way out the door and stuff them into my messenger back with my iPad.

Right now, I'm referring to Holmes a lot, as well as BX Red/Blue (for complete different projects), so they're unshelved and next to the computer.

Anyway, here's the basic overview with a few notes on the contents.

1. "Legacy" edition of H.G. Wells's Little Wars, The Complete Wargames Handbook and my digest Traveller books.
2. TSR's Star Probe Metagaming's Starleader Assault! and Trailblazer, as well as some Task Force micro-games.
3. Arneson's Adventures in Fantasy (don't have the box).
4. Dicing With Dragons, some Steve Jackson (UK) books, and my LBBs (again, don't have the box, just the books). BTW, at the far left is the AD&D coloring book.
Oh, and those are my Pantone swatch books on the far right.

5. Sci-fi stuff: SF modules, Judge's Guild Traveller Stuff, and FGU's Starships & Spacemen.
6. Nexus, Space Gamer and Ares magazines.
7. D&D modules.
8. Judges Guild stuff: modules and mags.
9. I.C.E. fantasy "Law" books.

The real problem in my home office is that it's a home office. My shelves are full of graphic design resources (books/mags/the like). And until I get the garage cleaned sufficiently to clear space for the bookshelves I'm planning, a lot of the random RPG stuff ends up on the floor...

1. This is the only stack of note here. It's the closest to my desk chair, and it's one of the most referenced. It includes: JG Ready Ref Sheets, the AD&D Dungeon Master's Design Kit, World Builder's Guidebook, Dungeon Builder's Guidebook, Rogues Gallery and Complete Book of Villains, as well as the D&D Stronghold Builder's Guidebook. It also has a couple of geomorphs references.

Scroll Week Day 4: Preparing Quills

Yesterday, I addressed the acquisition of "raw" feathers, as well as the associate costs, etc. Today, I'll address preparing those feathers for use a quill

Cleaning, Curing, and Cutting

Once a feather has been obtained, it must be cured, cut, and trimmed in order to be used for writing.

First, the feather must be soaked (to make it more pliable) in preparation for curing. For the feathers of ordinary and extraordinary creatures, this can be accomplished by soaking the feather for approximately 24 hours in water that has been purified (by a cleric of any level). For the feathers of magical creatures, the water must also be blessed by a cleric of at least 7th level, and the feather must be soaked in that water for a number of days equal to the difference between an AC of 10 and the AC of the creature from which the feather was procured (e.g., a feather from a magical creature of an AC of 7 would need to soak for 3 days in purified and blessed water.)

Once a feather has soaked, it is tempered to give the tube resilience and toughness (making it less brittle). For the feathers of ordinary and extraordinary creatures, this is accomplished by first heating purified sand (through the use of the cleric spell purify food and drink), then removing the sand from the heat source, and third plunging the tip of the feather into the hot sand, allowing it to remain there until the sand cools. For magical creatures immune to the effects of heat, this tempering process is normally impossible to achieve, and will affect the success of trimming and cutting the feather (as outlined below).

Once the feather has been tempered, it is ready to be cleaned, trimmed, and cut. First, the barbs nearest the tip are removed, giving the hand a clean area to grip the quill. Next, the tip is trimmed to create a small opening at the end of the barrel, allowing access to remove membranes from the inside of the barrel. Finally, the tip is shaped (adding both a point, as well as a “slit” to aid ink flow). For the feathers of ordinary and extraordinary creatures, the chance of success for this process is 10% per level of the spellcaster plus 10% for each point of dexterity above 15 (e.g., a 7th level magic-user with a dexterity of 16 would have a 80% chance to successfully clean and cut an ordinary/extraordinary feather for curing.) For the feathers of magical creatures, the chance of success is the same as above minus the difference between an AC of 10 and the AC of the creature from which the feature was procured times 5% (e.g., the same magic user attempting to clean the feather of a magical creature with an AC of 5 would have a 55% chance of success.) Furthermore, if a magical creature is immune to the effects of normal weapons, the tools being used by the scribe preparing the feather must be of a sufficient level to affect the creature (e.g., if a +2 or better weapon is required “to hit” the creature normally, the tools of the scribe must likewise be sufficiently magically endowed.) For the feathers of creatures immune to the effects of heat (and therefore immune to the effects of the heated sand), the chance of success is similar to that of magical creatures (as above) with the AC modifier multiplied by 10% instead of 5% (e.g., the same magic user attempting to prepare the quill of a magical creature immune to the effects of heat would have only a 30% chance of succeeding.)

Scroll Week Day 3: Feather Availability and Pricing

Today's scroll week entry will take a look at "raw" feather pricing and availability, while tomorrow's entry will address the process for preparing a raw feather for use as a quill.

Suitability of Feathers
The most suitable feathers for writing come from the outer rear edge of the wing of a bird and are denominated by the order in which they are fixed to the wing, with the first of these feathers (the “pinion”) being the most desirable for scribes. The second and third feathers are also generally acceptable, even for the more discerning scribe.

Feather Pricing
Though "raw" feathers (those feathers not yet prepared for use as a quill) of extraordinary and magical creatures are not widely available for sale, some varieties may be found in more esoterically-stocked magic shops. To determine the “fair market” price in g.p. for a raw (unprepared) pinion feather, multiply the experience point value of the creature (including XPs for the creature's average hit points) by the "frequency factor" of the creature as below:

Frequency	Freq. Factor
Common	.5 (one-half)
Uncommon	2
Rare	5
Very Rare	10

Feather pricing example - griffon (per 1e DMG):
Experience point value = 375 + 10/hp (w/ 28 average hp = +280) = 655 XP
Griffon = uncommon = frequency factor of 2
655 x 2 = 1,310 gp fair market price for a griffon pinion feather

Normally, “second” and “third” position feathers are priced respectively at 95% and 90% the value of pinion/prime feathers.

Prepared Quills
Prepared quills of an extraordinary or magical nature are nearly impossible to come by, but spellcasters/merchants who specialize in the trade (of preparing quills) are not unheard of, often demanding ten times or more the cost of a “raw” feather for a prepared quill of the same type.

ABOUT THE GRIFFIN IMAGE AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE...
The griffin image on this page came from Wikimedia and was donated by educational publisher Pearson Scott Foresman. I will posting soon about their donation from 2007 and the help Wikimedia still needs to finalize those images so they are ALL available the public.

Scroll Week Day 2: Attribute Modifiers

I'm not sure why attribute modifiers aren't taken into account in the DMG regarding scroll inscription. Honestly, I can't even take a cap off a fountain pen without getting ink all over my index finger. I can't imagine having to spend days (or weeks if you use the BX time requirements) trying "not to mess up" a scroll. The real question is how much or how little modifier there should be?

On the chart at left, my thinking is this... after a certain point toward the "high end" of the attributes (in this case, around 15), the chance of failure "flattens out" if you're "following directions" to create the scroll. But below that point, I think it would get proportionately easier to screw up. No offense to those magic-users out there with the absolute minimum attributes required for the class, but a magic-user with INT and DEX of 9 each should face a much higher failure rate for successful scroll creation than a magic-user with INT and DEX of 18 each, regardless of the level of the spellcaster or the spell. BTW, modifiers are cumulative, so yes... a spellcaster with a DEX and INT of 9 each would modify their chance of success by -150%!)

Scroll Week Day 1: Number of Spells per Scroll

Ever since I wrote the post Scrutinizing the Scroll: Papyrus, Parchment and Vellum back in February of this year, it has continually been the most-viewed page in the history of this blog. With Comprehending the Quill and Investigating Ink, it's formed a trilogy that I hope someday finds life as a stand-alone supplement with a comprehensive approach to scroll creation for OSR editions (generically). After all, no matter which old-school edition you prefer, the rules regarding scroll creation are skimpy at best. So with that in mind, I put forth this week's post to cover some of the bases that I feel are uncovered by the rulebooks, but easily addressed. Today, I'll address the need for rules regarding the number of spells that may be inscribed on a single scroll...

Scroll Space Requirements

More than one spell may be inscribed on a single piece of papyrus, parchment, or vellum. However, the total space required for inscription is dependent upon the level and type of spells being inscribed, as well as the level of the spellcaster inscribing the scroll.

The maximum number of spells that a spellcaster may inscribe on a standard-sized sheet is a sum of spell levels no greater than the level of the spell caster (e.g., a 9th level magic-user may inscribe one 4th level spell and one 5th level spell on the same page, but may not inscribe two 5th level spells on the same page).

The maximum number of spells allowed on a standard-sized sheet (while not accounting for the scribe's spellcasting level) is a sum of spell levels no greater than 20 (e.g., two 9th level spells and one 2nd level spell would fit on the same scroll, but two 9th level spells and one 3rd level spell would not.)

Scrolls requiring more space must utilize a larger sheet, rather than a series of “attached” sheets. Any attempt to glue or bind multiple sheets together will cause impurities and “blemishes” to the scroll’s surface, hindering or possibly even nullifying the intended effects of the scroll.

Another Re-worked Illustration

The effed-up inkjob on this one's been bugging me for a while. I finally had a chance to re-do it the other day while my computer was tied up for a big-azz client upload to YouTube. Oh, and the jacked-up wizard in the original needed re-working too. And I feel like the fighter is now looking at the beast rather than the jacked-up wizard. So... uh... this needed a lot more work than I first let on.

Missed the other re-works?
- See the original post (the re-drawn jenglot and kala)
- See the re-drawn redcap goblins

Flayer Chimp?

I had some time on the phone yesterday while I was on hold with Bank of America, waiting to rectify a fraudulent charge because some piece of hill giant excrement stole my wife's debit card number. The other charges, card replacement, etc. were taken care of a month or so ago when this happened; there was one charge that we didn't catch in time, and so I was on the phone. Anyway, there was a pad a pen on the table in front of me... so I drew. When I'm bored or goofing off, and don't know what to draw, I have a tendency to start with mouth tentacles and work out from there. It's actually how the giant flayer beetle developed. I'm not going to stat up this "flayer chimp," but feel free to for yourselves... if it's just gnawing away inside you to do so.