Tomes of Knowledge in Mage the Ascension;
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     Books are (sometimes) a wealth of knowledge. Give a magi the
choice between a pile of gold or an ancient tome, even a mundane
one, the magi will almost always pick the tome. Knowledge is the
most valuable commidity to one that can shape reality. 
     Below is the system that I use in my Mage chronicles to deal
with specific tomes. It is based somewhat on the Call of Cthulhu
5th edition system (as I like the way that it is done in that
great tome of lore), well without further ado, here it is;

                              *****

     The first step in creating a tome of mystical or mundane
lore, is to discribe said book. Size, age, language (and period),
condition, and general physical characteristics are all important
to give the tome a unique feel and a sense of history.

Size; (exact size differs from tome to tome, as they tend to be  
    designed to the patrons tastes)

Folio; Your basic large evil-looking book; 12.5"x20" to 10"x15"
Quartos; Your basic average sized book; 10"x12.5" to 7.5"x10"
Octavos; Your basic small book; 6.25"x10" to 5"x7.5"

Of course there are the odd sized books, and even more important
there are non-book written texts; these could include;

Scrolls (or Papyrus Rolls)
Clay Tablets
Pot Shards
Wooden Plates, bound much like a book
Metal Plates (Engraved, Enamaled) could be bound as a book, or
     put on walls, floors, etc........
Painted Hide
Cave Paintings
and any other method of putting symbolic ideas onto a flat
surface.

Age; Not being real knowledgable about such things myself, I
always just make sure that the book (or whatever) fits the time
and place that it is written (of course having something come
from a time that it could not or should not have make things more
interesting for the magi). A little research goes a long way.
Helpfull resources for this type of info includes; Call of
Cthulhu, The Encyclopedia (great source for generic knowledge, go
figure?), and the Net (You would be supprised about the kinds of
things that you can scrape up with a net-search) 

Language; Very important. Also important is the 'version' of the
language, like old english or modern english, if anything else it
adds flavor to the tome. Another important factor to keep in mind
is that most people of knowledge (notably arcane or forbidden
knowledge), to hide their works from those that should not be
reading them, (or to protect themselves durring the 'burning
times') wrote their tomes in ciphers, symbolic languages, or code
written in the form of mythological pictures whose meaning was
(like the medivel alchemists) known only to them or to their
fellows in the field. This will have to be deciphered to even
begin to read the tome. 

Condition; Also very important. A page missing here, a blood
stain there could all lead to the misunderstanding of the work.
This is the main factor (along with language) that is used to
caculate the diff for understanding the work. Condition ranges
from immaculant to abysmal. An abysmal tome could be more than
half-burned, worm eaten, acid burned, or what ever. Also common
to these types of books are marginal notes, extra pages of notes
and such stuffed in the books, these can either raise or lower
the diff of a tome, depending on wether they help or mislead the
reader.

General Discription; Early books were considered works of art,
bought by wealthy patrons or the clergy. Gilt, stones, leathers,
and other precious substances went into decorating these tomes.
On the inside, hand illuminated script, color plates, and
marginal notes all add to the flavor of the book. 

Now, the system itself.
-----------------------

Each Book has the following ratings;

Rating; *-***** 
     [Rating shows how many exp's can be gained from the Tome,
and the power/enlightenment level of the book]

*         Low Level Tome , max 5 Exp , 1 Subject, could be a    
                           higher level tome that is in very bad 
                           condition.
**        Moderate Tome  , max 8  Exp  , 1 Subject
***       Good Tome      , max 10 Exp  , 1-2 Subjects (if 1 the  
                            tome is Extensive)
****      Very Good Tome , max 15  Exp , 1-2 Subjects
*****     Incredible Tome, max 20 + Exp , 1-3 Subjects

[Examples are given Below]

Language; [Player must know the language the tome is written in,
or have at least a Linguistic's Score of 3 to begin to
read/decipher/what-ever the book in question]
 
Decipher Diff; (extended roll of Intelligence + Enigmas [each    
            roll= 1 month reading deciphering time] ) 
     [Difficulty to decipher/decode a book, ranges from 0-1(no
roll necessary) to 10 (Things that increase the diff include; a
personal cipher, ancient lost language, hard to read, cramped
hand, etc) ] [Note it takes 5-10 successes to decipher the entire
work.]
Examples; English Dictionary = Diff   0
          Egyptian Tomb Wall = Diff 5-7 (depending on condition)
          Voynich Manuscript = Diff  10


Comprehension Diff; (Roll of Int + Research, each success = 1 exp
for given subject) 

[The base diff is 6 +/- The Modifiers Below;]
Abysmal Condition;                 +4 
Bad Condition                      +3
Beaten Condition                   +2
O.K. Condition                     +1
Very Good Condition /Notes         -1
Incredible Condition/Good Notes    -2


Subjects; (Most books have one, or maybe 2) The exp's will be
spread amungst the different subjects.


Examples;


Voynich Maniscript;
(you can do a search on Voynich, to get more info, I took most of
this info from the Voynich Manuscript FAQ file)

Appearence;
Size;       7 inches by 10 inches, 170-200 Pages long.
Age;        Speculated to be written in the 13th Century
Language;   Unknown Cipher, no known examples any other place in 
            the world. Complicating the matter, it is believed   
            that there are two dictinct languages present in the 
            manuscript.
Condition;  The tome is crafted of Vellum, and written in colored
            inks, the manuscript itself is in fairly good        
            condition, with a few pages being damaged, etc. 
General Discription; The manuscript is an enigma. The book is    
            written in an unknown script and is illustatated with 
            images of naked people frolicing in fountains, and in 
            different parts have illustrations of plants that are 
            also unknown to anybody.

Rating; 5 (20+ exp, 1-3 subjects)
Decipher Diff; 10 (magick could lessen this)
Comprehension Diff; 7
Subjects; (Life Sphere, Herbalism, Medicine, Occult, could be    
       anything that you want.)

For more inspiration, you can look on Ander's site for his Books
in the World of Darkness, an Incredible work. 

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Lord of the Ether                Nimbus@Telenet.net  
"Don't mess with me man....I'm Crazy" - Nacho Cat