Monday, March 11, 2013

Scribing those Scrolls

An absence I've noted for my current campaign is the mixture of inks for the manufacture of scrolls.
After a little brainstorming and scribbling I came up with a simple means to generate the recipes for the inks required to scribe scrolls: random charts; well, they are random here but a few spells have logical collections of inks on my own notes.

Each scroll requires 1 special ink ingredient per spell level. Roll once on each table per ingredient.

Ink Ingredient Source
1.   Sanguine
2.   Melancholic
3.   Choleric
4.   Phlegmatic
5.   Cerebral
6.   Draconic
7.   Lunar
8.   Necrotic
9.   Ethereal
10. Essential
11. Chthonic
12. Elemental

Ink Ingredient Form
1.   Pigment
2.   Earth
3.   Essence
4.   Ungent
5.   Syrup
6.   Oil
7.   Powder
8.   Jelly
9.   Salts
10. Gum
11. Plasma
12. Dew

Value suggestion multiply the rolls on each table and multiply by the proper amount for you campaign economy. In Mog it's going to be x1d6 Gold Dragons per ingredient, in other campaigns I'd probably go with x10 or x100 GP, maybe modifying per level. For Mog I've got no fixed price for scroll creation in others the value of the inks would likely count towards the codified expense.

Of course the ink doesn't get on a scroll by itself yuo have to inscribe those scrolls with special plumes.

Plumes
1.   Turkey
2.   Owl
3.   Peacock
4.   Porcupine
5.   Parrot
6.   Eagle
7.   Ostrich
8.   Hippogriff
9.   Griffon
10. Manticore
11. Roc
12. Angel


3 comments:

  1. This is cool/clever I like it!

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  2. Can you give some examples on how you'd handle a few rolls? Like Cerebral Earth or Chthonic Dew?

    Also with the feathers, do you just roll a straight d12 or do you do something like d6 plus spell level?

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    Replies
    1. It's a big old fat "it depends" for the rolls required and how they are handled i.e. die rolls. while a 1st level character can be able to scribe scrolls the expense and exotic nature of them still puts Scribner scrolls in the court of higher level mages.

      As for examples: Cerebral Earth would include the remains of a slain earth elemental collected prior to corporeal reconfiguration. Cthonic Dew would be the condensed exhalation of an elder horror.
      Magical otherworldly tourists, odd wizards, secluded apothecaries and cackling crones seem to occasionally have a small supply of these materials now and again.

      A player with a spell and the skill to scribe scrolls spends a little time in research with each new spelled learned and is able to develop a working formula and the dice are rolled.

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