'Primitive' campaign adventure seeds?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Dreaming Caves are an alternative to wizard spell books and also make great adventure locations.

Just to amplify what you said later in your post, this won't work for an adventuring wizard.

 

[Loonook]

Just to amplify what you said later in your post, this won't work for an adventuring wizard.

What if the mage creates his own little depiction of the item, sort of a memory palace made up of various items that the mage collects and shapes to make into his own little dollhouse?

The item could be shrunk, and placed in his own little extradimensional sanctum or bag of holding. Would be a cool little thing .

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What if the mage creates his own little depiction of the item, sort of a memory palace made up of various items that the mage collects and shapes to make into his own little dollhouse?

I'm not saying you can't have wizards, just that whatever method you choos for them- runestones, medicine bags, totem sticks, beaded sashes- it has to have characteristics similar to magical tomes. It has to be destructible, stealable, portable, and different enough from "normal" versions of the same as to be useless to those without understanding of arcane matters.

If you decide to use the KISS method- using wizards as written- they will be rarer than in more traditional campaigns. If you use other methods to substitute for magical writings, you have a little work to do.