TheAlkaizer
Game Designer
Hi!
This is something that came up is almost, if not all of my campaigns, and I never quite found a satisfactory way to approach it. What happens is that, either because it fits the character, the story or the environment in which they are, a player will ask to look around for interesting book. Or even ask for a book on a specific topic while in a shop! I have no trouble deciding on what's available on the whim, improvising a price and even improvising a title. But I never tell them about the content (except a short summary) before the next session, so I can prepare something.
In the past, I've tried some of the following:
Thank you!
This is something that came up is almost, if not all of my campaigns, and I never quite found a satisfactory way to approach it. What happens is that, either because it fits the character, the story or the environment in which they are, a player will ask to look around for interesting book. Or even ask for a book on a specific topic while in a shop! I have no trouble deciding on what's available on the whim, improvising a price and even improvising a title. But I never tell them about the content (except a short summary) before the next session, so I can prepare something.
In the past, I've tried some of the following:
- Writing an actual paragraph or two of history, instructions or whatever the book contains. Cool, immersive, but it's a one-shot thing and then it's done. And it requires a lot of time.
- Writing a half-dozen or so bullet points; a lighter version of the previous method if you want.
- Simply saying that the character has read on some topics (I enumerate them, characters, locations, events) and that they can ask for an advantage on matters pertaining to these topic. One campaign, I even went further and classified these topics in beginner, intermediary and advanced topics. Reading a book would bring you up to a certain topic.
Thank you!