Libraries in your game

[Li Shenron]

I suppose it really depends if your setting takes place before or after the introduction of printing techniques (15th century IRL in the western world). Most of the time it this is an issue that gets simply ignored in published settings and homebrew as well.

If all books are written by amanuensis (hand-scribes), they should be really really rare and really really costly. I think a single book before print was available could cost something like 20-50% of a house (tho housing in medieval times wasn't definitely as expensive as nowadays AFAIK).

Typical RPG settings assume to see thousands of books available around, and characters (at least PCs) are all literate, and literacy itself of course wasn't common before the invention of printing. At the same time, if asked, IMHO probably the vast majority of DMs would rather say that print with metal blocks - or whatever they are called - isn't invented yet, which is probably incompatible with the result of having easy availability of books.

A possible compromise would be to think that the fantasy world is just set at a time when printing is under early develpment but not a commodity yet, although IRL it took a very few decades to turn from experimentation into regular use.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

There is a good little supplement on this subject called Tomes & Libraries: Secrets of the Written Word from Mongoose Publishing. Only about $15 and it is jammed full of useful tidbits to make a library; arcane, divine or mundane, really come alive. I found it most useful designing a library in my campaign.

It does go with the assumption that the printing press does exsist and, if not widely used everywhere, is at least used in major city libraries. The thought of thousands of books all hand written stored in a single place just seems a little bizarre, to me and the writer of the supplement. The best part is that there wasn't a single prestige class in the book!

 

[Evilhalfling]

My last world had only private collections of books, and the owners didn't let strangers view the collections. The PCs started as assitants to tha ducal librariarn. The party monk actually spent several thousand gp on accumlating her own library(about 40 books), finding that the librarian had selecetivly removed important books from the collection. She got the wizard to catalog her collection and her brother (retired PC & captain of the guard) to move in to provide protection for it.
The capital had a large library avalible to people of acceptable social standing and for enormous fees, you could not remove books but scribes were avalible. The library had only existed for 25 years, a dead mages will created it. The PCs openly stole a book from it, and the society of magic in the capital was closed to them. The cities mages didnt think it was worth it to persue him (a teleporting mage) for a single book. (They were already in factions) the campaign ended before the full repercussions were felt. The library has since installed a block on teleports.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

So it apperas literacy is not common in some games, and it generally seems that library books stay in the library.

LOL at Conan the Librarian.

 

[Arnwyn]

My question is, in your game, are they allwed to "check" them out,

Absolutely not. And anyone perusing them are charged "reading fees".

Or is there some sort of SUper fighting squad that goes an retrives the books for the library?

Yeah. Other adventurers.

 

[Agback]

The big Library in my campaign is House Azure. Only members are allowed into the stacks. Fellows have the privilege of taking books out of the rooms their shelves are in, but only to a scriptorium within the confines of the library.

Anyone who is not a member has to hire a member to look something up for him or her, or a fellow to make a copy.

 

[Agback]

The thought of thousands of books all hand written stored in a single place just seems a little bizarre, to me and the writer of the supplement.

Strange. There was the Library of Alexandria, the Imperial Library in Constantinople, the Vatican Library, and at least one library in each mediaeval university before the invention of the printing press. And I think there were at least two public (but not lending) libraries in Rome in the Augustinian age. Thousands of books, all hand-written, stored in one place: it wasn't exactly common, but it happened many times.

 

[Agback]

Okay, so most fantasy worlds have the archetypal big library filled with lots of books that adventurers often end up perusing. My question is, in your game, are they allwed to "check" them out

For what it is worth, the first lending library in Europe was the Lyceum in Liverpool, UK, which started operations in 1757. The very first lending library of which I am aware was organised by Benjamin Franklin in 1731.

Make of that what you may, but before you place a lending library in a fantasy setting recall that before the invention of the printing press any book represented the results of several months of effort by a trained craftsman: the scribe. Not to mention that before paper replaced vellum and parchment, the leaves of the book itself represented a small fortune in highly-processed hides. No-one is going to lend valuable and delicate items of property to strangers without holding security such as nail clippings, locks of hair, blood samples…

 

[Kelleris]

Hmm... Well, no printing presses in widespread use in my campaign world, although I have technologists, so I suppose there's no reason there couldn't be. Instead the public sections of the Library allow "checking out books" (in a manner of speaking) by means of the purchase of a temporary (magically created) copy of the book in question. Of course, this library also has book fairies on loan from the Seelie court (it's that kind of city), so I can see why this would not be a solution in most games.

The Library also has a retrieval division to discourage theft, so I really use both options Galeros mentions.

 

[S'mon]

BTW IMC one thing I do to make Wizards' spellbooks make more sense is to say that the 30gp is just for the covers, each page is individually sewn in and the page & ink cost 100gp. Wizards pay 100gp/page for all spells scribed into the book, including the 2 gained on level-up. Wizards are the only non-spontaneous casters IMC so it works well. If they're short of funds they can always sell that other Wiz's spellbook!