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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AFGNCAAP" data-source="post: 1371405" data-attributes="member: 871">Thanks for the replies!   Keep `em coming!Y'know, I completely forgot about the spellbook-PDA mentioned in d20 Modern--it's a good example about 1 of the issues I was trying to address regarding magic & technology.OTOH, it does bring up another issue: does it matter what sort of media/material a spellbook is made with?  Would there need to be some sort of special magical process needed to "enchant" a PDA to work as a spellbook?  Does a mage need a special sort of paper & ink for a spellbook, or could he/she have a "spellbook" consisting of a yellow legal pad with the spells written in permanent marker (Or for that matter, spells written in crayon on sheets of newsprint)?  Would a mage need to hunt down rare & expensive materials for a spellbook, or would he/she merely need to go to Hobby Lobby or Staples for materials?But, back to the issue of a printing press.  There are 2 reasons why I ask this question:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Is a spellbook an inherently (though slightly) magical object itself since it contains spells, or is it just like any book, merely consisting of a cover, paper, & ink?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">If a spellbook is essentially no different than any other mundane book, then could the knowledge & power contained within it be readily distributed by a means of mass production such as the printing press?</li> </ol>IMC, one of the ways that I accounted for the (relatively high) amount of literacy in the world is because an esteemed dwarven craftsman invented the printing press.  Religious texts were the first things to be produced, but this technology has grown & gained many new applications--it's used to print official announcements/notices (instead of some clerk writing them down); oral literature, ancient tales, & other literary/artistic forms of expression are being preserved through printing; in essence, the world is becoming literate.  (Also, many non-religious texts are being printed/produced in the Common language, so the proliferation of Common-tongue speakers & readers is increasing).For me, I always thought that a spellbook is a highly personal object, linked to its writer to some degree.  The expense of an item is due to the masterwork quality of the materials needed (the high-grade paper, the sturdy cover, and the pure, fine quality ink).  In addition to this, I always thought that a mage expended a tiny amount of magical energy during the process of writing/binding a spell into a spellbook.Now, I don't think that it's to the extreme of being able to rip out pages of a spellbook & use them as scrolls (although wizards do start off with that feat for free at 1st level)--I don't think they're that intensely imbued with magical energy.  However, I would think that it's just enough to prevent the process from simply being mass-produced.OTOH, if a spellbook is merely just a book, & there is no fraction of energy spent while scribing the spells, then in essence the wizard is simply manually copying information from 1 written source to another (albeit on high-grade materials).  In that case, mass-production isn't prohibited: the print type need only be finely made to be clear & exact, the ink be of the right mixture, and the paper be of the needed quality; after that, it's off to the presses.This, in turn, has an impact on the world.  Magical academies (esp. for wizards) could commision the printing of "basic" spellbooks for beginning students--perhaps spellbooks printed with all 0-level spells, then with a bunch of blank pages for the student to record spells that he/she learns later.Opinions?  Ideas?  Comments?</blockquote>

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