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Message: <blockquote data-quote="cybertalus" data-source="post: 1371962" data-attributes="member: 4400">I don't see the notation issue as an insurmountable one, more of something which would slow things down.  Afterall I recall reading somewhere that there was a time when musical notation wasn't standardized, but eventually it became so due to the convenience offered by the printing press.Instead I see standardization as a gradual development.  Some overworked wizard with five apprentices decides to try to speed things up by having an identical spellbook of cantrips printed up for each of them.  He then teaches all five of them the exact same notation system he used for those cantrips so that it's easier for him when he's checking over their practice scribings.  This works out so well that he does the same thing when he begins to teach them first level spells.  So now the wizard and his five apprentices all use the same notation system for cantrips and first level spells, but unless they come back to him for further instruction when it comes time to learn higher level spells, their notations will begin to diverge starting with second level spells.As news of this practice spreads among the wizardly community there would probably develop a number of competing "standards" which eventually shake out to one or two major ones, perhaps with some slight variances.  Though depending on the nature of the world and the wizards in it the standards might very well never develop for high level spells.  Sharing knowledge of low level spells is one thing, but a cautious wizard isn't going to be too keen to make it easier for his rivals to learn more powerful spells which they might use against him.Also once notations shake out into a few standards, I would say that it would make it more difficult to decipher the older handwritten spellbooks (who here could read an old illuminated manuscript with the same ease they can read a modern paperback?) and spellbooks based on notations not related to the standard one (sure all the humanoid races of the surface may share a notation, but even if the drow have the printing press I somehow doubt that they'll want to use the notations of the hated surface dwellers).Crayon on newsprint would be doable I think, but not durable.  Spellbooks are a wizard's only means of preparing their spells, and since that is such a vital part of a wizard's life, it makes sense for them to go for the quality craftmanship.  A wizard doesn't want to be camped out in a dungeon only to find that the ink has bled through from sleep onto magic missile and now it's impossible to read, and thus impossible to prepare.And even if a wizard starts out with a spellbook from a printing press, the printing press is a long way from the typewriter or a word processor, so any spells the wizard learns from scrolls, other wizards, or as a result of ongoing research will need to be written down in an old-fashioned sturdy, high quality spellbook.</blockquote>

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