D&D 5E Purpose of books in D&D

[Bladecoder]

So I guess it's implied from the title what my reason for posting this is. So..... How do you use books in your games and I'm not talking about spell books or any special books out of the DM guide, but just plain books (like a book explaining how a town was formed). Leave your thoughts!

Thanks in advance.

 

[pukunui]

To be honest, I mostly just use them as treasure that the PCs can sell for money.

That being said, my wife's wizard PC is also a dragon scholar. She wanted him to have a little book of lore full of the things he knows about dragons, so I made her an actual little booklet that she can refer to at the table. It's mostly got stuff from the dragon entries in the MM, along with a few more esoteric bits and pieces from the 3e era Draconomicon, plus a little glossary of known dragons.

 

[not-so-newguy]

Proficiency bonus on specific knowledge checks. If the player has proficiency already, then give advantage. I would require a certain amount of time to study the book to get this bonus.

Example: A PC has a book about "Strange Species in Land of XYZ." The party just so happens to be traveling in that land and runs into a creature that they've never seen before. I'd give any character who has studied the book the aforementioned bonus. If they succeed, then I would give the name of the creatures and some valuable tidbits of info (something like "You recognize the creature from the book and it's named The Flaming Magilicutty. It loves fire, hates the cold and Dwarves are its favorite food")

Something like that.

ETA whoops, thought you were looking for hypotheticals. My bad

 

[pukunui]

I feel I should add that I mostly run other people's adventures, and now that I think about it, some of them have used books as plot devices. For instance, there was one where the PCs could put a ghostly librarian to rest if they found a certain missing book. (They didn't find it.) There was another where some books had been stolen and the PCs had to track down the thief.

 

[Sunseeker]

I have yet to find a good "use" for them in the game. They exist largely because books exist in reality and fantasy as useful tools for recording important stuff.

I really don't think everything a player finds during an adventure should be A: valuable or B: mechanically useful. Too often I get players asking if "X item will give them a +2 to this" or if "y item will make them better at that." I don't like that. Okay, you found a book about the various Mayors of Townsville, did you read it? Okay, you now know all the important (and occasional tawdry bits) about the Mayors of Townsville and the fact that every single one of them had an attractive redheaded assistant...who noone can seem to remember her face.

Hmmmm, quest senses tingling!

 

[wedgeski]

They're a great tool for off-book character bonuses, as other posters have mentioned, which are in turn excellent ways to draw PC's into the adventure, or drop hooks for other adventures. 5E's codified downtime rules also give us a fine way to model the study of such tomes. For more immediate gratification, large tomes which are "spoiled and rotting except for a couple of segments..." are very good for hint-dropping.

I have also run an adventure *in* a book, inspired by the scene in Chamber of Secrets where Harry is pulled into Riddle's diary.

 

[Zardnaar]

I usually have them in an ancient language if it builds the plot/worldbuilding.

There are some tomes around that detail the actual history of what happened at least form a certain point of view. Anything older than 2000 years or so is mostly myth and legend. My versions of the Romans for example kept records and that empire has been dead for 300 years but there were other empires before them such as Nithia, The Ancients etc.

Things like Spelljammer ships also date from long ago and they occasionally turn up and the PCs have seen one once in my games since 5E landed. There are some groups around with things like SJ ships and some of the weapons out of the 5E DMG and occasionally something like a rifle turns up with 6 shells and they are not from the ancient past.

I'm also throwing around ideas of the ancient past being really really ancient and Dinosaurs did not die out and became Dragons and the PCs have come across Dinos in lost world settings. I have been throwing around some of these plot hooks going back to AD&D 2E and some of them have carried forward through various players to the current group of which a couple of them got to interact with the last players I had from the 1990s who left in 2012.

Still thinking over the instruction manual to an ICBM as there is something about the "Day of a Thousand Suns" in various fragments they have found.

I kind of treat books like DS and the real word. Some are propaganda, some are history, some are lies, some are worth money and Playgorgon is cursed don't open it.

 

[Shiroiken]

Books are rare in my setting, but the wealthy often have a small library. Most books are informational, but there is the occasional work of fiction. The Sage background is useful for knowing who might have a book that contains needed information (and finding it is an Intelligence/Investigation check).

 

[Ath'kethin]

Most people (including all three of the PCs) in my campaign are illiterate, so books don'tcome into play much.

 

[Imaculata]

The players can gain 1d4 skill points from books they read in my campaign, which requires a successful intelligence check. This makes them very desirable loot.