Book Rules

Book Rules from A Family Affair

In the saga of A Family Affair, we're handling books differently than we did in the Saga of Stranggore.

Library Collections

Usually, magi study from collections of books, not individual tomes.

Collections function like summae. They have a Level and a Quality. One difference is that characters cannot write collections (summae).

Individual books are like tractatus. Characters can write them using the normal rules. However, the only use of individual books are to improve a collection.

To improve a collection, treat the Level of the collection as if it were an Art score. Any tractatus added to the collection adds experience points to that score. Whenever the collection has accrued enough experience points to advance to the next level, you may improve the collection as follows:

• You can raise the Level of the collection by one point, to a limit of 20 for Arts or 8 for Abilities.
• You can raise the Quality of the collection instead, to a limit of 22.

Exceptional Texts

Ancient scrolls, rune stones, bottled dreams, and other esoteric sources of learning are exceptions to the usual book rules. They can be studied like tractatus from the ArM5 rules. Once deciphered (if necessary) they can also be added to the collection and still studied individually.

Writing Books

Characters can't write summae, and can only write texts that can be added to a collection. Use the rules for writing tractatus, with one exception.

You don't need a Language score of 5 to write a text. 4 is enough. If your Language score is 4, deduct one point of Quality. If you Language score is only 3, write the book in a different language. ;-)

Book Rules from the Saga of Stranggore

In the Saga of Stranggore, there is no minimum score in Speak Language required to write a book.

We use an alternative formula for determining the Quality of a book:

  Quality of Tractatus = Author's (Ability score or Art score/5) + Communication 
                            + (Speak Language score - 5)

and language specialties only apply to writing books if the character has specialized in using that language in reference to the specific Art or Ability that is the subject of the book.

Tractatus Only

  All books in the Saga of Stranggore are tractatus. We don't use summae at all.

The main reason for this is playability. A tractatus is valuable to any magus, so it's always good to have in the library. Summae are of value only to relatively low-skilled magi. We don't want players to feel gyped because we spent covenant build points to buy a summa their characters can't use.

Also, we don't really agree with the model of learning presented by Ars Magica Fifth Edition. Having books that cover all relevant material up to a certain Art or Ability level arguably makes some sense for modern textbooks and the like. We feel that medieval books were few enough and short enough (remember, they were hand-written) that every scholar would potentially learn something from every book, even if he had already read similar books (for example, bestiaries). Therefore we think the rules for tractatus have more of the medieval feel we're looking for.