Book Rules

Quality of Books

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.