From the Tombs of Akrasia blog:
"So I was reading this essay by one J. Eric Holmes (PBUH) on the topic of his Basic Set, when I came across this sentence:
[T]he “spell book” is ... a needless complication and can be dispensed with.
I don't know why it took me 20 years of being trapped in the spell book ghetto to realize this, but he's totally right..."
I have to admit that I always liked the idea of wizards having to "watch out" for their spell books (and familiars for that matter). For some sick reason I even "enjoyed" the AD&D 1e rules about "traveling spell books" and the like which provide a primary motivation for "extra-dimensional storage" thingies like bags of holding or portable holes. On the other hand I get what he's saying: worrying about the physical safety of your spell book all the time can get old quickly if your DM is being mean about it. Personally I care much more about limiting access to spells than about wrapping huge spell books in multiple layers of water and fire proof stuff. Let wizards cast spontaneously? Not happening in my game. Give wizards access to all spells? Not happening either. Allow wizards to simply "meditate" to memorize spells instead of going over their actual spell books? Yeah, I could roll with that.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking into spell books and they appear to be an entirely Gygaxian things. You don't see them in Dave's game or games based on Dave's game (EPT or AiF) nor in games coming out of California (Runequest forex). Do spellbooks appear in Warlock? Perhaps Holmes was raised in a spellbook-less environment which is why he so casually dismisses them.
ReplyDeleteGood thought, Aaron. I just took a look at the first iteration of Warlock from 1975, and there's one brief mention of spell books. I see a single reference: "In beginning a series of games it is worthwhile to limit the spells available to magic users. This gives them incentive for finding the lairs of hostile magic users (in order to find new books of spells) or researching new spells". Warlock uses a spell point system for memorized spells, but it's not clear if you need your spell book when you change memorized spells.
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