The online campaign I'm running at the moment is set in a University town on my home brew world. The party are about to spend some time in the University library (well, I hope they will, there's always the chance they'll head off into the city for cigars and coffee and other random unplanned encounters....).
There's two plot relevant scrolls that will be in the library that will be easy to find, but I'd also like to have a bunch of resources they can look through - e.g. old, inaccurate maps; logs from explorers, academic articles on ruins or relics. I'm totally open to the party picking up one of these things and making it the basis of a new adventure, although I'd prefer they stuck to plot (hahahahaha yeah I know watch me jinx myself now...).
Just wandering if anyone has any suggestions for some good / funny things to add in?
Books about serial killers? Probably some fun for the rue-crime fans in the party. Also, you could work it in later where they have to fight the ghosts of the killers they read about.
A recipe book, but if they read it all the way to the end, there's actually a spell or two in it.
A document that proves the king is actually a bastard and his uncle is the rightful king.
References to a party member's grandmother. Turns out she never liked to talk about that time she slew an ancient green dragon and saved the world before she met a nice man (grandpa) and settled down. If they go ask her about it, she'll give her progeny the sword (or staff or bow or whatever) she used in the fight.
An empty ivory scroll case, tied with a piece of red silk and carved with runes the party can't decipher. (Its nothing. Just pretty. The runes are gibberish. But how long will the players spend screwing around with it and taking it to every sage they can find, I wonder?)
Libraries would hold histories, often multi-volume sets, of various nations.
There would be biographies of military leaders from the past describing their battles, often a little skewed toward the particular general. Scribes often followed generals to write these biographical accounts of their campaigns.
There might be a few plays and epic poems and ballads that were typically based on history or satirical subjects. Tragedies and comedies would also be among them.
There should also be biographical accounts of explorer's voyages. These would be the well know government sponsored explorers that had better documentation, not some wanderer that did a bunch of stuff, somehow survived and had someone write it down later.
There should be a few alchemical texts. Along with this there should be books on botany and biology of animals and fantastic beasts.
Maps and atlases would be there, and these would be very inaccurate given their technology. A good plot device might be to have a handful of maps where each one has a zone where the map is very accurate but the rest is pretty distorted. The party can have an adventure sorting it out.
You might wish to have a volume or two related to each character class. "Fighting Techniques for Wearing Plate Armor." "The Bards of the Western Isles." "Sorcery and Necromancy." "Lessons in Counterfeiting." "The Colorovan Method of Sword Smithing."
And there should be a number of manuscripts, single volume texts of musings from a wealthy nobleman.
As a joke, I might include some accounts of other parties that went off in search of "This Thing" and never came back.
My players were new to a town and came across the local library. I didn't have any particular books figured out, but I had them roll history checks and then depending on their rolls they got to ask me specific questions about the town, local history, geography, etc. - "Ok you rolled a 15, what three questions do you want answers to?"
It could be fun to have D&D spoofs of real world books. Things like "Of Mousefolk and Men," "Pride and Prestidigitation," "Little Warlocks," or "Charlies and the Construct Factory." Some of these are pretty bad, but hopefully it gives you some ideas :)
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The online campaign I'm running at the moment is set in a University town on my home brew world. The party are about to spend some time in the University library (well, I hope they will, there's always the chance they'll head off into the city for cigars and coffee and other random unplanned encounters....).
There's two plot relevant scrolls that will be in the library that will be easy to find, but I'd also like to have a bunch of resources they can look through - e.g. old, inaccurate maps; logs from explorers, academic articles on ruins or relics. I'm totally open to the party picking up one of these things and making it the basis of a new adventure, although I'd prefer they stuck to plot (hahahahaha yeah I know watch me jinx myself now...).
Just wandering if anyone has any suggestions for some good / funny things to add in?
Meet-cute with an NPC reaching for the same scroll at the same time?
Books about serial killers? Probably some fun for the rue-crime fans in the party. Also, you could work it in later where they have to fight the ghosts of the killers they read about.
A recipe book, but if they read it all the way to the end, there's actually a spell or two in it.
A document that proves the king is actually a bastard and his uncle is the rightful king.
References to a party member's grandmother. Turns out she never liked to talk about that time she slew an ancient green dragon and saved the world before she met a nice man (grandpa) and settled down. If they go ask her about it, she'll give her progeny the sword (or staff or bow or whatever) she used in the fight.
An empty ivory scroll case, tied with a piece of red silk and carved with runes the party can't decipher. (Its nothing. Just pretty. The runes are gibberish. But how long will the players spend screwing around with it and taking it to every sage they can find, I wonder?)
Libraries would hold histories, often multi-volume sets, of various nations.
There would be biographies of military leaders from the past describing their battles, often a little skewed toward the particular general. Scribes often followed generals to write these biographical accounts of their campaigns.
There might be a few plays and epic poems and ballads that were typically based on history or satirical subjects. Tragedies and comedies would also be among them.
There should also be biographical accounts of explorer's voyages. These would be the well know government sponsored explorers that had better documentation, not some wanderer that did a bunch of stuff, somehow survived and had someone write it down later.
There should be a few alchemical texts. Along with this there should be books on botany and biology of animals and fantastic beasts.
Maps and atlases would be there, and these would be very inaccurate given their technology. A good plot device might be to have a handful of maps where each one has a zone where the map is very accurate but the rest is pretty distorted. The party can have an adventure sorting it out.
You might wish to have a volume or two related to each character class. "Fighting Techniques for Wearing Plate Armor." "The Bards of the Western Isles." "Sorcery and Necromancy." "Lessons in Counterfeiting." "The Colorovan Method of Sword Smithing."
And there should be a number of manuscripts, single volume texts of musings from a wealthy nobleman.
As a joke, I might include some accounts of other parties that went off in search of "This Thing" and never came back.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Another team of adventures who in the middle of a National Treasure style adventure of their own.
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playing since 1986
My players were new to a town and came across the local library. I didn't have any particular books figured out, but I had them roll history checks and then depending on their rolls they got to ask me specific questions about the town, local history, geography, etc. - "Ok you rolled a 15, what three questions do you want answers to?"
It could be fun to have D&D spoofs of real world books. Things like "Of Mousefolk and Men," "Pride and Prestidigitation," "Little Warlocks," or "Charlies and the Construct Factory." Some of these are pretty bad, but hopefully it gives you some ideas :)