Libram Magica

[Solomoriah]

ACTUALLY, it was left vague so the GM could choose. Much of the Core Rules were written that way... but people always want everything written down. Bah, I say!

[daryen]

Getting back to my blocking question ...

Currently, Libram Magica lists all of the spells it names in the spell descriptions, regardless of the source. That seems, uh, overkill. But then, maybe not. I don't know, thus the question. So, for the spell descriptions, which should I do?
1) Leave in the spell descriptions for all spells, irrespective of source, and including the Core Rules.
2) Leave in the spell descriptions for all spells not from the Core Rules.
3) Provide spell descriptions for spells only unique to Libram Magica.

And, if #2 or #3 are chosen, for the spells not given descriptions, which should I do?
1) Provide an abbreviated spell description entry that includes the name, who can use, and source location. This means all spells will have an entry in the spell description section, but some will be reference entries only.
2) Provide no spell description entry at all. This means that only spells with actual spell descriptions included will be in the spell description section, and no reference entries will be included.

Do note that the spell list section provides full spell lists of all spells available to the classes and includes source information, too. So, no matter how the spell descriptions are managed, the spell lists are complete, and where to find the spell is included.

[Solomoriah]

It was meant to be a complete reference. Libram Magica doesn't follow the rules for supplements, as it's a "house rules compilation" like the Glain supplement, Sword & Board, and so on.

[gg2]

I like solution 1, because as a master I prefer to refer to only one book for spells rather than having to search through different documents if I use a lot of different pnj's from the supplements during a game.
With the complete lists of each class (and reference to the relevant page for each spell eventually would be the "grail" )
But that's because of my way of mastering, I improvise a lot and one book is more practical I find and save time.
And having the spells on at least two books eventually allows you to easily pass one of them to the players, without having to retrieve it right away, then give it back, and so forth.

but it's true that it's a big job and a big document.

[SmootRK]

I like solution 1, because as a master I prefer to refer to only one book for spells rather than having to search through different documents if I use a lot of different pnj's from the supplements during a game.
With the complete lists of each class (and reference to the relevant page for each spell eventually would be the "grail" )
But that's because of my way of mastering, I improvise a lot and one book is more practical I find and save time.
And having the spells on at least two books eventually allows you to easily pass one of them to the players, without having to retrieve it right away, then give it back, and so forth.

but it's true that it's a big job and a big document.

Yes, this was the original mentality for the supplement... one place for spells, at least for the main classes and most used spell using subclasses (at that time being Druid, Illusionist, and Necromancer).
That said, maintaining concurrent updates whenever typos and whatever are found in the main documents is often problematic, so I can see wisdom in not having that sort of duplication. Shrinking the document is less of a concern to me, as I expect it to remain 'non-official' and thus not actually being set up as print offering (unless one does this on their own)... and being all digital, page counts are largely irrelevant.

[daryen]

Just to be clear: What I shared in the Projects folder for Libram Magica is just a work-in-progress. It is in no way finished or done or anything like that. (In fact, it can't be done until the last small update for New Spells is used or rejected.)

As for the topic on the spell descriptions, I had not realized it was intended to be a complete compendium. Because of that, I was focused on updating the spell lists and general cleanup. However, now that I have a better understanding of its purpose, I will go ahead and keep it complete. It just means it will take longer for me to finish, which is not an issue on my end.

[Solomoriah]

Libram Magica isn't a Downloads-page project, so it doesn't have to go through Projects (and thus, me). If you have a pleasing layout, feel free to go ahead and PDF it, and Smoot can upload it to the Showcase at his convenience.

[daryen]

Status update: I got all of the spell descriptions put into it. I now have to go through and fix all of the spell description headers so they will link properly.

On the other hand, I have no idea how to make the references to those spell description headers. So, I am likely going to need some help to make the document "pretty" again, as all of the built-in breaks and other subtle formatting is pretty much trashed at this point ...

Now that everything is actually in it, I am going to have to go back through and recheck everything from front to back. But, in the end, this will have all of the spells from Core + Class Supplements + New Spells + Libram Magica (before I touched it). Note that I have not added any "new" spells specifically for Libram Magica. This is just integrating all of the other updates.

I'll also have a nice multi-sheet spreadsheet for this, if anyone wants me to post it anywhere ...

[Solomoriah]

Highlight the spell name and go to Insert, Table of Contents and Index, and choose Index Entry. Make sure it says Alphabetical Index, and OK it.

When you're done, go to the index, right-click and choose Update Index.

[daryen]

That's better than how I was doing it, so thanks!

One follow-up: once I have all of the spell description titles properly set, how do I make an ad hoc link to it? I realized that every single entry in the spell list tables is a link to the spell description. Is there an easy way to do that?