Scriptoria & Scribes
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Re: Scriptoria & Scribes
I've always thought that in ancient days dwarves used some kind of cuneiform writing on clay tablets, but once they discovered parchment through trade or invented it, probably switched for day-to-day writing. I hadn't thought about what the parchment would be made from.
Anything important, like religious laws or important philosophical maxims or royal family trees, probably would be carved in stone as well, don't you think? And maybe sacred texts are still kept on clay tablets, or thin stone tablets.
I think dwarves are the most likely to invent stone block printing as well (like wood block printing, but using stone instead of wood), maybe starting as rubbings of writing engraved in stone.
These are just half-formed thoughts, though. I'm interested to see what you decide to do with it.
Anything important, like religious laws or important philosophical maxims or royal family trees, probably would be carved in stone as well, don't you think? And maybe sacred texts are still kept on clay tablets, or thin stone tablets.
I think dwarves are the most likely to invent stone block printing as well (like wood block printing, but using stone instead of wood), maybe starting as rubbings of writing engraved in stone.
These are just half-formed thoughts, though. I'm interested to see what you decide to do with it.
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Re: Scriptoria & Scribes
By the way, MM, the idea of immediately useable material came up in the feedback thread for another supplement I work on, and at least some people are avoiding it because it isn't really plug & play. So, I've been rethinking my take on writing supplements. Since you brought it up here, I thought I'd mention it to you.
- Joe the Rat
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Re: Scriptoria & Scribes
I wonder how well bone works for making print blocks. It'd probably wear less on the parchment. Nice catch on the cuneiform - "something that carves well" seems a necessity for dwarven writings.
Something else to consider is that their retreat into the deeps may fall in line with the human trend towards city-dwelling - something possible due to improved agriculture and specialization - possibly giving way from either with dedicated valley-dwelling dwarven farmers to high trade volume to keep the deeps in mutton and barley.
Something else to consider is that their retreat into the deeps may fall in line with the human trend towards city-dwelling - something possible due to improved agriculture and specialization - possibly giving way from either with dedicated valley-dwelling dwarven farmers to high trade volume to keep the deeps in mutton and barley.
Go with a smile!
- MedievalMan
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Re: Scriptoria & Scribes
Well when I brought it up here I did it in tactless senseless way, which I apologize for again.Sir Bedivere wrote:By the way, MM, the idea of immediately useable material came up in the feedback thread for another supplement I work on, and at least some people are avoiding it because it isn't really plug & play. So, I've been rethinking my take on writing supplements. Since you brought it up here, I thought I'd mention it to you.
For my own dwarven city I am having a similar problem, how do I show that the place is a living system while still making immediately usable material? Now I know this is different, dungeons are a different breed of orc from other sorts of supplements, but one thing I am trying is mixing setting information in with random activities players might try while in the city. So I have two tables flora and fauna which details the sort of things players can find while gathering or hunting in the depths, here is an example entry from that table.
Doraili (Red-Beard) is a reddish colored moss that grows in dimly lit crannies. Usually found hanging from high places it is covered in a thin slime which reflects light and betrays its presence. Doraili is known for its sleep inducing properties, and its juice can be applied to weapons. Anyone who ingests the juice of the doraili plant must make a save vs Poison or fall asleep for 1d4 hours.
Again adventures are different, but maybe you could give something like this a try? Like a table of 100 random happenings on a university campus, or a set of tables that describes what an old tome looks like.
Tables can't be used for everything, but they do offer a way to have "gameable material" in a supplement for a relatively low page count.
Again I'm sorry for not offering anything in return for my critic before, maybe something here can help. Also what supplement where people not wanting to use? Maybe I can give it a read and offer an opinion?
- MedievalMan
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Re: Scriptoria & Scribes
You know what? I never considered movable type block printing for dwarves. I can see them using that for mass producing certain tomes. That is something interesting to consider, that dwarves print books that detail day to day things, while religious or legal texts might be scribed onto to stone to signify their enduring and lasting presences? I know I read in a Faerun supplement somewhere that one dwarven city had literally every surface covered with engravings detailing the rites of a certain god. Its a cool idea, like a dwarven temple has every surface covered with carvings depicting dwarven saints, gods, and other religious texts. Thanks for the ideas.Sir Bedivere wrote:I've always thought that in ancient days dwarves used some kind of cuneiform writing on clay tablets, but once they discovered parchment through trade or invented it, probably switched for day-to-day writing. I hadn't thought about what the parchment would be made from.
Anything important, like religious laws or important philosophical maxims or royal family trees, probably would be carved in stone as well, don't you think? And maybe sacred texts are still kept on clay tablets, or thin stone tablets.
I think dwarves are the most likely to invent stone block printing as well (like wood block printing, but using stone instead of wood), maybe starting as rubbings of writing engraved in stone.
These are just half-formed thoughts, though. I'm interested to see what you decide to do with it.
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Re: Scriptoria & Scribes
I wouldn't say movable type, really. With woodblock printing, a single block of wood, say one foot square (though it could be any size), is carved with reversed text or images and then used to print many copies. If you needed to change a word, you had to carve a new block. I think dwarves would get that idea, but since they carve so much with stone, they probably would have invented 'stoneblock' printing, using a thin, flat, block of stone.MedievalMan wrote:You know what? I never considered movable type block printing for dwarves.
That is pretty cool.MedievalMan wrote:I know I read in a Faerun supplement somewhere that one dwarven city had literally every surface covered with engravings detailing the rites of a certain god. Its a cool idea, like a dwarven temple has every surface covered with carvings depicting dwarven saints, gods, and other religious texts.
My pleasure.MedievalMan wrote:Thanks for the ideas.
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Re: Scriptoria & Scribes
My first thought on bone would be that it isn't flat. You could still print with it if you rolled it across the paper, I guess. Parchment is pretty tough, though; a lot tougher than modern paper is, and if you've seen bone carvings, it doesn't carve as nicely as wood does, though it would certainly be easier than stone.Joe the Rat wrote:I wonder how well bone works for making print blocks. It'd probably wear less on the parchment. Nice catch on the cuneiform - "something that carves well" seems a necessity for dwarven writings.
Now that's an interesting thought. That makes a lot of sense.Joe the Rat wrote:Something else to consider is that their retreat into the deeps may fall in line with the human trend towards city-dwelling - something possible due to improved agriculture and specialization - possibly giving way from either with dedicated valley-dwelling dwarven farmers to high trade volume to keep the deeps in mutton and barley.
Re: Scriptoria & Scribes
I could see dwarven printing being done on metal as well, sort of like striking coins, but instead on to sheets or strips of metal in order to form very durable records that can be stored more compactly than stone blocks.... dwarves are industrious and clever with such stuff.
Is it really the end, not some crazy dream?
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Re: Scriptoria & Scribes
That seems like a sound idea. When we get to that point I'll have to hit you up for ideas.MedievalMan wrote:Doraili (Red-Beard) is a reddish colored moss that grows in dimly lit crannies. Usually found hanging from high places it is covered in a thin slime which reflects light and betrays its presence. Doraili is known for its sleep inducing properties, and its juice can be applied to weapons. Anyone who ingests the juice of the doraili plant must make a save vs Poison or fall asleep for 1d4 hours.
Again adventures are different, but maybe you could give something like this a try? Like a table of 100 random happenings on a university campus, or a set of tables that describes what an old tome looks like.
Tables can't be used for everything, but they do offer a way to have "gameable material" in a supplement for a relatively low page count.
It was my Magic-User Options supplement. I've just put a candidate for the third release in the Project Feedback thread, if you want to take a look.MedievalMan wrote:Also what supplement where people not wanting to use? Maybe I can give it a read and offer an opinion?
- MedievalMan
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Re: Scriptoria & Scribes
I like that, like those books that have metal pages that are stamped with letters? That sounds suitably dwarven, more so if they use gold for pages.SmootRK wrote:I could see dwarven printing being done on metal as well, sort of like striking coins, but instead on to sheets or strips of metal in order to form very durable records that can be stored more compactly than stone blocks.... dwarves are industrious and clever with such stuff.
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