Scriptoria & Scribes

[Hywaywolf]

The three systems could work if you just didn't limit it to race. And no none of this information would be much use if your campaign was about storming the vampires castle. But if you were running a campaign that involved politics, intrigue and mystery inside a City of Knowledge then it would be of immense help. The same way many people would never run an Equine Pony campaign, that doesn't mean the information contained in a Pony supplement wouldn't be of use top someone.

Onward, even early universities worked in multiple ways. From my understanding the predominant method was that the Universities were run by students, or at least by their parents. Like-minded individuals would pool their money and hire professors to teach the class. Professors would be lose pay or be fired if they were late or didn't show up. Then there were trades that set up schools to teach the trade. Those were more like modern universities where you paid the school to be there and they hired the teachers and ran the program, but they were interested in teaching anything but what made you better at the trade.

Any race that has a faith system could have a monastic system. Any race that had trades could have a guild system. And any race with nobility or upper classes could use a university system where the school admin and professors were subservient to the families. And any city large enough to afford it, and not ruled by an oligarchy could have the modern style universities we are used to these days.

[Sir Bedivere]

No offense, but I find it kinda funny on a thread titled "Scriptoria & Scribes" that you want to know what material we're going to produce that people can immediately use in games. But it's a valid question; it's something we should keep in mind as we go.

As I see it, immediately usable material should include setting descriptions, randomly rolled libraries of various kinds (scholar, cleric, wizard, big, small, apprentice, etc.), sample NPCs from scribes & scholars to messengers & storytellers, equipment lists, descriptions of how things get done (need a letter written, a book copied, a message carried, etc.? Here's what it costs and how much time it takes), and, of course, an adventure. There's probably more, but this is what comes immediately to mind.

A lot of GMs don't care too much about depth in a campaign world, and that's fine. For those who do, they should be able to use this supplement to quickly put reasonable educational settings / systems and communications networks into their campaigns. For GMs, these should generate good ideas (and maybe we can suggest some) for adventures, and for tactics (the commo stuff). Knowledge is power, so schools and great libraries should become the settings / targets for quests, thefts, etc. Knowledgeable people are often close to those in power, as well, so maybe this will help add political intrigue into our games. In addition, players can use whatever systems the GM implements from this to flesh out their characters.

I am afraid, however, that some of the material will be descriptions of how this stuff worked in a medieval setting for anyone who cares to understand it. For me, info on the habits & lifestyles of the local peasantry are immediately usable material in my games because they suggest all kinds of plots, subplots, twists and turns. On the other hand, whenever I see random tables in any kind of game material, I always have a feeling of being cheated: that space could have been used to give me an idea for an interesting subplot, or to give me more background on an interesting character or the situation; if nothing else, it could have been left out so I wouldn't have to page through it to get to useful stuff. (I do, however, want to be able to randomly generate libraries of various kinds.)

[Joe the Rat]

A lot of this is going to be about world building and verisimilitude. (Please tell me we haven't made five pages without using verisimilitude) This isn't the stuff you can use in your game right now, this is the stuff you needed to use in your game before the first session - giving it a sensibility and heft.

When putting this together, don't be afraid to think inside the box. Let's go ahead and put together the means and media based on the traditional race archetypes everyone seems so driven to refute. Dwarves likely default to a guild-based scholarship; much of their culture is involved with craft. Calling someone Master Dwarf isn't just a sir or madam, its signifying that he is a full professional in whatever his craft, being iron forging, silversmithing, or head-cleaving. The clerics could easily fall more in this line than a traditional monastic one- the lore and the skills of faith. And so on.

[MedievalMan]

Alright, I apologize my comment clearly was a lot harsher/counter-productive than I meant to be. Please ignore my comment, it was stupid.

[LibraryLass]

It's a valid concern. We do want to make sure that we're writing a Basic Fantasy RPG supplement, not just something like a hypothetical GURPS Fantasy Schools (as fascinating as GURPS's old genre books tend to be).

[Sir Bedivere]

Alright, I apologize my comment clearly was a lot harsher/counter-productive than I meant to be. Please ignore my comment, it was stupid.

Not at all. While I found the setting humorous (come on - you have to admit a thread that is essentially about medieval geekdom is probably not going to produce a ton of immediately useable stuff for a fantasy RPG), but you made a very important point. As LibraryLass said, we need to keep the goal in mind, and that is to produce a BFRPG supplement.

One thing about that, though, is that GMing styles vary. I really don't ever use random tables; I like soaking up the campaign information, filling it out to make it mine, and then doing what makes sense (or would be the most fun) in whatever situation the players put themselves in. If a wandering party of something nasty (or helpful) is needed to push the characters along, I send one, but I just decide what it will be based on my feel for the situation. Rolling for it disturbs my sense of storytelling. But to do this my way, I need more background information than GMs with other styles, and either the setting / module has to give it to me, or I have to make it up myself. It's less work for me if the setting gives it to me.

The point is, what I need for my campaign and what you need for yours may well be very different things. Either way, though, you are right that we need to keep our eye on the ball and keep asking ourselves, How would a GM use this?

[Sir Bedivere]

Toward that end (keeping our eyes on the goal), I'm going to repeat my two lists. Please add anything else you think a GM (or player) could get out of this supplement.

As I see it, immediately usable material should include setting descriptions, randomly rolled libraries of various kinds (scholar, cleric, wizard, big, small, apprentice, etc.), sample NPCs from scribes & scholars to messengers & storytellers, equipment lists, descriptions of how things get done (need a letter written, a book copied, a message carried, etc.? Here's what it costs and how much time it takes), and, of course, an adventure. There's probably more, but this is what comes immediately to mind.

A lot of GMs don't care too much about depth in a campaign world, and that's fine. For those who do, they should be able to use this supplement to quickly put reasonable educational settings / systems and communications networks into their campaigns. For GMs, these should generate good ideas (and maybe we can suggest some) for adventures, and for tactics (the commo stuff). Knowledge is power, so schools and great libraries should become the settings / targets for quests, thefts, etc. Knowledgeable people are often close to those in power, as well, so maybe this will help add political intrigue into our games. In addition, players can use whatever systems the GM implements from this to flesh out their characters.

What else should be in there?

I think Hyway's & Joe's comments are good as well. Adding a bit of intrigue and mystery, even as background, would be a good thing, and helping a GM interested in world building and verisimilitude would be useful as well.

We can go on all week guessing about how the dwarves educate their young, but I plan to start w/ research into medieval systems, and then speculate on the fantasy aspects. I'll post stuff as I come up with it.

I want to mention again that this isn't just about education systems, but also communication systems and research systems. Information operations have been an essential aspect of wars and political intrigues for all of human history. Knowledge is power, so people with aspirations to power need it, sometimes devote their lives to it, and sometimes kill for it.

Research on post rider systems, carrier pigeons, medieval mail, communications in combat, advisers to political leaders, traveling storytellers who carry the news, etc., all belongs here, I think. I couldn't resist the alliterative place+monster (D&D, T&T) title, but maybe this thread should have been titled 'Medieval Information Systems' or something like that.

[LibraryLass]

Alright, Bedivere, I think that sounds like a solid course of action. Feel free to poke me if I can be of assistance.

[Sir Bedivere]

Thanks! Feel free to jump in any time if you want to research any of the above, but if that's not your thing, I'll poke you when I get enough up here to start working on the fantasy angle.

[MedievalMan]

So I have a question for ya SirBed.

I am in the process of working toying with a dungeon that was once a dwarven city. My question is how do you think dwarves store their documents? Do they use parchment? (maybe made from cave lizard skin or something?) Do they carve it onto stone tablets with elaborate runes? I just thought you would be the bro to ask on this topic.

Thanks for any help in advance.