A Visit To The Library [Archive] - Wizards Community

A Visit To The Library [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Dalin
07-10-05, 06:17 PM In my campaign I am intending for the PC’s to take a trip to a large library in another city, I’m intending for them to stay in the city and have a couple of sub-plots planned but I want to make the research at the library feel like more than just a couple of dice roles. They are trying to find out about the history of a city and possibly the existence of a nearby Drow cult, any ideas as to how I could recreate a couple of days research in an interesting way?

Thanks
Titan W
07-10-05, 06:23 PM My guess woudl be to make the dire rolls and based on sucess level I would have several different "Volumes" (Probably not more than a page each in reality)
that they would find and gain information from, could be interesting...
wildduck
07-10-05, 06:43 PM Yeah... try this. Go to a big library (a public one will do). Try to research a fairly rare topic, say PEZ (position effect variation) but don't use a card catalog or a computer. Look for things only by asking the librarians. Now, once you find something, it will invariably reference other documents. Some of these documents might be in another library or in this library but only in a different language. If in a different language, now you have to find someone who can read it and translate it for them. If in another library, maybe you have to spend a lot of money to have them transferred (temporarily) to this one, or you have to do there yourself. Also, in order to research something, you need to have background in it. If they don't have any ranks in the appropriate knowledge skills, then all this info is just going to be gibberish to them. The can find a map to the lost city of Atlantis, but they won't know how to read it.

To do this in game, don't get too bogged down in the specific findings, focus more on "You find some stuff about the Arch Demon Yada Yagaslith but it this author says he found all of his information in another book called the tome of uncertain certainty and you now have to go find that one..." Then you proceed to make diplomacy rolls with librarians, gather information checks to find translators and even some sleight of hand to slip a book out of the library.

Also, while they are perusing the invariably dusty and cluttered hallways of this library, add in some other "occupants." What comes to mind immediately would be a mind flayer holding up a book with his tentacles while reading. As he sees the party, squiddy pushes the spectacles up his nose (do they have noses?) and gives them a quirky look. He just happens to be reading the book they want. Do they fight him? Run scared? Try to negotiate? Loose their brains?

Another funny library encounter might be an unusually intellectual ettin who is reading two books at once (holding one in each hand) and keeps fighting over which head will turn the pages for the other one. Anyone kind enough to turn the pages for both heads will gain their favor and possibly some information you can't find (or can't find easily) in books.

Lastly you have the mundane. The librarian is invariably either very, very, VERY protective of his books and only wants them to be touched by the most careful. Or he is super lazy and doesn't know anything about the place, but his young (and very attractive) understudy is a total book worm. The only problem is that she has a huge crush on the fighter type and so she keeps trying to show them where all the books on swords and battles are (to impress the fighter) when they are looking for info on the Demi Lich of Angazangar.

Okay, so most of this is roleplaying stuff, without much fighting, but that could be added as well. Possibly when a powerful drow finds out that they are researching something, he sends his hit men to catch the party when they are in the library (and therefore unarmed?). Or maybe as they travel from library to another library they get attacked in the streets. Or maybe some monster lives in the catacombs of the library where nobody goes. They want a book, but the staff is scared to fetch it for them. The librarian hands them a lantern, points down a dark hallway and say "Its down there, you want it, get it yourself."

Okay, last idea. Traps. If the rogue is bored, make his ears perk up by having the books that they are trying to read all bear some common marking and a trap. Each book with the marking is being protected by someone and there is a different, devious trap on each of them. None of the traps ruin the books, but they are dangerous to would be readers. This is another one of those "Er.... we don't really 'read' those books, they are just there for show" scenarios.

Hope that helps.
FilthyAnimal
07-10-05, 11:25 PM Have you ever read Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'? It's a wonderful Murder mystery set in a Italian Monestary that is basicly the biggest library in all of Christindom. Now the lead Charecter if William of Baskerville who was an Inquisitor for a time but was sent to this monestary to help solve a horrendus series of Murders, William is basicly Holmes in a Cassok!

Well anyway the strangest part of the Library is that no one is allowed to go in. Only the Librarian and his assistant can go into the Library Proper and retrieve the books. If you wanted to read a particular book you had to tell the Librarian which book it is that you want and he will decide whether or not your able to see it! I always thought that was interesting...
gamefiend
07-10-05, 11:28 PM hmmm. wildduck has some great ideas...

One way to do this is to create a flowchart of books...the PCs initial research roll will give them different research paths, which they can choose (you of course have witty little summations of each new block of info). Maybe successful rolls will allow the players to glean more information (bards should kick ass in the library...) out of each path. Each path will tell the PCs something different about the drow city.

You can also have conspicous absences of some books...maybe some agent of the drow trying to hide the info? This could turn into an adventure all its own as the PCs attempt to track the book down in the city.

Lastly, for flavor you might want to put descriptions of books that aren't related to the search, but are relevant to different characters -- a book on flora and fauna for the druid, or a magic theory text...things they run into as the crawl about the library.
gerald_toronto
07-10-05, 11:48 PM Good ideas above.

I would also add handouts. Have them do the roles, speak to the librarians, all that sort of stuff as suggested above. But when they find something, give them a hand out, don't simply tell them the information.

Then in the handout, include all sorts of information but also extra stuff they don't need. Perhaps a parchment falls out of a book, it's one page of a diary. So it starts part way through an entry and the page ends before the last entry does so they don't have a complete entry at the end. There is relevent information on the page, but also other information which perhaps is completely unrelated.

Anyhow, handouts are great, my players always love to have things to look at and try to figure out.
Ekranoplan
07-11-05, 12:01 AM Here are some micselanneos/random encounters...

Have some guy constantly pestering the PCs to buy Focus Candles. They are from one of the Complete books (Complete Adventurer, i think). They last for one hour, and add +1 to mental intensive checks. Researching would deffinetly qualify for this.

Prehaps someone can yell at them for having a candle in the library, assuming the library itselft is not lit by torches and candles.

You ever here of Conan the Barbarian? Well, this library can have Conan The Librarian. Basically, he is just a barbarian that acts as a bouncer for the library.
krichaiushii
07-11-05, 08:47 PM Who says that the book authors always have accurate information?

You might let the PCs find two (or more) different opinions on the same matter, and leave it to the PCs to decide which is the right way, and which will get them killed.

Drow agents might have planted deliberately falsified books as part of a trap for unwary surface dwellers.

Public libraries as they exist today are a relatively new idea. In the past, you often had to have special permission - either through belonging to a special group, being owed a favor by someone with access to the library, or even bribery of the librarian - to access the books.

In addition, libraries were often small, private affairs scattered throughout a city - the idea of hundreds or thousands of books in one place was the exception, not the rule.

With the above two paragraphs in mind, the PCs could spend days (or longer, to include side quests) learning who has what libraries and gaining access to them.

Some books might be coded, requiring Decipher Script checks. I recommend this for the really useful information.
Auburn
07-12-05, 01:18 AM Have you ever read Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'? It's a wonderful Murder mystery set in a Italian Monestary that is basicly the biggest library in all of Christindom. Now the lead Charecter if William of Baskerville who was an Inquisitor for a time but was sent to this monestary to help solve a horrendus series of Murders, William is basicly Holmes in a Cassok!

Well anyway the strangest part of the Library is that no one is allowed to go in. Only the Librarian and his assistant can go into the Library Proper and retrieve the books. If you wanted to read a particular book you had to tell the Librarian which book it is that you want and he will decide whether or not your able to see it! I always thought that was interesting...

Similar to this is the Library of Congress in the US. Anyone can get a library card, but only librarians, Congressmen, and Congressional aides are allowed to go where the books are kept. Only Congressmen can leave the library with books. Anyone with a card can check a book out, but if you aren't a Congressman you have to read it there.

Maybe incorporate something similar to this. Only a handful of people in the city have the authority to read the books, and they don't actually use it that much. However, lots of people come to ask those who can legally use the library to help them get access to the books. Thus a person who can legitimately use the library makes the party do something for him before he'll help them.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dalin 07-10-05, 06:17 PM	In my campaign I am intending for the PC’s to take a trip to a large library in another city, I’m intending for them to stay in the city and have a couple of sub-plots planned but I want to make the research at the library feel like more than just a couple of dice roles. They are trying to find out about the history of a city and possibly the existence of a nearby Drow cult, any ideas as to how I could recreate a couple of days research in an interesting way? Thanks
Titan W 07-10-05, 06:23 PM	My guess woudl be to make the dire rolls and based on sucess level I would have several different "Volumes" (Probably not more than a page each in reality) that they would find and gain information from, could be interesting...
wildduck 07-10-05, 06:43 PM	Yeah... try this. Go to a big library (a public one will do). Try to research a fairly rare topic, say PEZ (position effect variation) but don't use a card catalog or a computer. Look for things only by asking the librarians. Now, once you find something, it will invariably reference other documents. Some of these documents might be in another library or in this library but only in a different language. If in a different language, now you have to find someone who can read it and translate it for them. If in another library, maybe you have to spend a lot of money to have them transferred (temporarily) to this one, or you have to do there yourself. Also, in order to research something, you need to have background in it. If they don't have any ranks in the appropriate knowledge skills, then all this info is just going to be gibberish to them. The can find a map to the lost city of Atlantis, but they won't know how to read it. To do this in game, don't get too bogged down in the specific findings, focus more on "You find some stuff about the Arch Demon Yada Yagaslith but it this author says he found all of his information in another book called the tome of uncertain certainty and you now have to go find that one..." Then you proceed to make diplomacy rolls with librarians, gather information checks to find translators and even some sleight of hand to slip a book out of the library. Also, while they are perusing the invariably dusty and cluttered hallways of this library, add in some other "occupants." What comes to mind immediately would be a mind flayer holding up a book with his tentacles while reading. As he sees the party, squiddy pushes the spectacles up his nose (do they have noses?) and gives them a quirky look. He just happens to be reading the book they want. Do they fight him? Run scared? Try to negotiate? Loose their brains? Another funny library encounter might be an unusually intellectual ettin who is reading two books at once (holding one in each hand) and keeps fighting over which head will turn the pages for the other one. Anyone kind enough to turn the pages for both heads will gain their favor and possibly some information you can't find (or can't find easily) in books. Lastly you have the mundane. The librarian is invariably either very, very, VERY protective of his books and only wants them to be touched by the most careful. Or he is super lazy and doesn't know anything about the place, but his young (and very attractive) understudy is a total book worm. The only problem is that she has a huge crush on the fighter type and so she keeps trying to show them where all the books on swords and battles are (to impress the fighter) when they are looking for info on the Demi Lich of Angazangar. Okay, so most of this is roleplaying stuff, without much fighting, but that could be added as well. Possibly when a powerful drow finds out that they are researching something, he sends his hit men to catch the party when they are in the library (and therefore unarmed?). Or maybe as they travel from library to another library they get attacked in the streets. Or maybe some monster lives in the catacombs of the library where nobody goes. They want a book, but the staff is scared to fetch it for them. The librarian hands them a lantern, points down a dark hallway and say "Its down there, you want it, get it yourself." Okay, last idea. Traps. If the rogue is bored, make his ears perk up by having the books that they are trying to read all bear some common marking and a trap. Each book with the marking is being protected by someone and there is a different, devious trap on each of them. None of the traps ruin the books, but they are dangerous to would be readers. This is another one of those "Er.... we don't really 'read' those books, they are just there for show" scenarios. Hope that helps.
FilthyAnimal 07-10-05, 11:25 PM	Have you ever read Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'? It's a wonderful Murder mystery set in a Italian Monestary that is basicly the biggest library in all of Christindom. Now the lead Charecter if William of Baskerville who was an Inquisitor for a time but was sent to this monestary to help solve a horrendus series of Murders, William is basicly Holmes in a Cassok! Well anyway the strangest part of the Library is that no one is allowed to go in. Only the Librarian and his assistant can go into the Library Proper and retrieve the books. If you wanted to read a particular book you had to tell the Librarian which book it is that you want and he will decide whether or not your able to see it! I always thought that was interesting...
gamefiend 07-10-05, 11:28 PM	hmmm. wildduck has some great ideas... One way to do this is to create a flowchart of books...the PCs initial research roll will give them different research paths, which they can choose (you of course have witty little summations of each new block of info). Maybe successful rolls will allow the players to glean more information (bards should kick ass in the library...) out of each path. Each path will tell the PCs something different about the drow city. You can also have conspicous absences of some books...maybe some agent of the drow trying to hide the info? This could turn into an adventure all its own as the PCs attempt to track the book down in the city. Lastly, for flavor you might want to put descriptions of books that aren't related to the search, but are relevant to different characters -- a book on flora and fauna for the druid, or a magic theory text...things they run into as the crawl about the library.
gerald_toronto 07-10-05, 11:48 PM	Good ideas above. I would also add handouts. Have them do the roles, speak to the librarians, all that sort of stuff as suggested above. But when they find something, give them a hand out, don't simply tell them the information. Then in the handout, include all sorts of information but also extra stuff they don't need. Perhaps a parchment falls out of a book, it's one page of a diary. So it starts part way through an entry and the page ends before the last entry does so they don't have a complete entry at the end. There is relevent information on the page, but also other information which perhaps is completely unrelated. Anyhow, handouts are great, my players always love to have things to look at and try to figure out.
Ekranoplan 07-11-05, 12:01 AM	Here are some micselanneos/random encounters... Have some guy constantly pestering the PCs to buy Focus Candles. They are from one of the Complete books (Complete Adventurer, i think). They last for one hour, and add +1 to mental intensive checks. Researching would deffinetly qualify for this. Prehaps someone can yell at them for having a candle in the library, assuming the library itselft is not lit by torches and candles. You ever here of Conan the Barbarian? Well, this library can have Conan The Librarian. Basically, he is just a barbarian that acts as a bouncer for the library.
krichaiushii 07-11-05, 08:47 PM	Who says that the book authors always have accurate information? You might let the PCs find two (or more) different opinions on the same matter, and leave it to the PCs to decide which is the right way, and which will get them killed. Drow agents might have planted deliberately falsified books as part of a trap for unwary surface dwellers. Public libraries as they exist today are a relatively new idea. In the past, you often had to have special permission - either through belonging to a special group, being owed a favor by someone with access to the library, or even bribery of the librarian - to access the books. In addition, libraries were often small, private affairs scattered throughout a city - the idea of hundreds or thousands of books in one place was the exception, not the rule. With the above two paragraphs in mind, the PCs could spend days (or longer, to include side quests) learning who has what libraries and gaining access to them. Some books might be coded, requiring Decipher Script checks. I recommend this for the really useful information.
Auburn 07-12-05, 01:18 AM	Have you ever read Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'? It's a wonderful Murder mystery set in a Italian Monestary that is basicly the biggest library in all of Christindom. Now the lead Charecter if William of Baskerville who was an Inquisitor for a time but was sent to this monestary to help solve a horrendus series of Murders, William is basicly Holmes in a Cassok! Well anyway the strangest part of the Library is that no one is allowed to go in. Only the Librarian and his assistant can go into the Library Proper and retrieve the books. If you wanted to read a particular book you had to tell the Librarian which book it is that you want and he will decide whether or not your able to see it! I always thought that was interesting... Similar to this is the Library of Congress in the US. Anyone can get a library card, but only librarians, Congressmen, and Congressional aides are allowed to go where the books are kept. Only Congressmen can leave the library with books. Anyone with a card can check a book out, but if you aren't a Congressman you have to read it there. Maybe incorporate something similar to this. Only a handful of people in the city have the authority to read the books, and they don't actually use it that much. However, lots of people come to ask those who can legally use the library to help them get access to the books. Thus a person who can legitimately use the library makes the party do something for him before he'll help them.