I love magical books.
I really do.
From The Call of Cthulhu's sanity-rending tomes to Ed Greenwood's Pages From the Mages, there's just something about these little bits of pseudobiblia I enjoy. I know as a reader there's satisfaction in the puzzle solved, the Secret Mystic Lore of Power(TM) learned, the clue to the bigger picture or the hook for the next setting. As a writer and GM, I appreciate the book as a plot device: to introduce new (or, within terms of the setting, old) lore, to solve a mystery or plant the seeds of one, as a MacGuffin and as a solution, or just adding a touch of history to the setting.

In many ways, I think Lovecraft-who didn't originate the mysterious occult text gambit, but certainly popularized it-presented the ideal use of such works: evocative, rare, secret, and as symbols of knowledge forgotten, hidden, and/or dire. Terry Pratchett goes a few steps forward and one to the left with his mystic library, parodying the hackneyed overuse of Lovecraft's penchant while, in his own style, presenting something new. Then of course there are more serious-if prosaic-authors who enjoy the crafting of the book and the story that it weaves around it, perhaps exemplified in The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (or the slightly more satiric The Club Dumas by Arturo-Perez Reverte).

But, what do y'all think?

"In the years since a shepherd found the Record of the Dawn, seated on a stone pedestal overlooking the sea, it had had many owners. Most of them were scholars and philosophers, drawn by the book's irresistible allure: a chance to understand the true nature of beauty. On this subject, the book was absolutely accurate, scientifically precise, and perfectly encyclopedic. A scholar could read the sections already uncovered as long as he or she liked; no danger lay therein. Near the end of the transcribed section lay the danger, and the mystery -- for the Record of the Dawn is sacrosanct, not to be defiled by mortal eyes, and the first one to read any given word therein would turn instantly to dust. It is a statement on the nature of beauty, and the nature of scholars, that when the book came into Jordan's hands, over half of its text had been read, understood, and transcribed." (From "Tiabhal's Library", in Nobilis.)

Quote from: Ancient HistoryBut, what do y'all think?

Thematicaly they're fantastic but in game my players always tried xeroxing and speed reading which kinda ruined it for me. I think next time I'm gonna try kludging up a hand full of pages and say: Here's what you found in the mysterious tome and let them read stuff into the pictures.

I've used books many times in games, from journals of mad monks too mystic tomes which lead the pc's to something--knowledge, power, sometimes madness in the pursuit of what the book has.

(I once used a work called the Xerxes Codex which had a key built into the bronze bit on its cover, which unlocked the book--but the book itself was also a key to something else.)

In my current game, there's a rumoured counterpart to that Record of the Dawn from the previous post, called "the Intimation of the Dusk". Supposedly it's as comprehensive on the topic of corruption as the Record is on beauty, and two books combined together contain the lore necessary to create new universes.

Name of the Rose made me tear up a little.

I've used Aristotelean writings in modern games, in fact I actually used my knowledge of Greek philosophy (now very very rusty) to create codices for a horror game set around the "deep dark secrets" discovered by the Greeks--and what led of course to the doom of their civilization in time when the secrets came out.  The fact that the doom was subtle, and the whole idea was that all humanities monsters were human--that is BORN human, but like shadows they are a mere projection of greater monstrosities lurking outside, made flesh (their shadow as it were on the wall of the world)


It made for a fun Lovecraftian/Greek Archaeological dig--as the monster of the game was the archaeologist, the player's had been hired to help warped by his reading of the clues to the codices.