Personally, I prefer how LotFP does it.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Haffrung;602818I've seen this happen in my games. The rest of the players go along for awhile, but eventually they balk at yet another mission to explore some mad wizard's tower.

Don't have the rewards be exclusive.  The Mad Wizard's Tower might be full of all sorts of treasure and interesting magic loot.  Maybe an enemy of the Figher PC is hiding out there.  This is a spotlight issue any competent GM can deal with.

A variety of approaches can help. The guild or school that the PC is part of can demand quests in order to be taught higher secrets - the school or master wizard can become a PC patron who can offer a range of rewards for going on the adventure to everyone - cash, magic items, services, spell knowledge.

In LotFP you don't go out on solo quests for spells, or drag other pcs out to get them with you.  Instead, you can research spells in the comfort of your own home.

Of course, to do that you need to have a library, which costs a tremendous amount of money. To have that library, you must also have a place to put that library, which means getting a house, and eventually a bigger one when the space runs out.  Which means you have to pay taxes, which means you have to hire an accountant.
And actually researching the spells takes a great deal of time and a great deal of money; you can spend less time and money, but then there's a bigger chance that all your studies will fail.

It means that instead of inconveniencing the rest of the party, the wizard has to inconvenience himself to get that Haste spell he wants so badly; and to maintain himself and his huge library he'll need to go out on adventures.

RPGPundit

Earthdawn has grimoires that magic using PCs are always looking for (and any character can be trained to use if I'm remembering right)... they're not necessarily books though, and not always portable (our group found one carved into the walls of an alchemist's forge).

Call of Cthulhu has a ton of creepy spells locked away in worm-eaten books that are there for the brave/foolhardy/insane to discover/covet/obsess over. My old campaign was pretty much all about the PCs' group scheming to get forbidden knowledge from some other group... keeping it safe... tracking it down when it was stolen.

Jorune has schools/tutors who will teach Dyshas (spells, kinda) but there are others that can only be found by venturing into dangerous places.

Spell research requiring or helped by a library/keep (which requires its own maintenance) is at least as old as 2e. Also had ways for fighters to run similar smithy/forts to forge new weapons/items (or wizards on retainer for enchants, or weapon masters wandering for weap specs, etc.).

I understand the concern, but it's sort of a GM thing that perhaps might need a comment in DMG, but dunno if it's so pressing to have explicit rules/recommendations.

Quote from: Opaopajr;603964Spell research requiring or helped by a library/keep (which requires its own maintenance) is at least as old as 2e. Also had ways for fighters to run similar smithy/forts to forge new weapons/items (or wizards on retainer for enchants, or weapon masters wandering for weap specs, etc.).

I understand the concern, but it's sort of a GM thing that perhaps might need a comment in DMG, but dunno if it's so pressing to have explicit rules/recommendations.

Well, there's also the alternative of just not letting a wizard obtain new spells except through level advancement or adventuring.

RPGPundit