Conspiracy Generator for Fellhold

I was pretty skeptical of myself when I set out to write this section. Initially, I just planned on including some guidance that basically said "go read the section of Night's Black Agents about conspiracies and make something up for your city. But with all of the other generators I've been writing, it just seemed to go against the ethos I've been following of "make tools that people can use or ignore as they like".

Initially, I was at a bit of a loss on how conspiracies fit into my conception of Fellhold: it's a pretty anarchic place with no real government and where fairly awful people and things openly do their business - so why would a group with a crackpot idea be a conspiracy and not just a faction? But then I realized there's always somebody who would find secrecy useful, and that spurred me on to think of a number of different reasons the conspiracy might want to stay secret.

So I ended up with a few tables I'm pretty happy with. I think that many of the results are easily adaptable outside of Fellhold, and if nothing else the column headers provide a pretty good blue print for what you need to define for a conspiracy. And the name generator is gleefully abstract and obtuse, so I think it should work in just about any setting.

Conspiracies

With all the demons, undead, ratmen, and factional conniving going on, Fellhold has several conspiracies. A conspiracy is any group of people (and/or monsters) pursuing its goals in secret. Where the power structure, overall goals, and membership in factions is generally open knowledge, conspiracies are purposely hidden. They may be entirely undertaken by members of a faction, such as pursuing that faction’s secret goals or plotting a coup, or they may be unrelated to the normal factional power structure, such as a secret cult to the dead gods.

Players cannot choose to target conspiracies with the investigate urbancrawl action until they have some way of knowing that the conspiracy exists. Once they have encountered NPCs or clues that suggest the existence of some kind of conspiracy, they can begin to investigate it. Ask players the methods they are using and the kind of information they’re seeking, but investigating conspiracies will usually reveal either someone connected to a known conspirator (use the rules for contacts to create, with any tweaks to fit the conspiracy), the structure of the conspiracy (e.g. “Well, if this guy is an assassin, he has to have someone paying him, and there’d usually be a go-between as well”), or clues to its general purpose or aim. 

Note also that conspiracies can hire PCs just as readily as any other NPC or organization, so the “short term plots” column of the table below can double as an additional job generator.

With all of the other levels of intrigue going on in Fellhold (districts, factions, et cetera), it is recommended that you begin with somewhere between zero and two conspiracies.

Generating a Conspiracy

While conspiracies provide an excellent opportunity for a truly customized piece of the city that receives loving and detailed attention from the referee, sometimes we do not have that luxury. As such, the below tables and guidance are provided for generating a conspiracy. Even more so than the NPC, location, and district tables, you are encouraged to use this section as a starting point and source of inspiration, rather than “the whole answer”. The results in the table are necessarily open-ended and flexible so that they can fit a wide variety of combinations and tie into other material you have generated elsewhere, such as factions, major NPCs, and districts.

Conspiracy Traits

Use the following table to generate the basic traits for your conspiracy. Most of the columns may be rolled multiple times for additional complexity if desired.

Roll	Type/ Leader	Reason for Secrecy	Long Term Goal	Short Term Plot	Size	Resources
1	Within a single faction	Threatens a powerful faction’s leadership	Destroy one of the major factions	Steal an important book from a faction library	Tiny	Tiny
2	Multiple factions	Threatens the very system of factions	Take over or replace one of the major factions	Kidnap a prominent patron	Tiny	Tiny
3	Demon	Purpose abhorred even by Fellholders	The personal political power of their leader	Assassinate a faction leader	Small	Poor
4	Witch	Threatens the Soul Economy	Complete and utter re-organization of society	Steal a valuable shipment from a merchant	Small	Poor
5	Lich	Could expose a weakness of powerful leaders	The revival of the dead gods	Collect a large number of children	Small	Poor
6	Mummy	Involves cooperation from unexpected sources	The elevation of their leader to godhood	Blow up a well-known building or landmark	Middling	Average
7	Half Dwarf	Leader acting contrary to the general goals of their group	The elimination of all demons	Recruit new members in positions of influence	Middling	Average
8	Ratman	Methods are antithetical to the type/leader’s norm	To find somewhere to live besides Fellhold	Blackmail a powerful wizard	Middling	Average
9	Crabman	Declared enemies of the “state” by one of the Witch Kings	To take control of all of Fellhold	Rob a soul bank	Middling	Average
10	Human	Don’t want their opponents to know the truth about their resources	The political and social supremacy of the leader’s type	Steal a powerful bound demon from a faction	Large	Plentiful
11	Tiefling	Their members don’t know the true purpose of their activities	The elimination of one of the races	Collect money through a front organization	Large	Plentiful
12	Troll	Surprise is crucial to the success of their long term goals	Amassing ridiculously huge amounts of wealth	Establish a base of operations in a hostile district	Large	Plentiful
13	Merchant	Their leadership is unnecessarily paranoid	Binding all demons to their will	Wreak havoc in a random district - loot, kill, and burn	Large	Plentiful
14	Patron	A magically binding oath to secrecy that may or may not be needed anymore	Establishing a new legitimate major faction	Secure the unwitting support of a person or group opposed to their aims	Large	Plentiful
15	Sage	Operate deep within hostile territory/ institutions	Restore the glory of the old Witch Kingdom	A false flag operation to discredit their foes	Huge	Extensive
16	Fence	Believe themselves the legitimate remnant of an ancient institution or group no longer recognized	Establish a real government with actual laws for all of Fellhold	Convince the world that they are not real or have been eliminated	Huge	Extensive
17	Criminal	Methods are abhorrent even to Fellholders	The destruction of all Undead	Hold a faction leader’s child for ransom	Huge	Extensive
18	Beggars	Everyone involved just thinks its cooler to be a secret society	The resurrection of the true Dwarven Empire	Disrupt the leadership of a major faction	Huge	Extensive
19	Wizard	Inflated sense of significance and how much people would care about their purpose & methods	The comfort and safety of their leader	Bankrupt a powerful merchant	Sprawling	Vast
20	Artist	Leader actually pursuing multiple ends, doesn’t want different groups to catch on to the others	To build a monument that will last for all time	Feed the poor and indoctrinatethem	Sprawling	Vast

District  & Faction Relationships

As with NPCs and Factions, conspiracies should be placed somewhere on the map. While it is possible that they will have multiple bases, at a minimum their leader should have a specific place. The placement of these bases will both depend on and help to clarify the nature of the conspiracy. Somewhere between D3 and D6 bases are recommended, as these locations provide another possible avenue for discovery by players in addition to rumors and contacts. Treat them as places of interest for the districts that contain them, and they may be discovered in the same way as other places of interest.

Depending on the results of the above table, various Faction relationships will be important to identify as well. Some conspiracies operate entirely within the bounds of one faction, acting against its “legitimate” interests, while others are faction agnostic and will take members from any faction. Additionally, many results in the above table point towards factions, and these will need to be determined. As with districts, these may be obvious from other traits, or they may help to clarify the nature of the conspiracy if randomly generated.

Conspiracy Structure

Every conspiracy has a structure of control and secrecy. It may be organized into cells where only one member knows and is known by the next level up, or it may be a very traditional hierarchical pyramid. Where relationship maps are recommended for NPCs in general, for a conspiracy they are essential. You do not have to generate the NPCs for the entire conspiracy immediately, but you should at least know how many leaders there are, what the lines of reporting to them are, and who supplies money or weapons to the front line agents of the conspiracy. In play, players might be able to figure out the structure before they identify individuals, which will help direct them in where to investigate more closely.

For further help with the structure side of things, I encourage you to check out Kenneth Hite’s excellent treatment of conspiracies in Night’s Black Agents and especially the “conspyramid” therein. Also helpful are the series of posts on Node Based Adventure Design on the Alexandrian blog, as well as real world information on social network analysis.

Conspiracy Rumor Tables

Rumor tables provide the chance for player characters to be randomly exposed to the potential existence of conspiracies. They should be contradictory and have more misinformation than most rumor tables, but should have enough nuggets of truth that players can begin to investigate. Unlike rumors about a dungeon, where the information is primarily a resource to help in making more informed decisions, for a conspiracy, investigating the truth or falsity of the rumors is the adventure, so it’s okay to have wackier rumors, so long as they do not point the players towards totally useless avenues of investigation.

Since conspiracy rumors are less likely to come up than others and their primary purpose is to get players onto the scent, shorter tables than other types of rumors are probably sufficient. The sample conspiracies provided have d8 rumors each, for example.

Below is provided a “fill in the blank” table of rumors that can be used with the table of characteristics above as a starting point. It will not produce especially interesting rumors on its own, but should do in a pinch and can serve as a starting point for crafting more specific rumors. It is meant to provide a mix of true and mistaken information, so where it notes “random”, roll again on the conspiracy traits table. If it does not say “random”, use the information you generated for the conspiracy. You may decide the truth or falsity of any rumors so generated.

Generic Conspiracy Rumor Table

Roll	Rumor
1	They’re pursuing (Long Term Goal) in (random district)
2	Someone quit when they found out about (short term plot)
3	Suspected members have been seen coming and going in (base district)
4	They’re supported by (random faction)
5	They’re going to try (random short term plot)
6	They say they’re about (real long term goal), but they’re really after (random long term goal)
7	(Important NPC or Leader) has been seen associating with them
8	(Type) is pursuing (random long term goal) because of (reason for secrecy)

Conspiracy Name

After you have generated the details and relationships for the conspiracy, you will need a suitably grandiose or radical name. If at a loss, the following should be generic enough to apply to almost any sort of conspiracy, but more specific and descriptive names may be more fun if you can think of them, such as “The Esoteric Order for the Restoration of Dwarven Greatness” or some such.

For the table below, start with “The”, and if desired, insert some sort of organizational term (“order of”, “band”, “guild”, and so forth) where it fits, and elaborate with any further words that describe the conspiracy (or don’t).

Roll	Adjective	Noun
1	Jade	Dagger
2	Emerald	Hand
3	Resplendent	Hunters
4	Esoteric	Band
5	Secret	Pearl
6	Hidden	Egg
7	Golden	Swine
8	Silver	Friends
9	Iron	Needle
10	Bronze	Shield
11	Honorable	Helm
12	Master's	Arm
13	Great	Necklace
14	Mighty	Flame
15	Blackened	Corpse
16	Purple	Tomb
17	Blue	Tower
18	Filthy	Hall
19	Resolute	Vengeance
20	Swift	Deed

Vendors and Merchants of Fellhold

Today we have another of the specialist NPC types in Fellhold, like the Sages previously presented. Also like the sages, a big, big inspiration for them was Noism/David McGrogan's treatment of fences here. The goal with merchants is twofold: first off, I want to make the people who sell PCs the stuff they frequently buy potentially interesting, and secondly to be contacts in the world of business, providing their own jobs and intrigue and social connections with a different flavor than sages, patrons, or fences.

In addition to merchant-flavored variations of the standard NPC stuff (look, demeanor, "spice"), I also added the slightly more nuts and bolts columns of Pricing, Selection, and Quality to this generator. The hope here is that there will be reason to travel across town to the expensive armorer, since they have stuff you just can't get from your neighborhood guy, but you'll also put up with lower quality stuff from this other fella because you like doing business with that guy who gave you a no-interest loan to keep your apartment. Maybe I'm putting too much faith in PC behavior, but it's another level of potentially interesting detail.

With all of the stuff I've created for Fellhold so far, the goal has been to provide the pieces for emergent complexity (and hopefully interest). In other words, knowing that this one merchant is cheap but high quality is not that interesting by itself, but when he's randomly placed in a district controlled by a faction the players pissed off, and he's also involved in an intrigue they found out about through a contact of theirs, you start to get some interesting implications and plenty of fodder for adventure.

Also, I apologize for the even-uglier-than-usual table today, once I get around to actually making this a real thing, the layout will be much better.

Merchants

Merchants conduct business, usually buying and selling a particular good or service, but occasionally branching out into more general business. They might be modest shop keepers or lords of mercantile empires. Their main significance to the PCs is as sources of tools and equipment. Unlike Fences, Merchants will predominantly be interested in selling things to the PCs, but may occasionally need help acquiring rare components, dealing with rivals, or be willing to buy specialist gear or materials. Note that it is not necessary or desirable to generate a merchant for every business transaction the PCs conduct, but in the case of either rare/difficult to find goods, or those the PCs are likely to buy over and over again, they may be desirable. As usual, any subset of this table that is useful in the moment may be used rather than the entire thing (for example, you may only care about pricing, selection, and quality). Roll on the table below to generate - gender may be decided by looking at the die rolled for race (or any other) - odd indicates male, even female.

Roll	Business	Race	Demeanor	Look	Pricing (Selling)	Selection*	Quality*	Spice
1	Landlord	Human	Gruff	Good Looking	Gouging (2 times sell price)	Huge	Very High	Owes a huge amount of money to a random patron
2	Butcher	Human	Salesy	Ugly	Gouging (2 times sell price)	Huge	Very High	Is owed a huge amount of money by a random NPC
3	Tattooist	Human	Suspcious	Skinny	Pricey (1 1/2 times sell price)	Large	High	Trying to strike up a partnership with a random merchant
4	Innkeep	Human	False	Fat	Pricey (1 1/2 times sell price)	Large	High	Wants to buy the collection of a random sage, but they don’t seem interested in selling
5	Barkeep	Human	Greedy	Unkempt	Pricey (1 1/2 times sell price)	Large	High	A prominent member of their faction recently decried their trade as unacceptable
6	Shipper	Human	Aggressive	Stylish	Pricey (1 1/2 times sell price)	Large	High	Up-and-comer breaking into a tightly controlled market
7	General Goods	Human	Pushy	Striking	Pricey (1 1/2 times sell price)	Normal	Normal	Runs a less legitimate business on the side - is also a fence of a random specialty
8	Weapons	Human	Obsequious	Exotic	Pricey (1 1/2 times sell price)	Normal	Normal	Has acquired significant influence - is also a patron to merchant social circles
9	Armorer	Ratman	Nervous	Well Groomed	Fair (Normal Sell Price)	Normal	Normal	Likes to read quite a bit - is also a sage in a random area of interest
10	Tobacconist	Ratman	Tricksy	Sloppy	Fair (Normal Sell Price)	Normal	Normal	Their shop is more than it seems - it is also a lair. The merchant may or may not be one and the same as the lair’s inhabitant
11	Coffee Roaster	Crabman	Cheerful	Neat	Fair (Normal Sell Price)	Normal	Normal	Keeps an eye out for people that will make good slaves, coordinates with a team of kidnappers and takes part of the cut
12	Bookseller	Crabman	Professional	Squinty	Fair (Normal Sell Price)	Normal	Normal	Is secretly a firebrand of some kind and supports a random conspiracy
13	Pimp/ Madam	Crabman	Helpful	Bulging Eyes	Fair (Normal Sell Price)	Normal	Normal	Is in love with a rival’s spouse - the feelings may or may not be mutual
14	Loan Shark	Crabman	Ironical	Scarred	Fair (Normal Sell Price)	Normal	Normal	Terribly lonely, desperately wants some friends, too proud to admit it
15	Baker	Half Dwarf	Distracted	Tattooed	Fair (Normal Sell Price)	Sparse	Low	Business is booming, and is looking to expand into another field to diversify
16	Drug Dealer	Half Dwarf	Intent	Missing Limb	Cheap (3/4 Sell Price)	Sparse	Low	Convinced that their shop is haunted and wants to make the ghosts go away
17	Carpenter	Half Dwarf	Cautious	Colorful	Cheap (3/4 Sell Price)	Sparse	Low	Trying to break into an upper class social circle, held back by lowly origins
18	Sawbones	Half Dwarf	Bored	Drab	Cheap (3/4 Sell Price)	Sparse	Low	Wants to retire to spend time with spouse and kids and is looking for someone to sell their business to
19	Brewer	Tiefling	Talkative	Conservative	Cheap (3/4 Sell Price)	Tiny	Terrible	Addicted to a rare and exotic variety of coffee
20	Printmaker	Demon	Curt	Outlandish	Cheap (3/4 Sell Price)	Tiny	Terrible	Trying to figure out how to get away with burning down their business and collecting on the insurance from a Soul Bank

*Selection refers to how much variety there is in their wares - an huge selection will feature even rare items relevant to the business, while a tiny selection will have only the most basic goods or services available. Quality refers to the general level of quality of the goods or service they sell

District  & Faction Relationships

As with other NPCs, a sage should be a member of a faction and should have a district to live and do business in, which can be determined randomly or chosen based on relevant factors (area of interest, faction, and so forth). When generating a sage's contacts, be sure to keep these factors in mind to suggest relationships and locations for these contacts.

Merchant’s Contacts

Merchant's know most people involved in their business. 

D3 Merchants of other Businesses

D6-2 Standard NPC Employees (adjust as needed for larger/employee-heavy businesses)

2d6 Thugs/Guards, either on permanent retainer or hired as needed, depending on wealth

Jobs from Merchants

Roll	Job
1	A rival is getting too much business - take care of them
2	Someone - or something - is sneaking around at night. Figure out what it is and keep them safe
3	Some very valuable merchandise was stolen - track down the thieves and get it back
4	They’re thinking about setting up another shop in another district - go scout out the location and report back
5	One of their best customers, a friend really, has gone missing - find out what happened
6	Their business partner has been acting suspicious recently, find out what they’re up to
7	They’re making a major shipment to a far district of the city - keep it safe all the way to the destination
8	An apprentice is trying to set up their own shop without following the appropriate procedures - try to bring them in line
9	There’s been a string of break-ins at their business or a warehouse. Stake it out and stop the thieves
10	They are trying to break into politics and need you to dig up dirt on their rivals within their faction
11	They are hopelessly in love with someone that doesn’t even know they exist - help them court the object of their affection
12	They have an outlandish theory on how to revolutionize their business - find a sage or a library and do the necessary research to back it up
13	One of their suppliers has stopped doing business with them - find out why and try to bring them back to the table
14	A rival has fallen on hard times and seems ready to sell their business, but refuses to sell to them - act as their agent
15	Another business is quickly becoming a favorite due to some new good or service that is all the rage - find out their secret
16	A property of theirs has been taken over by a group of particularly vicious rats - take care of them
17	A property of theirs has been taken over by a group of particularly vicious squatters - take care of them
18	A property of theirs has been taken over by something really bad - generate a random lair, and take care of it
19	They are one big transaction away from being able to pay off their creditor - help them buy enough time to make it happen
20	Wants to open up a business in a hostile district as a potential inroad to better relations - help them secure the location

Books and Libraries in Fellhold

[UPDATE 1/6/21: I no longer support spending money on products that benefit Zak S, or giving him positive attention and connection. The short version is that I find credible claims that he has engaged in unacceptable behavior and not made up for it. For more detail, see here for the core of the accusations. To get Zak's side of things, he maintains this separate blog from his main one to post updates on the legal status of these complaints. 

Please consider these claims and make your own decision on their validity, and the implications thereof, before either supporting or shunning Zak.]

Below are the current draft of the rules for libraries and books in Fellhold. If you want to skip straight to the best stuff, scroll down to the table for generating random pretentious book titles - I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out.

I want libraries and books to play an important role in Fellhold. Since urban games are largely about information, and dungeon games are largely about exploration, having lots of opportunities to explore spaces in search of information seemed like a perfect fit. Also, with all the demons running around, books with Demon names have got to be really valuable (I need to more directly incorporate that element into the rules, but first I have to figure out the demon rules). Also, the tags and book format sections could probably use some expansion.

The rules might still be a bit chunky, I'll need to playtest them some. Zak's library rules in Vornheim are an obvious and direct influence here, but I've also read some great stuff on books over the years, including Ben L's post on textual corruptions (some ideas from which I'm going to incorporate into the demon rules). Some conversations with Logan Knight have also been influencing my thinking recently, and the alternate resolution approach for quick reference is based on something he told me about. 

Libraries & Books

In addition to the two massive rival libraries of Fellhold and their incessant feuding, raids, and counter raids, characters may encounter smaller libraries in rich homes, forgotten delvings, or within specialist guilds. The following rules are for searching those libraries for useful books.

Library Characteristics

Rating

A library’s rating takes into account both its size and its quality - an enormous library of middling texts might have a similar rating to a tiny, focused library with the best books on the topic. 

Tags

Tags describe the kinds of books that the library holds. These tags will usually be related to subject matter, but may also have to do with origin or purpose. The referee is invited to create any tags necessary or desired, but for ease, here is a list of sample tags, numbered for use in random generation as needed.

1) History

2) Dwarves

3) Undead

4) Magic

5) Runes

6) Demons

7) Money & Business

8) Engineering

9) Botany

10) Zoology

11) Monsters

12) Factions

13) Sorcerers

14) Summoning

15) Legends

16) Physical Fitness

17) Warfare

18) Prophecy

19) Ethnography

20) Games

21) Philosophy

22) Nature

23) Art

25) Law

26) Architecture

27) Fellhold

28) Language

29) Biography

30) Fiction

Generating a Library

If you find yourself in need of generating a library, you may use the following procedure. As always, feel free to either randomly generate or to choose the options that suit you best.

Size

1) Tiny

2) Small

3) Medium

4) Large

5) Huge

6) Gargantuan

Quality

1) Wretched (-2)

2) Poor (-1)

3) Middling (+0)

4) Decent (+1)

5) Good (+2)

6) Excellent (+3)

Tags

Roll 1d6 to determine the number of tags. In the case of a 6, roll again and add the new roll to the previous (repeating as long as you get 6s). These may be chosen or randomly determined with the table above. 

Rating

Rating is calculated by looking at the size, quality, and tags of the library. A library can have a negative rating - this represents a disorganized mess full of misleading information that seems useful until it is actually read through and thought about. 

Size: +1 per size over Medium

Quality: Add or subtract the appropriate value below:

1) Wretched (-2)

2) Poor (-1)

3) Middling (+0)

4) Decent (+1)

5) Good (+2)

6) Excellent (+3)

Tags: Subtract 1 for every tag over 3 - this represents the fact that the more subjects a library covers, the more likely it is that the included books are unfocused or introductory in nature. You may ignore this modifier if creating an especially well-appointed library (like a faction’s private library or that of an ancient lich).

Book Format

Books may take different forms depending on the culture and people who made them. Smaller libraries are more likely to be made up entirely of one or two kind of book, while the largest may have examples of every kind. Assume 1 additional book type for every size over medium, or just decide. Roll or select from below:

1) Bound Books

2) Codices

3) Scrolls

4) Carved Stone Tablets

5) Carved Wooden Rods (read by reading from one end to the other, then rotating, like corn on the cob)

6) Ceramic cones with spiraling marks (Crabman)

7) Tapestries

8) Tattooed skin

Player Character Libraries

After raiding enough libraries and acquiring a pile of esoteric books, it’s possible that players will begin to wonder about building their own library.

Requirements and Starting Characteristics

Requires its own comfortable or better lifestyle in addition to whatever the player character pays for themself

- Begins at tiny size, wretched quality, and only with the tags of specific books the player owns

Upgrading Size

Upgrading size has the following costs (each step must be bought in order):

1) Tiny: -

2) Small: 100 GM x current number of tags

3) Medium: 200 GM x current number of tags

4) Large: 400 GM x current number of tags

5) Huge: 800 GM x current number of tags

6) Gargantuan: 1600 GM x current number of tags

Upgrading Quality

1) Wretched: -

2) Poor: 200 GM

3) Middling: 400 GM

4) Decent: 800 GM

5) Good: 1600 GM

6) Excellent: 3200 GM

Adding Tags

To add a tag, simply pay the combined value of the base rate for the library’s size and quality. For example, if your library is medium and of middling quality, you would pay 200 GM + 400 GM = 600 GM per tag added.

Calculating Rating

Rating is calculated as for randomly generated libraries, except that it is not reduced by tags over 3. Presumably the player is being judicious in their choices of works and understands their relevance, connections, and where to find them when needed. Therefore, the formula is thus:

+1 per size category, +/- quality modifier = Rating

Using a Personal Library

Rather than defining the individual book that is useful in a given situation, a player may use their own library effectively as “one big book” - this means that they may use the procedures for using a book found below, but act as if they have a book with the rating and tags of their entire current library. This ease of use and flexibility is the chief benefit of going to the expense and trouble constructing your own library.

Searching a Library

There are two types of searching: targeted and browsing. They are somewhat analogous to the distinction between crawling and targeted movement. In the case of targeted searching, the character is looking for a specific title. In the case of browsing, a character is simply looking for anything interesting that the library has. For the sake of simplicity, one character cannot perform both actions at the same time - sure, you would notice different titles than your target while searching for it, but you wouldn’t have the time to pull them out, flip through them, and verify that they’re something of interest. Since the sorting, labeling, and cataloging of books is highly non-standard and occasionally purposefully obfuscated, it is never as simple as going to the appropriate section and going in alphabetical order to the proper author.

Targeted

There are two relevant questions in targeted searching: does the library have the desired title? How long do you spend searching for it (whether it’s there or not)?

In the case of titles that are known to be held in a library, you can skip the first question, unless the source of information was bad or mistaken. To determine how long players spend looking for it, as usual, ask yourself if there is any urgency associated with the search - if not, they just find it if it’s there. If there is some kind of urgency, then the players can roll a d20 per 10 minutes searching (or whatever unit of time corresponds to a “turn” or encounter check in your exploration rules) - if the roll plus the library’s rating is equal to or greater than 20, and the book is present, then it has been found. If the book is not present and the roll is equal to or greater than 20, then the characters have figured out that it’s not here.

Browsing

In the case of browsing, a character finds one potentially useful book every 20 minutes. Determine the book’s tags and rating as detailed in the Books section below. 

Books

Books are potentially extremely valuable to characters - either as loot to sell or as sources of useful information. The rules below specify methods for generating a random book as needed, as well as for making use of books for on-the-fly reference and long term study.

Book Characteristics

Tags: Books have tags just like libraries, but usually no more than 2. 

Rating: Books have a rating equal to the quality level of their library +/- d3. For books found outside of a library, assume a quality level of d3 and add +/- d3 as usual.

Usefulness: A book with a rating below the character's level is considered not useful to them. Consider the absolute value of negatively rated books.

Using Books

Referencing a Book

If a character has a book on relevant subject, they may reference it to answer a question pertaining to that matter. A book can generally answer 1d10 + its rating of questions related to its tagged subject material. Once all of a book’s questions have been used, it is still useful for study or as part of a personal library.

Alternate Reference Rule: If your ruleset makes use of a skill system, allow the player to add the books rating to their skill check. This may take some scaling depending on the method of skill resolution, as the rating assumes a skill system based on x-in-6 chances.

Studying a Book

Studying a book is when the characters spends time reading it and internalizing it, and actually learning the contents. This takes a number of weeks equal to the book’s rating (minimum of one week). In the case of a negative rating, it takes the same time, but at the end of it, the player realizes what a crock of shit the book was. Assuming the book has a positive rating, at the end of the study period, the character gains knowledge of the book’s subject matter. If you use a skill system, they gain an entry-level skill, and if not, the player should simply note that their character is especially knowledgable on that topic and the referee should adjudicate accordingly.

Generating a Random Book 

Whenever you need to generate a book on the fly, such as when a character successfully browses a library, use the following method.

Rating

Equal to the Library’s Quality Modifier +/- d3 (treat 1-3 as negative and 4-6 as positive). As with libraries, books can have a negative value - it contains confusing nonsense.

Tags

The book will have 1d2 tags, chosen from among those the library has. Either determine randomly, or choose a likely/interesting combination. If players have specified a type of book, obviously apply those tags in the case of a successful search.

Title

Roll	Preposition/ Participle	Type	Tags (1d2)	Phrase
1	Toward	A Theory of	History (Random Race/Period)	: A Modern Deconstruction
2	On	An Outline of	Dwarves	: A Refutation
3	About	The Ethics Implied by	Undeath	: A Shocking Revelation
4	Regarding	A Definition of	Magic	: Threat or Menace?
5	Concerning	The Remarkable Truth About	Runes	: A Critical Examination
6	Within	The Shocking Findings On	Demons	: Memoirs of a Witness
7	Before	Conclusive Evidence For	Business	: The Authoritative Stance
8	After	The Unspeakable Secrets of	Engineering	: The Definitive Reference
9	Upon	An Explanation Of	Botany	: The Journal of (Author)
10	Without	The Underlying Models of	Biology	: A Rebuttal of Nonsense
11	In Defense of	The Essentials of	Monsters	: Path to the Truth
12	Against	The Prerequisites for	Factions	: What You've Been Missing
13	Describing	The Painful Consequences of	Witch Kingdom	: The Essential Primer
14	Around	The Classics in	Summoning	: Over 400 Copies Printed
15	From	Conservative Interpretations of	Legends	: Aligning Perspectives
16	To	The Life Changing Impact of	Physical Fitness	: A Paradigm Shift
17	An Attack on	The Disturbing Implications of	Warfare	: The Shocking Truth
18	Discovering	A Radical Examination of	Prophecy	: What You Must Know
19	Uncovering	The Traditional Wisdom of	Ethnography (Random Race)	: An Illustrated Guide for Children
20	Recovering	The Ancient Secrets of	Games	: Expanded, Revised, and Annotated
21	Covering	The Cutting Edge of	Philosophy	: A Surprising Conclusion
22	Touching on	A Groundbreaking Study in	Nature	: What They Don't Want You to Know
23	Summarizing	The Best of	Art	: A Practical Guide
24	Collecting	An Inquiry Into the Causes of	Law	: How To
25	Revealing	The Collected Works of	Architecture	: The Unauthorized Tell-All
26	Setting Aside	The Ridiculous Follies of	Fellhold	: An Expert's Opinion
27	Embracing	The Dark Implications of	Language (Random)	: A Novel
28	Re-evaluating	The Accepted Truth about	Biography (Random name, important to random tag)	: The Surprisingly Sexy Truth
29	Recording	The Terrible Fate of	Fiction	: A Revelation
30	Capturing	A Practical Approach to	Cooking	: A Summary

Author

For authors, use the appropriate name list for the book’s origin (you may randomly determine origin using the standard NPC race roll).

Format

Use the format for the library if found in a library, otherwise randomly determine or choose from the list of book formats.

Value

- Rating x # of tags x 10 Gold Marks

- If a player is buying a negatively rated book from a seller, treat the negative rating as positive - the nonsense looks plausible until studied

- Booksellers have a more practiced eye for nonsense, and so will only give 1/4 the value calculated above (they’ll still buy it, since they can sell to a fool)

- Libraries that know the subject matter of a negatively rated book will refuse to buy it, unless it has historical or cultural significance of some kind, or is considered dangerous