Hi, a quick question: are Herodotus's Histories statted anywhere? A&A doesn't have them. One of my players would like a crocodile familiar, and I've been looking up crocodiles. Herodotus' second Histories book goes into more detail, so I'd like to give that book to my player that he can find crocodiles and I can start my adventure in Crododopolis!
If not, perhaps a Summa on Magic Lore, and a few Tractati on (Area) Lore are appropriate? We play in the Theben Tribunal, so ancient Greek versions of the text could be read by my players.
A tractatus (or series of thractatus) on Magic Lore sounds about right to me. Area Lore (history) is also good option, but I do not have the books nor much idea of what they contain, so can't give a more informed opinion here.
Thanks for the Landmark Herodotus link, looks very promising! Also, your book compilation is great. I had the feeling that a few of the book were of a far-too high quality...
I think I'll go with 3 Summae on (Area) Lore: Persia 2, Greece 2, Levant/North Africa 2. Plus 1 Tractatus on Philosphiae and and 1 Tractatus on Magic Lore (this one will house the crocodiles). Quality 9, for an original, probably 7-8 for substandard copies corrupted by the ages.
Jarkman, that guide is awesome. So using this immediately.
Mmm, one thing: Does it occur that there's never any benefit for reading unique books? Maybe books should provide some additional benefit upon reading, like Fibonacci's work does (albeit not on that level, depending.) To elaborate, learning Artes Liberales from him, via teaching or his books and such, gives +1 to Herbam related magic, due to his Golden Mean.
Currently there is not that degree of granularity or complexity to Ars books. Regardless of the topic or author etc, books only grant XP to Abilities or Arts.
I think Timothy makes a comment about this in the Library section of ArM5 Covenants.
Some unique aspects have crept in but they are rare - the mechanics for the Ars Notoria from the Key of Solomon are an example.
Whether this is desirable given the level of complexity it would add is a YMMV issue.
Given books are such a big part of Hermetic culture I think there would be room to expand on this in more than just a "Pages from the Mages" style article or sourcebook...
Any links to online print copies of the work, with or without commentary? After all, the works have been used scholastically for a long time methinks, so there should be a few public domain commentaries out there.
