[center]Purchasing Books[/center]
While magi create lab texts as they perform research and other activities in the lab, and while characters may spend time writing their own books or copying existing ones, the best way to improve or expand one's library is to purchase books instead of spending the time to draft them yourself. And while the text in Covenants tries to lay out some ground rules for pricing, it does not do it in a way that eliminates guesswork or makes it easy on the SG or the players to do so. So we have house rules to deal with this.
Mundane Books
We will continue to use the text on page 95 of Covenants here in that common, mundane books cost 1 mythic pound per, while less common books cost the same but incur the cost of 1 season to locate said book. Again, this is no change from the text in Covenants.
Hermetic Books
Hermetic books, such as lab texts, require more than actual silver to purchase. Magi have the ability to generate silver almost at whim, which makes money almost unnecessary or trivial. So magi have to use a currency that has actual value and use: Pawns of Vis. To whit, the prices of books are dealt with in Quarter Pawns, or qp. The formula for determining the cost of any given book is as follows:
Books on Arts: qp = Quality + Level
Books on Abilities: qp = Quality + (3 x Level)
It should be noted that vis used to purchase books related to an Art should match the type of Art. For example, if you are purchasing a book on Vim, the seller would prefer you to pay with Vim vis. This is not a hard rule, but rather a guideline.