Apart from using extended rules for writing books/texts (and then having to track all the details about a book's quality state), is there a way to improve the quality of a summae/tractatus being copied?
I saw this post that touched on using the extended rules, but to re-assess a current library and always use the extended rules seem a bit hefty.
Is there another way? Esp if a text is already equivalent of 'Sound' quality?
The main measure of the quality of a text is the quality of the content of the text - i.e. how well-written it is. You can't improve that by copying it.
A text which was created in a sub-optimal format such that it got penalties to quality (e.g an exemplar or a flap-bound book can have those penalties removed if it is copied into a more standard format.
Other than that it is using the extended rules - making sure you have skilled scribes, bookbinders, and illuminators so the copy get those bonuses, adding resonant materials to the copy. These may or may not increase quality over the original, depending on if the original already had those bonuses or not.
Definitely not RAW, but with the SG/troupe permission you might get a craft bonus for exceptional quality from city and guild- superior items confer a +1 bonus to a specific activity when used, which could in theory be studying. (craft quality 12 required), though whether that would require superior penmanship, illumination, or bookbinding (or all three!) would also be a saga dependent call (personally I think if you can get quality 12+ in all 3 you probably should get +1 to SQ)
You won't get around that. If you can copy at higher quality without tracking the state, you can iteratively recopy to get arbitrarily high quality. Not in my saga! YSMV.
If you use the extended rules, and the original copy doesn't have resonant materials in the binding, then you can add those to increase the SQ. But that's the only way.
apart from the above example, the Quality of a book is based on how well the original author expressed the topic they were writing about.
By expounding on everything they know on a subject, then it is at minimum Quality (6+Com?) for a Summae at maximum level.
The author could however decide to expand upon important points at the cost of ignoring "lesser" details, thus improving Quality by reducing Level.
The copiest can only repeat the author's words, possibly on more reader friendly materials.
Senile Serf's parma (I'm not even sure I'm not mixing Ars with another game), but wasn't there a "commentary" system, for people to improve book Quality by anotating it?
You speak of (Covenants p.91) Glossed books and Glossing?
With it, a reader with some knowledge of a book's subject and a better Com than the author can add +1 to the Quality of the book he annotated while reading it.
I appreciate the replies, thank you!
Thanks for the information!
IIRC this was "Glossing" in 4th ed per Wizard's Grimoire EXpanded (WGRE). We played a lot of 4th ed. A trick was to have the magus best at an art write a book and whichever quality he could magage. And then have the expert writer read it for a season and write notes in the margin, to improve the quality. "Commentary" was a separate book, which commentated and expanded on the original subject, written by someone who had read the entirity of the original book. I think you need to read both books at the same time, for two consequetive seasons, and they you got exp for the sum of the qualities.
Both methods were great ways for good authors to improve existing libraries, making them loads better.
Edit: I'm not sure I'd want to integrate any of these into 5th ed.
Both are options mentioned in the 5th ed. Covenants book. See Commentaries on p90 and Glossed Books on p91.
Thanks
Apparently it's been a long time since I've read Covenants.
Both Commentaries and Glosses seem to be fairly non-abusive.
If it's all Tractatus on a single Art or Arcane Ability, there's also the option of Florilegia