Make scrolls useful to the writer

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Scrolls are single-use magic items, and perhaps it is best to think of them that way when making house rules for them. Scrolls can then be compared with the other single-use magic items found in TFT (e.g. exploding gems, potions) to determine if RAW offers any commonalities. This can then inform a more holistic approach to house rules for such items.

Please send me additions for this list:
https://www.hcobb.com/tft/scrolls_suck.html

[Axly Suregrip]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Scrolls are single-use magic items, and perhaps it is best to think of them that way when making house rules for them. Scrolls can then be compared with the other single-use magic items found in TFT (e.g. exploding gems, potions) to determine if RAW offers any commonalities. This can then inform a more holistic approach to house rules for such items.

Thank you Shostak for this reminder. Yes, any additions via house rules here really should be holistic and consider how they will then compare to all other magic items. I was taking an early swag.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Scrolls are single-use magic items, and perhaps it is best to think of them that way when making house rules for them. Scrolls can then be compared with the other single-use magic items found in TFT (e.g. exploding gems, potions) to determine if RAW offers any commonalities. This can then inform a more holistic approach to house rules for such items.

Hope my little post didn't imply I was planning otherwise. My plan: the scroll turns blank after use, reverting to
a plain piece of vellum. A new scroll may be written on the stock (velum parchment was often cleaned and re-used in the Middle Ages; such recycled parchments are called palimpsests) but the original spell is over, done, and irretrievably gone.

Deep and wonderful article on the history of ancient parchments is located here: https://www.abaa.org/blog/post/the-h...-and-parchment

[TippetsTX]

The more I think about, the more I wonder if I actually want scrolls in my game. After all, magic in TFT has more of a semi-phychic vibe, right?

As an alternative, maybe single-use, spell-imbued gems would be more in keeping with the setting's theme. CREATE SPELLSTONE would replace WRITE SCROLL, but you could probably reuse the same basic creation rules as scrolls. Then again, I also like the idea of pre-powered spellstones, though I would still charge a small cost to activate one... how about one-third the spell's normal cost, minimum 1 ST?

[Shostak]

I like the idea of spells bound into items, like gems. However, from my perspective, this just switches out one special case for another instead of having a more unified approach to single-use magic items.

[Axly Suregrip]

Scrolls should remain different than other consumable magic items.

Henry is right that they are a poorer form of magic item compared to throwing gems (summoning/dazzle) and potions. The simplest solution would be to fix the going price of problematic items. Looking at Henry's table and also considering all the summoning gems, there are only 5 times that a scroll is more expensive than the potion/gem. These are:

- Dazzle Gem $250 vs Scroll $400 for same function
- Fireproof potion $250 vs Scroll $625. Potion lasts all day instead of ST/turn.
- Telekinesis potion $500 vs Scroll $625. Potion use cost 1ST/turn, scroll 2ST/turn.
- Waterbreathing potion $500 vs Fresh Air Scroll $700. Potion last 10 minutes
- Sleeping Gas Bomb $775 vs Megahex Sleep scroll $900. These are quite a bit different in several ways.

Since the scrolls are priced based on IQ, let's leave those prices alone. Instead It is the 5 gems/potions that should have their cost increased.

May I suggest the following prices for these items. To start the conversation:

- Dazzle Gem $500
- Fireproof potion $1000
- Telekinesis potion $1000
- Waterbreathing potion $1000
- Sleeping Gas Bomb $1025 (Sleeping Potion $200)

[hcobb]

Revising my table to scroll + X healing potions to power it.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

The more I think about, the more I wonder if I actually want scrolls in my game. After all, magic in TFT has more of a semi-phychic vibe, right?

I do want scrolls in my game, but I confess for purely aesthetic reasons. Magic runes writ on ancient parchment, the fine calligraphy, the words just glowing with power... it's an atmosphere thing for me.

Ironically, in 20 years of continuously playing TFT we never used them, not a single one, and I was one of the GMs! We skipped many of the new spells that appeared in Advanced Wizard because they didn't fit our setting. Of course as the OP points out, under RAW scrolls are just worthless, and we already had way too many house-rules back then. Still, if I had it to do over...

Originally Posted by Axly Suregrip

Since the scrolls are priced based on IQ, let's leave those prices alone. Instead It is the 5 gems/potions that should have their cost increased.

That's why in my own rules mentioned further back I will make them as cheap as the ink and parchment they are written on, and requiring only minutes to make. Management takes the form of a very high IQ requirement, and a limit of only 3 drawn up by the same wizard possibly existing at any time.

As a single use magic item they do have to be much cheaper than other enchanted items to produce, while as self-powered items (as I plan it) there still can't be very many around. Even if a PC wizard reaches a high enough IQ, they can't have more than three and can't just make more if they lose or even sell them. So there won't be any Scroll Factories churning them out :)

[Axly Suregrip]

Steve,
Really good points. I too have been playing since the beginning and I cannot remember scrolls being used. Scrolls are found and nearly always immediately sold.

A failed casting of a scroll still consumes it, so maybe a better answer is cutting all scroll prices in half. This fixes them compared to potions in all cases.

You get an inferior magic item but get it at bargain prices.

Now, how does the new lower price change the economics of MAKING scrolls? Is it no longer worth a wizard's time to do so? (I will check this now)

[Axly Suregrip]

Looks like it is not worth a wizard's time to write scrolls for a living, compared to what they can make as a Town Wizard. I assume they don't need a magic lab or chest, and just parchment and ink (negligible costs). With the old full sell prices at IQ 17 scrolls become not worth making, compared to be a town wizard.

Cutting the prices of the scrolls makes sense given they are less useful than other options. But it will also require changing the scroll writing rules to make them easier or quicker to make.

I think there should be just one DX roll at the end of the scroll writing days, instead of a DX roll on each day. Chance of success goes way up (specially on the higher IQ spells) reducing the average number of days (including successes and failures) to create a scroll.