[UA] Boosted Bibliomancy (was Re: Anyone watching the news?)

[Chad Underkoffler]

> From: "Timothy Toner" <thanatos at interaccess.com>
> Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 00:29:18 -0600
>
> > From: "Bryant Durrell" <durrell at innocence.com>
> > Sent: Monday, December 11, 2000 9:37 PM
> > You probably don't want your Bibliomancers drawing Cypher's
> > 'grok any language' skill, and the line between a talent 
> > and a skill is pretty thin. On the other hand, it'd be 
> > pretty cool if one could figure out a good balancing
point...
>
> Well, a possible interpretation is that Cypher's 'grok any 
> language' skill is actually an *ability*, and not a skill. 
> If the bibliomancer were a mutant, then it'd be possible.  
> Likewise Superman and the whole, 'bein' an alien thang'.  
> Batman can do a hell of a lot, without being overbalanced in
> that regard, and Ghod help the GM whose bibliomancer runs 
> across Dr. Strange.  "I summon Dormammu!"  Heh.  You might
> even consider the iconomancy issue, but that's mixing schools,
> and is just icky.

In my initial write-up of Bibliomancy, before James and Tynes
got their hands on it (which appears as a Pyramid article
"Playing Unknown Armies By the Book"), there was the following
spell:

-----------------------------------------
Arcane Knowledge
Cost: 2 significant, plus any other charge requirements
Effect: This is the Big Gun of the Bibliomantic School. A more
powerful version of I've Read the Manual, it allows the use of
mystic skills (even from an Avatar skill) magickal skills (the
formula spells of other schools), other magical effects (the
magic phrase "Open Sesame," for example), or out-and-out
super-powers ("Up, up, and away!") recorded in the books of the
adept's Library, as long as all requirements are met.

Remember, the GM should feel free to apply negative shifts to
the Bibliomancy roll if the bookworm is not actually touching
the required book with one of his hands. This means that a
Bibliomancer casting an Epideromantic spell like Warping would
need to spend 2 significant charges (for Arcane Knowledge) plus
the 1 minor charge (for Warping itself). GM has the final call
on whether an effect will work, and how it will work.

Bookworms should take warning, however: the last Bibliomancer
who tried to duplicate the Biblical feat of Moses parting the
Red Sea apparently suffered a Reality Erase (p. 146), according
to witnesses of the trigger event.

-----------------------------------------

...and the smaple bookworm had the following "superpowered"
books in his Library...

A shooting script of the Babylon 5 episode "The Geometry of
Shadows" 
A paperback Doc Savage book, The Man of Bronze
The Lord of the Rings in one leather-bound volume
The Complete Books of Charles Fort 
Galactic Patrol
Buckaroo Banzai

Some of his library was passed down to his apprentice Vernon
Henshaw (see HUSH HUSH).



=====
Chad Underkoffler [chadu at yahoo.com]
http://www.geocities.com/chadu/index.html
"Hold your breath. Make a wish. Count to three."
  -- Willy Wonka

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