Specialised Scroll Vendor
Posted: Sun May 19, 2019 5:01 pm
The biggest trouble in practice with actually using scrolls is organization and sorting through a big stack of "(15) a blank scroll (perfect)" when you really need a specific spell on short (or even slightly longer) notice.
So how about a mob who sells scrolls, customized a little bit visually depending on the buyer's input. Maybe the mob can make you scrolls in red, green, yellow, blue, purple, grey, black, or white, from the generic scroll that's required for scribing. This would be implemented in the same way that Bulart provides his scabbards.
But then, for every color option, the buyer can also add to the purchase command a keyword or keywords that are added invisibly to the scroll's named/keywords but not its descs (i.e., with "mposet on i1234 name i1234 scroll $0..."). For instance, the buyer inputs 'orderscroll red fireball' and receives something like "{10}a thick vellum scroll" that can then be manipulated with commands like "get 'fireball scroll' bag" or what have you. This would be infinitely useful to the user while also hiding whatever he or she gave as keywords, avoiding the risk that these sorts of items can pose regarding the appearance of strange-looking objects in game.
Presumably, the command just as easily supports multiple keywords since it uses $0, so that a buyer could "orderscroll blue detectmagic readmagic" to get "{40}a thick vellum scroll" that can be manipulated with different spell names. Scribing according to the keywords given would, of course, ultimately be up to the PC. The last benefit is that a caster could, say, have all his or her offensive scrolls be red, defensive scrolls be blue, and so on, which might admittedly be organizationally advantageous enough only for crazy people like me, but the option would be there.
Ideally, we could have a copy of this mob in Waterdeep (maybe the temple of Mystra), Zhentil keep's wizard imporium, and somewhere in Skullport so that everyone has access. I am more than willing to write up the mob myself if players and the powers that be think it's a good idea.
Thanks for reading!
So how about a mob who sells scrolls, customized a little bit visually depending on the buyer's input. Maybe the mob can make you scrolls in red, green, yellow, blue, purple, grey, black, or white, from the generic scroll that's required for scribing. This would be implemented in the same way that Bulart provides his scabbards.
But then, for every color option, the buyer can also add to the purchase command a keyword or keywords that are added invisibly to the scroll's named/keywords but not its descs (i.e., with "mposet on i1234 name i1234 scroll $0..."). For instance, the buyer inputs 'orderscroll red fireball' and receives something like "{10}a thick vellum scroll" that can then be manipulated with commands like "get 'fireball scroll' bag" or what have you. This would be infinitely useful to the user while also hiding whatever he or she gave as keywords, avoiding the risk that these sorts of items can pose regarding the appearance of strange-looking objects in game.
Presumably, the command just as easily supports multiple keywords since it uses $0, so that a buyer could "orderscroll blue detectmagic readmagic" to get "{40}a thick vellum scroll" that can be manipulated with different spell names. Scribing according to the keywords given would, of course, ultimately be up to the PC. The last benefit is that a caster could, say, have all his or her offensive scrolls be red, defensive scrolls be blue, and so on, which might admittedly be organizationally advantageous enough only for crazy people like me, but the option would be there.
Ideally, we could have a copy of this mob in Waterdeep (maybe the temple of Mystra), Zhentil keep's wizard imporium, and somewhere in Skullport so that everyone has access. I am more than willing to write up the mob myself if players and the powers that be think it's a good idea.
Thanks for reading!
