Café de Nuit

Hi all!

I'm here to ask a simple question:

How would you treat the Van Richten guide to ... as in-game items?

They give a bonus on some Knowledge check? Or maybe You let the player read them?
I would like to use them but i dont know how should they work...

AFAIK Ravenloft is a mysterious place. Even though Van richten wrote those books i suppose there are few of them, those book should be rare, and i'm quite sure i should not let my player read everything from them.. right?

So please tell me how should I implemente them!

I have in the past just plopped the book down on the table and said, "you find ... this!"

but if your players don't want to read a whole book just to get the info to their characters, a bonus to knowledge checks would be the simplest way.

I have used sources from the book and made books from them using pics of areas that you want them to see. I used excerpts from VRGV for examples of the vampire powers.

I am starting up my campaign later in the month I plan on my players meeting VR after his visit to castle Ravenloft from the Novel I Strahd. Strahd will have just risen from him hibernation after the events of FOG. I plan on this being a on going campaign with them starting in Gundarak and actually running into Gundar during one of rampages with his hired swords as they destroy the village the PC will be hiding out.

I tried just giving them the book, my players responded with "OK my character has read the book, what does it say?"

thekristhomas wrote:I tried just giving them the book, my players responded with "OK my character has read the book, what does it say?"

This is one of the saddest thing i ever heard.

Edit: Ofc we cannot pretend them to read the book at the beginning of a session, nor in the middle. We could actually give them the book at the end of the session so they have some time to read it, if they want. If they dont... well it would be silly, i think i'll have to tell them, but i probably wont..

I'm more like "if you wanna get info you read, otherwise, I give you a +x to knowledge, and you'd better roll that dice well, cuz I won't gift any info on what's in the book otherwise"... I think they'll get the message that way:
If they read the know things; If they don't they could know something... but not for sure.