Sure we’ve heard of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis, but what other scary books are there?
A few ideas for fantasy TTRPG book generation:
The Book of Shadows. Every witch has one. Some more frightening than others. Some hags would certainly have these on hand. An adventurer brave (or foolish) enough to interpret such a book would be privy to new spells. But at what cost?
Manual of Golem Creation. This tome contains all of the information needed to build a golem of one specific type. The question becomes how far would someone to go build one of these monstrosities?
Toben’s Spirit Guide. (*Editor’s Note. This book was inspired by a reference in the original 1984 Ghostbusters and subsequent RPG franchise. It can be found here.) This book contains references to dozens of spirits, ghosts, wraiths and spectres. For the unaware, it may also contain ways to summon them.
Spellbook of the Crazed Apprentice. This book was written by the seemingly unremarkable apprentice of a certain famous wizard whose title ended in “the Mad.” (*Watching out for copyrights on this one.) The apprentice improved upon or even perfected some spells. A player character casting them might suffer ill side effects.
Diary of a Death Knight. This simple journal holds an insidious secret. It contains the tales of a renowned paladin, his fall from prominence, and his eventual embrace of evil. Reading this book has a chance to corrupt or even convert a knight or warrior into one of these foul beings.
The Dark Cookbook. This seemingly innocuous cookbook contains a variety of strange recipes that range from bizarre, maybe disgusting, to poisonous and all the way up to powerfully cursed. It may save lives in a pinch or even provide PCs some magical benefits. On the other hand, these recipes could lead to lots of trouble.
The Alchemist’s Almanac. This book contains a variety of potion formulae. It is invaluable to alchemists and witches alike. Some versions of this book may contain twisted recipes for foul mutations and poisons as well. Characters may wish to use new formulae at their own risk.
The Book of Extradimensional Portals. This book is extremely thick and exceedingly rare. It contains magic rituals and in some cases locations for opening portals to other planes of existence. There is also a convenient appendix in the back containing banishment and portal sealing spells. One would be well advised to read the entire entry on any given portal before undertaking opening one.
The Accursed Memoir. Similar to the Diary of a Death Knight, this tome details a wizard’s creation of a phylactery and transformation into a lich. Wizard characters reading this can follow its step by step instruction to become a lich at their own peril. The last entry in the memoir describes the rush of power and further desire to gain even more power by becoming a demilich.
The Duplicitous Tome of the Diabolical Illusionist. (*This would make a good dungeon reward.) This tome is written in ink that glows faintly of magic. Some of the spells are illusory script. Some are sigils and glyphs intended to harm the reader. There are also powerful spells for an illusionist wizard who doesn’t lose their very mind trapped within its pages.
I didn’t list the Ogrenomicon, the Book of Ogres that I’m working on for Dungeon Crawl Classics. It will appear in the portfolio section of this site as soon as its ready. It’s my labor of love.
Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be catching up a lot of #Monstober and a few #Promptober entries in November. Lol! I appreciate your patience.
Jeff's Game Box 