I’ll cover the gaming aspects first, then the real world
magickal theories second.
I started gaming in the 80’s. We loved handouts, props, any extras that
enhanced the playing and storytelling experience. Unfortunately, back then most of the extras
included were tiny black and white maps or “found pages from an ancient tome”
which were sometimes only a quarter page size cutout. So we would use old encyclopedias or even
phone books (to invoke the Plumber of Doom dial 555-FLUSHIT) in the stead of
sizeable spell books.
This is a physical prop intended to be used and abused.
Especially if you’re a Keeper who likes to use atmospheric
extras, turn down the lights, flicker bulbs, sound fx tracks, eerie music,
etcetera; this book is for you. Your
players will remember the first time you announce that they have discovered the
Book of Shub-Niggurath and hold it a few feet above the table, then let it drop
with a heavy thud that shakes the table and sends papers, pencils, and dice
flying. “Hold your drinks.” This thing weighs three and a half
pounds. Be careful where you toss
it. Unless you’re like my old gaming
crew was, then you’ll probably forcibly throw it at one or all of them during
the course of the campaign. I guess from
a legal standpoint, yes, those multiple incidents would technically constitute
assault.
Got a designated spellcaster? Make them get up and walk around the table
while reciting the appropriate passages.
“In proper Sumerian, please.” We
used to have to write out and recite every fhtagn word. “Oh, no.
I’m not casting nothing this game.
You’re the mage now.” *proceeds to throw book at the new acolyte* If you’re LARPing, your mage will simply love lugging this heavy thing around for hours on end!
Use passages from the Lovecraft stories as clues for the
investigators. Some sending them in the
right direction, some sending them the other way. But all paths are fraught with danger.
Make the investigators find the clues in the book’s passages
themselves from other external cues.
They might hate you for making them work so hard, but there will also be
a solid feeling of satisfaction of unraveling a mystery using physical props as
opposed to just making an occult skill roll.
I left the pages unnumbered for this reason, but how many authentic
spellbooks are numbered anyway?
Especially if pages are always being added or removed.
The different ancient languages in the book can be used to
send investigators on themed adventures (gods, cults, beings, and folk heroes
from those mythologies) or even to their originating locations around the world. The Akkadian underworld can become a real
subterranean location or reachable other-dimensional plane.
There are multiple gods from the Cthulhu Mythos pantheon
listed in the book besides Shub-Niggurath.
So these are easy lead-ins to include all those various other factions
in your adventures.
Get a red marker and start writing clues across the pages
with the ancient languages. Questions,
translations (and inaccurate translations – Klaatu. Barada.
Necktie!), non-euclidean equations, occult symbols, cryptic messages,
locations, etc.
Or perhaps that one crucial page with all the clues is
missing! Or partially torn with the
other half of the banishing spell on it.
An infuriating cliché of fiction from the era was that the location of
the villain’s hideout, or the dead recluse millionaire’s will, or the
combination to the safe containing the needed special item were written on that
missing page.
Make it the Book of dread.
Use it sparingly, then when the book comes out your investigators know
there is trouble ahead.
Are some of those pages cursed? Side quest interrupting gameplay to find a
cure for the increasingly fishy skin condition of Professor Smart Guy who
botched the spell reading. Yeah, they’re
gonna really hate you after this one.
Who else wants this book?
Any of the Thousand Young will obviously want to get Mom’s book back. There could be multiple, competing factions
of Shub cults fighting each other and your team to gain possession of the
book. Other cults will have a vested
interest in getting their slimy tentacles on the magic contained within those
pages. Agents of other groups or persons
of interest who think that much power must be destroyed; or at least taken out
of your group’s incompetent hands.
Did you steal this book from the Miskatonic library? You will have to contend with some very angry
faculty as well as overzealous students and wannabe campus cultists.
Actual otherplanar beings will probably want to get hold of
the Book of Shub-Niggurath. Can they
sense the magic in the book and track the party? Always one step behind? Will they use it for their own nefarious
schemes or just devour its power as a light snack then go back to sleep for
1000 years?
Shub might have to take matters into her own hands (alien
grabby parts?) and get the book back herself.
Learn a new dead language.
I could fluently read and write Runic Norse by the time I was done
studying it for gaming purposes.
As for as real world magic use, all of the ancient languages
are considered to contain actual power that is unlockable and usable to the
reader. Many cultures held the belief
that words themselves are a type of energy and that put together in the proper
order constitute a functioning spell.
That’s what curse words originally were!
Then there is also the aspect of equidistant letter
sequencing, hidden words and meanings, and subliminal magicks of mental control
or spiritual domination. Catcher in the
Rye anyone? What works for one won’t
necessarily work for another. That does
not disempower the original seeker of knowledge. Books can transport you to another world, create new reality paradigms, breathe life into those eldritch landscapes. But this book is just a focus. The real power lies within you.
