All about Tomes!

[Willow]

This thread will eventually collect up everything that's been asked about Tomes so far (at least that I have found). Please do ask questions if you don't see it answered here. Questions on the @research command and studying (of which studying tomes is only one way to learn in game) will be answered under their own threads.

We'll start with the #1 question: How do I submit a Tome?

Due to thread space the basic tome template will be posted under (hopefully) just two separate entries. Explanation of what each part is and what you need to change to write your submission will be included in each section. NOTE: Yig is working on a much easier way to submit tomes, but until that is available, we have the 'old school' way below.

Note: The word ‘tome’ is distinguished from the word ‘book’ in the following manner. The LC staff uses the word ‘tome’ to mean a book object that is able to teach the reader. The word ‘book’ may refer to a mundane object in game that one can read, but that doesn’t teach. So a ‘tome’ is also a ‘book’ but a ‘book’ isn’t necessarily a ‘tome’.

Copy the template sections posted below (both KARMODE and CORE PROPERTIES) to a notepad (preferred) or textedit-type editor and fill in the blanks (or change the bolded text) to write a new tome.

Save your file using the title of your new tome as the file name.

Email your file to the following people:
Willow (willow@lovecraftcountry.com)
Yig (yig@lovecraftcountry.com)
Lecter (lecter@lovecraftcountry.com)

One of us will make sure it gets to the proper person to be made into an object, QA'd and then placed in the appropriate spot in game. Currently this is the Orne library, but in the future other @researchable areas in game will exist. These could be an NPC's personal library, a public bookstore, a public library, a club's cache of knowledge accessible only to members, etc.

On with the tome template...

[Willow]

INSTRUCTIONS:

copy and paste the following sections into a notepad or textedit-type document
change the bolded test as appropriate for your book
leave the unbolded text as is. note that much of the bolded stuff is a repeat of the same thing.
each submission should contain a minimum of 4 chapters. To make more copy and paste chapter four (including the '-----' line and chnage the values to relfect the fifth, sixth, etc.
or, look for a future posting in this thread with additional chapters you can simply cut, paste and modify.
Keep the karmode section separate from the CORE PROPERTIES section you'll make in a short while.
Yes, the title and spine sections get NO changes to them. They're included here for object making convenience, so don't leave them out, please.


DETAIL [default]
Brief: small book
Look: [*
A small dark-green boiled-linen bound book. The title, "Viavi Hygiene", is embossed on the cover in black.
*]
Examine: [*
This small dark-green boiled-linen bound book has been embossed in black with its title, "Viavi Hygiene". Below this, in smaller type, is the name of the author, $(This.export:tome:author) You note that there are 20 chapters in this book.
*]
React-pre:read-what: [*
This is a complicated book printed in tiny lettering with abstruse diagrams and hand-drawn pictures; you can't simply breeze through through it. Try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
React-pre:skim-dob: [*
A cursory glance at the contents indicates that this is a book of basic hygenic living for the layman. For a more thorough examination, try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
SName: book
SName: volume
SName: basic hygiene
PName: books
PName: basic hygiene
PName: volumes
Adjective: bound
Adjective: linen
Adjective: linen-bound
Adjective: small
-------------------------------------------------------------
DETAIL [chapter00]
Brief: book cover
Look: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:00:brief) | $(this.tome:chapter:00:brief) | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
Examine: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:00:summary) | $(this.tome:chapter:00:brief) <br/>$(this.tome:chapter:00:summary) | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
React-pre:read-what: [*
Though the book itself is reasonably short, the contents are dense and heady; you cannot hope to retain much by simply skimming through it. Try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
React-pre:skim-dob: [*
A cursory glance at the contents indicates that this is a book of basic hygenic living for the layman. For a more thorough examination, try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
Writing: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:00:brief) | $(this.tome:chapter:00:brief) | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
SName: cover
SName: front
PName: covers
Adjective: cover
Adjective: dark
Adjective: green
Adjective: linen
-------------------------------------------------------------
DETAIL [chapter01]
Brief: first chapter
Look: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:01:brief) | $(this.tome:chapter:01:brief) | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
Examine: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:01:summary) | $(this.tome:chapter:01:brief) <br/>$(this.tome:chapter:01:summary) | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
React-pre:read-what: [*
This is a complicated book printed in tiny lettering with abstruse diagrams and hand-drawn pictures; you can't simply breeze through through it. Try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
React-pre:skim-dob: [*
A cursory glance at the contents indicates that this is a book of basic hygenic living for the layman. For a more thorough examination, try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
SName: chapter
SName: section
PName: chapters
PName: sections
Adjective: beginning
Adjective: first
Adjective: opening
-------------------------------------------------------------
DETAIL [chapter02]
Brief: second chapter
Look: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:02:brief) | $(this.tome:chapter:02:brief) | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
Examine: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:02:summary) | $(this.tome:chapter:02:brief) <br/>$(this.tome:chapter:02:summary) | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
React-pre:read-what: [*
This is a complicated book printed in tiny lettering with abstruse diagrams and hand-drawn pictures; you can't simply breeze through through it. Try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
React-pre:skim-dob: [*
A cursory glance at the contents indicates that this is a book of basic hygenic living for the layman. For a more thorough examination, try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
SName: chapter
SName: section
PName: chapters
PName: sections
Adjective: second
-------------------------------------------------------------
DETAIL [chapter03]
Brief: third chapter
Look: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:03:brief) | $(this.tome:chapter:03:brief) | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
Examine: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:03:summary) | $(this.tome:chapter:03:brief) <br/>$(this.tome:chapter:03:summary) | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
React-pre:read-what: [*
This is a complicated book printed in tiny lettering with abstruse diagrams and hand-drawn pictures; you can't simply breeze through through it. Try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
React-pre:skim-dob: [*
A cursory glance at the contents indicates that this is a book of basic hygenic living for the layman. For a more thorough examination, try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
SName: chapter
SName: section
PName: chapters
PName: sections
Adjective: third
-------------------------------------------------------------
DETAIL [chapter04]
Brief: fourth chapter
Look: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:04:brief) | $(this.tome:chapter:04:brief) Point0 | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
Examine: [*
{? | $(this.tome:chapter:04:summary) | $(this.tome:chapter:04:brief) <br/>$(this.tome:chapter:04:summary) | There is no <describe this="$(target)"/> }
*]
React-pre:read-what: [*
This is a complicated book printed in tiny lettering with abstruse diagrams and hand-drawn pictures; you can't simply breeze through through it. Try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
React-pre:skim-dob: [*
A cursory glance at the contents indicates that this is a book of basic hygenic living for the layman. For a more thorough examination, try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
SName: chapter
SName: section
PName: chapters
PName: sections
Adjective: fourth
-------------------------------------------------------------
DETAIL [page]
Brief: the many pages of <describe what="$(this)"/>
Look: [*
The many pages <describe what="$(this)"/> are broken up into chapters.
*]
React-pre:read-what: [*
This is a complicated book printed in tiny lettering with abstruse diagrams and hand-drawn pictures; you can't simply breeze through through it. Try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
React-pre:skim-dob: [*
A cursory glance at the contents indicates that this is a book of basic hygenic living for the layman. For a more thorough examination, try to '@study with my book' instead.
*]
SName: page
PName: pages
Adjective: book
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DETAIL [spine]
Brief: the spine of a $(this.details:default:description:brief)
Look: [*
The leather spine of a $(this.details:default:description:brief)
*]
SName: spine
PName: spines
Adjective: book
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DETAIL [title]
Brief: title
Look: [*
The title of a $(this.details:default:description:brief) is "$(this.tome:title)." It is written by $(This.export:tome:author)
*]
Writing: $(This.export:tome:title)
SName: title
PName: titles
Adjective: book
Adjective: tome

[Willow]

The other part of a tome object are the CORE PROPERTIES. Detailed explanations of each property will be posted in the next portion of this thread. For now, just copy and paste what is here into your notepad or textedit-type document leaving some space between this section and your KARMODE section.

The CORE PROPERTIES section is in XML format so we can just cut and paste it for ease of object creation, so don't worry that you don't know what all the hoo hah is. Only the bolded text will need changing. Everything else, just make sure you don't delete it.

<Core:Property property="export:book:dream:count">
1
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:book:dream:globe">
\<ABN:Dreams:SkillLevel3:dreamglobe\>
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:book:dream:name">
"n3hospitalbed"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:book:gain:name">
" "
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:book:language:level">
"10"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:book:language:name">
"0"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:book:owner">
"MUOrne"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:book:skill">
"medicine"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:book:subject">
"medicine"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:class:booklearning">
1
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:class:noise">
X[S] \{You intently study the medical book.\|You flip through the pages of the book, making connections here and there--is that why my toenails are green!\|You continue to study the book.\|Amazed, you turn page after page of the medical volume. Is this author a genius or a doofus.\|As you read you wonder how two men know so much about female hygiene since the book hardly covers anything about men having to be clean.\|With growing alarm, you peruse yet another page of this section of the book. I had better clean up my lifestyle!\|You turn another page of the book to find a note written in girlish handwriting next to a diagram of a naked man: "This is what Malcolm looks like under that football uniform!"\|You wince as you spot yet another gruesome drawing of a severed human limb, drawn with creepily loving detail.\|One of the hygiene rules in the volume gives you a bit of trouble. You just can't justify giving up hard liquor.\|You study the medical tome.\|You refer back to a previous section of the book where you saw a similar idea.\|You squint to make out some faint writing in the margin... something about Dante's at 8.\|Incredibly, you find yourself agreeing with one of the suggestions for clean living.\|You pause to puzzle over yet another endless discussion of feminine hygiene.\|You continue to study.\}
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:skill:extra_teaching">
1
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:skill:know_medicine">
1
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:skill:teaching">
1
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:author">
"Hartland Law, M. D. and Herbert E. Law F.C.S."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:chapter:00:brief">
"There is a rather odd dedication on the first page. You also note there are 20 chapters in this book."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:chapter:00:summary">
"It is written upon the first page: \\"To Those Who Have Secured Health by Means of the Viavi System of Treatment and to Those Who Devote Their Lives To its Promulgation This Volume Is Respectfully Inscribed.\\" You also note there are 20 chapters in this book."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:chapter:01:brief">
"This chapter is called 'Life's Responsibilities'."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:chapter:01:summary">
"The first leason to learn is right personal living. A prime essential is a knowledge of the laws of our being. We can acquire this by realizing that life is a wonderful, mysterious thing, representing the highest intelligence and skill that Nature exercises. The fact that its origin, development and decay are beyond our comprehension makes us instinctively turn to the great unseen Father and worship Him as God. Were it not that we recognize the necessary existence of this great power, there would be no religions, and none of their enobling influences. The danger is that in giving reverence we neglect obedience; that though we fast and pray, we violate God's mandates as written in Nature's laws, and by unwise living betray a trust and invite disease."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:chapter:02:brief">
"This chapter is called 'Activity, Rest, and Sleep'."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:chapter:02:summary">
"Much more rest is required in disease than in health. Disease prohibits a full employment of the sources of strength, and checks the development which brings strength. Strength is consumed by the system in its efforts to overcome the disease, and the poisonous products of disease require strength to eliminate them. Helpful exercise is just as necessary as rest and sleep. Best of all is outdoor work for exercise. A walk every day is highly beneficial. It is stimulating; the nervous system responds to the exhiliration. As a consequence, the circulation and the activity of the organs are wholesomely increased, digestion is promoted, and the elimination of waste is made more thorough."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:chapter:03:brief">
"This chapter is called 'Inflammation'."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:chapter:03:summary">
"Although all inflammation, wherever found, has the same general character, it has many names to indicate its location. The suffix \\"itis\\" appended to the name of a part means inflammation of that part: thus, laryngitis, inflammation of the larynx; peritonitis, inflammation of the peritoneum; cystitis, inflammation of the bladder (cyst meaning bladder or sac); bronchitis, inflammation of the bronchia. There are many more. These terms are used for convinience, but as they sound formidable to sufferers not understanding them, they often are disconcerting ... When from inflammation there is an accumulation of fluid in the joints or the pleural cavity, it is termed serious inflammation. Croupous inflammation is so called from the formation of a false membrane upon the surface of an inflamed mucous membrane. Gangrenous inflammation belongs to the malignant type. Where ther is liquefaction of the tissues, suppuration occurs. Ulceration is a condition following inflammation. It shows perverted nutrition."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:chapter:04:brief">
"This chapter is called 'Nervous Debility'."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:chapter:04:summary">
"In every walk of life, particularly in the higher walks, multitudes of men are suffering from deterioration before the natural time. A man ought to be in his prime between his fortieth and his sixtieth years. Instead of that, we too often find him a sufferer or a wretch. He finds distress or weakness overtaking him. Dyspepsia appears and brings its torments. Hemorrhoids begin to sap his strength and destroy his comfort. His bladder gives him trouble. Neuralgia, headaches, insomnia or rheumatism may add their miseries. Gout may bring him agonies. Diabetes, asthma, stone in the bladder and other afflictions may attack him. All stimulants are to be avoided, particularly alchohol and tobacco. If the sudden leaving off of tea or coffee produces great nervous distress, it should be used in steadily diminishing quantities, and finally abandoned altogether; but tobacco and alcoholic drinks are not to be teomporized with; they must be controlled at once. It will be understood that all irritating, wearing or disagreeable influences are to be avoided as much as possible, that the bright side of everything be sought, and that intelligent attention be given to diet, rest, sleep and the regular evacuation of the bowels and bladder."
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:dream:name">
"n3hospitalbed"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:keywords">
(\{ "hygiene", "health", "wellness", "advice", "illness", "medicine", "medical", "body", "bodies", "organs", "organ", "physical", "disease", "sickness", "healing" \})
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:owner">
"MUOrne"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:shelf">
"medicine"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:shortname">
"volume"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:subject">
"medicine"
</Core:Property>
<Core:Property property="export:tome:title">
"Viavi Hygiene"
</Core:Property>

[Willow]

Here's the explanation of the CORE PROPERTIES section posted above for your tome submission, as most of you are probably going :confused: right now.

Each section you will modify is identified by a tag name. The tag name is in quotes just prior to the section you need to modify. For example:

<Core:Property property="export:book:dream:count">
1

Here the tag name is dream:count - you can ignore the export:book: portion.

dream:count
We've got the value of 1. Mostly likely this will never change, but in case you book has a dream and you want the reader to experience that dream more than once for each time they @study your book you'd increase this value. Near unanimous feedback says to leave this at one, but we thought it best to explain this core property anyway.

The explantion on creating a dream for your tome will be covered separately later in this thread as it can be rather complicated.

Next you skip a bunch of core properties included only so that we can easily cut and paste into our new object and not miss anything.

book:skill, book:subject and skill:know_medicine
These core properties tell the @study system what skill your tome is teaching. You will not know the encoded name of the skill you want your tome to teach - we will take care of that. Simply enter in the name of what you want the tome to teach. If that skill does not exist we will match it to an existing skill as best we can, or in rare cases, add the new skill.

Feedback from players has unanimously suggested that the subject name NOT be a dewey decimal subject name, but the name reflecting what skill the book teaches. In our example, that is medicine. If you do not know the exact name of the skill you want to be taught, that's fine, just note that in this property and we'll correct it/change it/put it in.

class:noise
This is a section where you get to have a bit of fun. This is a list of all the @study emits one sees while studying a tome. Please keep each emit to a single sentence in length. Please ensure to keep the list in the format provided, but fret not as we will do our best to QA the format.

tome:author
This is both referenced by code you didn't need to touch in the karmode section of the book and when using @research to search for a book by author. Simply put the name of the author here. Periods do not need special characters preceeding them, but other punctuation will need a forward slash ( / )before the character.

chapter:00:brief and chapter:00:summary
These two core properties are often used to describe any kind of preface, dedication, foreward, or items of note prior to the first chapter. It always contains a note of how many chapters are in the tome so that players easily know how many chapters too look for without having to guess.

In this example you'll note that the summary, or in this case dedication, has some double quotation marks within it. These are preceeded by a forward slash ( / ) so the system knows to display quotation marks instead of thinking it's the end of your core property text.

chapter:01:brief and subsequent chapter briefs too
The standard format for all chapter briefs are to simply state the chapter title . In this example single quotation marks are used. You'll see that for single quotation marks no special preceeding character is necessary.

chapter:01:summary and subsequent chapter summaries too
This is likely the most challenging portion of writing your tome. In our example, the player provided a rather detailed summary of an actual book from the early 1900's. You can choose to be less detailed, give a short summary of an actual book, or make up something for a made-up book. Try to keep the text to one screen's worth of viewing so your fellow player doesn't have to scroll to read it. Also try to keep it relatively entertaining. Chapters may also contain direct references to clues for plots. For example a reference to an artifact that is needed to perform a ritual could be mentioned, a spell to ward off evil somethings could be mentioned and where it might be found in another book, etc.

Mainly, just remember, when writing tomes don't feel the need to make the chapter summaries a word-for-word re-creation of an actual text. A summary is fine, along with any notable points from that section. The more study emits, though, the better. Just try to strike some sort of balance and, in the end, have fun with it.

Most puncutation other than double quotations do not require a forward slash preceeding them. When in doubt, don't include the forward slash and we'll take care of inserting it as needed.

Detailed information on other formatting characters like like breaks and blank lines will be placed here in future edits of this posting.

keywords
These are keywords that the book can be found by when doing an @research book search by keyword. For more information on using @research, in game type @research help. Each word in our example is highlighted as these are keywords chosen for our example of Viavi Hygiene. You can put in as many keywords as you like. If a word can be plural, include both the singular and plural words as two separate entries in this list. Please keep the list format the same as you see it here.

subject
This word is used when doing an @research book search by subject. It may look like a repeat of the earlier subject core property, but both are necessary, and each one is used for a different purpose.

Feedback from players has unanimously suggested that this NOT be a dewey decimal subject name, but the name reflecting what skill the book teaches. In our example, that is medicine. If you do not know the exact name of the skill you want to be taught, that's fine, just note that in this property and we'll correct it/change it/put it in.

title
This is simply the title of the book without quotes or other embellishments. If there is punctuation in the title, make sure to preceed it with a forward slash character ( / ).

[Willow]

Here are some other questions about tomes in LC. As we find more we'll add them and their answers here.

Making a tome looks like a lot of work. Do I get anything for submitting one?
Each tome submitted gets you 25 StoryPoints once it is placed in game.

There's a tome in game I've been @studying, and I'd like to see some new study emits for it. Can I submit them and how?
Please do submit additional study emits for any tome you like. You can do so by @assisting them in game. Make sure to note what tome it is for by referencing the title of the tome. You'll get one storypoint for every five emits submitted (because they are each a single sentence). You can submit emits for several books, such as three for book A and two for book B and five for book C.

What skills are available for teaching...and is etiquette a skill? Can it be?
A complete list of skills are not publicly available based on past player feedback to keep some things a bit of a mystery. If you aren't sure if something is a skill go ahead and submit it anyway. The staff will determine the best skill to put in it's place if it's not. Also if you have a skill suggestion I would say go ahead and submit it, but include notes on what the skill would -do- in game.

What skill level should a tome teach to? Is there a list of the skill levels? I don't know what they are called past "average".
Four is ceiling for tomes to teach at/to. Based on much player feedback this is set to require roleplay in order to learn a skill higher...based on the common belief that a person cannot become an expert in a knowledge or skill simply by reading a book. Uncommon books, in that a unique book not found easily (laying about on the Orne shelves), may teach to a higher level. Introductory books and primers will likely only teach a skill to level one, with advanced books teaching up to level four. Once we get a thread explaining skills and the ways to learn them we'll cover how to learn a skill higher.

[Oliver White]

I wanted to add one important caveat (or 2 actually):

Avoid Word and/or any word processor that wants to convert what you type into something else. Specifically Word has a tendency to autocorrect your quote marks into the smart quotes (" goes to `` or ''). Smart quotes don't process properly. Likewise the en and em dash (just stick with a double hyphen).

On a second note, as I've been proofreading tomes since just about the day they were released, any non-standard characters should be avoided. All of Skotos' clients handle extended (?) characters differently:
Hwät! we Gâr-Dena in geâr-dagum
Alice basically chokes on this, displaying gibberish. Zealotry does a decent job. Flash goes above and beyond; handling everything perfectly, including spacing. Flash's behavior might be the result of it being in beta; I'm not sure. So while I currently want to hate the Flash client, its ability to have tomes that include foreign words in their native character sets is just awesome.

[Oliver White]

A follow-up comment on tomes:

The library is always accepting tomes. At the moment, we probably have around 1/3 - 1/2 of the skills covered with at least one tome, typically at a low level. Which means that half of our skills don't have a single tome, and the other half have a good chance of not being represented at either an advanced or introductory level. So there's lots of opportunity to contribute to the game.

Scared of the template Willow posted?
Don't be. If you need help, as the resident library nerd, I'll be more than willing to help in that regard. There are ways of minimizing the pain that is the template.

Haven't a clue what to submit?
Talk to a librarian. Find out what we have and perhaps don't have. Ask me. I'll gladly tell you the areas we need tomes in. This is a good idea before starting on any tome, as the likelihood of your submission making it into the game is inversely proportional to how 'needed' the tome is. If we've got 5 math books, and you write a 6th, unless it's a doozy, it's going to be delayed while someone who submitted a Chinese dictionary gets their tome processed.

Ok, so you have a subject area but haven't a clue what actually to write in your tome? Talk to me again. I'm compiling lists of actual books that are period appropriate that can, with some effort, be converted into tomes. I can likely hook you up with something. (On my hard drive I have, literally, 20+ digital texts that I've at one time or another considered good candidates for LC tomes; I just don't have the time to make them.) The hard part is reading/skimming the whole thing and then condensing it to something that's workable IG. But that's why there's the SP reward.

Converting an extent book into an LC tome is boring, I want to write something fresh and new!
Go for it. There are several tomes in the library that have been mostly made up and won't be found in any real library. Be creative, but stick with the period. The game takes place in the 30s, so no referencing World War II or calling the first world war World War I; call it the Great War. At one point I was going to have Oliver submit a book he had written himself, but again, I haven't found the time to sit down and write it.

We've already got a whole bunch of books that teach X but I still want to submit something in that skill.
This is a concern for some skills. What I would suggest is submitting a tome that is unique in some aspect. We've got a bunch of books in the library the cover mythology and lore. I submitted one a while back that purported to be a myth or two about the Unvisited Isle. We need more books in that vein, that seemingly tie into our game world, but don't necessarily lock it down. (A tome on the fog which states unequivocally what it does and what causes it won't fly. But a tome with chapters on different theories of fogs, now that's very useful.)

What's the number one piece of advice you can give about tomes?
Focus on the study emits. That's what people will see when they study your tome. If you're lucky they'll skim the chapters and read all 20+ chapters you've included in your geology book. They'll do it once and promptly forget (unless it's something wonderful, like Viavi Hygiene) But they're stuck for 25 minutes watching your emits each and every time they study it, and they're going to be studying your tome a number of times before leveling up. So write as many as possible. Make them environmental effects, make them internal thoughts, make them random scribblings in the margins, make them theorems/proofs/facts, make them direct quotes from the text, make them every single one of Hammurabi's 100+ codes, make them serious, make them humorous. They can be one of the hardest parts of a tome to write, but in the end are the single most important.