Pointless tome-reading house rules

[tendentious]

Not all skills are equivalent. I have no problem with the idea that a complete novice can pick up a gun and hit the bullseye with their first shot, however unlikely that might be. But when it comes to reading in an unfamiliar language, your high-school French lessons are not going to grant you a 10% chance of reading and understanding a la recherché du temps perdu. At least not without a lot of assistance.

So here are a few house rules I've been toying with.

Tome Quality – Fluency – each tome has a Fluency rating, representing the difficulty of the text. To read a tome, the character’s relevant language skill must equal or exceed the Fluency of the tome. Additional factors can increase the effective level of a character's language skill, allowing a character to read a tome they would otherwise be unable to read, or reducing the amount of time it takes to read a tome.

Factors
 – quality reference material (typically a library)
 - skilled assistance (PC or NPC with language skill equal to or greater than tome’s Fluency)
 - character is familiar with a different edition of the same tome and have said tome for reference
 - a complementary skill (Archaeology, Anthropology, Occult, History, etc) equal to or greater than Fluency
 - any other plausible aid the player can think of that the Keeper agrees provides significant assistance (wearing a Mi-go brain-o-tron helmet, the entity bound within the tome telepathically funnelling the contents into the character's head, coffee)

Each factor increases character’s effective language skill by %100 of the skill (not by 100 points)

Result
Effective Skill
Less than Fluency – cannot read
Fluency up to twice Fluency – read time factor 1
Twice Fluency up to three times Fluency – read time factor 2
Three times Fluency up to four times Fluency– read time factor 3
Four times Fluency up to five times Fluency – read time factor 4
etc

The system can be used in downtime or in active game time.

Downtime – calculate effective language skill then divide read time by read time factor
Example - Necronomicon, Latin, Fluency 75
Character with Latin %60 cannot read the Necronomicon as their language skill is less than the Fluency.
By using a university library their effective skill is %120 and they can read the tome in normal read time.
With reference library and assistance from a wise, old mentor with Latin %80, the character's effective skill is %180 and they can read the Necronomicon in half the read time (base time divided by 2).
With reference library, proper assistance and an Occult skill of %85 the character's effective language skill is %240 and they can read the tome in one third of the read time (base time divided by 3).
Reference library, assistance, Occult %85 and the character has successfully read the English edition of Necronomicon, and the character's effective language skill is %300 and they can read the tome in one quarter of the read time (base time divided by 4).

In game – calculate effective language skill then multiple hours or days spent reading by read time factor
Example - Necronomicon, Latin, Fluency 75
Character with Latin %60 cannot read the Necronomicon as their language skill is less than the Fluency.
By using a university library their effective skill is %120 and each day spent reading equals one day towards the total read time.
With reference library and assistance from a wise, old mentor with Latin %80, the character's effective skill is %180 and each day spent reading equals two days towards the total read time.
With reference library, proper assistance and an Occult skill of %85 the character's effective language skill is %240 and each day spent reading equals three days towards the total read time.
Reference library, assistance, Occult %85 and the character has successfully read the English edition of Necronomicon, and each day spent reading equals four days towards the total read time.

[tendentious]

Thinking about it, I think one of the reasons I came up with these house rules is that CoC as written doesn't have a mechanic for Extended rolls: when performing a task that takes a long time the whole thing is not dependent on a single roll. Extended tasks require multiple rolls and are only accomplished when the requisite successes are achieved.

This wouldn't be hard to introduce to CoC. Assume that a Regular success counts as one level of success, Hard counts as two levels, Extreme counts as three levels and Critical counts as four levels. A task requires a number of levels of success - 10, 20, 50, whatever. Once the successes are achieved the task is completed. Failure would really only occur if the character has a time limit in which the task must be finished, and they fail to achieve the required level of success in time. A fumble indicates that the character has made a fundamental error of understanding and loses some number of achieved successes.

For reading tomes, the process could be broken down into one week periods. At the end of a week the player rolls and records successes achieved.

This would also allow for a partial reading, that may grant some benefit. You might gain a single point of Cthulhu Mythos skill once you achieve a certain number of successes. If you only had time to read half of the Necronomicon you still probably learned something, and possibly discovered the information that you require to defeat the particular threat or whatever. Maybe every time you earn a point of CM skill, you can make a Luck check to determine whether you stumbled across the particular information that you're looking for.

I still like the idea of Fluency. If the character's language skill is less than the Fluency then the tome cannot be read. Outside factors (libraries, assistance, etc) would allow a character to read a tome that would otherwise be beyond them. Additional factors would add bonus die to each week's skill check.

Edited October 4, 2020 by tendentious

[Aerinyes]

This appeals to me. I've never been fond of the assumptions behind the tome-reading rules. It's either too easy or too arbitrary. This gives latitude to the players (if they want it), the keeper (also if desired), doesn't require any in-game mechanics (but could easily accommodate such antics if desired), and I will be adopting them forthwith.

[tendentious]

As an extended skill check, handling SAN loss is a bit different. Instead of SAN loss as a single blast sustained upon reading the last word of a tome, the loss is gradual over the course of reading the book. This doesn't result in temporary insanity or a bout of madness, but it may result in indefinite insanity as described below. This is more of a creeping madness; an insidious change to the character's outlook rather than a dramatic breakdown (ie, bout of madness)

Assume that you require 10 successes to complete reading a tome. On an initial reading roll SAN loss as normal at the start of reading. The character loses 1/10th of the SAN loss for each success achieved - this isn't rounded off, just track the fractional amounts of SAN and apply.

If any loss of SAN would bring the amount of SAN loss up to 1/4th of current SAN at the time of loss then the character enters indefinite insanity, although there is no obvious bout of madness.

Example - the character starts reading the Necronomicon. The Keeper rolls and determines that the SAN loss is 12. Divided by 10, the character loses 1.2 SAN for every success achieved in reading the tome. After 8 successes the character has lost 9 SAN (8x1.2=9.6). On achieving the 8th success and losing their 9th point of SAN, if the character has 36 SAN or less at that time, then they have become indefinitely insane, as the SAN loss so far is at least 1/4th of their current SAN.

For an extended reading, make a SAN check every time the character would lose SAN. On a success they suffer no SAN loss. Otherwise the same rules apply, and they may enter indefinite insanity if the total SAN lost ever equals 1/4th of current SAN.

You'll notice I've gone with 1/4th of current SAN instead of 1/5th. This is because it compares the SAN loss to the character's SAN after loss (1/4th of SAN after loss) instead of before loss (1/5th of SAN before loss).

[rsanford]

I really like this as I have always thought the current rules for reading tomes were kinda lame and arbitrary. I am going to try out your rules in my next game.