Papermaking was mechanized around this time, which made paper inexpensive enough to allow it to become pervasive.Īs a substrate, parchment is made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin, often split. ("Parchment" is actually an English word derived from the name of the city where it was reportedly invented.) Though a Roman invention, it was quickly adopted by the Greeks, and was used popularly throughout Europe, even concurrently with the use of paper up through the invention of the printing press (mid 1400s A.D.) In fact, though most copies of the Gutenberg Bible were printed on paper, a few parchment copies exist. Consider upping that % chance of failure based on the quality of the papyrus, as well as the form of the writing being used by the scribe.Īccording to the Roman Varro, Pliny's Natural History notes parchment was invented under the patronage of Eumenes of Pergamon, as a substitute for papyrus, which was temporarily not being exported from Alexandria, its only source. But Elvish is a little on the loopier side. It serves the Eqyptian Demotic ("priestly") script well, given its strong vertical and horizontal strokes. Second, those striations in the recto and verso sides do not exactly make for the smoothest of writing experiences, especially with "loopier" writing forms. No reason to not up that % chance of failure in more humid climates, especially the longer that papyrus has been sitting around in a less-than-airtight scroll tube. sure, papyrus is cheaper, but it also has a +5% chance of failure (per DMG.) Why? Firstly, in dry climates (like Egypt) papyrus is fairly stable, but in more humid climates it is highly susceptible to mold. In regards to writing utensils, the Egyptians used brushes made from rush stems, whereas Greek scribes used hard reeds, cut with a nib and split at the tip to aid ink flow.Īs for game play, consider this. For longer scrolls, multiple pages of papyrus were glued together. The fibers in the top (recto) side run horizontally, and the fibers in the bottom (verso) side run vertically.
It essentially consists of two layers (or sides) with the fibers in each side aligned with the same side, and perpendicular to the other side.
Papyrus as a substrate is made from the pith (the inner portion) of the Cyperus papyrus plant. However, it was adopted soon after by the Greeks (being supplanted later in Greece by parchment, a Roman invention), and was used widely through Europe and the Roman and Byzantine empires until it was replaced by the less expensive paper (invented in China, but introduced to the West by way of Arabia.) This is an Egyptian invention that dates to around 1,000 B.C. I could see clerics or magic-users going into battle accompanied by horse-drawn carts filled with spell tablets prepared with summoning and protection spells (the tablets would disintegrate upon use, similarly to their papyrus and parchment counterparts.)
However, in more primitive cultures, spell tablets are an option. maybe.Īs far as incorporating clay tablets into game play, it's obviously not conducive to carrying even one spell tablet with you into a dungeon, unless you happen to possess a Bag of Holding. Now, go the Babylonian section of the book. By the time the Sumerian language was fading away as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and/or scientific language in Mesopotamia, parchment was just being invented. get out your copy of Deities and Demigods, go to the Sumerian Mythos section, and consider that in the earliest of the time period reflected here, clerics of these gods would (most likely) not see papyrus for at least 1,000 years (if they saw it at all.) And parchment? Forget about it. Pictographic writing gave way to symbolic writing in the form of cuneiforms (quick marks made with a triangular tipped version of the stylus.) So the Sumerians when straight to the most available materials. As nomads became farmers in the fertile lands between the Tigres and the Euphrates, village culture necessitated the need for records of properties, laws, ets.
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