In the game, the "Scroll" is an item with many unique roles. Real-life scrolls have the function of recording history, knowledge, experience and passing them on, and the scrolls in the game must not only play the same role in the plot, but also sometimes play a function that is compatible with the game. A simple example is that some characters in the game who do not know how to cast spells can release related spells through various "magic scrolls" or "magic books", which can be a consumable item in the game or require the occupation of the character's equipment slot.
The main source of spells for "Gil de Ray" in the FATE series is the Spiral City Textbook
Scrolls, once present in the story of most games, represent secret or ancient knowledge, and the player will be given the task of retrieving the relevant scrolls for the mission giver so that he can learn the relevant knowledge, or the player's character can learn the relevant knowledge, and after learning, he can move the plot forward (such as the method of opening a certain door recorded in the target book), or master new abilities that will allow the player to overcome the next level.
Many "intellectual" characters such as mages, priests, or scientists design a scroll as an accessory to their appearance, indicating the source of their knowledge or the dogma they believe in, depending on whether the character is using spells or magic (if it is a magic character, then the book is most likely a magic book that records how to cast spells; if it is a magic character, then the book is a book that records the story and dogma of their faith).
In short, the scrolls have a lot of room for expression, both in the plot of the game and as part of the game mechanics.
What I want to introduce to you today is the design method of the "book scroll" item in the game.
<h1>First, the owner of the scrolls in the game</h1>
Since the scroll is an artificial creation, it must have its owner. In a broad way, the owners of the scrolls are divided into two categories, one is the author and producer of the scrolls, and the other is the collectors and holders of the scrolls, and they will have the following characteristics as the owners of the scrolls in the game.
First, only more advanced intelligent beings can be the masters of the scrolls. Because whether it is writing books or reading books, it is necessary to use "words", and the race that can read and write words must be more advanced intelligent creatures. In addition to correspondence and communication, another important role of writing is "recording", whether it is recording the author's experience and knowledge or experience, the birth of the book means that the author wants to pass on these things to later generations so that they can learn and reference, and do not want their exploration and discovery to be lost for various reasons (such as their own death). Creatures that can think like this must be more advanced intelligent beings. It can be said that in the storyline of all games, all beasts, whether as strong as Chimera or ordinary as cave bats, they must be unable to write or read books; furthermore, the less intelligent "secondary race" games have never appeared in the picture or description of them reading or writing, whether it is the dog-headed people in the World of Warcraft series or the Wocha people in the Mass Effect series, although they already have their own language. They even learned to make some simple tools, but their emphasis on knowledge is still very low, so they are relatively low-level "sub-intelligent races" in the game, and it is impossible to become the authors of books.
The Dog-Headed People in World of Warcraft, the typical "sub-intelligent race", do not have any reading and writing performance in the game
Second, for the authors of books, they need to have a relatively deep research in their field, and even a certain degree of authority. Because if there is no strength or research in a certain field, then this character should theoretically be in a "learning" stage, and what he should do is to read the works of authoritative roles in the relevant field to obtain knowledge, rather than sharing his immature experience with the world. If the game production team arranges a "rookie" to write the book on the plot, it will logically appear unsmooth and counterintuitive. Moreover, if a person who "writes books and makes a statement" does not have strong strength and a certain degree of authority in his field, then the books he has made will inevitably be ignored, and no one will collect books that record insufficiently profound knowledge, and such books will have no learning value. For example, in "Xuanyuan Sword 3: The Other Side of the Clouds and Mountains", the scholar who wrote the astrology related books in the Arab region is the respected old Kendi, and in the Tang Dynasty, the book related to the organ art is Lei Huang, who is known as a "genius", who has a very in-depth study in their respective fields and is respected by others for their own efforts (although Lei Huang is a villain, he also belongs to the characters who are favored by others by his own talents in the story).
In Regulus Sword 3: The Other Side of the Clouds and the Mountains, the respected old Kendy left many books
Even if it is a superficial and ordinary "diary", its author will inevitably reveal that he has in-depth experience in a certain field, and bury many important clues related to the plot, because the amount of text in the game as a cultural carrier itself is very small (even if it is an RPG game with more text like "Neverwinter Night", the amount of text it shows per minute is only equivalent to a quarter of the sitcom), so there will not be too many useless journals in the diary that appears. There will definitely be important content related to the game's plot. For example, Molly's diary in "Memories of Eddie Finch" records her nightmares and leaves players with key clues to molly's death in the final paragraph. On the surface, Molly does not show extremely deep research in any professional field, but in fact, the "deep mental illness" has made her deeper and deeper in the fantasy world, in the field of "fantasy world experience", Molly is actually a "core person", and the books (diaries) she left behind are mainly about this field (fantasy world experience).
In Memories of Eddie Finch, Molly's diary allows players to guess the cause of her death
Of course, it is also possible to use the "unborn genius who wrote a large number of books, which was not recognized earlier, but at the end of the game he finally proved himself" this "ugly duckling becomes a swan" type of story. However, it should be noted that even with such a story, although the character of the "Ugly Duckling" can not be authoritative in the early stages of the game, he still needs to have strong strength in his own field.
Third, the true hermit who is completely in seclusion does not write and produce books, no matter how brilliantly he has achieved before he went into seclusion. Because in general, in the plot, such a character chooses to live a secluded life after being stimulated by some kind of stimulation (such as being threatened, defeated by the enemy, or feeling that his mission has been completed, the world no longer needs him, etc.), and the book is an object that needs to be passed on to the society, in order to enable people in society to learn and pass on their own knowledge or experience, so making and writing books means that the author still has the willingness to contact society. This is a psychological state that a real hermit does not have, such as the "lonely and defeated" in Jin Yong's martial arts novel, he did not leave any sword spectrum, only left a few swords as relics; in the CG animation of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, we can see that Sal, who suffered psychological trauma and was injured on Broken Beach after Draenor suffered psychological trauma, and then chose to live in seclusion, he lived only a simple pastoral life, whether it was inside and outside the hut where Sal lived or on his body did not carry any books or scrolls. Nor is it mentioned in the game that Sal wrote any books after his seclusion.
Sal's hermitage didn't have anything to do with the "scrolls."
But unlike another kind of hermit who is "forced to live in seclusion", they are most likely the authors of books, because such characters do not actively choose to live in seclusion, but because of the social environment in which they live (such as their own cities are occupied and they can only choose to live in seclusion in the wilderness; or they lose a gamble, and the bet is that the loser must stay away from a certain planet, go to a remote place to live in seclusion, etc.) They will have a kind of reluctance in their hearts, hoping that they can return to mainstream society and continue to carry out their careers. This reluctance and pursuit can drive them to write books, which can contain ideals that they want to be rediscovered, or ideas that they want to influence others through their knowledge and let others complete their unfinished business.
Fourth, the holder and collector of the book can be a weak apprentice role. This is easy to understand, because the roles who are still in the apprenticeship stage need to constantly learn the experience and knowledge of the predecessors and mentors, the content of the book itself records all this, and the textbook itself is also a must-have object for students in reality, so the apprentice role as the holder of the book is a completely reasonable setting, and some games will design their "temporary book learning" battle animations or lines in order to show the immaturity of the apprentice character, such as the classic "KOF" In the series, Shingo Yabuki has a small action of turning over notes, and the card "Trainee Alchemist" in "Shadow Poem" is originally a young alchemist who is looking at a book while dispensing potions, and the line is "Well... The material was not mistaken. The order is also the same as written in the book, so it should be done with the elixir..." The character's youth and strangeness are fully expressed.
The "Apprentice Alchemist" who dispenses medicine while reading a book in "The Poetry of Shadows"
Finally, the "keeper" of the scroll is not necessarily the owner of the scroll, because the "keeper" may not be able to read the scroll, or may not necessarily have the qualification to read the scroll, for example, in the game, you can set tamed beasts, constructors, demons and other creatures to guard his scroll as the real owner of the scroll.
<h1>Second, the role of books in the game</h1>
The scroll is an item that has a lot of effects in the game, and according to different roles, the form of the "scroll" will be different, sometimes it is a piece of equipment, sometimes it is a mission item in the plot, and sometimes it is a consumable... Roughly speaking, the role of "scrolls" in the game is about the following 6.
The first role is the weapons and equipment used by the game characters. Scrolls are usually used as weapons only in-game spellcaster-type characters, and while most of the spellcasters in the game are shorter wands (in the Harry Potter worldview, wands are common weapons for wizards) or longer wands (Saruman in the Lord of the Rings series is a classic use of wands), it's not uncommon for casters to use scrolls as weapons in the game. Not only will they record some of the spells they will use in battle in the magic book, but in one respect the nature of the scroll and the staff is actually the same, that is, the caster will pour his own power into an object, no matter what the weapon, rarely mention that they themselves have great power after they have just been created, most of the time because their users themselves are very powerful, so they inherit a part of the power from the user. Some players will wonder why some spellcasters are already very powerful, but still use books as weapons, can't they remember the basic knowledge of casting spells? Not entirely, some powerful but too long or too difficult, infrequently used spells do need to be recorded in case of emergency, but the main reason why casters choose scrolls as weapons is that scrolls have become a "container" for their power, which can be understood as some casters are accustomed to infusing power into their staffs, some casters are accustomed to infusing power into daggers, and some casters are pouring power into their favorite magic scrolls. For example, Reez in League of Legends and Pacholi in Oriental Project, one of them is a grand mage in the land of runes, the other is called "pure magic messenger", both of them are the top spellcasters in their respective worlds, but this does not affect their character settings that they use scrolls as their weapons.
Pacholi (left) in The Oriental Project and Reez (right) in League of Legends are the top spell casters in their respective worlds
Similarly, characters who use "magic" on their own beliefs sometimes let them use scrolls as weapons, but usually the books they use do not contain the power they pour into themselves, but the scrolls are blessed by the power they believe in, such as in Blizzard's Warcraft series, some paladins are equipped with scrolls as auxiliary weapons, and the player's paladins cast certain skills in World of Warcraft (such as "forgiveness") when casting spell animations are also "turning the book", "Burning Expedition" The Delaney Paladin at the beginning of the film also obtains the power of the Holy Light by turning the book, which can be understood as the Paladin obtained the power of it by touching the scrolls blessed by the Holy Light (the power is given by the Holy Light, not the Paladin itself), and the characters who do not believe in the Holy Light will not help even if they get the paladins' scrolls, because "magic" requires faith as a basis.
Deryni Paladin in the opening CG of World of Warcraft: Burning Expedition, who derives his power from the scrolls
In addition to visually and setting can be used as the weapon equipment of the game character, the scroll can also be designed as the available equipment of the game character in the game, and the corresponding attributes can be added after loading, or new abilities can be obtained, such as the "Moreno Secret Code" and "Amplification Classic" in the "League of Legends", the latter can provide spell strength to the equipped hero, and the former in addition to providing spell strength and other attributes, can also allow the hero to get the effect of "serious injury".
The Moreno Codex (left) and the Amplification Book (right)
The second effect is that the scrolls in the game can be used as a consumable. Most of the consumable scrolls have the effect of adding some buff to the user after use, such as the various enhanced scrolls made by inscriptions in World of Warcraft, which can improve the armor, attack strength, omnipotent and other attributes for the player; or cast some functional, protective or offensive spells immediately after use, such as in the "Might and Magic" series you can use the corresponding magic scrolls to cast spells such as "Thunderbolt Lightning" (attack) or "Protective Stone Skin". The scrolls that cast functional spells are definitely the most familiar to everyone in "Diablo", "Warcraft 3" and "Teleportation Scrolls" in "DOTA2", which allows the player to control the character to make a long journey;
Teleportation scrolls in DOTA2
After the use of the Pure Heart Scroll in World of Warcraft, the player will also get a buff that can temporarily adjust the talent in the non-rest area; consumables such as the "Book of Intelligence" dropped by killing wild monsters in Warcraft 3 can permanently increase the corresponding attributes to the hero after use (the best experience book can directly increase the hero's experience points).
An experience book from Warcraft 3
On the other hand, there are relatively few books in the state recovery category, such as healing spell books that can add blood or books that restore mana after use, because such scrolls can be completely replaced by drugs that return to blood and blue, and there is not much need to be designed separately.
The third function is that the scroll can be used as an item for the character to learn new skills in the game. Since the books themselves record a variety of knowledge and experiences, it makes sense to "learn new skills through the books" in the game. Players can simply learn skills by simply using the scrolls after hitting them, or they can be set to give the "original" scrolls they have obtained in the game to the relevant NPCs, who then "translate" them for the player to teach the player skills. In the classic action game Dark Souls 3, players can give the collected spell book to the NPC "Cornicus of Onuma" and learn various spells, and in one of Blizzard's old games, Diablo 1, the player also learns skills through various magic books, even if you choose a warrior or archer, as long as you get enough scrolls, you can cast a variety of spells like a mage.
In Dark Souls 3, you learn skills by handing over spell books
In Heroes 3, the Magic Book is a prerequisite for heroes to learn spells, all spells will be recorded in the Magic Book, and if the Magic Book is not purchased, the hero will not be able to obtain any spells even if he learns the "Advanced Wisdom Technique".
In Heroes 3, all spells are recorded in the Magic Book
The fourth function is that the books that can be read in the game can be used as supplementary material for the game's plot and world view. When designing the game, the production team had one thing to keep in mind – not all players were interested in the game's plot, and they probably wanted to jump over the plot quickly and get into a lively battle, or travel through a beautiful virtual world where the plot was dispensable to them, sometimes even just a "tell them where to go, what to find, what monsters to kill" synopsis. So the capacity of the plot sometimes has to be compressed. However, there are also some players who are very interested in the plot of the game, they want to know the various events and history in the game, and they want to know more about the world they live in. At this time, many production teams will use the method of using the game's books, documents, audio tracks, video tapes and other items to complete the plot and world view, so that on the one hand, the capacity of the game plot can be appropriately compressed, on the other hand, it can also meet the needs of the "plot party", which is a relatively free way, players can choose to collect a variety of books to further understand the game plot, you can also only experience the main line to know what kind of story they are involved in and what they should do next. Resident Evil 2 Remake is filled with a large number of books and documents for players to collect and read, most of which do not have much impact on the progress of the game, but can meet the needs of players who are very curious about the plot, such as the various reading materials in the police station to give players a clear understanding of how the police department fell into despair step by step after the zombie crisis broke out.
In Resident Evil 2 you can find plenty of book documents that complement the plot
Fifth, scrolls can be used as key items to advance the game's story. Scrolls can not only be used as "accessories" to improve the plot, but also as key "main ingredients", many times the scrolls will serve as a precondition for the next episode, for example, in the first act of Diablo 2, the player needs to find the "Anifus Scroll" on the "Tree of Anifus" in the Dark Forest, which records the order in which the stonehenge in the rocky wilderness can touch the stonehenge to open the portal to Tristram.
The Anifus scroll in Diablo 2 records the order of touch of Stonehenge in the Wild Wild
The sixth function is that the scroll itself can be used as a kind of "monster" that requires the player to fight. Some scrolls are often exposed to powerful spellcasters, or are stored in areas with strong spell energy, and the game may appear in the book so that the book has gained the setting of "active" to become a "scroll construct", and then they may become their own master's loyal guardians, or "out of control" wandering around or even destroying, the player needs to fight these "scroll constructs" for some reason (such as breaking into the master's home, or helping the master calm down the out-of-control scrolls). These book-themed construct creatures generally do not possess strong physical damage abilities, and most of the time they are subject to spells that match the contents of the scrolls themselves. For example, in World of Warcraft: Legion Returns, in the "Nazaras Academy", which mainly studies arcane, we need to fight this "scroll structure", and the skills they use also cause arcane damage.
The "Scroll Construct" type monster in World of Warcraft
<h1>3. Common plots related to books in the game</h1>
As mentioned earlier, scrolls can appear not only as "accessories" to complement the plot and game worldview, but also as key items in the game's story. In detail, the common plots of books in the game are as follows.
In the first category, the scrolls themselves can exist as the ultimate goal (MacGuffin) that the various characters in the game's story story chase and compete for. For example, Jin Yong's classic novel "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" has a long space in which the various factions of the jianghu compete for the Lin family's "sword spectrum to ward off evil spirits", and the related stand-alone game also reproduces this story very well; the pursuit of the "Divine Dragon Scroll" in "Kung Fu Panda" also occupies a large proportion of the story. But if the production team wants to sublimate the plot of the game, it is very traditional to describe the content of the book as "blank" or "extremely evil" like these two works, and then let the protagonist give up and realize a higher level of virtue and gain a higher level of power. Otherwise, the story is likely to become "multiple people chasing a goal and then producing a winner", and nothing more, which does not really help to raise the character image.
The "Divine Dragon Scroll" in "Kung Fu Panda" was once a treasure that everyone chased
In the second category, the game character enters the world of the book, or the creature in the book is summoned to the world in which the character is located. In this type of plot, the scroll becomes a carrier of "another world", with the function of traveling through time and space, such as "World of Warcraft: The Return of the Legion", in which the player enters the world of the book at Nasaras Academy to face various monsters.
In World of Warcraft: Legion Revisited, players enter the world of the book for simulated combat
And if the world in the book is a world that players are familiar with, such as "Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale world" and "Arabian world of one thousand and one nights", then this kind of crossing also saves the production team a lot of work on the worldview architecture, but it must be linked to the "famous world" in the book and the game itself, if the linked story is written well, then it will be a good improvement for the connotation and depth of the game.
In the third category, the scrolls serve as the "keys" to solving various problems in the game's plot. As the story progresses, the player may encounter insoluble puzzles (such as thick fog), doors that cannot be opened, or powerful enemies, and then NPCs prompt the player to look for the relevant books, because it contains knowledge about solving puzzles, opening doors, and defeating enemies. The player then needs to go to the place where the key scrolls are hidden to find the scrolls, which will definitely have to defeat a lot of miscellaneous fish and the final scroll keeper (usually a boss-level character), and then return to the previous scene after getting the key knowledge of the scrolls to continue the storyline. In the second act of Diablo 2, players enter Herason's vault to find Herason's diary in order to find out which one Tatrahon's real tomb is, and after defeating Heratson himself, who guards his diary, we can know which one the real tomb is from the diary, and then return to the main scene of the second act, Aranok Desert, into Tat Lasha's tomb to complete the closing part of the second act.
Find the real Ta Lasha Tomb through Heratson's diary
<h1>Fourth, some other books are common in the game</h1> setting
In addition to the content mentioned above, "Scrolls" has the following 3 settings to pay attention to in the game.
First, the material and visuals of the scrolls need to match the raw materials for their production, the background of the game era, and the regional background. For example, the materials used in the ornament "Book of Gauss" in "Guild Wars 2" include red "bloodstone dust" and "spherical spirit" and "vicious teeth" with sharp appearance, which are all reflected in the appearance of the finished "Book of Gauss", the appearance is indeed red, and there are some sharp jagged parts around the book.
The Book of Gauss in Guild Wars 2 has an appearance of the raw materials used to make it
Second, since it was mentioned earlier that the books in the game may themselves have magic powers in addition to recording experience and knowledge, it is possible that weak characters will die or be paralyzed by this force when they touch the books of powerful power. This magic of the scroll can be considered as the threshold that needs to be crossed to use and read the book.
Third, the appearance of the scroll should be designed so that players can intuitively see the strength of its strength and the attributes of its recorded power. Generally speaking, the thicker the book in the game, the more powerful the power contained; the power of the scroll that can emit visual effects such as "light" and "breath" is more powerful than the ordinary scroll without any special visual effects, for example, in "Heroes Invincible 5", the "Great Corpse Witch" as an upgraded class of the "Corpse Witch", the scroll they hold in the original painting is also completely different, the corpse witch's scroll looks very ordinary, without any special visual effect, and the scroll in the hands of the great corpse witch emits a green glow. Let people feel a breath of plague and death, which is strong and which is weak at a glance.
"Ghouls" (left) and "Ghouls" (right), the visual effects of the books in their hands are clearly different
As for "the thicker the scroll, the stronger the power", logically speaking, the thicker the book, the more knowledge is recorded in it, and the thick scroll can also carry the power of more users, so it is reasonable that the thick book is stronger.
"Through the appearance of the scroll, the player intuitively knows the attributes containing knowledge" is reflected in many games, which is simply through the "cover pattern" of the scroll or the theme tone of the scroll, visually explaining the attributes of the scroll to the player. For example, in Heroes of the Storm, the cover of the scroll in his hand is a sacred cross pattern, letting the player know that this is a book about the Holy Light and Healing, and even allowing many players who have never played the game to directly judge that Uther is an auxiliary, therapeutic hero through this visual element.
Ursel in Heroes of the Storm has a cross-shaped pattern representing healing and holy light on the cover of the scroll
The 4 series magic book props in "Heroes Invincible 3" are also very intuitive in the design of the icons, directly placing the four elements of "air, fire, earth, and water" on the scroll, so that players can quickly know what kind of equipment this is even if they do not read the item description.
The 4 series magic book equipment in Heroes 3 has very intuitive icons
The above is the introduction of the "book scroll" design method in this issue, we will see you in the next issue~