Players/Neonates Guide to Blood Magic.

After some talk with Gattison I have decided to abandon my previous idea of a copy/paste work of blood magic.

The thing I was thinking of now is a sort of in-game prop book, with each chapter after the introduction and first chapter being a in-game tome for that particular kind of blood magic.

I'm thinking something along this line.

Introduction, same as any WW book, detailing what kind of book it is, explaining the chapters etc.
Chapter 1 - OOC chapter, describing various mechanics such as costs and time for learning rituals, good to have backgrounds etc.

Chapter 2, 4, 5, etc. - Blood Magics, borrowing heavely from the idea of Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy, Blood Sacrifce: the Thaumaturgy Companion and similar books, this will be in-game books dealing with each of the revised Edition Blood Magics. From Abyss Mysticism to Wanga.

as i've said, each chapter will be a in game book of its own, detailing history, practices, paths, rituals etc of that particular form of blood magic.

The chapters will be constructed as follows.


Each chapter should have the same basic outline, roughly like this:

- a welcoming portion and a history of the blood magic (a good example is the first part of chapter one of Guide to the High Clans)(each chapters historypiece will described by a luminary practitioner of that form of blood magic, with comments "tucked in" by others perhaps)
- theoretical discussions of the blood magic, it's principals etc. (good example can be found in chapter 2 of Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy)
- The actual Paths (a brief in-character description of the path itself. However, mechanics will only be refrenced to).
- The actual Rituals (described in the same way as paths).
- anything else special about that particular form of blood magic (perhaps canon Combo-Disciplines etc).

and appendix could be a bestiary where the various creatures are described in-character. (an example of this would be:

"Gargoyle
The Gargoyles are one of our greatest inventions, but
also a great thorn in our side these recent nights. It all began with
Goratrix bla bla bla
Stats
These creatures are created by the ritual known as [name of Ritual] ([reference to ritual])" )

what do you guys think? Can it be done?

Another question is, how far can one go before it becomes copyright infringement? Would keeping the mechanics but rewriting them in your own words be too much, i'm not thinking about paths or rituals here, rather than descriptions of backgrounds etc. because i have noticed that Guide to Abyss Mysticism has a few of these things basicly copy/pasted from the books, but rewritten to fit the feel of that book.

First, I should mention that the canon Abyss-ism rituals that are listed in the Abyss Guide ARE, as you say "re-worded," which is something I feel is borderline and may end up getting the axe, in the long-run. For now, however, I am working under the assumption that fans may utilize the intellectual properties of WW/OP/CCP, but may not reproduce or replace the need for any of their books contents." Which, like I said, makes the rituals I re-wrote a borderline issue.

To be honest, I would guess that I'm just trying be hopeful and that WW will make us take it out, in the end, but we'll wait and see when we ask for approval. I actually would recommend waiting to see if we are allowed before bothering to reword the crunch stuff.

I like the idea for the format of the book so far. It looks like it may turn out kind of similar to the way the Abyss Guide ended up.

Yes it can be done. =)

Well, I also didn't know that this new thread was started, so half of what I have to say is still in the old thread. heh.

So, I think we need to come up with a nifty, catchy title for this book, and then come up with a board for it all alone. That way you can post everything you got and at least I can respond to it all. And copy it and format it.

That way people will also see it on the homepage, and it may catch people's interest.

Secondly, I think an announcement on the Facebook page, or maybe a mass-email, wouldn't hurt to let everybody know the change in focus of this book. That way those opposed to the previous issues can see that it can be "worthwhile" working on it (meaning it won't get shut down for legal reasons).

Then I can make you a Mod of your section so you can create and destroy within it at your whim. I then recommend you making chapters for each thing you wanna talk about, in order to get things going. That's what I did, anyway. I say try that, stick to it and prove to everyone you're serious about the project and it should grow unexpectedly on you. =) Also, I'll try to assist where I can (I'm always available for advice or questions), as well as offer my formatting skills.

I think a book that tells us where to find every single ritual ever is a fantastic idea, so I want to help see it through. =)

I like the changes you are doing Cadmium, it will demand heaps of work but at the end of it - it will be worth it. With the abyss guide almost done, almost a year later I can say that you will get more inspired the more you produce. I think the same will go for assistance, people might feel more keen to help you out on this when we seen some progress and results.
What I feel been working for me when I rewrite something is that I weave in additional text to my rewritten words which can be connected to the topic but taken from another source. This always demands alot of reading from various books before I start my writing. However, being a detective is fun!
Best of luck!

I'm not a big Thaum expert, honestly, but I'll definitely be able to help with the creative side, like coming up with a little Story-hook here and there to make the Thaum Guide more interesting. Also, we have a Tremere NPC in our Abyss Guide who we/I declared was the creator of the Thaumaturgical Path of Shadowcrafting. We could use that as a connection between the two books, somehow.

Also, just want to point out that getting Anda enthusiastic about this project is a good thing. =)

Also Also, myself and Matt Avery also just put all the Abyss documents up in GoogleDocs. Maybe you could do that as well Cadmium, that way myself and others could maybe look through your stuff and help out.