Consulting a Book

The following is almost entirely stolen from James Young. I added the bit about INT MODs and slightly simplified the result table.

Highlights

• Player characters start hauling a library around in a cart.
• You know what to do when players want to do research.
• You know what to do when players try to read a book and you have to make something up.
• Intelligence is now a more interesting Attribute.

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How many books do you have and how long will you spend researching your question?

Time spent	Dice rolled on table below
1 hour	1d6
3 hours	1d6+1
6 hours	1d6+2
9 hours	1d6+3
2 days	1d6+4
4 days	1d6+5
1 week	1d6+6
2 weeks	1d8+6
3 weeks	1d10+6
4 weeks	1d12+6

Roll on the following table before asking a question you believe might be answerable by the book(s) you're consulting.

You may add 1 to the roll if you pass an INT test.

You may add 1 to the roll for each additional relevant book consulted.

Penalties might be imposed if the reader is of very low Intelligence or doesn't have sufficient background to easily understand the book.

1dx	Answer
1	Yes/No
2	One word
3	One word and roll again
4	Three words
5	Three words and roll again
6	Full sentence
7	Full sentence and roll again
8	Detailed explanation
9+	Detailed explanation and roll again

Note: the Referee will say "your question isn't relevant to the text of this book" if you've simply wasted your time.