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[Owlbread]

Why would you teach them with such horrible spelling and grammar issues? That is obstructive to communication if not everyone has the same set of errors or much better reading skills than you are implying. If the former, then I miss your point.

Bards don't always tell or even know all of the stories you want them to, and don't perform at any hour of the day wherever you can bring a book or bunch of stone slates. Unless you have a bard who sticks firmly to one tavern, you might not even be able to find a bard, period.

Dwarvish spiral-shaped writing could be neat, and it even has historical precedence.

And, frankly..."practical problems to solve?" Dwarves forge metal with MAGMA. Practical is not a big issue for them, even taking out player input.

But how can this be done? Metal sounds quite expensive, and players usually have better things to do with their hard-earned ore than have a random scribedwarf carve out Big Hairy Mebzuth's Dirty Jokebook on it. Stone would also be very heavy. And what kind of literature will this be? Can you give examples?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Stone. Simple way for players to do it. Book-loving nobles can mandate lighter books, i.e. ones made out of aluminum or something. Larger forts can make lighter book-slab-thingies if they want to make their dwarves happier.

And what do you mean examples? Do you want historical examples of what a procedurally generated civilization with a completely fictional culture and species might write?

[Owlbread]

Stone. Simple way for players to do it. Book-loving nobles can mandate lighter books, i.e. ones made out of aluminum or something. Larger forts can make lighter book-slab-thingies if they want to make their dwarves happier.

And what do you mean examples? Do you want historical examples of what a procedurally generated civilization with a completely fictional culture and species might write?

Yes. Yes I do. I would like to hear your suggestions.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Stone. Simple way for players to do it. Book-loving nobles can mandate lighter books, i.e. ones made out of aluminum or something. Larger forts can make lighter book-slab-thingies if they want to make their dwarves happier.

And what do you mean examples? Do you want historical examples of what a procedurally generated civilization with a completely fictional culture and species might write?

Yes. Yes I do. I would like to hear your suggestions.

The point of that statement is to point out that we are arguing about a culture different from anything on Earth. In real life cultures, wood is typically easier to get than stone and wars are common, just to name two of the big differences between real humans and DF dwarves.

[Owlbread]

Stone. Simple way for players to do it. Book-loving nobles can mandate lighter books, i.e. ones made out of aluminum or something. Larger forts can make lighter book-slab-thingies if they want to make their dwarves happier.

And what do you mean examples? Do you want historical examples of what a procedurally generated civilization with a completely fictional culture and species might write?

Yes. Yes I do. I would like to hear your suggestions.

The point of that statement is to point out that we are arguing about a culture different from anything on Earth. In real life cultures, wood is typically easier to get than stone and wars are common, just to name two of the big differences between real humans and DF dwarves.

But if you can't think of what the literature should be, how can Toady implement it?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Stone. Simple way for players to do it. Book-loving nobles can mandate lighter books, i.e. ones made out of aluminum or something. Larger forts can make lighter book-slab-thingies if they want to make their dwarves happier.

And what do you mean examples? Do you want historical examples of what a procedurally generated civilization with a completely fictional culture and species might write?

Yes. Yes I do. I would like to hear your suggestions.

The point of that statement is to point out that we are arguing about a culture different from anything on Earth. In real life cultures, wood is typically easier to get than stone and wars are common, just to name two of the big differences between real humans and DF dwarves.

But if you can't think of what the literature should be, how can Toady implement it?

Oh, you want general examples? Sure.
There are probably legends and tales that a dwarf could carve on a dinner-plate-sized thing like you showed in that one picture. Poems, for nobles. Instructions on how to smelt, forge, and so forth--it's more complex for dwarves than for players, and imagine the quests! Neat little nursery rhymes warning children about the dangers of helmet snakes and what happens to children who go with greenskins. Heck, info on how to train or fight various monsters, or even just useful data on their anatomy. Simple little stories a bored dwarf could rent for an evening when there's no bard in town and read to his or her family or him/her self. Riddles. Important news--a rock disk 8 inches across is safe from common thieves and could conceivably be disguised as a stone dish. Records. Calculations on how many barrels of wine a fortress will likely need next year. Sure, most of those aren't for common dwarves, or even rich and respected craftsdwarves, but the ones that are are the most general.

[Owlbread]

Stone. Simple way for players to do it. Book-loving nobles can mandate lighter books, i.e. ones made out of aluminum or something. Larger forts can make lighter book-slab-thingies if they want to make their dwarves happier.

And what do you mean examples? Do you want historical examples of what a procedurally generated civilization with a completely fictional culture and species might write?

Yes. Yes I do. I would like to hear your suggestions.

The point of that statement is to point out that we are arguing about a culture different from anything on Earth. In real life cultures, wood is typically easier to get than stone and wars are common, just to name two of the big differences between real humans and DF dwarves.

But if you can't think of what the literature should be, how can Toady implement it?

Oh, you want general examples? Sure.
There are probably legends and tales that a dwarf could carve on a dinner-plate-sized thing like you showed in that one picture. Poems, for nobles. Instructions on how to smelt, forge, and so forth--it's more complex for dwarves than for players, and imagine the quests! Neat little nursery rhymes warning children about the dangers of helmet snakes and what happens to children who go with greenskins. Heck, info on how to train or fight various monsters, or even just useful data on their anatomy. Simple little stories a bored dwarf could rent for an evening when there's no bard in town and read to his or her family or him/her self. Riddles. Important news--a rock disk 8 inches across is safe from common thieves and could conceivably be disguised as a stone dish. Records. Calculations on how many barrels of wine a fortress will likely need next year. Sure, most of those aren't for common dwarves, or even rich and respected craftsdwarves, but the ones that are are the most general.

That kind of thing would make a lot of sense, and I would support it. I'm glad you like the circular writing idea, it just seemed quite Dwarfy.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Oh, and I just read a report of eleven diplomacy in Chainhammer which indicate that elves know about paper. This indicates that paper exists, so paper books of some kind are possible. Perhaps not common, but possible.

[Scoops Novel]

I'd like there to be developments with both changing and distinct languages and symbolism's to be translated and spoken. It would also give more depth to immortal characters, who may have seen their mother tongue and culture utterly change in the long years since then, alongside the opportunity's with diplomats, multiracial/cultural forts, secret society's, magic, Rosetta stones etc. Honestly, discovering that a message you once sent was the unwitting key to crucial information would be absurdly cool.

[Tsuchigumo550]

I'd like to see this work almost like expanded engraving: a dwarf is instructed to write an essay, or a book, or a novel, and he does. Dwarves with the writing skill would keep journals that track events in a dwarfs life (today I fought in the Battle of Example and killed a crundle) or (Today I defended the fort by helping my squad, the Daggers of Cheese, kill a badger) as well as periodically writing thoughts (Today I was thirsty) or (Today I was viciously mauled by a pack of angry dwarves, and it made me angry).

This could be read in Legends.

Books that aren't journals (or even the journals of the desceased- as they are considered finished at that point) could be sold to caravans for variable prices. Mostly, a book's value is based on binding, quality, and length. Content can also improve selling price- events in history take precendence over books about cheese.

[fractalman]

This is a masterwork ledger.  It contains 3719356 pages on the topic of the precise number and location of stones in Spindlybrooks.  In the text, the dwarves are hauling.

sigged.

[Tomcost]

I like the idea, but, why not incorporate a library as a meeting area like an unassigned statue garden? That way there shouldn't be any problems regarding working hours, because the dwarf will get there when he is idle (or is on break, like it has been already suggested). These libraries could boost the reader skill, while still providing happiness bonusses depending on the qualiaty of books your dorfs read. Also, this place should not be ideal for your dwarves to make friends and it shouldn't be able to support parties (but maybe reading sessions?).

[Urist_McDagger]

I like the idea, but, why not incorporate a library as a meeting area like an unassigned statue garden? That way there shouldn't be any problems regarding working hours, because the dwarf will get there when he is idle (or is on break, like it has been already suggested). These libraries could boost the reader skill, while still providing happiness bonusses depending on the qualiaty of books your dorfs read. Also, this place should not be ideal for your dwarves to make friends and it shouldn't be able to support parties (but maybe reading sessions?).

What if the reader skill was linked to a history-related occupation, like a historian, and if this job held seminars and recounted tales of the fortress/factions previous hardships, battles won and lost, important events that has happened like the awakening of a forgotten beast and who killed what during the siege on the 5th of granite, year 155. And if there is a relative partaking in this gathering he'd get an unhappy thought because it'd be about his ancestor dying?