Hello Honors Society members,
Thanks for stopping by our meeting. There's coffee and Mrs. Armitage's famous fig bars on the snack table.
This week, I'd like to show you a copy of a book that is attributed to Saint Germain, who I spoke about during the recent lecture series.
Take a look at this original copy, on loan from the famous Manly Palmer Hall collection.
- Triangle_Book_Detail.jpg (43.83KiB)Viewed 9029 times
In my own campaign, I used it as a tome that contained spells to help protect against Eihort, and wove the history of Saint Germain into my scenario, which was played out on the streets of Marseilles. The possibilities are endless. Because of modern-day cults that have claimed him as a prophet, this tome could most certainly end up as part of a Delta Green-style scenario, or a Bookhounds campaign.
To make a workable prop, I used Adobe Acrobat to break the PDF into individual pages, then concatenated the ones that I wanted into a single file. I had to be careful to select and arrange pages so that they would end up opposite each other, with two pages on a single sheet, making a diamond. This can easily be achieved by playing around with the order.
It's best to select a number of pages that is divisible by four, with the red front and back cover coming first and last in the file. I like to use the blank pages of the real inside covers as well -- that gives it a bookish feel.
Then, take it to your local friendly copy shop. Ask them to print your PDF with two pages per sheet-side, expanded to the edge of the paper, and "bookletize" the pages into a stapled, folded tome. I recommend something called "natural resume paper," which is full of cotton and has a woven, slightly fibrous texture on the surface.
You may want to get a test page or two from the printer before you do the whole book. I went to a place that rhymes with Stinko's, and found that one of their employees was an absolute whiz at getting this technique right, and others had no idea how to make it happen.
In any case, trim the edges of the book into the proper triangle shape, stapled in the middle so it opens into a diamond shape, and enjoy the awesomeness that you can bring to a game. I added some pieces of leather for a book cover and placed it in a stained, decorated wooden file box that I got from Michael's hobby supply. The whole thing took an afternoon, but I think it added a lot of fun to the session.
Let me know if you have any questions about how to do this. I'm not sure I've explained clearly, so it would help to get feedback from anyone who wants to try it. I will likely post some other potential prop tomes you can make in future posts.
