Multi-function bracers

or "how I learned to stop worrying and love scrolls"

So, when I entered the game about nine months ago, I was handed a huge stack of scrolls that had been passed down and added to by several generations of Celestial Scholars in SF. I think it had been through three or four players before it came to me. But the question was, how do you carry them in a way that you can A. see the tag, B. read the incant clearly, and C. pull them out quickly. When the commander has been charmed and is laying into everyone around him calling "seventeen magic", one doesn't have time to dig through a bag or find where you put your spellbook. It's not like I would have my hands free either, between a wand, a cauliflower, and the packet I'm holding in my right hand. So I started sketching. After a couple prototypes, a working model that I used for several months, and a change of costume, I think I've settled on this scroll bracer design (apologies for the bad angles and the bad stitching):

Bracer9.jpg

Bracer8.jpg


It also works for potions!

Bracer7.jpg


Fill that baby up with cures, and I'm a backup healer. :D The elastic holds the scrolls in nicely, but as you can see I'm scared the potions will fall out when I'm running, so I just wrap rubber bands around the tops. The downside of this is that you still have to pull them out to cast them. I'm sure other people have thought of similar designs before, but a couple other scholars in SF asked me to make them a set, so I figured that other people might be interested in seeing the design.
 
Nice design. Any issues with them being knocked out if you get into a melee?
 
So, what are you using for the actual scroll rep, or am I just not seeing the scale? Because unless your forearms are a lot bigger than I think they are, those tags aren't 16 square inches. :D
 
Those are the reps; they are one inch wide and 16 inches long, folded over a couple of times to fit the bracers.
 
Like Shandar said, they're folded over about three times. They're actually 8.5 inches long and 2 point something inches wide- you can fit five across on a piece of standard paper. SkollWolfrun, I've never had a problem with it. When I was running around all day with an older design, which had the scrolls horizontally across my forearm, sometimes they would shift and I'd have to push them back. This setup probably wouldn't work for a fighter, though.
 
umm..as to the scrolls..I thought you had to be able to read the scroll, i.e. the incant on the scroll....unless you were a master scroll maker..
 
MKing said:
umm..as to the scrolls..I thought you had to be able to read the scroll, i.e. the incant on the scroll....unless you were a master scroll maker..
I assume that when she utilizes the bracer, she pulls the scroll off of it, unfolds it, and then casts. They are not meant to be read off the arm, but rather for having scrolls readily available. (Correct?)
 
Gandian Ravenscroft said:
MKing said:
umm..as to the scrolls..I thought you had to be able to read the scroll, i.e. the incant on the scroll....unless you were a master scroll maker..
I assume that when she utilizes the bracer, she pulls the scroll off of it, unfolds it, and then casts. They are not meant to be read off the arm, but rather for having scrolls readily available. (Correct?)

If thats the case then all good :) but then why not just make scroll reps and laminate them and put a hole punch and attack to a ring and one of the key rings with the sting and put it on your belt...less time to pull out and cast? I have seen a few people in the East coast do it that way...
 
MKing said:
Gandian Ravenscroft said:
MKing said:
umm..as to the scrolls..I thought you had to be able to read the scroll, i.e. the incant on the scroll....unless you were a master scroll maker..
I assume that when she utilizes the bracer, she pulls the scroll off of it, unfolds it, and then casts. They are not meant to be read off the arm, but rather for having scrolls readily available. (Correct?)

If thats the case then all good :) but then why not just make scroll reps and laminate them and put a hole punch and attack to a ring and one of the key rings with the sting and put it on your belt...less time to pull out and cast? I have seen a few people in the East coast do it that way...

Because that doesn't look as cool and actually kind of visually detracts from the in game atmosphere?
 
MKing said:
umm..as to the scrolls..I thought you had to be able to read the scroll, i.e. the incant on the scroll....unless you were a master scroll maker..

Yeah, you have to pull it out and cast. However, you can write the incant on the scroll so that it can be read in it's folded-up position. That's generally what I do, but some of these are newly-made scrolls and I haven't gotten a chance to write their incant on them yet. I find this is much faster than pulling tags off a ring- with this, you put like scrolls together with the tags facing up, so you can easily see what scrolls you have left. Sorting through a ring is faster than a pouch, but slower than glancing at your forearm. I don't know if it's legal to use a scroll that's folded, even if you can clearly see both the tag and the incant. Anyone know the rules about that? If I could cast straight from my arm, that would be awesome. :D I assumed you had to pull them out at the very least.
 
Anazstaizia said:
MKing said:
umm..as to the scrolls..I thought you had to be able to read the scroll, i.e. the incant on the scroll....unless you were a master scroll maker..

Yeah, you have to pull it out and cast. However, you can write the incant on the scroll so that it can be read in it's folded-up position. That's generally what I do, but some of these are newly-made scrolls and I haven't gotten a chance to write their incant on them yet. I find this is much faster than pulling tags off a ring- with this, you put like scrolls together with the tags facing up, so you can easily see what scrolls you have left. Sorting through a ring is faster than a pouch, but slower than glancing at your forearm. I don't know if it's legal to use a scroll that's folded, even if you can clearly see both the tag and the incant. Anyone know the rules about that? If I could cast straight from my arm, that would be awesome. :D I assumed you had to pull them out at the very least.
You have to be able to see the entirety of the scroll, as far as I know. I don't have my rulebook with me right now, or I'd check.
 
you do, i don't have my rule book either but i know we had the same discussion about when people were overlapping scrolls on the backs of shields and it was ruled illegal to do so.
 
Pg 102, third paragraph under "Scrolls": The entire scroll must be visible for it to be used. You cannot write the incant in very small letters in the top left corner and then hold a bunch of scrolls like a hand of playing cards with only the incant visible; nor can you overlap the scrolls and attach them to the back of your shield, fitting twelve scrolls in an area that should only fit four.
 
Inaryn said:
Because that doesn't look as cool and actually kind of visually detracts from the in game atmosphere?

What? Someone sacrifices combat effectiveness for atmosphere! What blasphemy do you speak!!!! :)

Next time I have to backpack someone, I'm going to tape my scrolls to his back and just touch, cast, then tear them off as we go forward.
 
Tear away clothing sounds like a bad precedent. Or good, depending on who's wearing it and your own predilections, I suppose. ;)

These are awesome. Jeff Rainville used bullet holders that you attach to the stock of a shotgun as armbands, which pretty much looked like this but a touch less in-gamey, and I know a number of people that used ammo belts for their rigs...

Three improvements I could see for these:
  • An embedded, covered watch.
  • On the underarm of one of them, a coverable slot for a glowstick (maybe have it hold at the ends of the glowstick?)
  • Some clasp-held sleeve for lockpicks in the upper forearm.

I'll try and sketch out the idea.
 
markusdark said:
Inaryn said:
Because that doesn't look as cool and actually kind of visually detracts from the in game atmosphere?

What? Someone sacrifices combat effectiveness for atmosphere! What blasphemy do you speak!!!! :)

Next time I have to backpack someone, I'm going to tape my scrolls to his back and just touch, cast, then tear them off as we go forward.


Actually, I've seen that done cleverly in-game. Caster had a five-foot long rolled up cloth scroll, tossed one end over his fighter's shoulder, and went to town.
 
Actually, a Master Scroll Maker still has to have access to the scroll as someone who is using a scroll and is not a Master -- opened up so as if to be completely visible -- it's just that they don't need enough light to ACTUALLY read the scroll. So, imagine being able to cast a LIGHT spell when it is pitch black -- thus doing the GANDALF w/LIGHT thing, to light the way.

(I miss maze mods which require skills like that to work through the rooms.)
 
Inaryn said:
Because that doesn't look as cool and actually kind of visually detracts from the in game atmosphere?

So if it looks cool and doesnt detract from the in-game atmosphere...I can NOT follow the rules

just a note....I find the use of bullet belts and shotgun shell holder, visually detracts from the ingame atm. for me..
 
Eh, we have to make some compromises on that front for the fact that things that would logically be built in Fortannis never really occurred in the real world. If potions were of vital necessity in the real world, then much like the baldrics that were developed for pistols, means of carrying them would have followed. If your issue is simply that they're nylon instead of being made of something more period, then I can understand, but there's only so many ways to make a device to easily hold small cylinders for quick access, and the shooting folks have found most of them. :D
 
MKing said:
So if it looks cool and doesnt detract from the in-game atmosphere...I can NOT follow the rules

No one is suggesting not following the rules. If you'd read the rest of the thread (or even the first post where she specifically mentions having to take out the scrolls to cast them) you'd have known that.

Let's not be so hasty to blow apart other peoples' cool costuming ideas, hey?
 
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