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[Eidre]

In browsing through the search I've seen a few references to "paper" and "writing" (mostly "the game should have paper because it was invented before 1400"), and it's in the dev plan, but I was thinking of some (what I consider) interesting implementation details and what they could do for the game.

* Writing Materials *

- Papermill (NEW).  Requires a stone/block and bucket to build.  Produces the following:
-- Paper.  Requires one log, one unit of plant fiber thread, or one piece of plant fiber finished goods (regardless of how XXtatteredXX, making this a good recycle for used clothing).
-- Papyrus.  Requires one unprocessed pig tail or rope reed plant.

- Tannery
-- Parchment.  Requires one raw hide.  Vellum is a specific kind of parchment, so it shouldn't require a separate entry.

- Craftsdwarf Workshop
-- Wax Tablet.  Requires one unit of wax.  Wax tablets have the advantage of being re-usable.
-- Stone Tablet.  Requires one unit of stone.  Bonus points if it's made of slate.
-- Clay Tablet.  Requires one unit of clay.

- Dyer's Workshop
-- Ink.  Requires one unit of milled dye-producing plant (dimple cup, hide root, etc) or a bar of ash.

- Bookbinder's Workshop (NEW).  Requires one stone/block to build.  Produces the following:
-- Book.  Requires one unit of paper or parchment and either a tanned hide, metal bar, or a log (for the covers).
-- Scroll.  Requires one unit of paper, parchment, or papyrus and a log or metal bar (for the spindle).

Styluses/Pens/Brushes are so small that it could be assumed that they're readily producible from spare wood, reeds, feathers, fur, hair, stones, and so forth without having to be explicitly in the game. 

Writing surfaces would eventually become "full" and unusable, requiring a continued production of tablets/paper/parchment/papyrus to support writing-dependent jobs (with the exception of wax tablets and using a chalk stylus on a stone tablet, both of which can be erased and therefore preferred for temporary accounting jobs and totally inappropriate for long-term records and literature). 

Ink would be needed to write on books or scrolls, but just a stylus for a tablet.  Scrolls and books would hold vastly more information than tablets before becoming full (justifying the additional difficulty of making ink, paper and books/scrolls).


* Uses of Writing *

- Bookkeeping.  If writing materials are available in the game, then bookkeeping should require them in some form or another.  Either tablets or paper products would be acceptable, but the best fit would be a wax tablet because it can be erased and bookkeeping records don't have to be permanent.

- History.  An admin "historian" could record all of the events of the fortress in a book, scroll, or tablet of history, which they would keep in their office.  It could be later examined to get a complete list of significant events (especially by a reclaim or in adventure mode).  Reading about their history might generate a happy though to dwarves that idle in the historian's office.

- Teaching.  Dwarves with the teaching skill could generate a job called "write manual" if writing materials were available, resulting in a "XX Manual" where XX is the skill they are trying to teach.  Other unskilled dwarves would then randomly choose to read it and gain a small amount of that skill (sort of like Individual Combat Drill for weapon skills), but never higher than the skill level of the dwarf that wrote it at the point it was written.  Dwarves that were assigned a labor for which they had no skill might automatically go to an existing manual before starting if one was available.

- Entertainment.  Dwarves with the writing skill (NEW) and appropriate social skills (comedian, consoler, etc) could write plays, comedy, literature, works of philosophy, poetry, etc.  Dwarves idling or on break could read them and generate happy thoughts if their soul talents match the mood of the work.

- Library.  An activity area.  Like a hospital, it will know how many cabinets and filled writing surfaces are present in the area and can be designated as a meeting area.  Dwarves idling there tend to read the books therein.  Numbers of records, manuals, and entertainment writings could be specified in the nature of hospital materials to flavor the library as an archive, book-store, tech library, etc.

[Crimson Catsup]

I like your ideas, very well thought out. I always loved the idea of having my fort be the home of a famous library, like the library of Alexandria.

- Entertainment.  Dwarves with the writing skill (NEW) and appropriate social skills (comedian, consoler, etc) could write plays, comedy, literature, works of philosophy, poetry, etc.  Dwarves idling or on break could read them and generate happy thoughts if their soul talents match the mood of the work.

It would be cool also if dwarves could become famous for their writings and gain fans, not only in your own fort, but throughout the entire kingdom. Then have fans come from afar to meet your dwarf and read their works. Even the monarch could become a fan and request them to come to the mountain home, or to commission written works. Your fortress could be home to the Shakespeare of the Dwarven Kingdom. 

[Lanie]

It should be possible, that a Dwarf get possessed and is trying to work on an epic books. In this very rare cases, he may even demand precious gems, gold and colors [NEW] to create a well pictured book. Also there should be a possibility for creating something like the Necronomicon, or some kind of horror book that frightened many dwarfs, if he dont get all the materials he needs.

[Eidre]

Additional thought...all of the writing materials portion of the first post would pertain to making only the writing surfaces and materials, but not the literature within them. 

To fit nicely into the existing procedures for Strange Moods, there should also be a separate workshop (Chancery?  Scriptorium?) where dwarves use the Writing skill and tablets, books, scrolls, ink, and styluses to create written works.

Thus, it would be possible for a Bookbinder, Stonecrafter, Wax Crafter, Woodcrafter, or Bonecrafter* to make an Artifact Book, Scroll, or Tablet (complete with decorations, images, hanging rings, spikes, etc on the cover, spindle, back, etc), but would still just be an empty writing surface waiting to be filled.

Separately, a Writer with a Strange Mood would take possession of a Chancery, grab a desirable writing surface as their first material, and create an Artifact Poem, Play, Story, etc in/on it, perhaps using extra wood/gems/bars/etc to make pictures and illuminations on the pages and in the borders.

Clever Overseers could figure out how to get a mooded Writer to grab an existing Artifact Book to make a doubly valuable Artifact.

Or, give you another reason to be frustrated with your idiot dwarves when your bookkeeper grabs the Artifact scroll and fills it with inventory records.

* in retrospect, it should be possible to make tablets out of wood or bone as well as stone, wax, and clay.