The Guide
By Timothy Toner Sep. 1992The Guide is a ponderous tome, leatherbound, measuring easily over a thousand pages. Although the copyright states it was published in 1920, it has the feel of being sizably older. Some have ascribed this to shoddy manufacture, but those with knowledge know the reason is that the history this book contains has bled into the materials itself, making it as old as the mysteries it describes.
Those in search of the Guide will find it a book of legend. Specialty bookstores contain copies of previous editions, the 32nd being the most popular, but most of these are novelties compared to finding one of the 51st. It is said that if one amassed all 50 previous editions one can make, by reading the entire run over the course of years, a genuine replica of the 51st, although many occultists have been driven batty in the attempt. Any copies previous to this are relatively useless, since most of the text is garbled and hard to follow. Good for bathroom reading, but not much else.
Tobin's own notes indicate that only 50 copies were made before the fire burned down his press and destroyed the printing plates. He himself disappeared soon after, so it is probable that only these copies are extant. He managed to ship the majority of the copies out before the "dark forces" (his words) descended upon him. Freud used his notes in an unpublished case study, called "The Paper Man", showing the imaginative genius of a paranoid schizophrenic.
A simple perusal of a copy of the 51st edition (hitherto called the Guide) will lead the reader to find it an utterly fascinating book. This is part of the magic of the Guide. The work locks onto the subconscious thoughts of the reader, motivating them to turn to whatever interests them. Thus, it gives the illusion that nothing uninteresting is contained within the book.
Going through the book, page by page, gives an entirely different image altogether. Subjects are crammed together in no particular order. To read page by page takes a Stamina + Occult roll, difficulty 6, to even attempt to digest it all. Every success indicates that another 25 pages have been passed. A failure means the eye has wandered and no sense can be made. A botch on this roll means the reader picks up one of the less harmful derangements, usually mild paranoia.
Simply possessing the Guide is a tremendous boon. It allows an unskilled person access to Lupine Lore, faerie Lore, vampire Lore, spirit Lore and magi Lore. All one has to do is think about the subject in question and the pages turn. The amount of time spent reading determines the rating the book imbues:
| Time | Level |
|---|---|
| 10 minutes | 1 |
| an hour | 2 |
| a day | 3 |
| a week | 4 |
| a month | 5 |
During this time, no other occult texts can be perused, lest they make the mind wander. Also, if "adventuring" does occur, add +1 to the difficulty for each incident. At the end of the allotted time, the reader contemplates the question and makes his Intelligence + Occult level the book garnered. Note that this is a meditative text. Someone who already has Occult 2 or Faerie Lore 2 must still spend the full day reading to gain the new insight. In effect, the reader with prior knowledge is "unlearning" rumor and hearsay, and being filled with the truth on a particular subject.
Example: Egon consults the guide about Garou rituals, with a specific one in mind. He thinks about what he knows and flips through the pages, finding more and more references. The player wants the full benefit of the book, so he reads for a full month. At the end, he ignores his Occult 2, and rolls intelligence plus the newly acquired Lupine Lore 5. He had to go out a couple of times so the Storyteller, who was going to make it difficulty 6, now adjusts it to 8.
This newly acquired knowledge is difficult to hold onto, however. Depending on what level the book was read for, the information lasts for that time. For instance, if someone read Vampire Lore for a month, he keeps the level 5 for a month, then level 4 for a week, level 3 for a day and so on.
A complete year of constant use (reading once a day) gives a free +1 to ratings in all these things. No single trait can be increased, however, in a shorter period of time. One month for Lupine Lore alone, using the book this way, gains one a better idea of "the big picture."
What is the limit of the Guide? How right was Tobin? Those are answers left to better men. It is a well known fact, however, that the Camarilla actively seeks its destruction since supposedly it contains enough hard information on vampires to end the Masquerade. It is far from a favorite of Lupines, since after reading it long enough (perhaps around a year) the reader gains a 10 Willpower in respect to the supernatural, for purposes of Dominate and the Veil. Faeries also dislike it, since it gives simple rituals for various ways into the Otherworld, and they don't much like pimply faced mage-wanna-be's vacationing in Avalon. The mages all want a copy. Despite the incredible information network they have established, every copy the Arcanum comes close to acquiring disappears. It is said in mage circles that if the Arcanum gets their hand on the book, all the information gathering they require will be sated and they can turn their attention to more... "active" pursuits. Elder mages who may or may not have the book are keeping silent, since apparently there are things that "man was not meant to know" — and they're on page 616.
Of all the groups actively seeking the destruction of the book, none are more adamant than the spirit realm. For this was Tobin's forte: the clear, "scientific" analysis of spirits and the spirit world. There are many aspects most spirits just wouldn't like divulged. One of the most important of the secrets is just what makes the book so special: the Synchrospectre found in each and every book.
The synchronicity daemon (as one researcher called it) allows the Guide to function. With it, the spirit trapped within can read the viewer's thoughts, and make subconscious recommendations which way to turn. One merely thinks of vampire fangs, and he'll open to a page containing the information. This is what replaced the index in the books.
However, to operate, the synchronicity daemon had to know where to find stuff in the book. Therein lies the problem. Tobin snared the spirits, and then spiritually rammed the information down their gullets, making them quite insane. Their jabbering is deafening on some levels of the spirit planes, and seems to come from nowhere (this scrambling feature installed by Tobin allows the books to be safe from magical detection). Spirits do not take kindly to being imprisoned with no hope for reward, and they especially don't like the eternal torture their fellow spirits are enduring, all in the name of Tobin.
A synchrospectre can be released by pronouncing the name of the binder (Tobin) as the Guide is immolated. This binds the spirit to the burner for a term of two years. The effects are as such:
- Roll a d6 (reroll 6s). This is how many dice can be rerolled per story.
- The burner has the Charmed Life Merit, as well as a minor league guardian angel.
- Good things will consistently happen to the burner, as fortune falls right into his lap.
If the burner doesn't say the name at the time of burning, the spectre is trapped on Earth, and pissed. Roll d10 for the amount of years the spirit will continue to harass the burner in retaliation. The following takes place:
- Roll a d6 (reroll 6s). This is how many successes are turned into botches per story.
- The cursed one has Dark Fate slapped on him.
- Bad things await behind every corner.
- Friends of the trapped spirit make sure plenty of mages know this bozo burned a Guide, one of the most prized books in existence.