What is the price of ingame books?

[Kafana]

Possibly not RAW, but what would be a reasonable price for books in a standard D&D setting. Pure mundane books. Could you give me an estimate on four kinds:

Common - found in most large towns and above;
Uncommon - found with some effort in most large cities, and with a lot of luck somewhere else;
Rare - usually need to do a "quest" to track it down, could possibly be the only copy in a kingdom;
Very rare - possibly 1 copy exists on the continent.

Now, there are a lot of factors that go into price apart from rarity, like who the author is, who publishes the book, how thick is it, so perhaps instead of giving me a concrete number a range would be better.

[Crake]

Possibly not RAW, but what would be a reasonable price for books in a standard D&D setting. Pure mundane books. Could you give me an estimate on four kinds:

Common - found in most large towns and above;
Uncommon - found with some effort in most large cities, and with a lot of luck somewhere else;
Rare - usually need to do a "quest" to track it down, could possibly be the only copy in a kingdom;
Very rare - possibly 1 copy exists on the continent.

Now, there are a lot of factors that go into price apart from rarity, like who the author is, who publishes the book, how thick is it, so perhaps instead of giving me a concrete number a range would be better.

It honestly comes down to how easily paper is manufactured. Generally speaking its not something commonfolk have access to, an empty "spellbook" is the best starting price simply for the base cost of a book, but remember, without printing press there's then the scribing fees unless magic is fairly common, in which case books can be copied with amanuensis at a fairly low level of effort.

[Zanos]

A blank wizards spellbook contains 100 pages of non-magical parchment for 15gp. Based on that just being a blank 100 page book, it's probably fair to say that common texts are out of the range of most common folks, since you could nearly buy two mules for the price of an empty book.

[Spore]

Even mundane (ie. unmagical) books can vary vastly if they are handwritten depending on their quality but most importantly content. Try comparing a copy of an important diary to say the bible. I am sure the first one will be more expensive.

[BowStreetRunner]

Stronghold Builder's Guidebook page 25 in the sidebar lists prices for book 'lots'. A 'lot' includes books on a single subject, allowing a circumstance bonus on knowledge checks relating to that subject. A lot that gives +2 to a specific knowledge check costs 1000gp. Alternately, there are generalized lots that give a circumstance bonus on all knowledge checks (although the bonuses don't stack with other lots). A generalized lot that gives +1 to all knowledge checks costs 3000gp. There are additional price points given for lots that give higher bonuses as well.

[Geddy2112]

In pathfinder, holy texts range from 1-100 gold, and various books that can aid in various checks range from 5 to 6,700 gold.

So Common: 1-50 gold
Uncommon: 50-500 gold
Rare: 500-10,000 gold
Very rare: Priceless/not for sale/if you have to ask you can't afford it.

[Chronikoce]

The prices listed so far seem reasonable but I would add that it also depends on the campaign setting. A world that's more magic prevalent like eberron would have slightly cheaper books while a world that's more medieval feeling would have more expensive.

[Gildedragon]

The prices listed so far seem reasonable but I would add that it also depends on the campaign setting. A world that's more magic prevalent like eberron would have slightly cheaper books while a world that's more medieval feeling would have more expensive.

Not just high magic. If the printing press exists, if newspapers exist, then penny-dreadfuls ought exist. Serials costing 1cp, and being a big way for the average person to find out about distant planes.
For a bit of fun the party could be approached to sell the rights to their story

[Honest Tiefling]

The culture comes into play, not just the technology. If someone did amass a huge library of knowledge, for instance, they might have vested interest in keeping all of their books and hoarding them. Especially if the books contain potentially dangerous or useful information, someone is going to want to keep that all for themselves.

[Chronikoce]

Not just high magic. If the printing press exists, if newspapers exist, then penny-dreadfuls ought exist. Serials costing 1cp, and being a big way for the average person to find out about distant planes.
For a bit of fun the party could be approached to sell the rights to their story

This is very true. Though I don't think I've been part of any games that bothered to establish the existence of the printing press as canon or not :)

[BowStreetRunner]

This is very true. Though I don't think I've been part of any games that bothered to establish the existence of the printing press as canon or not :)
While Amanuensis (Spell Compendium page 9) doesn't completely make this irrelevant, it does ensure that making copies isn't particularly difficult. A 0 level cleric/sorcerer/wizard spell that can make a perfect copy at a rate of 250 words per minute ensures that if someone has the will to mass produce any books they should be able to do so much more efficiently than the monks who hand-copied texts IRL during the middle ages.

[Ruethgar]

Afb, but there is a use of the craft skill in Races of Stone IIRC that has prices for various works.

[Gildedragon]

This is very true. Though I don't think I've been part of any games that bothered to establish the existence of the printing press as canon or not :)

Eberron has that or amanuesis devices cause of the presence of almanacs and the korranberg chronicle and the fact one can become the hero of serialized adventures.

[BowStreetRunner]

Afb, but there is a use of the craft skill in Races of Stone IIRC that has prices for various works.

Good call. I had forgotten this one. It has price ranges for a Poem, Novel, Reference Book, Epic, Song, Quartet or quintet composition, Symphony, Dramatic monologue, Comedic play, and Dramatic play.

[Chronikoce]

Eberron has that or amanuesis devices cause of the presence of almanacs and the korranberg chronicle and the fact one can become the hero of serialized adventures.

That's why I mentioned eberron as being the example for cheaper books. Though depending on the word count of the book to be transcribed you still might need to purchase multiple castings of the ability so a few gp per book still seems reasonable.

[Ruethgar]

That's why I mentioned eberron as being the example for cheaper books. Though depending on the word count of the book to be transcribed you still might need to purchase multiple castings of the ability so a few gp per book still seems reasonable.

Or just get a printer. A Comoner level 1 NPC wealth is enough for a decent house with a few cantrip wondrous architecture(create water, purify food and drink, prestidigitation, and light are all good choices) so it shouldn't be too far fetched that some of them would have magical printers, subsuming the cost of multiple casting into a larger upfront cost.

[Gildedragon]

Continuous Amanuesis wondrous item is 1500gp and can produce 36 20 page 10k word novelettes a day. To pay for the device in 2 months +8sp a novelette will do. Each novelette's paper has a cost of no more than 7.3 sp each (assuming parchment which for some reason is cheaper than paper) in base material.
2gp a novelette gives ample profit margins.
Assuming one can get cheaper stock (and bulk purchasing discount), can wait longer before paying off the device, the price could be pulled down. All that is missing is paying the expert writing the original texts... And distribution costs.

Perhaps traps are the way to go.
Assuming a CL 4 (for the trap to last the 40 minutes it takes to scribe the novella) it gives us a cost of... 1000gp
The trick is perhaps in managing to produce more copies than the 36...