The Morgenstern Family Papers is a collection of spells for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5e released in two parts as Morgenstern’s Spellbook (2010) and Resnet’s Spellbook (2011).
Rasmus Morgenstern, Wizard extraordinaire, was fond of riffing on the effects of existing spells, creating alternate versions of popular standards. He also created several wholly original, if a bit quirky, spells and collected the personal spells of like-minded colleagues.
Resnet Morgenstern, Bard of no small renown, was a lover of knowledge who travelled extensively and amassed her own large collection of rare and unusual spells.
These spell books are intended for use as “random” treasure items, or perhaps as the centerpiece of a main villain’s library. Alternately, individual volumes could be placed as treasure and a quest line built around finding them all. And of course, they can simply be used as a ready source of a-la-carte spells for your campaign.
The Morgenstern Family Papers are available as “pay what you want” exclusively from DriveThruRPG.
Morgenstern’s Spellbook is a collection of sixty new and often quirky spells compiled by the lamentably overlooked Rasmus Morgenstern. While a few inferior copies from the personal libraries of his friends have survived the years, none of them are complete. This personal collection of Morgenstern represents the culmination of his life’s work, containing more spells than even the parsing of the few copies found to date has produced.
Four volumes bound in leather and secured with a belt, Morgenstern’s Spellbook comprises his thoughts and research notes interspersed with pages of spells. Not all pages are used, and the brittle paper has broken away in places or become stained and ruined with time and alchemical spills. This particular reprinting represents the bulk of the decipherable spells from the four volumes. The notes on magic and Morgenstern’s personal thoughts are not reprinted here, as they are muddled and difficult to comprehend. What can be made out often dissembles into ravings against various luminaries of his time, or the idiocy of the arcane community in general.
From the Introduction
Though Resnet shared her brother’s talent for the Arcane, she did not savor the politics and rigidity of the wizardly life. Instead, she took her pretty face and passable singing voice on the road, becoming a bard of no small renown. Though she enjoyed making music for people and telling tales, what really kept Resnet on the road was her thirst for knowledge. She also shared Rasmus’ penchant for making new friends among the other spellcasters of the world and collecting new spells.
Along with notes about her travels and musings on the world, Resnet collected these spells into a series of volumes written as an open letter to Rasmus. Her intent was to share her findings with him upon her return from afar. Alas, when she did finally return, Rasmus was off on one of his many journeys to collect yet more arcane knowledge — one from which he never returned. After waiting for years for his return, Resnet set off to find Rasmus, and was never seen at home again.
From the Introduction