WHAT ABOUT MY BOOK ON COSMETICS?

Know what annoys me most when playing a fantasy "RPG" video game? The story element of the game & the huge learning curve that comes w/ its plethora of lore... Coincidentally, it seems that the most successful video games of the day are those that allow players to wander away from the story for long stretches @ a time: Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim, etc. These games lean more on the strengths of modern video game technology, but are also limited by the trappings of the robot's mind: whether you or I enter Riverdale when we turn on the game, the NPCs will say the same things & act the same ways & all of the items are in the same places, etc.

When it comes to old school pen-and-paper D&D though, my views on story are quite the opposite as it's actually one of my favorite elements of the game. It's an organic & creative process that develops as multiple human brains play off of one another. You never know what will happen, or what someone may decide to do or create. That, to me, is the strength of a true role playing game & it cannot be duplicated by a computer.

That said, it bums me out when my character finds a book in a video game & I am expected to actually sit there & READ THROUGH six pages of generic fantasy fiction to obtain some nugget of player knowledge about the game world, etc. Why cant my act of opening it just tell me what my character now knows? Or what I need to know? Or how my character is better @ carpentry now?

So, what about that book your character found on cosmetics? The character can read it when they have time. A high intelligence will speed up their reading/comprehension. If what they are reading is a specific history topic, the character will be given the specific information they learn from reading the book. If the book is a general topic, like cosmetics, or say, taxidermy, then reading the book would be noted on the character's sheet for future negotiation leverage w/ the DM, e.g. the character is trying to work up a disguise ("also, remember a week ago I read that book on cosmetics?"), or perhaps trying to embalm a slain creature. Their having read each book respectively will aid them in the appropriate task. In a way, this adds skills to the game w/o adding a skill mechanic.