D&D 5E Eberron: from Maltese Falcon to The Newsroom

[tetrasodium]

It's not quite the 1920s but this is a good inspiration I think...

Now, The News | Decoder Ring Theatre

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Newspaper were always cheaply written and in a haste. What's important is reading between the lines.

Indeed, hell on wheels has some of that & straight up opens s1:e1with it.

 

[Undrave]

I know newspapers are of waning relevance in today's world, and even in the last decade or two of the 20th century, and I note the OP was born the same year I started playing D&D, and may have only childhood memories of watching a repeat of some old show or movie where a reporter was the hero.

Maybe it's just a tired old trope.

But Eberron was conceived as mixing film noir in with D&D fantasy, and as a device to bring that feel, newspaper bits seem spot-on.

Let's not forget that newspaper were basically the first mass media.

They had more prestigious papers, but they also had rags filled with the equivalent of celebrity gossips. They called them "The Society Pages" and dealt with balls, galas and other high society events. Also, back then you had a morning edition and an evening edition. With extra editions for breaking news!

Newspapers had to offer better writing as a selling point when the radio, the news reel and the television began to compete for the sensationalism... Or they went super sleazy.

Basically, newspapers had trash writing with no such thing as journalistic integrity for a long time.

 

[Windjammer]

In an old post from 2005, Mike Mearls and Keith Baker debated which sort of stories they want players to find, experience, and tell, as they adventure in Eberron.* Concretely, they debated Eberron's core story--the kind of core experience they want players to experience in the setting.

The reason the new ECS falls flat is that investigative journalism hasn't ever been a core story of Eberron. Journalistic engagements on Khorvaire may make for the occasionally stimulating mission: they just don't afford a lense through which to view the entire setting.

Even in Paizo's Golarion, chroniclers don't relay back tabloid news for the non-adventuring folks back home - for the equivalent of gossip-hungry retirees in Sharn. Instead, chroniclers record maps and intense reports for fellow adventurers.

Now that is a fitting vehicle to help would-be players get a feel of what it's like to adventure in a world.

Remember that passage from Fellowship where one of the hobbits in Moria starts to read alout of the drums in the deep, and they are coming? The chroniclers' diaries and reports you see in Classic Monsters Revisited are of that kind. They're written so well that I remember them over ten years later. Though I have an awful feeling that some of the prose in the new ECS will be remembered too, ten years down the drain, if less fondly.

In-game prose of live-reports are an amazing vehicle to make the setting come alive. When, that is, it succeeds at the levels of angle, register, and writing quality.

The problem isn't just that the in-game writing in the new ECS connects readers with material that's not been connected to Eberron's core story.

The problem is that it's delivered in what others, on this very page, liken to "celebrity gossip" and "trash writing." If that was deliberate, I find it a spectactular mis-assessment of the setting's core strenghts.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Again, in the name of the Sovereigns and Six, what the flying frick are you talking about? Why are you fixating on journalism when it's a minor upon minor thing in Rising???

Your group can have the Korranberg Chronicle as their group patron if you/they want. It's not a mandatory thing. You can still run noir intrigue outmaneuvering the Boromars and the Tyrants in Sharn, pulp scrambles racing the Emerald Claw to retrieve artifacts for Morgrave University, and heroic epics fighting the Cults of the Dragon Below and the Lords of Dust, all without ever having to deal with the press as anything more than an occasional nuisance. And the book provides resources for you to do so.

As for the newspaper sidebars scattered throughout the book, they're literally the pinnacle of flavour text/fluff. They're meant to get a look into how the people of Khorvaire think and what kind of propaganda they're being fed post Last War. It's not meant to force the entire setting into becoming the adventures of The Daily Bugle.

I have the book, I've read it, I love it, and I have absolutely no idea where you're getting any of this from.

 

[Gradine]

The reason the new ECS falls flat is that investigative journalism hasn't ever been a core story of Eberron.

You could not be more wrong if you tried; investigative anything has always been a core hallmark of Eberron, and while the Bogie-esque private inquisitive tended to be the more referenced trope, the idea of PCs as investigative journalists did not go entirely unaddressed in early Eberron.

 

[Undrave]

Even in Paizo's Golarion, chroniclers don't relay back tabloid news for the non-adventuring folks back home - for the equivalent of gossip-hungry retirees in Sharn. Instead, chroniclers record maps and intense reports for fellow adventurers.

Why not do both? Gotta make ends meet. Those business expenses don't pay themselves.

As for the newspaper sidebars scattered throughout the book, they're literally the pinnacle of flavour text/fluff. They're meant to get a look into how the people of Khorvaire think and what kind of propaganda they're being fed post Last War. It's not meant to force the entire setting into becoming the adventures of The Daily Bugle.

They're basically the same thing as the notes from the titular Beholder scattered in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. They're fun glimpse into an aspect of the world.

 

[tetrasodium]

This is just silly, I;m going to quote a couple examples of the newspaper clippings because there are people who don't know what you are talking about.
The Korranberg Chronicle

Spoiler: IN THE THRALL OF THE VAMPIRE KING

Kaius ir'Wynarn III emerged from the shadows like a villian in one of kessler's plays. His guardians kept him hidden during his youth while his aunt Moranna served as the regent of Karrnath. So it was a surprise to many when he burst forth to ckaim his crown & his power, all the moreso because of his uncanny resemblance to Kaius I. the rulr who plunged Karrnath into the Last War & instituted the brutal system of laws that bears his name.

Given the circumstances of Kaius III's Ascension, it's hardly surprising that the new king would face challengers from the proud warlords of Karrnath. Some questioned his lineage & ability to command. But the most unusual challenge came from the warord Drago Thul asserted that Kaius III was actually alive? Kaius I had elevated the blood of vol in Karrnath & instituted the use of undead as weapons of war. Drago Thul asserted that Kaius III was actually Kaius I, a vampyric monster "seeking to drain the lifeblood of Karrnath itself". This was a serious accusation; the undead have no rights under the code of Galifar & an not inherit titles or lands. Thuls challenge spread like wildfire, only to be crushed when Kaius III met the warlords under the midday sun & cut his palm to show his freely flowing blood.

This should have been the end of it, but the tale of the vampire king has proven surprisingly resilient. Some say that the king developed special enchantments to avoid the effects of sunlight; others say that he relies on changeling impersonators who take his place in the daylight. As for Drago Thul, he refused to stand down when Kaius III pushed for peace & the Treaty of Thronehold. He fled to the city of Stormreachin Xedri'ik with a small band of followers and continues to rally support against "the monster that sits o our throne"

The Voice of Karrnath

Spoiler: MROR HOLDS: BIRTHPLACE OF ABOMINATION

It's been seventy years since the Iron Council declared the Mror Holds' independance from Karrnath. King Kaius II was newly seated on the steel throne and lacked the resolve to bring the dwarf lords to heel. Now we see the harvest we have sown, and it is horrifying. Without the firm hand of Karrnath to keeo them on a righteous path, the Mror dwarves have embraced foul powers.

Witness Lord Malus Soldorak, seen in Korth this week for trade negotiations. His breastplate was forged from chitin & muscle, and it seemed to pulse with its own heartbeat. A guard present at the said that Soldorak's axe groaned when the blade came close to him as if the weapon hungered for human blood.

This is what springs from our mercy & forbearance. Who knows what horrors the dwarves are crafting - or breeding- in their mountain halls? We can notstand by & let this vileness continue. For the good of our nation, , We call on all true Karrns to demand that Regent Moranna unleash our full might on the Mror Hold & cleanse this horror

The article referenced in the OP is in Ch3: Sharn, city of towers. Other articles in that page 151-180 chapter are WATCH FOR FALLING DRUNKS (funny, moving about in sharn can be dangerous bro), THE RACE OF THE EIGHT WINDS BEGINS!(think superbowl/world series/stanley cup/etc type article), ENIGMA OF THE DIAMOND VOICE (interesting article about a playhouse/playwright & how their plays tie into the emotonal raw wounds we all have from the Last War), IS YOUR NEIGHBOR A CYRAN INVADER?(This pretty much goes after the cyran refugees pointing out that there could be elite Cyran warmages & assassins hiding among them. Imagine any number f stories about the muderers & rapists coming across the border as an analog), Dawn of Diseadse (an article about how Jorasco healers & others commemorate a plague that happened during the War of the Mark)

The news clippings convey interesting information about various things & manage to do it in a way that is often four dimensional showing borth sides of a controversial subject, how it was handled, and how any random person probably knows of it.

 

[Kurotowa]

As for the newspaper sidebars scattered throughout the book, they're literally the pinnacle of flavour text/fluff. They're meant to get a look into how the people of Khorvaire think and what kind of propaganda they're being fed post Last War. It's not meant to force the entire setting into becoming the adventures of The Daily Bugle.

It also helps to pay attention to which paper each fragment is from. The Korranberg Chronicle goes for sober reports about politics and international events. The Sharn Inquisitive is far more sensationalist and gossipy. The Voice of Breland offers strident opinion pieces and openly nationalist sentiment. Who's speaking is as important as what they're saying.

 

[Bitbrain]

It also helps to pay attention to which paper each fragment is from. The Korranberg Chronicle goes for sober reports about politics and international events. The Sharn Inquisitive is far more sensationalist and gossipy. The Voice of Breland offers strident opinion pieces and openly nationalist sentiment. Who's speaking is as important as what they're saying.

That’s amazing!

Again, I won’t be getting my copy until Christmas, so the idea that the dialogue boxes for Rising are newspaper headlines from different papers (each paper being of different journalistic quality) is fascinating.

 

[ChaosOS]

You could not be more wrong if you tried; investigative anything has always been a core hallmark of Eberron, and while the Bogie-esque private inquisitive tended to be the more referenced trope, the idea of PCs as investigative journalists did not go entirely unaddressed in early Eberron.

The ECS literally had a prestige class named Master Inquisitive.

The master inquisitive takes the art of investigation and deduction to the ultimate level, rising to the top of the field. A master inquisitive could be an elite freelance investigator, or a master detective working for a recognized law enforcement organization somewhere in Khorvaire. He might be an investigative chronicler digging up details on corruption and conspiracies. Whatever his occupation, the master inquisitive specializes in solving mysteries and shedding light on the darkest secrets.