D&D 5E How do societies communicate across distances in your world?
overgeeked
B/X Known World
Information travels at the same rate as travelers. In a low-magic setting that’s about 24 miles per day, depending. Messenger birds of various kinds can be used. But no guarantees. Boats, caravans, horseback, etc. Each village and town is isolated, basically as most people don’t travel more than 20-some miles from their place of birth. Some local or regional events bring people together, but not all the time.
Bedrockgames
Legend
I picked them up from watching a lot of wuxia movies and because my uncle used to race pigeons. In wuxia series they use pigeons constantly to communicate with their sect from a distance. My understanding, and it could be wrong, is you train the pigeon to go back to a particular spot. So if you have an organization in your setting, they can train their pigeons to go back to the organization HQ and have all their members have a cage of pigeons when they go out into the world. There may be more complicated instructions you can give carrier pigeons but this is how I used them.
bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
Those are based on the real-world Chappe telegraph. There's great and incorporated into the Far Talker I developed.
aco175
Legend
FR does have something in the supplement Aurora's Whole Realm Catalogue. If I recall, it is a portal system between outlets they have in major cities. I never cared for overlaying modern systems on the fantasy feel of worlds. I tend to have a portal, but only the kingdom powerful may have access to it. You would not be sending a message to your cousin telling her about the new baby. You may be able to send it with the merchant who travels around and it could get there by next spring.
Benjamin Olson
Hero
They light the beacons!
Same. Most people wouldn't know anyone farther than the nearest town/city anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Organizations and diplomats would rely on messengers, unless they're particularly powerful enough to have some magic. Teleportation Circles in particular bug me, so I have them be closely held secrets that are always under guard (it is a backdoor into your stronghold, after all).
I've got a few, very powerful NPC that would have it. Largely just royalty and powerful churches, but Flanaess spanning organizations like the Circle of Eight and the Old Faith use magic to send instructions to their agents too. It helps show their power, and when the PCs attain similar abilities it shows them how special it really is.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Smart crystals. Way better than the flip-crystals we used to have (although I still miss mine).
Couriers , messengers, travelers carrying letters or messages and carrier pigeons with an occasional Signal Fire Tower. Adventurers and Important People might have access to magic sometimes.
Things like Heliograph Towers have been experimented with but they are generally too expensive and often get destroyed by monsters.
Things like Heliograph Towers have been experimented with but they are generally too expensive and often get destroyed by monsters.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
In my previous homebrew I stol. . . uh, borrowed an idea from a fantasy book (maybe the Deathgate Cycle?) of albatross-like birds called "The Faultless" that follow ley lines that connect cities and places of power, allowing the birds to be trained between a few distant locations. So kind of like the Ravens in Song of Ice and Fire, but a unique creature. Most decent sized towns might have a post with a few birds imprinted with other locations to pass messages on and a large city might have several. Messages are then delivered by a messenger by foot once the bird gets local.
Still, that is no guarantee your message will arrive.
Still, that is no guarantee your message will arrive.
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