In-Game Publications?

[Quasqueton]

Is there any evidence in the core rules that the printing press (mechanical or magical or whatever form) has been invented in D&D? Whether or not there is info in the core rules on this device, does it exist in *your* D&D campaign?

How much information about the D&D world is available in printed form to people in that world?

Is there a listing of the known monsters in written/published form -- a "Monster Manual"?

Is there a guide book to the different realms?

Is there a guide book to the underdark?

Is there a scholarly work on the various dragons -- a "Draconomicon"?

According to the game books, there exists a "Book of Vile Darkness" and a "Book of Exalted Deeds" in the game world.

Is there an encyclopedia of the various planes of the great wheel -- a "Manual of the Planes"?

Etc.

I mean, surely someone in the D&D world would put their experiences and knowledge of places and things into book form and sell it. How much money could an experienced adventurer make by recording his knowledge and selling it on the open market? How much would an adventuring group pay for a book listing all the creatures and terrain features they might encounter while travelling through the Mountains of Doom?


In my campaign world, there is a League of Explorers who compile information from the various hired adventurers into volumes of encyclopedias. But the books are only available to the LoE primaries -- those who have invested many thousands of gold pieces into the league. Even the adventurers paid to bring in the information can't get a copy of these books -- much to their annoyance. It pisses them off to no end that they aren't even allowed to see the materials/artifacts they themselves have brought in and sold to the LoE. In effect, their adventuring is work for hire, belonging to the LoE

What info on the world is readily available to people in your world?

Are there books of information useful to adventurers? Are their periodicals? Newspapers?

Quasqueton

 

[Wombat]

In my last campaign we did have printing presses (early, crude, fixed type)

What was printed?

News sheets. Religious tracts (mainly prayers). Political rants. "How To" works. A bit on creatures and geography (some true, some false). Lots of cheap poems.

Sorta like real world presses...

 

[EricNoah]

S.I.G.I.S. -- the newspaper of Sigil in the Planescape setting, which was produced at www.mimir.net (planescape fan site), is an excellent example of this kind of thing.

 

[Jonny Nexus]

WFRP (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay) has printing technology as part of the setting (such as the printing firm Hewlett und Packard). I suspect therefore that lots of the books you'd come across are printed rather than written.

In a campaign I played in, our PCs made a fortune from a bookshop we owned in Altdorf (although most of the money came from illegal books on necromancy and demonology that we sold under the counter).

Course, we didn't feel so clever when we came up against a bunch of evil demonologists in a future adventure and it turned out they were former customers of ours.

 

[Arnwyn]

I don't think there is any evidence of the invention of the printing press in the core rules. And, regardless if there were, the printing press does not exist IMC - for exactly the reasons mentioned in the first post.

Books are all hand-written by scholars and monks, and thus are not in any way, shape, or form mass produced. Thus there are no encyclopedias, guide books, or "monster manuals".

 

[nopantsyet]

I've got the printing press in my campaign, and the government has a cumbersome bureaucracy full of printed forms to be filled and signed in triplicate. Published works exist of all kinds, but it is important to point out that thus far it has been found not to work for magical scrolls.

There is also a university with an extensive library that includes foreign and old works but is only available to individuals affiliated with the university.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Well, in this thread I ask about the issue of having the printring press in a magical society, esp. when some forms of magic are written.

IMC, the printing press does exist, & as a result, there is much higher levels of literacy (i.e., it's why all of the core classes except barbarians start off as literate).

As for what mundane works are being published, I think other posters have pretty much hit the nail on the head:

• Religious texts;
• Political tracts;
• Adventurers' memoirs/autobiographies;
• Philosophy/theoretical works;
• Basic texts dealing with a field of knowledge;
• Myths & legends;
• Popular stories/poems/works of literature;
• Legal texts/books of law;
• Legal notices/proclamations.

Things such as contracts, letters, or other works that would be a single copy (or perhaps only a few copies) would still be hand-written. However, stuff that's more fixed, & that's intended to be available to more people, will most likely be printed.

 

[Zappo]

S.I.G.I.S. -- the newspaper of Sigil in the Planescape setting, which was produced at www.mimir.net (planescape fan site), is an excellent example of this kind of thing.

I used SIGIS extensively in my Planescape campaign. I have translated the first 20 or so numbers, and I hand one to the players every week or so of game time. All that is described is integrated in the campaign, and the PCs have been involved in certain events as well.

 

[Janx]

I think it kind of depends on the technology level you want in your campaign.

The printing press was invented in the 1500's if I recal by Gutenberg.

Most D&D campaigns are set in a pseudo 1000-1300 AD era.

Certainly you can have certain inventions available before others. Or go the magical end, and assume there's a few low level wizard spells made for copying pages from one book onto blank paper..

You also don't need mass production, just to have books. Monks were copying books by hand for centuries, at a reasonable rate (though books were still rare).

Certainly most wizards have a library of books, and even the churches may have extensive libraries for the players to raid or research from.

You would certainly want to figure out a printing method if you are going to have books be very common, or if you want a local newspaper type thing.

If you stick to books being rare, don't worry about printing methods. Hand copying must be working fine. Players can find books as treasure or go specifically seeking them out.

Janx