Newspaper(s) in your game

[shilsen]

I'm starting to DM an Eberron campaign soon and was thinking of using newspapers to give the PCs additional information about events occurring around Khorvaire, the primary continent for the setting. The ECS already mentions the existence of "chronicles", esp. the Korranberg Chronicle, which appears thrice weekly and features "news...as well as stories of adventurers and exciting expeditions, business solicitations, royal proclamations, and almanac information."

I'm sure others here have used newspapers or some equivalent thereof in their campaigns. Could you share any anecdotes about what you did in this area, how you did so, and how you found it working out? Any general suggestions about how to implement this use of newspapers?

Thanks.

 

[Jupp]

Our DM used the newspapers as a kind of running gag in our year-long campaign. Every now and then we would encounter an orc in the most bizarre place one could imagine with his leather pouch full of the newest issue of "Dymrak News". Naturally it had the famous barbarian page 3 girl to appease our male fighter PCs (obviously one of them went with the name of Conan ) it also had the latest financial data and more mundane things like recent weddings, funerals et al. The most memorable encounters we had with our newspaper orc was when we met him in the Desert of Desolation lying in the sand and enjoying the sun waiting for us (while we were desperately trying not to die from dehydration). The second best encounter was in the middle of the mists of Ravenloft where he would come running at us swearing at us about how darn hard it would be to track us down and that he would be more than happy if we would cancel the subscription of the magazine. Naturally we refused to cancel

The cool thing was that our DM had an actual figurine of an orc lying on a blanket enjoying the sun. Everyone was really baffled when he put this miniature on the game table for the first time. Now 11+ years later we still talk about the Dymrak News orc and where we had met him.

 

[kengar]

Read "The Truth" by Terry Pratchett.

 

[wedgeski]

I'm sure others here have used newspapers or some equivalent thereof in their campaigns. Could you share any anecdotes about what you did in this area, how you did so, and how you found it working out? Any general suggestions about how to implement this use of newspapers?

I don't have any anecdotes, but I can categorically say that newspaper handouts are a great boon to my d20 Modern campaign, for so many reasons I can't even begin to count them.

 

[Wombat]

I have three different papers (needless to say, irregularly published) in my game -- two are news broadsheets (Theudurb News and New Mavarga Correspondent) as well as a Shipping News broadsheet (tells of ships sailing out, coming back, lost at sea, odd lots of sale, hiring of crews, etc.). None of them are published more than once per game-month. All are colourful, partisan, but not necessarily "helpful" to the players. Instead they just provide background points to the wider world, though a couple of times character exploits have been mentioned and once a clue was found to a mystery. Overall the players really like them -- one of my players is even considering setting up a third news broadsheet to bring to the sessions.

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

I run a D&D game in a fairly tradition setting and use a handout written up in the style (columned, pictures etc.) of a newspaper. Since they don't usually have newspapers in the regular fantasy setting, so I don't actually use it in any IC type of way. It would just be too unrealistic.

What I do with it is hand it out before the session begins. I tend to have one or two "Articles" on places of interest, people, and a small handful of seemingly random rumors. In truth, some of them are random and some of them are actually pertinent while at the same time, some are true, some are half true, and some are total BS.

If I might suggest, I'd make it in a newspaper style. I'd have a "bio" section with the areas hottest and latest movers and shakers. For things like this, simply refer to today's headlines and pull similar personalities and such out - nobles, entertainers, etc. (I'm not familiar with Eberrron, but from what I understand, it has many parallels to the modern day, so this shouldn't be too hard).

I don't know if they have anything similar to a stock market, but things like that could be included. Also, a wanted section and perhaps even some personal ads (I'd love to see a barbarian put an add in there and see what type of responses he might get).

Best place to look is today's newspapers: weather, entertainment, ship schedules.

 

[Ranger REG]

In my campaign setting, the print press have not been invented yet. So I make the "newspaper" in the form of a community bulletin board in the common areas of the town (usually just outside the PC's tavern), or have a crier and/or herald announce the news.

 

[niastri]

I'm starting to DM an Eberron campaign soon and was thinking of using newspapers to give the PCs additional information about events occurring around Khorvaire, the primary continent for the setting. The ECS already mentions the existence of "chronicles", esp. the Korranberg Chronicle, which appears thrice weekly and features "news...as well as stories of adventurers and exciting expeditions, business solicitations, royal proclamations, and almanac information."

I'm sure others here have used newspapers or some equivalent thereof in their campaigns. Could you share any anecdotes about what you did in this area, how you did so, and how you found it working out? Any general suggestions about how to implement this use of newspapers?

Thanks.

I once used newspapers in a superhero game as a means of setting tone for the campaign and sometimes for giving clues about what is going on.

When the papers were screaming about the presidents daughter turning up missing, the characters just *had* to get involved, knowing the fame that could result.

They also new to hide under a rock when they were getting panned in the papers. I had a new edition come out as a hand out at the beginning of every session, during our "how was your week" time.

 

[Arnwyn]

I'm sure others here have used newspapers or some equivalent thereof in their campaigns. Could you share any anecdotes about what you did in this area, how you did so, and how you found it working out? Any general suggestions about how to implement this use of newspapers?

I never have, but way (way) back when in high school, a GM of mine (this is even before we knew D&D existed, and were still using our home system) actually created a weekly newspaper for a city in his game.

It was a simple one-page, hand-written affair, but the results were astonishing. The whole city came instantly to life, and I never wanted my character to leave. It was a big game, but I spent all my time in that city, just to see what would happen. Absolutely marvelous.

I have always thought about that, but I won't do it for my game. While the results would be fantastic (especially considering the use of technology nowadays), the work that would have to be put into such an endeavor would be incredibly crippling.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

In my short Urbis playtest campaign I had a tabloid journalist sneak after the PCs whenever they were up to something dodgy - which was most of the time. And then she wrote up grossly distorted articles about the PCs articles.

They absolutely hated her guts.


They first encountered her when someone had stolen some relics from a local temple. She tried to interview them, and the gnome PC was only too willing to talk to such a pretty young lady. He made some wild speculation that this might have been the work of the "halfling mafia", despite the fact that no such organisation existed.

And then she paid people to keep an eye on them in case further interesting stories developed. And whenever the PCs committed something that might be seen as a crime (like, say, kidnapping and interrogating a brothel owner about a crime ring), she grossly distorted the events and portrayed them as the work of the "halfling mafia". In this case, someone had seen "small figures obscured by the mist" (the gnome and the dwarf in the party) kidnapping an "upstanding citizen" (the brothel owner). And the PCs couldn't protest this view of things because otherwise their complicity would have come to light.

And yet the gnome kept on talking to her until the other PCs threatened him with violence. What started off as a silly joke at the expense of halflings nearly ended with a pogrom against the local halfling community, and eventually the PCs gave her some "hot leads" which had a high chance of getting her killed or otherwise permanently out of the picture...

In summary: It was great! Every campaign should have a few nosy and sleazy journalists! If there is a way for the DM to have more fun at the expense of the players it should be outlawed...