Send in the press

[Jürgen Hubert]

I've recently started my Urbis playtest campaign, and I must say I am glad that I made the tech level advanced enough for newspapers.

You know that your average party of adventurers is always involved in some odd incidents, right? Now imagine what happens when a newspaper with all the morals of a tabloid gets on their trail...

In my campaign, the party had angered the city's local halfling community, and one young, hotheaded halfling decided to steal an important religious item from the temple the PCs were staying in. The next morning, the head priest called the city watch - and along comes a pretty young reporter for the Dartmouth Enquirer.

The gnome bard in the party seems to have become smitten with her, and told her all sorts of things. The next day, he encouraged her to follow them (without the rest of the party knowing) when they were observing a brothel where they suspected a leader of the gang. They later raided the place, and kidnapped the gang leader (and dragged two prostitutes along, in the hope of "liberating" them).

Now the Enquirer has run several stories that convinced the public that:

- there is a halfling mafia in the city.
- they are in a fight with another crime syndicate ("Gang War in Dartmouth!")
- the halflings raided the brothel (or "bar", as the paper put it)
- and they've started to kidnap innocent human women as well! ("Several shadowy figures were seen fleeing the scene. A small figure seemed to drag two human women along." - the small figure being the gnome, naturally...)

Expect racial violence to rise soon in the city - which actually serves the main villains' interest.

And all just because a bard couldn't resist talking to a pretty lady...

Have any of you used a newspaper effectively in your own campaign?

 

[nopantsyet]

No, I haven't, but I just might have to try. I'm about to start a new campaign with a heavily political society, something like a golden age republic. Having newspapers will add a fanstatic dimension to the political plots, as the PCs will be constantly aware of some level of political machination around them. Hmmmm....evil-dm-sense tingling...

How did you handle printing, btw? Did you have a mechanical printing press or some magical means of reproduction? My campaign is going to have some early renaissance elements, but I'm afraid a mechanical printing press is too hi-tech. Or maybe some specialized transmutation spell. And the magocracy could abuse it's control over information. Interesting idea...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

No, I haven't, but I just might have to try. I'm about to start a new campaign with a heavily political society, something like a golden age republic. Having newspapers will add a fanstatic dimension to the political plots, as the PCs will be constantly aware of some level of political machination around them. Hmmmm....evil-dm-sense tingling...

Or not, if they are the sort of people who believe everything they read in the newspaper...

How did you handle printing, btw? Did you have a mechanical printing press or some magical means of reproduction? My campaign is going to have some early renaissance elements, but I'm afraid a mechanical printing press is too hi-tech. Or maybe some specialized transmutation spell. And the magocracy could abuse it's control over information. Interesting idea...

Mechanical, driven by a golem. Probably a medium-sized clay golem, as these are relatively cheap...

 

[Shadowdancer]

I used to do this alot when we played Cyberpunk. The PCs' reputation got so bad, they had to find an NPC Media (reporter) to start telling their side of the story.

I've also used it some in Traveller campaigns, but never in D&D.

 

[Ed Cha]

LOL, this sounds cool! I love halflings who cause trouble.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

LOL, this sounds cool! I love halflings who cause trouble.

Actually, the halflings were pretty much the main wronged party here.

You see, last session introduced a new PC - a halfling sorcerer/rogue. This halfling was also on the trails of the gang (the "Yellow Masks"), especially one fellow by the name of "Cutter", who had beaten up and mutilated the son of a relative because that relative refused to pay protection money.

This Cutter person was on the trail of another PC, a dwarven fighter/rogue - who had tried to sell a unicorn horn. And the Yellow Masks had lost a unicorn horn recently during a raid on one of their hideouts! So it is obvious that Cutter wanted to have a few "words" with the dwarf in private...

In the end, it came to a fight between the PCs and the Yellow Masks. The halfling stabbed a few in the back, but none of the PCs noticed this - and thus, when only the PCs and the halflings were left standing, they assumed he was a member of the Yellow Masks! The halfling surrendered immediately when threatened with a sword, but unfortunately, no one believed his claims of innocence (the gnome bard had botched a Sense Motive roll)...

So they decided to take him with them and interrogate him. The halfling told his story, and they agreed to send the gnome to the pub his relative owned, so that he could verify his story.

The gnome went there, and found that it was filled with angry halflings. When he asked them about their captive, the other halflings became suspicious and a dozen of them "asked" him to take him to their relative.

When they came to the vincity of the place where the other PCs were hiding, the gnome spoke out loud things like "We will be there soon". The other PCs assumed that the gnome was taken captive, and the big, human fighter hid behind a corner and announced his intention to hit the next person who came around the corner and wasn't a gnome with his club.

He did so. Fortunately, no one died, and the halfling sorcerer-rogue talked the others out of further violence, but needless to say the local halfling community was a bit... annoyed with the other PCs...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I used to do this alot when we played Cyberpunk. The PCs' reputation got so bad, they had to find an NPC Media (reporter) to start telling their side of the story.

I've also used it some in Traveller campaigns, but never in D&D.

Well, it's fun - the deeds of your typical adventuring party would be ideal for a certain brand of journalism.

And the tech level of some worlds is advanced enough for the printing press - including the Forgotten Realms. I remember reading a short story of some priest from an Eastern Realm who wanted to publish his experiences of traveling with the Tuigan horde...

For the ultimate guide on how to implement newspapers in a fantasy setting, read the Discworld novel "The Truth" (by Terry Pratchett, if you have to ask). Terry Pratchett himself originally worked as a journalist - and it shows...

 

[alsih2o]

this sounds like a blast.

yellow journalism and yellow masks, i think it is finally time to check out urbis...

 

[Ed Cha]

The gnome went there, and found that it was filled with angry halflings.

LOL. Do you have a picture of this?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

LOL. Do you have a picture of this?

No, unfortunately. I'm not much of an artist, and while several artists have volunteered to draw a few pictures for Urbis, asking them to draw scenes for my private campaigns would be a bit much, I think.

Though if someone's interested, I could certainly give a few more details...