The printing press

[EP]

I think the printing press is already in the D&D game. That's way everyone except Barbarians are literate.

I don't think there's ever been any major reference to a printing press in the game, most written words are done by hand or the same cantrip mentioned for Eberron.

If there was a press in D&D, there would be something magical about it. Maybe not at first, but eventually. As for scrolls, it'd be safe to say that someone could produce a tablet for scrolls, but that would only provide the text required - a spellcaster would still have to manually write down the scroll to parchment and say it has something to do with the act of concentration in writing the scroll that embues the magic into it.

It doesn't seem that this kind of technology would kill magic because magic is a more substantial force in D&D than old superstititons in real history. If anything, it would be incorporated with magic. Text could be produced with "invisible ink" that allows the sole buyer of the document to view its words and no one else. Information could become more commonplace, but the rules already state that everyone can read but barbarians (and even then it only costs them a single skill point), so only those who could afford to buy such information would actually buy it. Costs may decrease, but I can't see this truly affecting the everyday adventurer to any extent.

Lame as this might seem, the first 50 years or so in a D&D world may be rather mundane for a press... but then someone will find a way to weave illusions onto the plate and create newspapers very much like those in Harry Potter. And as much as I'd hate to see something from Harry Potter in my D&D game, that's the only thing I can see. I don't see it having a major social impact like it did in our world (because information is already available through other means), but it can be used to create a more interesting society from the gameplay point of view.

CORRECTION: If a rebel organization fighting against a corrupt king were able to get hold of a press, then it could be dramatically different. Perhaps when played out that way, a press could have a huge impact. Would make for an interesting adventure, n'est pas?

 

[shilsen]

Eberron does not have a printing press, Eberron has a 0th level spell the copies written work.

Where is that spelled out? I seem to remember one of Keith Baker's threads where he said that he saw something like the Korranberg Chronicle being printed out partly on a press and partly facilitated (due to the volume of the printing) by magic.

 

[Pagan priest]

Maybe it would kill magic, just as science and technology killed much superstition in our world. Or maybe it spurs religious wars. Early adopting churches use the presses to produce cheap pamplets to spread the word and argue for the validity of their god's superiority.

That is a very monotheistic concept, and would not hold true in a polytheistic society. Most people would woship most Gods, and call upon Them as appropriate. None of this "Kord is better than Pelor" nonsense.

If anything, it would have the oposite effect. "Oh, so that's what Fharlanghn teaches. I'd better remember to offer some silver pieces before I try to travel next time!"

 

[rgard]

The King of Cormyr would start getting a lot more junk mail...

With Exploding Runes.

 

[NewJeffCT]

It all depends on how well you can distribute printed works. The first moveable type printing press was invented in China, over 400 years before Guttenberg. However, the Chinese printing press obviously did not have the impact of Guttenberg because it did not get out beyond eastern Asia. If you have enough ink & paper, and the means to distribute the printed product, it can obviously have a huge impact upon society... especially since the default PC is literate in the D&D world.

 

[00Machado]

The Ptolus setting has printing presses. Basically, it seems to provide an outlet for activists/interested parties to publish broadsheets with news of various levels of journalistic integrity. The broadsheets are a good way to plant plot seeds, and give the pulse of other happenings throughout the city.

 

[EP]

It all depends on how well you can distribute printed works. The first moveable type printing press was invented in China, over 400 years before Guttenberg. However, the Chinese printing press obviously did not have the impact of Guttenberg because it did not get out beyond eastern Asia. If you have enough ink & paper, and the means to distribute the printed product, it can obviously have a huge impact upon society... especially since the default PC is literate in the D&D world.

That's just it, though. People in our history WERE illiterate and the press made it cheaper and easier to produce documents, eventually opening literature up to a larger population. In a world where the population generally can read anyway, how much of an impact could it actually present?

Based on our theories so far, it might be safe to say that presses in a D&D world would have the same impact as the internet did for the modern, real world. Allowing average people a means to share their opinions and create a wider variety of viewpoints. Information would be more accessible, but also more questionable.

 

[Robert Ranting]

The Power of Print?

In addition to Ptolus, several realms in the Ravenloft setting have access to the printing press. At least one DM I know who's been running the setting for years had a party steal a book of poetry by the master bard Harkon Lucas, and using a printing press in another, more advanced realm, published it under one of the PC's names and distributed it throughout the world. Needless to say, that party is no longer welcome in Lucas' country.

Since everyone in D&D is literate except the Barbarian and a couple races like the Grippli, I don't see how a printing press would disrupt the gameworld, except maybe that people would begin to trust the news-sheets more than their local bard or town crier.

Of course, generally I tend to assume that not only the printing press, but flintlock firearms and highly unreliable steam engines and zeppelins are in limited use among the more cosmopolitan and technologically advanced cultures of my D20 fantasy worlds.

Robert "Conan: The Librarian" Ranting

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

However, the Chinese printing press obviously did not have the impact of Guttenberg because it did not get out beyond eastern Asia.

2 major factors in that were:

1) China was a closed society that heavily restricted trade with the outside world; AND

2) There are far many more symbols used in Chinese (and most other Asian languages) writing than in any Western printed language. It was barely practical to the Chinese, and would require much more learning to use- if for no other reason than to keep track of the storage of all the symbol blocks. It was barely faster than scribes.

For a Western country, though, the printing press was easily very practical: with fewer than 40 unique letters & numbers, plus another 20 or so common punctuation & math symbols, books suddenly dropped in price and increased in availability.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

...especially since the default PC is literate in the D&D world.

That's exactly why it's not going to matter. Everyone apparently already has the benefits the printing press brought.

There's no good explanation for it, but there you go.

Since people can read, that implies that they HAVE something to read. An insane assumption in a world with no printing press analogue that doesn't list scribes as the most numerous profession, but there you go again.

So, people can read, and do read. They obviously find value in it, or they wouldn't go to the trouble, so books and/or complicated accounting must already be in circulation. Given the nature of even mundane tasks according to d20 rules, I'm going with complicated accounting as the driving force, but YMMV.