Newspaper in D&D 3.5

[Bartmanhomer]

I just thought of something. What if there was a newspaper adventure in D&D 3.5. There would be a Profession skill (Journalist) that would do some good. Since there was free press during the Middle Ages. It would be a good idea to have a newspaper adventure. Also a wizard with the Journalist Profession skill would definately come in handy to travel from other planes to get the big scoop from outsiders. So what do you think about this idea?

[Gildedragon]

Good. It provides a patron; non-combat goals; reasons to travel all over the place; hooks for getting involved in all manner of business (from (monster caused) drought, to war zone, to eldritch ruin exploration, to murder mystery)

[Ashtagon]

There's a bad case of mistaken chronology going on. The Middle Ages are generally understood to have ended around 1453 with the fall of Byzantium. The first newspaper as modern people would understand it was made in 1605 (link (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Carolus)). European "news sheets" before that time lacked anything that we would recognise as journalism, either critical analysis or editorial slant. For example, a 15th century report on the recent DNC and republican conventions might read, in unabridged form: "Clinton and Trump to contest election."

That aside, such an adventure would be right at home in Eberron, and go wild if its your own setting.

Without breaking pseudo-middle-age tropes though, you could still have their patron be a book writer looking to be escorted hither and thither in order to do first-hand research, or a pamphleteer looking for an honour guard while he distributes and/or presents his politically questionable materials.

I would avoid making it all about a Profession (journalism) skill though -- primarily because once this adventure is over, it would have no more use, otherwise you would need to make it either an ongoing campaign or a one-shot.

[Telonius]

I started a thread asking about a Cleric of Journalism a few months ago. You might find some ideas there (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?485206-Cleric-of-Journalism-Alignment).

[Waker]

Or if collecting fresh news and distributing it to the masses would be too difficult, maybe you could instead write some kind of guidebook. And since D&D is often fraught with monsters, maybe you could reassure readers by including the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

[The Viscount]

In an Eberron game this has explicit support, the Thunder Guide class gives you fame and (very modest) fortune through the Lionized in the Press feature.

[Big Fau]

In an Eberron game this has explicit support, the Thunder Guide class gives you fame and (very modest) fortune through the Lionized in the Press feature.

Not that you should ever invest levels in that PrC if you have any intentions of surviving the encounters you want them to write about...

Viscount is right though: Eberron is your setting for that. House Sivis is very capable of performing this concept, and there is an existing newspaper in Eberron (the Korranberg Chronicle).

[gorfnab]

The novel The Truth by Terry Pratchett might give you some ideas of how to start a newspaper in fantasy style setting.

A resetting trap or continuous item of the spell Amanuensis might also be of use to a D&D newspaper (however the spell seems a bit slow for mass printing.)

[Extra Anchovies]

A resetting trap or continuous item of the spell Amanuensis might also be of use to a D&D newspaper (however the spell seems a bit slow for mass printing.)

This is a good place to start. As a zero-level spell it makes for very cheap items. You could make a use-activated item of Amanuensis (perhaps a stamp (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/RubberStamp_blank.jpg)), give it to a skeleton, set a stack of papers and a single finished copy in front of them, and set the source to be copied (up to one double-sided sheet) next to the stacks. Then give them the follow command:

10 Use item on top sheet of blank stack
20 Move top sheet of blank stack to top of finished stack
30 Goto 10
It takes a few minutes (one per 250 words) to start up, after which point it churns out one finished copy per skeleton per round. If you prefer you can substitute dedicated wrights or other nonliving command-following creatures, but I think skeletons are the cheapest non-temporary workers of that sort available.

[Willie the Duck]

There's a bad case of mistaken chronology going on. The Middle Ages are generally understood to have ended around 1453 with the fall of Byzantium. The first newspaper as modern people would understand it was made in 1605 (link (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Carolus)).

I suspect that might change in a world where everyone except barbarians are literate.

[Ashtagon]

I suspect that might change in a world where everyone except barbarians are literate.

Probably. Good thing for me that the OP was talking about the middle ages and not the pseudo-medieval setting usually implied in D&D.

[Willie the Duck]

Probably. Good thing for me that the OP was talking about the middle ages and not the pseudo-medieval setting usually implied in D&D.

I suppose if this were a competition instead of a discussion it would be. Either way, by interjecting the semi-modern concept of the newspaper in the middle ages, we are changing the middle ages. Shall we explore what that change might do?

[Ashtagon]

I suppose if this were a competition instead of a discussion it would be. Either way, by interjecting the semi-modern concept of the newspaper in the middle ages, we are changing the middle ages. Shall we explore what that change might do?

Lucky for me I did that too in my post, by acknowledging Eberron (which later posters did too, and oddly enough others then proceeded to praise them for being the first to note that Eberron makes a could setting or this). Lucky too how I noted that making this about a new Profession (journalist) skill would be a quick way to a one-shot, a dedicated campaign, or a wasted skill. Lucky too that I noted that even without newspapers, book writers would be all over the same sort of adventures (which if you think about it, also means adventures written for PCs supporting a would-be in-world author would be appropriate for adventures about supporting a newspaper).

But no. Apparently, it's more important to inaccurately nit-pick a point on historical accuracy.

[Gildedragon]

It wouldn't affect most very much. Most peasants are still tied to the land. But it makes for faster news dissemination: big event, and political and military maneuvering become more widely known, deaths and births and coronations are more expediently reported on
Associated technology like the movable type press, or in this case: the amanuesis press, come with bigger implications about the dissemination of radical ideas.

But the existence of spells like amanuesis comes with a far more important implication: sorcerers.
If magic is limited to trained classes (wizards and clerics) the social order doesn't change that much. But when any odd villager can become a wielder of arcane might because of birth... Well the feudal order can't last that long, not easily anyways. Cities would grow faster, probably... Wizard universities certainly. Exploration and experimentation would be done a lot, and tech such as gunpowder either doesn't appear for military uses ever... Or it gets developed much faster.

DnDs loosely pseudo medieval world doesn't always work, but transporting a more "realistic" medieval setting into a world with DnD magic works even less.