Town Criers

[BaconAwesome]

How do town criers work in your campaigns? Do they work for tips/get paid for more detailed news/get paid by the city? What kind of news do they get?

[Callak_Remier]

Propaganda spreaders for the local lord.
Usually a person you could bribe for information

[Tawmis]

Propaganda spreaders for the local lord.
Usually a person you could bribe for information

^ This. Usually paid by some form of government.

I always think of the HBO show ROME when I think of a good town cryer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueH3ihTN4OI

[Tiadoppler]

I use them like advertisements, essentially. Anyone can pay them to shout anything, so you get all sorts of weird/funny spam. That being said, I generally only have town criers in larger towns/cities, where there are enough passersby to make it worthwhile.

"Sir Lothok is a cheat who smells of rice wine and latrines! Come to the Sedated Swan for dinner tonight! Orcs have captured the town of West Reed-Whistle! Mr Retarien is a bottom-feeding hypocrite with weak arms and no skill at swordplay! Buy lumber and ore at the docks today, cheap!"

[Sigreid]

Basically paid by the people who want them to shout.

[lunaticfringe]

^ This. Usually paid by some form of government.

I always think of the HBO show ROME when I think of a good town cryer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueH3ihTN4OI

This. I love his slowly increasing disdain for the Miller's guild over the course of the series.

True Roman bread for true Romans

[Tawmis]

This. I love his slowly increasing disdain for the Miller's guild over the course of the series.

True Roman bread for true Romans

The show was _so_ freaking good. Was easily the best show while it was on, and severely under appreciated.

[LudicSavant]

Okay, that town crier portrayal deserves an award.

[Zanthy1]

I have them as government employees who report to the town hall 10-15 minutes before the hour, get a list of the news, and then walk about ringing a bell and shouting whats on the list. Anyone in the public can submit something for the list, though it does go through an official, and it does cost money.

I suppose they could be bribed to add something in without approval, or to give more information, but typically the official hands the crier a list and the crier shouts the list word for word

[darknite]

I don't think I've used a town crier in my games (my loss!). Given the trend that most RPGs assume universal literacy, most news comes from broadsheets, bulletin boards and tavern talk.