Printing Presses?

[HuManBing]

Practical question: is there any city in RL where a person can walk down to the corner and buy a paper?

Copies of Paridon's daily newspaper are actually included as game-props in ''Shadow of the Knife". Granted, it's only one page long and the contents aren't too sophisticated, but it's most definitely a part of canon Zherisia.

It struck me as pretty close to what the local rags had in Dracula. There, the Harkers look at a local paper that tells of the Count's ship coming ashore in Whitby, and then also about Lucy Westenra's depredations on the local children in vampiress form. The entire newspaper reads like a beerhall yarn in tone and substance.

[Isabella]

Dementlieu's Ste Mere des Larmes sect of the Church of Ezra has a Bastion named Joan Secousse. If you are advancing a bit in current events, choose either Warden Armand Pineau or Warden Leonie Caille as her succesor.

They also, IIRC, are stated to have recently gotten their own printing press.

[sPtJanly]

Wow, that's what I meant to say, but left it out for what ever brain stunted moment reason. Thanks for finishing my thought, your on the ball.

[Strahdsbuddy]

It struck me as pretty close to what the local rags had in Dracula. There, the Harkers look at a local paper that tells of the Count's ship coming ashore in Whitby, and then also about Lucy Westenra's depredations on the local children in vampiress form. The entire newspaper reads like a beerhall yarn in tone and substance.

I think early American newspapers took on a form like this, like at the time the Federalist Papers were being published the rest of the "news"paper was mostly ship arrivals and business transactions.
Thankfully the media has rescued us today with such important things as horoscopes...

[Garudos Celestar]

I think printing presses specifically would be prominent in domains you would expect: Mordent, Dementlieu, Lamordia and maybe Ricehmulot. It might come down to the way you explain Cultural Level in your campaign. For instance, Mordent and Dementlieu have the same cultural level, but they appeared 128 year apart. Did Mordent always have this cultural level, or did they develop it over time; And if they developed it over time, why didn't the domains they had contact with develop it also?

Mordent almost certainly has advanced since its original entry into Ravenloft, at least judging by the portrayal in I10 (granted, that adventure also had orcs in the moors, so your mileage may vary). Let's compare the Weathermays of 579 BC to the Weathermays of 760s BC. Byron was a khopesh-and-crossbow wielding Fighter, the household handmaiden uses short bow and dagger,and there are no signs of any firearms throughout the adventure. 200 years later, Laurie is a multi-classed researcher wielding rapier and pistol.

My personal interpretation: the key event to the spread of firearms in the Core was the appearance of Dementlieu in 707 BC. Lamordia, while certainly having access to them by that time, had a small population and was only bordered by Falkovnia and Darkon, so probably would not have been really developed a major "export" industry, just having enough to arm the local baronial troops and high-ups in the constabularies. Additionally, because the domain does not seem to have been created from scratch, they would have had to have created their weapons the old fashioned way (i.e. with actual time and resources). Thus, Lamordian firearms would have been one-off luxuries for nobles and collectors in other domains, rather than staples of guardsmen.

Dementlieu, however, was created whole-cloth by the DPs with fully stocked armories and munitions, with a surplus. The connections of the d'Honaire family would have quickly given them an outlet to Mordent (and subsequently to Richemulot and Borca), rapidly altering the nature of the warfare in the Core over the next few decades (particularly once the Treaty of the Four Towers was signed, which likely was a condition of increasing exports).

As far as the printing press issue is concerned, I imagine there are about a dozen in the core: a handful in Lamordia (where it was likely invested), a few in Port-a-Lucine (including the one owned by the Church of Ezra, plus one controlled by the Council of Brilliance through Jen-Pierre and Dominic, and for the sake of completeness, probably an illicit one controlled by agents of the Brain), one or two in Mordentshire, and perhaps one apiece in a few other appropriate cities (Martira Bay controlled by the Kargat, Mayvin as the gnomes would be interested, and Pont-a-Museau controlled by Jackie R.) In almost all cases, they would be used mostly for broadsides of public notices with the occasional book or script (typical print-run being about a dozen copies), with the Church of Ezra specifically reserving their press for the four Books of Ezra.

[ewancummins]

There are a lot more than a dozen presses in my Core, but my Core also approaces the size and population of the Thirteen Colonies in the mid-1700s.

One of the PCs IMC owns and operates a print shop.

[Scipion_Emilien]

Other question, what about the book publishing industry? Dementlieu seems to have a good book publishing industry taht would imply more than a dozen printing press in the core.

[ewancummins]

Other question, what about the book publishing industry? Dementlieu seems to have a good book publishing industry taht would imply more than a dozen printing press in the core.

IMC-
The PC who runs a print shop is in the book publishing industry. Another PC resells books. Yet another PC has written and published a pamphlet about his adventures.

[MichaelTumey]

In Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting, I've included silk-screen and Japanese wood block printing - though like Japan the emphasis is more on art, entertainment industry, and only rarely political decrees. However, the dispersal of information is definitely greater in Kaidan, than in other settings I've run, but nothing compared to the modern world. This information is typically not what one would consider 'news'.