H – Heralds/Proclamations/News/Rumors

How does official government news get around? Is there a chief herald who directs all the district and neighborhood heralds with official proclamations? Is there a place where it is posted for those who can read?

How does news of the exploits of adventurers get around? News of foreign wars and monster incursions? Gossip and word of mouth are how most information gets around.

News will travel from city to city via merchants and the more hops the news makes the more blurred and distorted it is when it comes in. Rumor and gossip is how the commoners will hear of things, much like the game telephone where whispering down the line ends up with a totally different story than what started. How to determine how distorted the facts have become?

For a collapsed city, will there be remnants of a chief herald’s office? Will there be stellae or other carvings that depict information throughout the city? Will there be any trace of how information was relayed?

For some, using a more English flair, a herald would be in charge of Heraldry, as in the College of Arms. Heraldry in the Middle Ages arose out of keeping track of who was who on the battlefield, and it became formalized to indicate the arms, AKA heraldic device of a royal or noble house. Contrary to the belief of some Americans, if you have the same last name as a famous noble house, you do not “officially” get to use those arms. The exception is for those of Scottish descent, the clan lord, often a noble, may authorize a clan badge that all members of the clan may wear.

Inkwell Ideas has a Coat of Arms Design Studio program with a free and a fee version. Designing a coat of arms for even each nation in a campaign, like all the human kingdoms, plus the demi-human kingdoms, can take a lot of time. Some like the added touch of the visual aid. Others prefer to use clear and descriptive language for theater of the mind.

Unless you are going for realism for an RPG campaign set in a historical period or a “clone” of a historical period, going into the detail of a college of heralds, and all the detail involved can be quite daunting. I have tried to do that and end up spending more time on simple touches that I find are not necessary to actual play. As a world builder, I WANT that stuff. As a DM, I like the added touches, but can’t justify spending more time than I already have. Those little touches are nice, but if you aren’t going to use them in play, or as something that helps you as DM tie things together, is it really worth the time spent? My answer is if it helps you run a better game, then go for it. Each DM has to judge for themselves what that means.

Whatever level of detail your heraldry involves, will there be any signs of it in a living or abandoned city? Will monuments contain the insignia or the ruling families? Will merchant houses have their symbols? Will ancient marks of thieve’s long dead still exist? Will its meaning be lost or muddled to a current thief?

Taverns tend to have colorful names and we tend to expect them to have a sign depicting the name.

Will any of the symbols of an ancient empire still be in use? Will it span monuments, banners, tapestries, shield devices, mile markers, and coins? In my campaign, the ancient empire was symbolized by an iron tower or an iron throne. The tower theme has survived into some successor kingdoms. Some petty kingdoms have variations on the iron tower, each claiming to be the rightful emperor, but none able to make anyone outside their small area of influence recognize that.

I have a mercenary group my player’s have encountered, called the Green Shields, with green shields and cloak clasps that are also green shields. Would a famous mercenary group have survived over the centuries and players find an ancient pre-cursor to the current group, or might it only be a coincidence?

What groups can have symbols?

• Royals
  • Senior branch and cadet branches.
• Nobles
• Nations/Countries
  • Could be same or variation on the Royal coat of arms/insignia.
• Merchants
  • Specific Businesses, like Barber Poles
• Guilds
  • Merchants
  • Magic Users
• Adventurers
• Temples/Dieties/Clerics
  • Theological differences between branches of the same faith need a way to recognize those in schism, heterodoxy, heresy, etc.
• Mercenaries
• Taverns
• Tribes/Clans & their subdivisions
  • Scottish clans and their septs.
  • Orc Tribes, like the Bloody Hand.
  • Plains Tribes of horsemen, etc.
• What kind of groups did I miss?

In March, 2014 I published an article on districts or quarters of a city.