Broadsheets in Reich Parkeep

[Razorwing]

I was checking out a freshly-merged plugin and came across a broadsheet regarding the Gray Fox. Rather than removing it, I thought: Perhaps someone would be interested in writing a custom broadsheet for our town instead? A broadsheet is a newspaper format, so in essence this book would be a succinct one-page article describing a current event in town.

If you're not intimately familiar with Reich Parkeep I can understand that you might harbor a degree of uncertainty. One way around that could be to skip any kind of personal details in the characters mentioned, just using their names, because then the names can be easily switched out with other ones. So the characters would change, but your story stay the same, so to speak.

Here are a few ideas that crossed my mind; you don't have to use either of them if you want to write about something else. =)
? Maybe Baron Remo held a ball at the castle recently?
? Or a thief snuck into town and robbed the Elite Gear Store, and the town guard is blaming it on Dunmer saboteurs?
? Or perhaps the Redorans had their annual "Festival of 'X'" the other week and something funny/tragic/violent happened there?

There can be more than one broadsheet, if we should be so lucky.

Oh, and it would be really neat if we could reskin the broadsheet texture (\textures\clutter\books\broadsheet01.dds). If we could superimpose your article text on it - maybe even to the point of it being legible(!) - that would be mighty cool indeed. But primarily I was thinking of replacing the Black Horse Courier logo with something that makes more sense for a publication in our town.

[Treebiter]

I was reading an article on bird flu today... That pretty much explains my insperation

Not sure if this is anything like what you're looking for Razorwing, but it only took ten minutes so no problem if it's not.

The Daily Cuttle

Special Edition:

Guar flu epidemic hits Reich Parkeep

?I blame the Imperial N?wah!?

Says concerned farmer.

?First the blight and now this. What have we done to deserve it??

Says local teacher.

By Vane ?the Scaremonger? Daelnoz.

The recent Guar deaths in Reich Parkeep are just the latest in a string of such incidents stretching from Narsis near the border of Black Marsh, to as far North as Mar Gaan on Vardenfell. So far the disease seems to appear exclusively in Guar, but could this be the beginning of something much, much worse? Alchemist and member of the mages guild Aldrano Hlaoy seems to think yes.

Aldrano has been the leading researcher in cattle disease since the Red Tick outbreak of 3E 421 and was first on the scene when the Guar Flu epidemic began in the village of Neswis near Black Marsh. I recently met up with Aldrano and asked for his views on the Disease and if it posed a threat to Mer. This is what he had to say.

?The first reported case of Guar Flu is well known to have been found in a herd near Neswis on the border with Black Marsh. What isn?t so well known however is that the same form of sickness has been found by members of my research team in wild Netch around the area. Unlike in Guar, the flu appeared to be dormant in the Netch and caused them no apparent harm. This seems to explain, at least in part, how the flu spread so quickly in areas where Guar populations were sedentary. Last week however we were shocked to find the first Netch deaths that we could unequivocally relate to the flu. At first we were puzzled, how could something that first seemed safe to Netch now suddenly start killing them? After extensive testing on one of the cadavers, the results shocked even me. The Netch didn?t suddenly become vulnerable to the Flu, the Flu changed to become deadly to the Netch.? When I asked Aldrano if the disease could change into a form that could affect Mer, he could only nod his head and say ?It?s possible.?

How should we feel about this news, where did it come from, and most importantly, what are the Temple going to do about it? At a press conference in Mournhold last week Temple spokesmen revealed to us that they intend to give their healers special training in how to treat the disease. When questioned if this treatment would be free however, they remained tight-lipped. As for the origins for the disease, public opinion is split between it being a freak occurrence, an imperial conspiracy to weaken the Dunmer people, and the more likely answer, that it came from Black Marsh. Regardless of the source of the disease, the Dunmer people now have a reason to be worried for their health and The Daily Cuttle advises readers to stay away from livestock, and to contact your nearest Temple immediately if you notice any of the symptoms of the flu in pets or even people.

[Razorwing]

Yaay! :applause: It fits well, and was a good read!

I liked the title you came up with, 'The Daily Cuttle', though perhaps change the middle word since we couldn't have a new edition pop up every two real-time hours in the game? 'Montly' might work (just an idea, could also be 'Soluthis' or anything at all really).

In the second portion of your article I feel that you use terms that are too modern for a medieval setting, such as "strain of the disease". On Earth back in those days they would probably have thought it was witchcraft or evil spirits or curse from the gods or things like that, I think. Even scientists.

I think that "cadaver" might be a more suitable word in this case than "corpse". Corpses are humanoid bodies.

Other than that, sterling work!

[Treebiter]

Yaay!

Good point on the word choices. I'll change them post-haste.

As for the title, I just imagined changing the black horse for a black scrib and it all came together. I suppose if people did wrote enough we could make it daily... Or not

[Edit: My god. I can't believe I made that typo, makes me sound like a moron. I and O are very close together though don't-you-know]

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by Treebiter
Yaay!

Good point on the word choices. I'll change them post-haste.

As for the title, I just imagined changing the black horse for a black scrib and it all came together. I suppose if people did wrote enough we could make it daily... Or not

Nah, I don't think it would make sense to have a daily newspaper in a medieval setting. That didn't happen on our world until the 1800's, I believe. The first daily over here started coming out somewhere around 1850 iirc. But weekly? That could definitely work.

[DarkAsmodeous]

Please, please, do not make historical based decisions, in this world there are thousands of differences, let it be it's own world. But I agree, tamriel would not have a daily paper.

[Treebiter]

How about fortnightly as a comprimise. Doesn't make for a snappy name though. It would be nice if the papers updated every time you entered an area containing one, as long as it had been a long enough time in game to justify doing so. That way you would always have something new to read, and you wouldn't risk missing any. I'm knackered so if that didn't make much sense... That's why.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by DarkAsmodeous
Please, please, do not make historical based decisions, in this world there are thousands of differences, let it be it's own world. But I agree, Tamriel would not have a daily paper.

I was more thinking along the lines of what would be suitable and credible for a medieval setting, but in hindsight I didn't make that very clear with my real-world analogies.

[Tunester]

On broadsheets:

Has there been any discussion concerning whether or not to distribute "special" broadsheets associated with significant quests the player has completed? I always found it gratifying and immersive to discover that something I had done was important to everyone around. Conversely, some quests in Oblivion, when I was done, I thought should have had a greater impact on the society.

Second Topic on Broadsheets:

Does anyone like the idea of enabling players to have the broadsheet delivered to player-owned homes? This might be too complicated, but even a special chest which contains all available broadsheets to date might be fun. Just throwing this out there off the top of my head, throw it back if it stinks.

[Treebiter]

The special broadsheets you describe would be a nice touch, as long as they are broken up with general news... 2:1 for instance. That'd stop the constant praise becoming stale, or alternately, stop your ego from reaching mammoth proportions. =)