D&D5e Information Network

Types of Information Networks

Sources of information can be extremely valuable. Entire groups often know things that any given individual might not. The exact nature of the information is usually based on the make-up of the group: street and criminal contacts usually know what's going on in the shadows, while noble contacts are aware of happenings in the aristocratic sphere. Some kinds of information networks available:

• Bureaucratic: This category relates to the bureaucratic and judicial operations of the city, from low-level clerks to the doings of the Magistrates and Masked Lords.
• Criminal: This category relates to the activities of the city's criminal world, from low-level pickpockets to gangs to fences, usurists, and criminal compacts.
• Diplomatic: This category relates to the city's interactions with other nations and city-states, and the governments thereof.
• Defense: This category relates to both the city Watch and Guard, and to their inner workings as well as what activities and events that concern them at the moment.
• Mercantile: This category touches on the doing of industry and mercantile life, including information about the Guilds as well.
• Nightlife: This category covers events at the myriad nightlife locations in the city, from taverns to inns to festhalls, as well as theaters, artistic performances, festivals and similar events.
• Racial: This category covers information about one of the peoples of the city - dwarves, elves, and other demihumans - who do not make up the majority of the population.
• Religious: This category covers information about things going on in temples and in religious life in the city in general.
• Street: This category covers the rough lives of a city's populace, from beggars and the homeless to those who simply work hard for poor earnings.

The Rewards of Information

There are two core rewards gained through the use of information networks: secrets and rumors.

• Secrets: These are core pieces of vital information, as assured as any whispered lore can be. They are usually valuable and immediately useful, either revealing pertinent information of use to one, or at least to someone else (which can then be sold).
• Rumors: Rumors are more common and less assured. They may hint at interesting events, warn of future occurrences, suggest strange goings-on or simply tell of current events that may be manipulated for one's gain. They are far less reliable, and rumors tend to be worth nothing in coin (although it's not uncommon to trade rumors among one's fellows).

Establish Information Network (Downtime Action)

Network Size	Required Time	Required Gold Pieces
Small	1d10+10 days	4d6 gp
Modest	+(1d4)x10 days	+(4d6)x5 gp
Large	+(1d4)x20 days	+(1d10)x20 gp

A character may cultivate an information network as a downtime action, deliberately seeking to find those who are either sympathetic or willing to take coin in order to provide the character with information. Networks are rated in size encompassed, from Neighborhood to Regional. Once a network is established (at Neighborhood size), the character can continue to expand that network. Each stage has a threshold of both time and gold necessary to get it to a given level. When work begins on a network by a PC, the DM should roll to determine what these thresholds are, but not reveal this information to the player. Taking this action, then involves investing both downtime and coin towards these goals, hoping to increase the size and utility of a given network.

• Small: Your network covers a small village or a single neighborhood in a larger community (i.e. the Old Temple neighborhood).
• Modest: Your network covers a town or a single district within a larger community (i.e. the Castle Ward). It can also encompass several villages across a wider area.
• Large: Your network covers the whole of a major city, or several towns and villages across a larger area.

Utilize Information Network (Downtime Action)

Information networks serve a single purpose: to provide a source of information. Acquiring this involves "chasing down" your contacts, setting them to the task of what you're looking for, and then waiting to see what they bring back to you. This involves a roll on the following table, with the following modifiers:

• Time: For each day less than a tenday of chasing leads (-1% per day less than 10)
• Size: Small (-10%) • Modest (+0%) • Large (+10%)
• Coin Spent: Inquiries cost 1d10 gp (x.5 for Small, x2 for Large).
  • For each gp spent below this, gain -1%. For each gp spent above it, gain +1% (max +10%)
• Specific Info: If you are seeking specific information, there is a chance your network might discover it. This is considered a Secret, but your network takes a modifier based on the scale of the Secret: +0% for Minor Secrets • -10% for Moderate Secrets • -20% for Major Secrets
  • Minor Secrets: These secrets are considered embarrassing or personal. They do not endanger either life or social standing, but knowledge of them can be a source of embarrassment.
  • Moderate Secrets: These secrets are considered scandalous or devastating. They do not endanger the life or freedom of the one they are about, but they do threaten his social standing.
  • Major Secrets: These secrets are considered dangerous or illegal. Open knowledge of them could result in danger to the one the secret is about.

d100 roll	Result
Below 20	False Information: Bad information is passed to you, whether deliberately by an upset informant or fed to your network by someone scheming. You gain a Rumor and a Secret, but the Secret is false or incorrect.
21-30	Lost Informants: You do something to lose informants - get them killed, chased from the city, or placed under close scrutiny such that they cannot help you any more. Either way, you lose 2d10 days and 2d10 gp from your Required Time and Required Gold Pieces investments.
31-40	Upset Informants: You do something that causes your informants to become upset with you - embarrassing them, revealing their identities, etc. You lose 1d6 days and 1d6 gp from your Required Time and Required Gold Pieces investments.
41-50	Nothing Useful: You don't get any real useful information from your informants.
51-65	Scuttlebutt: You gain a Rumor.
66-85	Of Interest: You gain two Rumors.
86+	Secrets: You gain 1d3 Rumors and a Secret.

Sow Network Rumors (Downtime Action)

If you have an information network, you can direct them to spread a rumor. This mimics the "Sowing Rumors" downtime action, except that the network itself takes the time to spread it, without you having to do anything during that time yourself. This still takes the normal amount of time and cost, but frees you up to do other things. You must simply spend 1 day establishing the rumor with your people.