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
| 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
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