How does word get around during the Pendragon days? I mean, do notables send heralds or word with travelers mostly? How fantastical would it be to have use of messenger pigeons between major centers like Sarum and Winchester or whatever?

I'm inclined to allow say messenger pigeons because I think it adds an extra option for excitement, but I would want to use it sparingly (rare, only really important and sophisticated courts have them, etc.) and in addition, rather than in lieu, of word of mouth from human messengers.

Some of this might be in Book of Entourage, in which case, awesome, but for now I just need some info to help my narrate my campaign until that book gets out.

Well, messenger pidgeons suffer from four problems that I can see:

1) Limited communications: Length of message, and the pidgeon's inability to add verbally to the message even if questioned by the receiver.

2) Limited routes: Homing pidgeons home exactly to one location, you'll need to transport them back via other means. (Not a big deal.)

3) Reliability: Many knights like Falconry, and there are wild falcons aplenty, many of whom consider pidgeons prey. Whilst a lone messenger might be prey to bandits, a stronger group likely wouldn't be.

4) No Adventure Hook: Or at least poorer ones. It is much more fun when the PKs have to ride hard to deliver an urgent message than just to send a pidgeon. Or to sneak away from a besieged castle to get word to a relieving army, etc. And this would be the biggest issue why I'd be leery of establishing a pidgeon fax line.

To reply to your question, the notables would generally send a household knight or two to deliver a message, or more if the location is farther away and the route might be dangerous. Good adventure hooks / offcamera vassal duty for the PKs. Heralds, I think, would be more of a battlefield role to arrange matters between warring parties, or perhaps as diplomats to a very hostile court, where knights might get mistreated. Poorer people might have to rely on travellers, pilgrims, merchants going in the right direction. A knight might send his squire on a short, safe trip, for instance to take word to Sarum that there are worrisome developments near Levcomagus, and more knights to the border patrols would be nice, thanks.

In any case, my suggestion would be to use knights as messengers (thus giving PKs something to do on a slow year) rather than trust to pidgeons.

I concur with Morien. Not nearly half as fun.

One of my PCs decided he wanted a little more sure/fun way. So, he hired himself a troupe of troubadors/bards/skalds and sent them to the nearby courts to play and gather gossip. It is giving lots of scenario hooks.

Robert Schroeder

Moriens answer is useful and using travelling troubadours to take/deliver messages is brilliant.

A friend of mine who was constructing his own fantasy world had an empire set out "mirror towers" along roads with some hundred meters in between, that on clear days could send messages by 'light-morse' or something like that. But, that's high fantasy so not very useful in KAP.

One of my PCs decided he wanted a little more sure/fun way. So, he hired himself a troupe of troubadors/bards/skalds and sent them to the nearby courts to play and gather gossip. It is giving lots of scenario hooks.

Robert Schroeder


One of our players did this purely to raise his own reputation. One of the highlights of the campaign was when unbeknownst to him, another player bribed the bard to do the exact opposite. The look on the original player's face when the words of the song that had been doing the rounds finally reached him was priceless!

One of our players did this purely to raise his own reputation. One of the highlights of the campaign was when unbeknownst to him, another player bribed the bard to do the exact opposite. The look on the original player's face when the words of the song that had been doing the rounds finally reached him was priceless!

I bet it was!
but wow, any of my personal player knights would probably have hunted down and murdered those treacherous, useless, corrupt entertainers! >:( ;) :o

One of our players did this purely to raise his own reputation. One of the highlights of the campaign was when unbeknownst to him, another player bribed the bard to do the exact opposite. The look on the original player's face when the words of the song that had been doing the rounds finally reached him was priceless!

I bet it was!
but wow, any of my personal player knights would probably have hunted down and murdered those treacherous, useless, corrupt entertainers! >:( ;) :o


I think it is fair to say the bard did not last long...

Moriens answer is useful and using travelling troubadours to take/deliver messages is brilliant.

A friend of mine who was constructing his own fantasy world had an empire set out "mirror towers" along roads with some hundred meters in between, that on clear days could send messages by 'light-morse' or something like that. But, that's high fantasy so not very useful in KAP.

Those aren't pure fiction per se. The heliograph, also called the optical telegraph, was a device invented in the 19th century tthat used reflected sunlight to send messages over long distances. The heliograph didn't enjoy a great deal of long term use simply because the electric telegraph was more reliable (it works at night and doesn't line of sight between stations).

However it did find use in the military simply because it didn't require laying miles of wire between stations. The basic heliograph weighs 7-15 pounds, so it could easily carried by a single operator.

While in the real world it wasn't a very significant technology, it could have changed the course of history world had it been invented centuries earlier. Imagine the impact on the Roman or Mongol empire if they'd had such a technology.

On a more topical note, it's a very handy instance of a completely simple and plausible technology (that isn't magic) that could completely change the way a campaign setting.

On the whole "signal mirrors" idea, don't forget the simplicity of "signal fires".

"The beacons have been lit! Gondor calls for aid!"

Won't do much for long messages, but is a great way to quickly get the "we are under attack" word out.

Nothing sends a message better than burning peasant village, or two. ;)