Let's say you had a society where magic took the place of technology in most post-medieval respects, and this society was meant to be at or beyond a 21st century level of capability.

How would you use D&D style magic to have an "internet"? What would it be? How would it work?

RPGPundit

Some obscure mineral or plant that interacts with the astral plane, allowing those who meditate in front of it to enter the astral without significant investment in spellcasting. This mineral or plant also metaphysically travels with your astral body and allows you to exchange information with others over vast distances. Of course, this stuff is mostly found in goblin and kobold lands, so whenever you enter this astral domain, one is immediately mobbed by hordes of goblins and kobolds trying to sell you "shinies" (ie pieces of that mineral) that they have found and brought into astral space with them.

Eberron has a magical telegraph system based around "speaking stones." A GM could just make the speaking stones substantially cheaper, easier to use and not require a dragonmarked individual...

Crystal balls would replace television--such crystal balls would end up being monitors for their "Mind Golems" (i.e computers) searching would likely be voice based and you'd have to have "black ball Nanny lock" to prevent video porn.

You'd Network via Astral Links and have Magical Protocol standards that use an objects true name (and objects would be given "truenames" unique to it when enchanted)



Reading for inspiration:

pulp/20's magic: Doc Sidhe, Sidhe Devil both by Aaron Allston
World War 2 to Space race era: Operation Chaos and sequel Operation Luna by Poul Anderson
Modern Day but magic on the side: Dresden Series by Jim Butcher (Novels, soon to be TV series on U.S Sci Fi channel) note: Wizards in Butcher's Series muck up tech so he has a spirit:  "Bob the Skull" who is a spirit bound into a skull that acts much like a magical google, for occult informatin.

Get your Piers Anthony out of my fantasy!

Etherscope has the scope and etherspace... but it's a bit more steampunk than traditional fantasy.

Right, for steampunk I see no objections. For a fantasy world, this would be pretty weird. First of all, if not every stupid loser would be able to tune in, it wouldn't be the internet. This basically requires a society not entirely unlike our own. So with 90 % farmers and unskilled labor, that seems a bit contrived.

It would make for some funny halflings and/or elves, though.

Quote from: SosthenesRight, for steampunk I see no objections. For a fantasy world, this would be pretty weird. First of all, if not every stupid loser would be able to tune in, it wouldn't be the internet. This basically requires a society not entirely unlike our own. So with 90 % farmers and unskilled labor, that seems a bit contrived.

However, if you go back and emulate how the internet was first conceived and used decades ago, you could make it so that only wizards and other academics use it with any frequency. Perhaps something along the lines of scrying on a vast, centrally-located library.

How about a magical cyclopedia collection that magically updates all of the volumes as each of the owners contributes? The volumes could be located at public locations or be a personal cyclopedia (PC).  These magic items are so common they have become forum for advertisements, merchandising, correspondence, etc...

Quote from: ColonelHardissonHowever, if you go back and emulate how the internet was first conceived and used decades ago, you could make it so that only wizards and other academics use it with any frequency. Perhaps something along the lines of scrying on a vast, centrally-located library.

The astral or ether plane could easily be made into something like this. You'd have some planar bubbles approximating early bulletin boards.

This wouldn't exactly change much. To truly get close the real interesting part about the internet, a pretty large userbase would have too exist. Otherwise it's just a generic research hub and telecommunications system. Ars Magica 1500

Quote from: ColonelHardissonHowever, if you go back and emulate how the internet was first conceived and used decades ago, you could make it so that only wizards and other academics use it with any frequency. Perhaps something along the lines of scrying on a vast, centrally-located library.

If you are going to go with that angle, I have a ready made solution.

There was a free supplement for the second world sourcebook called the pact system. Basically, it let the character become part of various pacts, which had a cost to be part of.

One in particular (the Chamber) basically acted as an information repository that you could tap into... but you had to return to. It was sort of like a demonic wikipedia or p2p network.

It's here:
http://towercoda.net/PDF%20Files/Pact%20System.zip

Quote from: RPGPunditHow would you use D&D style magic to have an "internet"? What would it be? How would it work?

Formian hivemind.

It'd work just fine.


Cheers,
Roger

Quote from: RPGPunditHow would you use D&D style magic to have an "internet"? What would it be? How would it work?

There was a serialized comic in older issues of Drgaon that featured a magical internet (before one existed in the real world, I believe). There were physical terminals that looked oddly liek micro PCs that a user interfaced with via odd looking headgear (wired to the terminal).

The specifics of operation weren't discussed, though I believe the idea was that a terminal allowed the user to astrally project to a specific plane that acted as a kind of cosmic knowledge repository. In the comic, few had the ability to use the terminals, and the protagonists seek out somebody to access the "net" and do their research for them.

This user dies when connected to a terminal, his body drained found drained of life (i.e., it's all shriveled up). Obviously, this type of astral research has its downsides.

IIRC, the name of the comic series was "Libram X" (though I may be mistaken about that).

[Edit: Yep. It was Libram X, story by Jeff Grubb.]

Oh, you don't need magic.  Just telescopes, large towers, and semaphore.  IE, the original French telegraph system.  A somewhat upgraded version in the latter part of Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series combines the British version of the semaphore telegraph (which used cloth panels in a grid rather than mechanical arms)  and Babbage-style computational engines to create the Clacks System.