One of the major elements of the cyberpunk genre that's still relevant, I think, is Mass Media. Mass media will always be a relevant part as the world shrinks and communications technologies develop. It isn't about computer technology per se; people are fine with computers now, whereas fear of the unknown (as shown in movies like WarGames) made up a large part of old school CP.

My question, then, is how to replicate what it is that makes mass media cyberpunk within the fantasy genre. The answer can't just be 'magic' because that, imo, is a cop out , and by fantasy I don't (necessarily, if at all) mean elves, woods, trees, orcs, dwarves, mountains. But I do mean pre-industrial, supernatural, even magical.

How would you do it? I'm envisioning some kind of broadcast medium using specially treated crystals/orbs that are able to 'memorise' sound and picture for later playback. Though how such images would be broadcast I don't know. More importantly however is what is the culture informed by this media: this is the cyberpunk element. CP was never just about the tech.

I couple of things you might want to consider.

A mass media does not just develop. There is usually political and/or commercial interests behind it.

At it's most innocent the political aim might just be a public information service to inform citizens of new laws, dates taxes are due or what to do in case of a hurricane. Typically the government will find it hard not to use it influence people and provide their own spin on events. Of course the state enjoys a large measure of political freedom, opposing political parties might use the media to give their spin on events and win people over.

Fantasy worlds come in all shape and forms. Quite often though the ruling class are feudal monarchs or oligarchies, neither of which are normally keen on a free press. If there were a mass media in a feudal world it would likely to an instrument of state propaganda.

The over main driver of mass media is money. People may pay to get access to the news, either to buy a newspaper or perhaps as a subscription channel, but in most cases this only covers a small part of the media revenue. Most comes from advertising. And that is only economical when you have mass production and mass markets.

But perhaps the most important issue is one of tone. It is hard to pin down the key elements of fantasy but I think you can get to a point you tweaked it some much it's not really "fantasy" anymore but just some speculative, alternate society rich in magic.

I'll make an example. Fantasy worlds are full over colourful, traditional taverns with names like "The Orc's Head" with serving wenches and roaring fires. You could play with this, introduce into your campaign a massive chain of taverns called McClouds which are all identical, serve cheap, nasty food and in which the employees all wear a uniform and say irritating things like "Do you want fries with your wild boar?" and "Have a nice day.".  But then one of the reasons people might choose to play fantasy is precisely to escape such crass commercial world, and experience a simpler more innocent world in which individuals can make a difference.

hhhmm....


Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders or Pern novels had a version of "VERY quick communication" - Often the Dragons knew things before anybody else and relay the news to their riders. Any non-dragonrider that happened to be near such a pairing got instant news that way.

Technically the books were sci-fi.... not sure if that kind of thing would work for what you were thinking of.


- Ed C.

I think what I'm really asking is how to recreate that cyberpunk element of mass media and it's cultural presence in a non-industrial (fantasy) setting. It was a bit silly really asking how to recreate the actual technology as that can be down to anything (magic ). It's really the effect it has on society and culture as encapsulated by cyberpunk that's important.

I'm not sure I would want Big Brother Sauron or Camelot Idol, for instance. Reason being that, joking aside, they are too silly to consider in what will be a dark/gritty setting.

I suppose think more along the lines of the media presence in the LA of Bladerunner (the billboards and advertising that pervades the set), or, perhaps more appropriate, the strange whimsy of the Vurt world (from the eponymous book by Jeff Noon). So Big Brother in the Orwellian sense, not the stupid tv show sense.

Lots of town criers with talking points.