Messengers traditionally fall over dead after delivering the letter, the final piece of information being the exact kind of arrow or bolt lodged in their back.
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I use Thurn and Taxis myself.
Magic
Well for short distances you can send couriers, they're in the hireling rules, for longer distances you use spells like whispering wind and sending.
In our home Kingmaker game, we have set up carrier pigeons and locations for Animal Messenger's to drop off their messages. This obviously only works for short messages.
Past that we assume that the patrols drop things off when required.
In past editions of D&D, Scrying could be done on something other than a creature. This caused a player in a different campaign to come up with MageBook. Put your arcane mark on a large wood board or chalkboard. Others can scry on it. Now you just post any notes to the board and others can read them from a very long distance.
This doesn't work quite as well anymore now that you must scry on a creature. It could still be adapted (pets are creatures), but you can't leave it unmaintained.
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Lesser planar binding and lesser planar ally can both call creatures capable of teleportation -- probably the simplest and easiest are lantern archons, with greater teleport and truespeech. Probably going to be mostly used by either lawful/good temples, or by wizards of some skill, so not in common use, but I would be very surprised if major governments did not have some access to this. Teleporting creatures can repeat messages, and carry packages with them, so great for mail delivery. (On Golarion, I can certainly see Abadar's priests running a network like this -- after all, post offices are one of the foundations of civilization -- "neither snow, nor rain, nor hail, nor sleet, nor dragons, nor krakens, shall stay these carriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds".)
Rangers and druids with animal messenger are more likely to be helping the common folk.
Sending spells are short (25 words per casting) but allow a reply. Again, expensive to pay for, but not impossible.
Magic is expensive, but far cheaper than the alternative once we get beyond pretty much a day or two travel time. Yes, only the rich can afford it, but generally speaking, the poor don't have transcontinental concerns.
I'd expect to see a lot of trained animals and vaguely intelligent monsters used as messengers. IRL we don't get anything much better than pigeons, but Golarion has a rather wider selection. The hazards are greater than IRL, of course.
One thing we take for granted in the modern world is mail and package deliveries. But in the fantasy settings used in pathfinder we often over look how long it takes for missives to get from one place to another or how letters are even delivered in the first place. With examples given in Pathfinder's Golarion setting I take a look at a few of the possibilities of how message go to and fro and what impact they might have on players in their adventures.
Have letters, missives, and notes played a role in your campaigns? If so how? Is there a dedicated messenger services?
There are none. If a noble wants a message sent, that's what his flunkies are for. Pretty much the same applies to anyone with a significant amount of power.
Common folk rely on paying merchants to deliver notes and parcels if the recipient is on their route.
Needless to say, such services are far more expensive than they are now, and most folks don't have a "you got mail" as part of their routine. Distance does separate people in a way it does not today.
Ravens.
Reasonably stable nation-states like Cheliax, Andoran, or Taldor presumably have some sort of postal system, even if it's expensive and/or inconvenient.
For basket cases like Isger or Galt, or for international mail?
Desnan priests, Abadarian road-wardens, sending stuff with trade caravans, hoping those crazy adventurers remember to deliver your letter...
i wana play an adventuring mail man now......
Emissary Cavalier archetype. That's really the only use for it...
In PFS I have a 14th level Aerokineticist with a bag of holding, all the range extension Infusions and Utility powers, and Ride the Blast. Traveling at 940 miles every 8 hours, this character makes for an effective postwoman, and charges very fair rates to transport letters and small parcels almost anywhere.
Pony express?
Pony express?
Fun fact...the Pony Express only lasted for 19 months.
The cost of sending a letter would be the equivalent of $130 dollars in today's money. And that is in a world far more advanced than Golarion.
Pony express?Fun fact...the Pony Express only lasted for 19 months.
The cost of sending a letter would be the equivalent of $130 dollars in today's money. And that is in a world far more advanced than Golarion.
This focuses in on a key (and perhaps overlooked at times) principal of any business or service - cost/benefit. People's time and risk cost money, and if you want to benefit from their time/risk you have to pay for it.
The Express Riders were paid about $100 per month in 1860 currency. Average wage back then was about sixty cents per day.
Wait, this is a fantasy world.
Hippogriff Express.
Wait, this is a fantasy world.
Hippogriff Express.
One thing that's true about most "fantasy adventurers." They still expect commensurate pay for their activities and their stature. Neither hippogriffs, nor their riders grow on trees. And for a service to exist you need consistent demand to meet their prices.
This means for most folk, casual letters, casualc communication isn't a thing.
Wait, this is a fantasy world.
Hippogriff Express.
One thing that's true about most "fantasy adventurers." They still expect commensurate pay for their activities and their stature. Neither hippogriffs, nor their riders grow on trees. And for a service to exist you need consistent demand to meet their prices.
This means for most folk, casual letters, casualc communication isn't a thing.
Well, maybe you don't have Hippogriff trees in your setting.
Neither did I until 5 seconds ago.
Wait, this is a fantasy world.
Hippogriff Express.
One thing that's true about most "fantasy adventurers." They still expect commensurate pay for their activities and their stature. Neither hippogriffs, nor their riders grow on trees. And for a service to exist you need consistent demand to meet their prices.
This means for most folk, casual letters, casualc communication isn't a thing.
Well, maybe you don't have Hippogriff trees in your setting.
Neither did I until 5 seconds ago.
YOU can go harvest them. :)
Poor people don't send long distance messages.
Common folk often rely on gossip to relay messages.
Common business folk that send messages can usually send it via the merchants they deal with.
Caravans and ships routinely carried mail.
Letters that went between cities usually were being sent to someone well known, so delivery was not usually an issue.
Most messages did not require immediate delivery. Nor was such expected. When it was needed, it cost more.
One notable message system was the Semaphore Line that was available in the late middle ages. It connected two points across vast distance, and could be networked.
With the spell Whispering Wind, it costs 10 gp/mile to send 25 words.
Minor Dream costs 60 gp, limit 20 words, and while it has no range limit, if the recipient is not sleeping, the spell fails.
Sending costs 280 gp for 25 words with reply, no distance limit.
Dream costs 450 gp, no word limit, no range limit, and can wait for the recipient to sleep.
I prefer this one:
Irrisen Mirror Sight costs 150 gp, lasts 1 minute/level, and visual only. Otherwise, it is very flexible, and can be used to contact roaming people. My character has a network with this spell, and use Lip Reading* to hold conversations. You can also prepare written messages to hold in view for reading/copying.
/cevah
*Lip Reading is a language per the linguistics skill. Invest a point and you can read any language you speak.
I only use Andoran Teleport and Telepath, but the Iliadari Dream Network is competitive.
Ahem...
Messaging Escrow Service (M.E.S)
You pay gold to the Service, then you or the Service hires a courier.
Then you continue your adventures...
The service holds the payment in escrow until the courier accomplishes the job and provides evidence to the Service that the message was delivered.
You do not have to wait around to get confirmation the message was delivered from the courier himself, you can adventure, travel, do whatever and check back to the MES anytime you want to see when the escrow payment was made. If payment has not been made, the message has not been delivered yet.
When payment is recorded, THEN you know the message was delivered.
Since all dead people know each other:
We are neither too big nor too small for your needs.
We are just right for you.
/cevah