Bardic Performances

[MeTekillot]

It would be interesting if performing as a bard had some kind of code and consequence associated with it.  Many of the other player professions on Zalanthas (pickpocket, combatant, grebber) do.

For example if instrument objects could be 'use'd and had some kind of failrate associated with agility, age, encumbrance, how well-rested your character is, maybe some instrument-playing skill, and the length of the action emote .

Code Select Expand


> use guitar [carefully plucking along]
You play your bone guitar, carefully plucking along.


Code Select Expand


> use guitar (finger-picking like a maniac while rolling around on the floor)
You attempt to play, but one of your bone guitar's strings breaks!
A sour resonance lingers.


Auditioning for the Circle would then be a bit of an exciting nailbiter, like "auditioning" for the arena in Allanak.

With a few PCs I've wanted a CUSTOM skill (or several) that starts at novice and advances like other skills, but it gets associated with a certain command, e.g., 'custom' which you would execute whenever you do something that codedly isn't available in the game but still a skill, e.g., juggling, playing a guitar, singing, getting an erection.  You'd have to assign the skill at the beginning of your PCs life, of course, and couldn't switch it around or it'd be pointless.  Hence, you could then tell if you fail or succeed at a juggle attempt or a singing attempt and RP it out accordingly.  Maybe this wouldn't work like technically or conceptually, and maybe it doesn't make sense.  The neat thing is - I mean you could just role a die or decide OOC if you fail - is that it would use the coded skill progression.

i'd use it for mudsex.

[CodeMaster]

It would be interesting if performing as a bard had some kind of code and consequence associated with it.  Many of the other player professions on Zalanthas (pickpocket, combatant, grebber) do.

For example if instrument objects could be 'use'd and had some kind of failrate associated with agility, age, encumbrance, how well-rested your character is, maybe some instrument-playing skill, and the length of the action emote .

Code Select Expand


> use guitar [carefully plucking along]
You play your bone guitar, carefully plucking along.


Code Select Expand


> use guitar (finger-picking like a maniac while rolling around on the floor)
You attempt to play, but one of your bone guitar's strings breaks!
A sour resonance lingers.


Auditioning for the Circle would then be a bit of an exciting nailbiter, like "auditioning" for the arena in Allanak.

With a few PCs I've wanted a CUSTOM skill (or several) that starts at novice and advances like other skills, but it gets associated with a certain command, e.g., 'custom' which you would execute whenever you do something that codedly isn't available in the game but still a skill, e.g., juggling, playing a guitar, singing, getting an erection.  You'd have to assign the skill at the beginning of your PCs life, of course, and couldn't switch it around or it'd be pointless.  Hence, you could then tell if you fail or succeed at a juggle attempt or a singing attempt and RP it out accordingly.  Maybe this wouldn't work like technically or conceptually, and maybe it doesn't make sense.  The neat thing is - I mean you could just role a die or decide OOC if you fail - is that it would use the coded skill progression.

I agree boog it was probably not the best idea for bards across the board...

But yeah nauta, that would be really cool.  In fact, I bet most clients could be scripted to add a self-imposed skill to your character (like your suggestions, juggling, singing, guitar, walking on hands, etc).

One could even wildly powergame those skills up like a maniac, and no-one would be the wiser. 

[Inks]

It's annoying when you are having a conversation and a bard starts playing then you have to wait till they finish. Music should be a coded skill that ruins listen checks at high levels, also.

Also nosave bard.

[RogueGunslinger]

Why would you have to stop your conversation?

[CodeMaster]

A related thread from some years ago (starting on a page that has a bit to do with this thread):

http://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php?topic=21124.65

[CodeMaster]

I just remembered that one of the interesting things about Ellis's "American Psycho" is how unserious the entire book is...

For instance the protagonist's musical tastes are completely backwards ("wrong" by convention) but you'd only really key into the absurdity of his opinions on music if you were familiar with 80s pop icons.

He does the same thing with designer suits (he actually confessed this in an interview, saying something like: if you know anything about fashion, you'd realize how ridiculous some of the suits the characters are wearing).  When I found out about this I went back through the book and discovered a few "clown suits" here and there, but I never picked up on them while I was reading through the first time.

The whole book is actually totally hilarious if you're in on the joke.  I also liked it when he momentarily mistook Gay Pride Day for Halloween.

Where was I going with this?  Oh yeah... If you know a thing or two about music, and wanted to be an elitist snob , you could describe complete cacophony in elegant musical terms. Few people would be the wiser, but it would probably be hilarious for them.

[Xalle]

I want to expand some people's idea of what the Circle is and help shift it way from its elitism being seen as 'posh' and snooty.

It isn't just singing and playing an instrument, and an occasional play. There are lots of 'arts' in Tuluk that bards could be skilled in, the art of politics, shadow arts, visual arts, satire and so on. What defines a good 'performance' doesn't need to be contained within singing and playing . As long as they contribute to the Circle's agenda and are loyal citizens. They also have a whole Circle dedicated to lore of the Known world too – who knows what they've picked up and collected over the years. The Circle has been around and open to players since Old Tuluk. That's such a rich resource! The bards are also great people to help organise events, as managing social situations is what they train to do.

It's not surprising people have been seeing bards as just singers and musicians. The current clan documentation is a bit too weighted on the singing and playing atm, and virtual arcs of learning that don't have much application actually IG. They rely too much on subjectivity, and make bards easy to dismiss as a whole just because reading a song or poem isn't to your taste. We're looking at all that, and hoping to flesh out the clan a bit more.

[Marauder Moe]

Definitely agree that Circle bards should have very diverse skillsets, and the documentation reflected that pretty well.

But I also got the sense that they are bards first, and while it's not impossible to pass an audition on non-musical performance alone, it will be held against you.  (This doesn't seem unreasonable to me.)

[Down Under]

Yeah, they're bards after all.

[Patuk]

Bard is not synonymous with musician. If it were to be held against you if what you were putting on was a show of making a handkerchief vanish that'd be one thing, but storytelling should be more important still than music, IMO.

[Down Under]

Maybe as important, not more.

[Delirium]

My not-so-humble opinion, from experience playing bards:

In a text-based setting, the ability to storytell is the most ability in anyone who wants to play a bard who people enjoy.

The "music" is tertiary - the ability to write good prose and stories, and engage your audience is crucial.

The ability to politik and judge the timing of a performance, and to create a performance based on a specific goal your patron has, are also crucial.

If you're not good at it, then you can play someone who is working on achieving that, and learn alongside your character. But that should be the milestone you're aiming for, rather than attempting to be the best at writing flowery emotes describing your musical abilities (for, though some people appreciate those, it won't win you the crowd).

[HavokBlue]

I had a laugh today in the first day of audio production class when my professor had us spend thirty minutes figuring out how to describe different sounds to a deaf person, using only words.

Reminded me of this thread. The conclusion we came to is that it's A ) hard and B ) not something anyone else will really understand or care about unless they've also been educated in the relevant terminology.

[Patuk]

Maybe as important, not more.

Why?

[Down Under]

Maybe as important, not more.

Why?

Because there is a tradition in the Poet's Circle of bards being multi-talented, with an emphasis on music/musical instruments. Storytelling is an important tradition in the Circle as well, but I wouldn't say it is 'more' important, unless you mean from an OOC standpoint?

[Patuk]

I genuinely think that, from an IC perspective, it makes more sense for the Circle to be more focused on storytelling, yes. This is taking into account the kind of civilisations Zalanthas has and the disparity in the skill of storytelling and music in general. I also think OOCly storytelling should be of more import, yes, but despite that, it makes very good sense for the circles to want to focus on storytelling.

[Down Under]

The reason I could see Storytelling as being quite important, is it's an illiterate society -- So oral tradition must be incredibly strong.

It might be interesting if the Poet's Circle shifted from focus on music, to focus on lore-keeping and storytelling, epic poems and the like.

[Patuk]

That is exactly my point, yes.

[Barzalene]

Yes!

[Rathustra]

Play an Irofel bard and let the other circles do their things.