[✗] [Magic Lore] Bardmancy - to Whimsical Storytelling

[TheTri 378]

12 minutes ago, Milenkhov said:

Such a remarkable piece written by my dearest fellow; it is quite clear that his abilities to narrate and describe ideas are beyond of those around him, what my eyes gaze upon and the formatting before me is but exquisite and delightful. It would be no regret to accept such a piece within the confines of Almaris for the sake of better interactions and events of valiant grandeur. 

You know the lore good when they start speaking old English 

[_Sug 2554]

 

[Maclunkey 453]

Gonna create a medieval metal band and slay people with my epic lute riffs. Based and musicpilled +1

[Moonish_Imp 133]

My gosh this is epic, I hope it gets accepted so that it may be a reality! +1

[GUPPY 43]

WOW! Amazing! Absolutely stunning! Great work my good friend!

[Mavromino 513]

 

[Monkee 7356]

dope and flavorful +1

[latte 1310]

I love it

[Tetho 139]

So, I can finally go to an idol concert?

Hell yeah. Loved the lore and enjoyed reading it. +1

[tgrt 744]

I see it now. Our gentler souls

Our callous fingers, poems, voices

Our gifts and passions. Forms and noises.

All spears and swords and shields and bows.

 

Artists far- all shunned when met.

Nations wide now hate the type.

Potential, yes. But the wrong kind.

What good is art when “threat” comes to mind?

 

Self expression now marks of a soldier

Returning home with our fingers broken.

Our tongues cut out.

Our words and beats now drums

To a war we never started!

 

I see it now:
When just one asks for battle

Doesn’t matter where they settle.

Battle comes. But comes for all.

 

 

Nice Post- Got some feedback!

I’m glad you’re liking bard rp, Werew0lf! And I’m glad the community is so hyped about bards all of a sudden. I’ve performed far and wide as a bard for a good year or two and yet I’ve only met a handful of other artist-types. They’re a rare breed indeed.  At least the good ones are.

 

I whole-heartedly agree on Bardmancy being the next big thing for artistisc RP. Could inspire new and old players alike to pick up a lute and go wip out songs at a town’s square.

 

However

With only 4 spells being non-combat (and a liiiittle bit underwhelming) and a wopping 9 being combat based, I think the focus of this rewrite relies too much on the battle side of things. That, and using “The Combat of Music” as a hook just shows how much value you’re giving battle-bards.

 

You’re looking at how much damage musical magic can do instead of all the other cool things artistic expression can bring. Bard roleplay isn’t about killing anyone- I mean it could be, depends on how you run your show- But phyisical harm shouldn’t be the focus.

 

It’s about becoming the event.

It’s the same thing with bandit RP. It’s not about hurting people, feeling powerful, having spells or stealing mina or items. It’s about roleplay. It’s about how people REACT, how their characters GROW from an encounter. It’s about the story. Not much character growth comes out of getting knocked on the ground by a pseudo-earthquake that was just summoned by 5 goblins playing the maracas. Though that does sound awesome.

 

You wanna be your own walking event. A roleplay encounter, not a combat encounter. So why have so many ways to hurt people? Potential, but the wrong kind!

 

Gameplay Mechanics should adapt to the game

Like plenty other versions of Bardmancy, this one borrows a lot from d&d’s version of a bard. While that’s great in it’s on right, the d&d bard is mechanically adapted to a TTRPG with HP, AC, Stats and whatnot. Doesn’t translate too well into lotc’s subjective player-run storytelling medium. We’re not limited by those mechanics!

 

My man you CAN Vicious Mockery someone in lotc right now- No spells attatched. Just go out and do it! I’ve done it- They take 1d4 psychic damage straight to their EGO. It’s even better than marking numbers off someone’s HP pool. Don’t go for dwarves though. Not unless you have an escape plan.

 

Be all-inclusive, too!

Bards also come in all shapes and sizes! They sing and play songs, yes. But they also dance, they also paint, they sculpt, they write, they just... perform! Performance is much much more than playing a neat tune!

Why call it BARDmancy when this is more like INSTRUMENT...mancy?

 

Think of us not as bards, but as people who express themselves. People who share what they feel. There’s so much more power in that.

 

Closing Thoughts

I personally think this shouldn’t be what comes to mind when you see someone with an instrument. Like the poem I wrote at the start of the post- This would frame bards as possible threats instead of grand entretainers. Could start a witch hunt.

And trust me, if something gives people a way to “win lotc” they’ll abuse the heck out of it until it’s either nerfed or shelved.

 

Art can be a weapon, yes, but it’s one that hurts much more than flesh and this post doesn’t do it justice.

 

You’ve inspired me to write all of this, though. That’s the mark of a good bard.

I wish this idea grows out of its shell to become something beautiful, and I’m open to discussing my views with anyone interested.

Edited July 26, 2021 by tgrt

[Werew0lf 12005]

36 minutes ago, tgrt said:

I see it now. Our gentler souls

Our callous fingers, poems, voices

Our gifts and passions. Forms and noises.

All spears and swords and shields and bows.

 

Artists far- all shunned when met.

Nations wide now hate the type.

Potential, yes. But the wrong kind.

What good is art when “threat” comes to mind?

 

Self expression now marks of a soldier

Returning home with our fingers broken.

Our tongues cut out.

Our words and beats now drums

To a war we never started!

 

I see it now:
When just one asks for battle

Doesn’t matter where they settle.

Battle comes. But comes for all.

 

 

Nice Post- Got some feedback!

I’m glad you’re liking bard rp, Werew0lf! And I’m glad the community is so hyped about bards all of a sudden. I’ve performed far and wide as a bard for a good year or two and yet I’ve only met a handful of other artist-types. They’re a rare breed indeed.  At least the good ones are.

 

I whole-heartedly agree on Bardmancy being the next big thing for artistisc RP. Could inspire new and old players alike to pick up a lute and go wip out songs at a town’s square.

 

However

With only 4 spells being non-combat (and a liiiittle bit underwhelming) and a wopping 9 being combat based, I think the focus of this rewrite relies too much on the battle side of things. That, and using “The Combat of Music” as a hook just shows how much value you’re giving battle-bards.

 

You’re looking at how much damage musical magic can do instead of all the other cool things artistic expression can bring. Bard roleplay isn’t about killing anyone- I mean it could be, depends on how you run your show- But phyisical harm shouldn’t be the focus.

 

It’s about becoming the event.

It’s the same thing with bandit RP. It’s not about hurting people, feeling powerful, having spells or stealing mina or items. It’s about roleplay. It’s about how people REACT, how their characters GROW from an encounter. It’s about the story. Not much character growth comes out of getting knocked on the ground by a pseudo-earthquake that was just summoned by 5 goblins playing the maracas. Though that does sound awesome.

 

You wanna be your own walking event. A roleplay encounter, not a combat encounter. So why have so many ways to hurt people? Potential, but the wrong kind!

 

Gameplay Mechanics should adapt to the game

Like plenty other versions of Bardmancy, this one borrows a lot from d&d’s version of a bard. While that’s great in it’s on right, the d&d bard is mechanically adapted to a TTRPG with HP, AC, Stats and whatnot. Doesn’t translate too well into lotc’s subjective player-run storytelling medium. We’re not limited by those mechanics!

 

My man you CAN Vicious Mockery someone in lotc right now- No spells attatched. Just go out and do it! I’ve done it- They take 1d4 psychic damage straight to their EGO. It’s even better than marking numbers off someone’s HP pool. Don’t go for dwarves though. Not unless you have an escape plan.

 

Be all-inclusive, too!

Bards also come in all shapes and sizes! They sing and play songs, yes. But they also dance, they also paint, they sculpt, they write, they just... perform! Performance is much much more than playing a neat tune!

Why call it BARDmancy when this is more like INSTRUMENT...mancy?

 

Think of us not as bards, but as people who express themselves. People who share what they feel. There’s so much more power in that.

 

Closing Thoughts

I personally think this shouldn’t be what comes to mind when you see someone with an instrument. Like the poem I wrote at the start of the post- This would frame bards as possible threats instead of grand entretainers. Could start a witch hunt.

And trust me, if something gives people a way to “win lotc” they’ll abuse the heck out of it until it’s either nerfed or shelved.

 

Art can be a weapon, yes, but it’s one that hurts much more than flesh and this post doesn’t do it justice.

 

You’ve inspired me to write all of this, though. That’s the mark of a good bard.

I wish this idea grows out of its shell to become something beautiful, and I’m open to discussing my views with anyone interested.

I personally agree with a lot of sentiment here outside of the thematic of this lore write having only four story-telling abilities and nine combat entitlement. Bardmancy locks users to the usage of four storytelling abilities (and as redlines occur, more with the predilection of attempting to grate a system for storytelling outside of smaller consistent themes of elements, wherein it can blend with other magics and races). They are locked to only three combat abilities, with the higher possibility of addition-lore to implement voices and other storytelling abilities (which aren’t really needed, as the storytelling specifically state that story-team are granted permission to accept or deny other storytelling aesthetics people wish to implement).

 

The whole argument about dancing, singing, painting and writing is well observed — it was something that was originally implemented in the prior draft that I scrapped. This is mainly due to the red herring of LOTC: everything you have stated will be too much. It will become imbalanced and grow as a tool for more comparative, combative magic (something you clearly wish to avoid). I am not looking to see bardmancy as a combat-based magic, and am fully prepared to scrap the necessary abilities if need be. You cannot expect something to be accepted should it include both dancing, singing, painting and writing; you’re asking me to write abilities separate to five key criterias of medieval, wayfaring bards. The most common inclination of bards in present are instrument-playing, singing poet who recites tales, epics and stories to others for gratification and (possibly) coin. 

 

You have intuitively mentioned a system based around DND and cantrips; this cannot be implemented thoroughly outside of events because roll-based modifiers or set stats do not exist on this server. People will go by the norms of honour-based or roll-based combat without setting any statistics or power levels. 

 

As to your final comment, it does not make sense when rolling into the Lord of the Craft narrative. I understand that ‘when you see someone with an instrument, you don’t expect them to be combatants’. That could be applied to housemagery or any simple feat-magic that has no inclination to sorcery or mana use. It is the unexpected — that is why it was written. 

 

I appreciate the feedback heavily and I will take your words and notes as useful. Hopefully that clears up any discrepancies you may have had. 

[Slorbin 1771]

i like it but dont st specifically not want bardmancy to be a combat magic

[Werew0lf 12005]

55 minutes ago, Slorbin said:

i like it but dont st specifically not want bardmancy to be a combat magic

I don’t know, really. The combative part was simply a small thing I added because a lot of magics and feat will focus on it. Truth be told, this magic was meant to be more of a storytelling tool — to be free formed and used with other magics and creatures at the same time (i.e a necromancy storytelling with a bone lute, casting stories in shadows, an azdrazi storytelling with a dracanium flute, casting stories in flames, druids casting stories with a wooden harp through trees and animals and etcetera). The preset written story-telling abilities are more-so to act as guidance, the redlines stating that other aesthetics for storytelling can be talked on by contacting an ST.

[ShadowHasLeft 58]

As somebody interested in storytelling through a Bard character, this is very very exciting. +1 

[Aengoth 2883]