Anachronistic phrases, or blues in my fantasy.

[RangerWickett]

If I want a swamp village where people play blues music, how can I describe it yet keep the verisimilitude of a setting where blues music isn't called blues. Or is it cool to call blues blues in a fantasy setting?

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

The latter.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

If I want a swamp village where people play blues music, how can I describe it yet keep the verisimilitude of a setting where blues music isn't called blues. Or is it cool to call blues blues in a fantasy setting?

Hmmm...hard to say. I would guess you would begin by describing blues to people who haven't heard it. Rhythmic, strong, emotional lyrics, etc. Put a new word to it that would fit the description you gave.

I wouldn't call it blues because (at least for a music geek like me), it would take me out of the atmosphere of the game. That would be like giving elves Performance (Breakbeat) as a class skill for the Forgotten Realms. Wouldn't work.

Drizzt Do'Urden: "These. Are. The breaks! Breakitupbreakitupbreakitup!"

 

[I'm A Banana]

As one who's done it....

I used a specific race for it, though this may play up the racial tensions in RL blues musinc too much for some folks...but the 'creators of the blues ' IMC were lizardfolk, so it's known as "Scalewind" music. The lizardfolk were the poor of the marshland metropolis, and had been trying to live with the expansive human empire rather than assert their own individuality. The disconnect they felt from their natural roots was expressed through "scalewind," a mourning music filled with raw power and deep sadness in wind instruments that used the lizardfolk's own unique vibrations to create sound. Some of the local humans and elves had appropriated it and made it famous, and the adventure I had revolved around the son of a lizardfolk bard whose father was killed after an elf acquaintance stole his music and passed it off as his own. The lizardfolk, in vengeance, wanted to kill the elf idol at a performance, using a new, deadly sound...(an intelligent rasper (the main instrument of scalewind) gifted with an otherworldly malevolence).

 

[Incenjucar]

Pretty easy to think up alternative names, though nothing's wrong with 'blues'.

-Mourntunes
-Darksong
-Rivertear music
-The Deeps

All works.

Personally, I'm trying to figure out whether I'd be breaking my own leg inserting modern-feeling music (rather than the castrated bardic song you usually hear in Ren films and such) in to a fantasy world I plan on making a novel on, so I feel your pain.

 

[Beale Knight]

'creators of the blues ' IMC were lizardfolk, so it's known as "Scalewind" music. The lizardfolk were the poor of the marshland metropolis, and had been trying to live with the expansive human empire rather than assert their own individuality. The disconnect they felt from their natural roots was expressed through "scalewind," a mourning music filled with raw power and deep sadness in wind instruments that used the lizardfolk's own unique vibrations to create sound.

That is so way cool. I got visions of a lizardfolk Beale Street while reading it - Hissing Tonks, Coin Lenders, Thisss and Thatsss Shops, Scale Readers, and a Lanskeesss on the corner selling fur skin shoes and outrageously bright tailored vests.

That would probably be too cheesy to use in most games, but it's still a cool visual.

The lizardfolk, in vengeance, wanted to kill the elf idol at a performance, using a new, deadly sound

Of course that would only enlarge the elf idol's cult, leading to annual candlelight vigils at his mansion and countless impersonators scattered throughout the world. On the other hand though, the elf's estate would clear millions more gold after he's dead.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

If I want a swamp village where people play blues music, how can I describe it yet keep the verisimilitude of a setting where blues music isn't called blues. Or is it cool to call blues blues in a fantasy setting?

I wouldn't call it blues per se, but rather name it after the village, then play it during the game.

I have no problem with anachronistic music being played in a game. Mood is more important than chronological verisimilitude, IMO. But saying "these guys play blues music" does seem a bit clumsy. A. those who aren't familiar with blues music won't really get the feel of it, and B. it doesn't add anything to your campaign world. Name it after the village, then later in the campaign make a reference to it again, and your players will remember the village and the past adventure associated with it.

 

[Dr Simon]

No suggestions on names, I think some good ones have already been given.

Musically, though, there's no reason why blues should be anachronistic. It is simple, folk-originated musci that doesn't require complex instrumentation and uses a simple pentatonic scale and four-four time as a backbone. Assuming that your world isn't a lovingly precise recreation of 15th century Bohemia I don't see any reason no to use it.

 

[Werther von G]

I wouldn't call it blues because (at least for a music geek like me), it would take me out of the atmosphere of the game. That would be like giving elves Performance (Breakbeat) as a class skill for the Forgotten Realms. Wouldn't work.

Drizzt Do'Urden: "These. Are. The breaks! Breakitupbreakitupbreakitup!"

You laugh. But we've been making similar jokes ever since D&D 3.0 came out. It seems that, in order to relax, elves need four hours of trance. Probably with some jungle or drum & bass to break up the monotony.

 

[Macbeth]

I don't know if you like to use prop-type stuff during a game, but you might try giving it a name (there have been several suggested), then just playing the music instead of trying to describe it.