billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
Time to whip out Return of the King and read about the Riders of Rohan singing as they cut through orcs in front of Minas Tirith. Bards can be ass kickers instead of fops and dandies.
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D&D 5E Bards: How did these become a thing?
- Thread starter doctorhook
- Start date
Time to whip out Return of the King and read about the Riders of Rohan singing as they cut through orcs in front of Minas Tirith. Bards can be ass kickers instead of fops and dandies.
TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
The thought of using music in a dungeon setting to inspire your allies seems wrong to me. It makes me think of this: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0004.html
Drums, chanting, warlord-type shouts of encouragement--those are all believable to me. Strumming a lute and singing a happy tune?
No, thank you.
Drums, chanting, warlord-type shouts of encouragement--those are all believable to me. Strumming a lute and singing a happy tune?
Kyn@BattleBards
First Post
It's not bad but a bit sparse on variations of the Celtic bards. Fili was mentioned but bardd was the equivalent term in some places but not others.
Asian and African versions of the role were omitted and genealogy should have have been covered with some stress on it because it was important at the time. Bards could valid lineage and right to title.
I liked that the creation of boils was mentioned in satire because it is an example that I like to use as well, but it was cut short of other superstitions. The podcast skipped points such as lyric was magic in Finnish culture at one point long ago. He didn't bother with things like Amergin calming the storms sent by the druids during the Milesian invasion by using poetry, which started with Amergin's prediction of victory that predicted the invasion. Taleisin would have been a prime example of bards using magic.
The podcast could have gone over Greek myths as well. Orpheus is the typical example there, but Pythagorus (famous for Pythagorean Theorem) believed he could use music for a variety of things including shaping the heavens. Pythagorus even started an occult school. The concept of the music of the spheres came from the Greek.
All in all, I think it was a decent podcast for someone preparing for a Medieval fair but it missed the fantasy in a fantasy game when it comes to mythology and folklore.
I guess that's technically a review of the cast. Thank for pointing it out. It was a good listen.
Kyn@BattleBards
First Post
It's not bad but a bit sparse on variations of the Celtic bards. Fili was mentioned but bardd was the equivalent term in some places but not others.
Asian and African versions of the role were omitted and genealogy should have have been covered with some stress on it because it was important at the time. Bards could valid lineage and right to title.
I liked that the creation of boils was mentioned in satire because it is an example that I like to use as well, but it was cut short of other superstitions. The podcast skipped points such as lyric was magic in Finnish culture at one point long ago. He didn't bother with things like Amergin calming the storms sent by the druids during the Milesian invasion by using poetry, which started with Amergin's prediction of victory that predicted the invasion. Taleisin would have been a prime example of bards using magic.
The podcast could have gone over Greek myths as well. Orpheus is the typical example there, but Pythagorus (famous for Pythagorean Theorem) believed he could use music for a variety of things including shaping the heavens. Pythagorus even started an occult school. The concept of the music of the spheres came from the Greek.
All in all, I think it was a decent podcast for someone preparing for a Medieval fair but it missed the fantasy in a fantasy game when it comes to mythology and folklore.
I guess that's technically a review of the cast. Thank for pointing it out. It was a good listen.
Clearly you know your stuff
Impressive!And yeah I don't think it was intended to be a comprehensive look but for what they did in 10 minutes it was pretty entertaining for me.
I gotta confess, I mostly agree. Seems kinda candyassed.
Voice as instrument helps over instrument-as-instrument. There's only so much power and passion you can squeeze into an un-amplified musical instrument. They're great and all, but alter physical reality? Not so much. Voice on the other hand, I can kinda see.
The historical bards seem cooler than what they got out of the D&D class.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
The thought of using music in a dungeon setting to inspire your allies seems wrong to me. It makes me think of this: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0004.html
Drums, chanting, warlord-type shouts of encouragement--those are all believable to me. Strumming a lute and singing a happy tune?No, thank you.
Aren't drums music?
Has anyone seen the movie adaptation of the Manga series 'Dororo'. It's about a warlord who sacrifices his firstborn baby son's body in portions to 48 demons. For supernatural reasons, the baby is still a living husk of what he should be and his parents send him down the river. A sorcerer finds his husk and basically re-grows everything he needs. The baby grows up to basically be a demon hunting samurai, but not before a wandering storyteller mysteriously appears to the sorcerer and gives him a demon killing blade to pass on to the boy at the right time.
The bar is a recurring character throughout the story who kind of just follows the party of two from a distance, imparting knowledge or helping only sometimes, playing his instrument other times. By telling Dororo, a female thief about the boys origin in the beginning, he has orchestrated much of the story.
There's also the movie Krull if anyone has seen it with the old man Ynyr. An old wise man who lived up in the mountains who comes down to help the main character to save the princess. He directs the party most of the way using his vast knowledge and his connections. He's also a storyteller and a healer.
As others have mentioned that bards used to be the class that you really had to work hard to earn once upon a time, for character concepts such as the above, I can see why. I originally always perceived the bard as too 'colourful' a class to be taken seriously, but that's because I didn't initially say to myself, 'well, have I TRIED thinking of a serious bard concept?'
As others have said, I think in a more serious game, you play down the musical instrument stuff.
In a more serious game I would also play a more experienced character, a once idealistic boy who grew up on the stories of heroes told to him by his dad, turned into a father and farmer, but then turned ex-farmer, becoming a refugee, who tried to feed his then starving, now dead, therefore ex-family by stealing, then he became a now ex-mercenary to fight against whatever pushed him off his farm in the first place.
He then jumped into protecting caravans, got on well with the merchants he worked for, telling them wonderful stories of heroes at night around the campfire and because of this and his natural charm, got into sales.
Eventually however, when life became somewhat of a mockery of what he once had, the man became sick of what he was doing as it just felt hollow to him. He gave up on sales and started wandering in search of meaning behind life almost like some wandering priest or monk in search of enlightenment. He however did not have to be quite as disciplined as a monk or priest and as such, being unrestricted, made all sorts of friends in all sorts of places, tried a variety of cultural and... Recreational activities, started trying to read up on philosophy to find meaning to his life, fell further into the amazing stories of past heroes, started wondering about whether the lands were due for another catastrophe so he could become a great hero too, started obsessing with stories, but also with prophecies, tales of magical items and temples and evil monsters of great power. I.
In his philosophical studies he concluded that he needed to develop a broad range of skills, gain as many experiences as possible and live as well as he could. The man began to practice certain activities fairly regularly, but lacked the discipline to fit into any other category of class. His 'training' was chaotic and driven by passion. He picked up skills that varied from playing an instrument, to competing in drinking contests with the dwarves without dying from alcohol poisoning, to learning sacred healing chants and meditation from the elves to negotiating his way past bandits to putting said bandits to sleep with the secret words he has practiced and deciphered from a song, which when whispered in sylvan in a certain way translates to 'rockabye baby' and holds the power of the sleep spell.
Eventually, somebody just slaps a 'bard' label on him and throws him into a dungeon crawl. Poor guy... He's so much more than that.
The bar is a recurring character throughout the story who kind of just follows the party of two from a distance, imparting knowledge or helping only sometimes, playing his instrument other times. By telling Dororo, a female thief about the boys origin in the beginning, he has orchestrated much of the story.
There's also the movie Krull if anyone has seen it with the old man Ynyr. An old wise man who lived up in the mountains who comes down to help the main character to save the princess. He directs the party most of the way using his vast knowledge and his connections. He's also a storyteller and a healer.
As others have mentioned that bards used to be the class that you really had to work hard to earn once upon a time, for character concepts such as the above, I can see why. I originally always perceived the bard as too 'colourful' a class to be taken seriously, but that's because I didn't initially say to myself, 'well, have I TRIED thinking of a serious bard concept?'
As others have said, I think in a more serious game, you play down the musical instrument stuff.
In a more serious game I would also play a more experienced character, a once idealistic boy who grew up on the stories of heroes told to him by his dad, turned into a father and farmer, but then turned ex-farmer, becoming a refugee, who tried to feed his then starving, now dead, therefore ex-family by stealing, then he became a now ex-mercenary to fight against whatever pushed him off his farm in the first place.
He then jumped into protecting caravans, got on well with the merchants he worked for, telling them wonderful stories of heroes at night around the campfire and because of this and his natural charm, got into sales.
Eventually however, when life became somewhat of a mockery of what he once had, the man became sick of what he was doing as it just felt hollow to him. He gave up on sales and started wandering in search of meaning behind life almost like some wandering priest or monk in search of enlightenment. He however did not have to be quite as disciplined as a monk or priest and as such, being unrestricted, made all sorts of friends in all sorts of places, tried a variety of cultural and... Recreational activities, started trying to read up on philosophy to find meaning to his life, fell further into the amazing stories of past heroes, started wondering about whether the lands were due for another catastrophe so he could become a great hero too, started obsessing with stories, but also with prophecies, tales of magical items and temples and evil monsters of great power. I.
In his philosophical studies he concluded that he needed to develop a broad range of skills, gain as many experiences as possible and live as well as he could. The man began to practice certain activities fairly regularly, but lacked the discipline to fit into any other category of class. His 'training' was chaotic and driven by passion. He picked up skills that varied from playing an instrument, to competing in drinking contests with the dwarves without dying from alcohol poisoning, to learning sacred healing chants and meditation from the elves to negotiating his way past bandits to putting said bandits to sleep with the secret words he has practiced and deciphered from a song, which when whispered in sylvan in a certain way translates to 'rockabye baby' and holds the power of the sleep spell.
Eventually, somebody just slaps a 'bard' label on him and throws him into a dungeon crawl. Poor guy... He's so much more than that.
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