Anachronistic phrases, or blues in my fantasy.

[Dr Simon]

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.

But for authenticity you need to get hold of some real, honest, down and dirty Miss'ippi blues on a scratchy old recording from 1920 by some guy with a name like Howlin' Blind Man Lemon Hawkins. None of this modern stuff played by white boys with fancy things like jobs and running water.

 

[mmadsen]

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?

In some campaigns, a swamp village where they play the blues would work just fine. I immediately thought of Samurai Jack.

 

[Desdichado]

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.

Thanks for sharing! That one made my afternoon.

 

[Mallus]

That would be like giving elves Performance (Breakbeat) as a class skill for the Forgotten Realms. Wouldn't work.

Watch Samurai Champloo... may not change your mind, but its fine show and a great example of how gleeful historical inaccuracy can be...

Besides, since elves are fictional, why can't they be skilled w/breakbeats, or on the wheels of steel, for that matter...

 

[Mallus]

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've come to look at the issue of 'maintaining versimilitude' in terms of knowing where to choose your battles. A good gameworld has so much raw information for players to digest, I wouldn't want to get bogged down in trying to describe the pseudo-blues. As DM, I only have so much time to set a scene before the players attention start to wander. I find using real-world cultural references to be an invaluable tool. Rather than breaking the spell, using familiar terms gets my point across, and quickly.

Hell, I'd introduce a blues-playing fallen paladin a la Robert Johnson: "Walkin' down the dungeon. Hallway ten feet wide. Goin' to beat my orc... 'til I'm satisfied. Oh Kordy, goin' to beat my orc 'til I'm satisfied."

 

[barsoomcore]

I would just say, "They play this twangy, soulful music. It sounds like the blues, alright? They call it something else, but it sounds like the blues."

And then of course, I would have the elderly guitar player stop them as they're trying to escape the bad guys and say, "Nobody gets outta here less'n they sing the blues."

 

[Castellan]

And then of course, I would have the elderly guitar player stop them as they're trying to escape the bad guys and say, "Nobody gets outta here less'n they sing the blues."

Heh heh...

I can't wait for the story hour with the bard who sings things like: "I'm so broke, I can't even spend the night..." or, "Black Knight is fallin'...."

 

[jmucchiello]

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.

Simple pentatonic scale? To be the blues you have to play blue notes: notes in the flats, notes not true, notes with feeling. Yeah, they steer toward the same 5 notes from the point of view of sheet music, but every note is bent or twisted slightly to give a huge spectrum of notes.

Some East Asian music is also pentatonic. People don't usually confuse the two styles though.

Um.... Not that any of this is really important for RW's purposes. But I also agree with the scratchy 78s of Robert Johnson being representative.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Just mention one of the locals playing a 'melancholy refrain' on his mandolin.

 

[Tinner]

I'd either just call it "swamp music", or have people refer to that "(village name) sound", you know, like the Seattle sound, or the Atlanta sound?