How do you roleplay bards if you have no perform talent?

[Hand of Evil]

Check out music reviews for word phases that catch your attention. Also look up music words: beat, bass, tone, to understand how you can use them in game.

 

[sniffles]

I've played bards and prepared a list of jokes ahead of time. I also compiled a CD and played it at the table. Whenever my bard would perform to inspire courage or anything of that nature I would play a predefined track.

That's a good idea.

I'm playing a bard for the first time, and I've decided that her perform skill is in poetry. I looked up some poems in a book (Tolkien's "Lays of Beleriand"). I'm going to recite a short bit of a poem for each of her bardic music abilities.

Does is annoy anyone else that it's called "bardic music" when you don't have to play an instrument to be a bard?

 

[eris404]

Does is annoy anyone else that it's called "bardic music" when you don't have to play an instrument to be a bard?

Yes, it annoyed me greatly. I played a bard who was a storyteller and author so I did different things, like writing haikus for each character, to emulate this.

 

[Henry]

I briefly once played a human bard as a diplomat - someone who used the power of their words to heal, harm, and influence. He had no musical skill at all, he was just good at dancing, oration, poetry, etc. I'd love to explore the concept again sometime.

 

[Steverooo]

He's a Goblin! Play him as a MIME! You can't get much more irritating than that! He puts his hands up, doing "The Invisible Wall", to stop the sonic attacks of the Harpies... etc. Take Dance/Mime as his "music" skill. You could also play him as a Loremaster & Adventurer.

 

[Desdichado]

Unfortunately I've personally got so little 'perform' talent myself I've always struggled to imagine how adventuring bards perform at all in the dungeon or combat etc.

Any tips on how to bring to life a bard?

In a related question, I unfortunately am about 20 lbs. overweight, sedentary urban cubicle worker who's idea of "exercise" is having to run up from the basement to the second floor with a basket of laundry. I've always struggled to imagine how my adventuring half-orc ranger/barbarian performs at all in the dungeon or combat etc.

Any tips on how to bring to life a combat monster?


[size=-2]I.e., there are social skills rules for this; you don't have to actually perform yourself. In fact, that's a pet peeve of mine, when folks say "just roleplay out your social encounters" because that means that the character is no longer doing it, the player is.[/size]

 

[Eolin]

I've got a wonderful bard in a HackMaster game. Not quite DnD, but enough parallels as not to matter.

Anyway, whenever I start doing my singing thing its usually Tenacious D. Which you don't have to sing well and it gets everyone else singing. After a couple times, most of the PCs started a band, which my bard is teh leader of -- of course. We call ourselves Ravenous C. And we saw Tenacious D play the great song in the world -- and we remembered it, whereas they forgot it.

So, whenever we all max out on our rolls, we claim we're playing the best song in the world. The GM mostly lets us get away with it, but he does take into account how well we roll -- when a bard rolls max on his perform, its a thing to witness.

Anyway, that's what I do. And its a lot of fun, and very funny to break into " her Gently". And yes, the language filter is going to dismember that song name. Oh well.

 

[sniffles]

In a related question, I unfortunately am about 20 lbs. overweight, sedentary urban cubicle worker who's idea of "exercise" is having to run up from the basement to the second floor with a basket of laundry. I've always struggled to imagine how my adventuring half-orc ranger/barbarian performs at all in the dungeon or combat etc.

That reminds me of a panel I attended at a fantasy convention. They brought actual chainmail, bags, coils of rope, and other typical adventuring items and put them on members of the audience, then had them climb up on a platform and down a flight of steps. Just brought home to me how much of roleplaying really is fantasy - and how out of shape I really am.

 

[smootrk]

Instead of singing effects, just have him do chants. Much like the Orc/Goblins of Tolkein's Books. or just change everything to an instrument, making the Verbal component of spells more specifically mean... auditory component, and is played by instrument.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I like the Mime idea!

Perhaps a poet specializing in Haiku:

"Oh Great Warrior
your mighty arm defends all
Feel your power grow!"

or Limericks:

"There once was a Lich from Nantucket
whose phylactery was but a bucket
Adventurers came
and played a rude game,
When to an Otyugh, they chucked it"

Perhaps he just puns a lot, or paints impulsively like Jackson Pollack or a graffitti artist.

Also, realize that the goblin's aesthetic sense may differ from the sensibilities of his partymembers...but his EFFECTS will remain the same.

So, even if nobody LIKES his performance, the power of it remains.