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Hi, folks.
Just asking about the rp part of the thing, not mechanics, vfx or anything else. A bard pc using the "song" ability, will always be playing a music? Or he could say a mantra; a specific set of words; or anything else but music?
Thanks in advance.
Instruments, music, words of inspiration, poetry.. A bard popping out mantras sounds cool to me personally. Most people won't expect you to go the extra length of actually writing out a song or what not for bard 'song', so you're kinda free with your creativity. I imagine most would appreciate some extra effort in any direction.
You can play it more-or-less how you want to, but other players do have the freedom to say that the mechanical cues (music, given the sound effect and the little sea of floating notes) are what's actually going on.
I've always played my bard as a wizard-ish type who never got particularly far with formal schooling, and has made do with a limited selection of relatively simple spells bent in slightly unconventional ways, and people have been generally accepting!
Play bards as poets and story tellers myself as "singing" is kind of hard to pull off in written words so the "song" I often type a few lines that rhyme to show what it is, you do have to RP it's audible because of wysiwyg.
I've played one that was kinda like performance war-art taunter - complete with using her shield as a drum, clanging her morningstar against her shield and armor - riling up friends and taunting enemies (fitted really well with all the attention you get from curse song...)
Tribalistic, sweaty and a lot of fun. I say go nuts.
Drowble Oh Seven wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2024 4:31 amYou can play it more-or-less how you want to, but other players do have the freedom to say that the mechanical cues (music, given the sound effect and the little sea of floating notes) are what's actually going on.
I've always played my bard as a wizard-ish type who never got particularly far with formal schooling, and has made do with a limited selection of relatively simple spells bent in slightly unconventional ways, and people have been generally accepting!
I bolded part of the above statement for clarity, since some confusion has come up in the past: when a bard is using a Bard Song, they are actively casting magic, it is fundamentally different from a person just singing a song, and your average person on the street can distinguish between a bard singing and a Bard Song (even if they don't know what the Bard Song does) the same way a person would generally be able to distinguish between a person simply speaking Draconic and a person casting a spell (even if they can't recognize what the spell does).
The music notes above a bard character's head are subject to WYSIWYG. If someone sees the music notes, they can know your character is using bardic powers in some form, and they are allowed to assume your character is singing, though most people will work with you if you actively roleplay it as humming, playing an instrument, or something similarly consistently-detectable. If your character is using Bard Song and claims they're silently standing there doing nothing, other characters would be well within their rights to challenge your character as being a very bad liar!
We really need an alternative look/sound option for Bard characters with plot arcs that don't involve fulfilling their Broadway dreams.
