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Sometimes I realise how much I miss playing Zeke ;___; I’ll just have to make do with writing with him and make an effort to draw him a little more often.
Seeing bardecember reminds me that I do like me some bards.
This was supposed to be a doodle (from an old sketch), but then I got carried away and suddenly it was 2am. Hmm. It’s scruffy and far from refined, but it’ll do ;D
Bardecember Day 1: Why do you love bards?
I’ll tell you why.
In a game that is, at its heart, about collaborative storytelling, no class better embodies what I love about Dungeons & Dragons than the bard. The object of D&D is to come together with friends and cooperate in crafting an unforgettable narrative. To take one another on an epic adventure, make one another laugh as hard as possible, and work as a team to create an inimitable act of spontaneous fantasy.
I like to think, on some level, every bard knows they are but a character in a game. But a bard’s first duty is to the story, always. And if they play their part, if they bring out the best in their companions, if their every deed is done in service of the tale, their story will live on forever in the memories of friends who gathered around a table to play that game. What bard could ask for more?
I love bards because they are storytelling personified.
Bards *are* Dungeons & Dragons.
Bardecember Question Prompts! These start December 1st, so get ready! :D
Why do you love bards?
Favorite Bard Class Feature?
Favorite Bard Archetype
What system does bards best in your opinion?
We talked about what system does bards best, but what would you change for them?
Favorite bardic instrument or performance style? (for the a e s t h e t i c)
No prompt today. Bards are all about entertainment and making everyone’s lives just a little bit better. Go out of your way to do something good for someone today.
Make a Bard: Description and Name
Make a Bard: Backstory
Make a Bard: Sheet
Make a Bard: Draw them! (Even if you are bad, I am!)
Make a Bard: Pick 3 Songs that define them!
Tell a Bardic Story!
Sing a Bardic Song!
Bard Aesthetic Moodboard!
Favorite Bard from Pop Culture and Fiction
Favorite Story involving one of your bards!
Story time 2! Bards can’t stop at one story!
Design a unique Bard College
For the last night of Hannukah, tell us about the bards of your religious tradition if you have one!
It’s the Solstice! Gather in a tavern on the longest night of the year, bundle up, and share your favorite story! (I’ll be picking out a youtube video of someone telling a story, but you do you!)
What stupid memes does your table have involving bards?
On Festivus, tell us about the items you think all bards should have on them!
Share some cool horse armor with someone! (After all, bards do love puns!)
Share some Bardic Inspiration with us all for Christmas!
For Kwanzaa, let’s go back to the bard we made, and talk about how they reach out to the people around them. How do they affect their community? Music and story have power, after all!
Tell a story involving your bard on a cold winter night!
Free space! Make a fun post involving bards!
Make up a bard themed food or drink!
Everyone share a rad picture of a bard!
Make some Bard-Year Resolutions! It was a blast doing this with you all! :D
#Bardecember Day 6 and 7
Image by Edmé Jean Pigal
6. Favorite bardic instrument or performance style? (for the a e s t h e t i c) The hurdy-gurdy, also known as a wheel fiddle. A stringed instrument that produces sound with the turn of a crank with the notes being played on a keyboard. My first exposure to this instrument came with my introduction to the folk metal band Eluveitie (which is coincidentally an excellent elf character name):
Hurdy-gurdies have such a unique appearance and operating procedure. It is a very striking instrument. Between the size of the instrument, the strings, crank, and keys, there are a lot of options for descriptive RP in your bardic spell castings.
I love how heavy-duty the wheel fiddle looks. The way it’s slung over a musician’s shoulder reminds me of the Smartgun from Aliens. And with a level or two in artificer, one could easily justify having a holdout crossbow mechanism concealed in their hurdy-gurdy. As DM, I’d allow it.
7. No prompt today. Bards are all about entertainment and making everyone’s lives just a little bit better. Go out of your way to do something good for someone today. Done and done.
Bardecember Day One
"Why do you love bards?"
Honestly I think my love for bards is twofold. Firstly, I love a class that's based around the arts... just, do your craft so good that you become basic. That's bitching, you know?
But then, also, music as magic is just... more interesting than boring old "I studied and now I summon flames"? Give me soaring songs letting me fly, a somber funeral dirge calling a rainstorm, the chicken dance polymorphing me into an actual chicken. Sympathetic and figurative magic is my jam.
Bardecember Days 5 and 6 (oops)
5. We talked about what system does bards best, but what would you change for them?
Aforementioned multiple times, I am not familiar enough with multiple systems’ bards to comment!
6. Favorite bardic instrument or performance style? (for the a e s t h e t i c)
Golly gee I hope you are ready for some ideas. Some of these I’ve played and some are just me stretching the word ‘performance’ to its limits.
A bard whose primary instrument was a war horn
A bard who did spoken word poetry (def jam style)
Multiple dancers, favorite being the breakdancer
A stand-up comic
A vocalist who only sang opera
A vocalist who only scatted and beatboxed
A bard whose primary instrument was a timpani drum
A ventriloquist
A hambone bard
A mime
A bard who reads normal decrees and boring news stories as oratory
A bard who plays the melodica
A bard with an organ cart
A bard whose instrument housed a spirit of music and the bard themself had literally no musical talent so they just faked it
A bard who only line dances
Day 4) We talked about what system does bards best, but what would you change for them?
Yesterday I talked about the Minstrel in Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG. While the Minstrel is certainly the best done bard in any system I’ve ever played, the one thing I’d change is to add the ability to sing as an alternate instrument. As it stands, the Minstrel can use a variety of instruments, from the simply lute, to a drum, to a flute or clarinet, they can even play the bagpipes. What they can’t do is sing. Sure they can yell and shout with the best of them, but no, that’s not really singing. Every other bard in every other system can sing, why not the Minstrel?
Bardecember Day 1
Why do you love bards?
Tbh, a huge part of it stems from the fact that it was the only class I could really understand when I first played D&D as a kid. Swinging a sword? Can’t relate. Playing an instrument? Yeah, I can do that!
Mechanically, I like bards for how versatile they are. I can fight, I can inspire, I can roll all the skill checks, I can do magic! I like the jack-of-all-trades because I hate getting caught in a niche where an entire subplot just isn’t in your wheelhouse. I also just love the sheer ridiculousness of what bards can DO with a good skill check.
Aesthetically, I also love the idea of music and art holding such powerful sway on the underpinnings of reality that magic can be used through art. I also love unusual bard aesthetics & examining how the performance a bard uses shapes their personality and party role. They’re a delightfully complex class. Also a joke class, making them fun at parties!
