How come the Bard doesn’t have any advanced moves to improve their Bardic Lore?

How come the Bard doesn’t have any advanced moves to improve their Bardic Lore?

How come the Bard doesn’t have any advanced moves to improve their Bardic Lore? Would gaining another area of expertise be a good idea for another move for this class?

12 thoughts on “How come the Bard doesn’t have any advanced moves to improve their Bardic Lore?”

  1. I would even give 2!

    Another custom world/adventure move:

    If you spend a week studying the tomes and papyri at a specialised library or listen to the songs of the elders, add their specialty to your bardic lore.

    this basically codifies advancement from fiction

  2. I like adding an area of expertise, but I’m not so sure about picking up two additional areas from a single advance, or allowing essentially unlimited specialties with that research move; there are only so many areas, and at some point you have the Bard asking questions at the beginning of every scene. Which is great for fiction-building, but it kind of waters down the bard’s specialization and gives them a lot of narrative control compared to other players.

    To actually contribute something other than criticism, I would also suggest an advance that allows you to ask an additional question.

  3. How about one new area of expertise at 2-5, and another at 6-10, with an additional perk at this tier? We could call it Professor and Tenured Professor.

  4. ⃞ Professor

    Choose an additional area of expertise for your Bardic Lore.

    ⃞ Tenured Professor

    Choose a third area of expertise for your Bardic Lore, and mark one of your areas as your specialty. When you use your Bardic Lore ability with your specialty, you may ask the GM two questions.

  5. I’d also consider treating the lore as a treasure. “As you search through the dragons horde, you find an ancient tome filled with poetry about the Legends of Past Heroes. Gain that bardic lore.”

  6. The point of the Bardic Lore move is so that you can make INT your dump stat and ignore the Spout Lore move, but still feel like you are an “expert” at something. It’s not equivalent to most other moves in utility or effect (which is somewhat obscured by Arcane Art being way more useful than ALL the other bard moves).

    That Professor move would still be kind-of useful for low-INT Bards, but making it 2 additional areas of expertise, maybe with one or both being invented by the player, would put it on par with any of the other options available, I think.

  7. Also, goddDAMN Charles Persall that is a good idea, BUT make it a one-use treasure that anyone can use to ask a question about the topic when it comes up again. Hella better than just more money.

  8. Johnstone Metzger Thanks!  I actually find myself giving out very little gold and instead just hand out cool treasures or unique items and such.  Way more flavorful and my players are always happy with it.

  9. James Etheridge the bard can’t get unlimited specialities just from this option. They have to find the right places to learn and have to pay the fees to get in there. 

    Also they might not always have a week. 

  10. Hi, I agree with Tim. It is nice for the Bard to look for important information to expand its lore of the konown world, is the core of this character.

    We shouldn’t use more rules to manage it (like D&D always do) but try with the story telling approch of DW.

    Dm and player have to reach an agreement on what, Where, Why, what cost to obtain new lores.

    It is no a matter of power but narration.

    This is only My opinion of course. 🙂

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