The Bard has a core move that says “When you weave a performance into a basic spell….”
How are people interpreting the minimum standard for “a performance”? We’ve been handling it very loosely – as along as the bard can put hands to a credible instrument, he can play a tune in the same kind of time it would take to lunge with a spear or to cast a spell. This does seem to make him very effective, particularly since he also multiclass dabbled to get Elemental Mastery (also accessed, in his case, through performance).
What has everyone else been doing?
My first bard was a story teller with no musical talent.
My next one? Dancer? Chalk street artist? Puppeteer?
I asked my player what was his performing art. He told me violin, so he needed to play the violin, but it could have been spoken poetry, drums, whatever that could boost morale during a fight.
I’ve allowed them to bundle that move with other ones. You can sing when you swing a sword or defy danger most times and more dice rolling means more chances for DM moves. In other words be a fan of the players.
Eric Lochstampfor I’m not entirely sure about the player having to roll to see if they can roll. Instead I would have bundled the risks of the Defy Danger into the risks of the Arcane Art. This is one of my favourite parts of PbtA games, where difficulty is adjusted by adjusting what happens if you fail.
Two separate moves. Two separate rolls. And I don’t know what you mean by roll to see if you can roll. No idea where you got that.
Oh sorry, I misread that as they have to defy danger to see if they can Arcane Art while fighting. My mistake
One of the big limits is how long a performance takes–I was sloppy about that when GMing my first bard, got better at it.
But be a fan of the character, and let them perform a lot. And then follow the fiction and the dice rolls to interesting places.
No worries. I was just saying a bard can sing a rousing tune as they shoot or stab in the middle of combat.
My Group’s bard is a singer, and she always has a list of popular songs on hand for various situations. When one of her songs becomes relevant (need to heal somebody? sing Musical Healing to the tune of sexual healing), she sings a line or two and then rolls for it.
A playing bard must treat the battlefield as a stage: he is the frontman, throwing chords at the audiences, launching powerful acoustic facemelters; lunging back and forth, he strikes poses, dodges and puts himself in the best spot. I always think of Ian Anderson, with his legendary stance.
Mark Griffin Sounds a bit like my group’s bard, except he writes a small poem on the spot and sings it at the best of his ability. Usually it contains a phrase like ‘cuts of their heads’ or such and is almost always used to rouse the paladin, giving him a +1D4.
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Thanks all. We’re still feeling our way with this, but seem to have moved to all the Bard’s things taking a little longer to take effect than they did in our earlier sessions.