Bards

[Damocles]

Does anyone have any rules for Bards in TW2K?

[Targan]

The rules system I was using for my last campaign had a few skills associated with creating music. You could put a generic "Music" skill into any system, perhaps with specialties.

I guess if a combat bard hit the right chord with his audience (pun intended) you could have some sort of boost to morale.

In my last campaign there was an NPC based on "Stitch" Jones from Heartbreak Ridge. I think the PCs found him kind of annoying. He didn't make it home.

[Damocles]

The Earl of Funk, the Duke of Cool, the Ayatollah of Rock-and-Roll-a? Surely you jest. Who could not love such a character?

Perhaps TW2K Bard is like the very badass 1st edition AD&D bard - after the PCs have gone through 2 terms of infantry (any branch) and 2 terms of criminal, they can, if they have excellent characteristics, become a bard.

Casting druid spells in woodland Europe rules!

[Tegyrius]

"Traveling entertainers" would be an excellent cover for a Spetznaz team.

- C.

[Raellus]

I think I've just decided on my next T2K player character.

[Cdnwolf]

Easy enough.... Character was in the army playing for a Regimental Band when shite hit the fan and he had to pick up a gun. REMF's make great characters. Mail clerk, Dentist, Cook....

If you ever read Starship Trooper, he talked about the effect on morale music had.

And always...

Bagpipers.

[jester]

Remember two things:

Bandsmen were also the traditional stretcher bearers. There is footage of troops landing on Iwo Jima, and you can see the cases to their instruments lashed to their packs.

Secondly, with a breakdown in technology I can see horns, drums, whistles and fifes returning as signaling devices.

And a last thought:

Abroad, ceremonial units often tour. Imagine the Whitehouse Drum and Fife Corps being stranded in Europe when the balloon goes up. Or maybe the Marine Silent Drill Team?

The all would look sharp but as for combat skills....eh.

[Tombot]

I think bards are actually a pretty likely thing to appear in the less anarchic regions of the T2k world.
Think about wandering folks f.e. in silesia/poland from the early campaign (we even had a few possible groups for them to join in several NPC-threads; gypsies, or "Damian the river-pimp" for the vistula-setting!).

In a world with declining technology (no radios/tv-stations/neon-lighted clubs with loud music) there is a need for entertainment & travellers telling tales from the last village they visited...

Such NPC´s/PC´s should have at least skills like any civilian refugee/survivor AND some form of musical/artistic special-ability to earn not only a meal or two.
And like wandering merchants in the postapocalypse some survival and combat-skills (quite a spectrum like the "Others"-Career in Classic-Traveller, +an instrument/singing/athletics).

They could be a form of "uncensored medium" / informationsbrokers (spys ?! Yes, a good longterm-cover* for a group of agents/commandos) from outside. Not only could they expect money from curious merchants, travelling in the opposite direction, but they could rotate in a certain area* between secure villages with a carnivale (there is a TV-series about the great depression in the 30`s of the same name, which i recommend).

If they had some charisma and social skills to them as well, i ´ll be sure they could make a decent living (compared to other non-military in T2k).

[rcaf_777]

The RM Band has been deployed to the Falklands Island and the frist Gulf War supporting medical operations as amblance drivers and strecher bearers

[ArmySGT.]

The 8th Army Band in S. Korea was part of the base defense plan for Waegwan (Casey?). Protecting the airfield to get the helicopters out and evac the dependents by any means.

[Silent Hunter UK]

Originally Posted by rcaf_777

The RM Band has been deployed to the Falklands Island and the frist Gulf War supporting medical operations as amblance drivers and strecher bearers

Don't forget the ENSA groups in the Second World War. In fact, there was a quite well known (and somewhat controversial due to some 'blacking-up') 1970s sitcom about an entertainment unit in India called It Ain't Half Hot, Mum, created by the same team that did Allo, Allo.

[rcaf_777]

Originally Posted by Silent Hunter UK

Don't forget the ENSA groups

ENSA = Entertainments National Service Association

[Silent Hunter UK]

Originally Posted by rcaf_777

ENSA = Entertainments National Service Association

Or Every Night Something Awful...

[Webstral]

A very interesting idea! Good call on starting this thread. Music would be vital for morale, I think. In The Postman as film, unplugged music clearly plays an important part in keeping up morale.

[Raellus]

A bard wouldn't necessarily have to be a singer or a musician. He/she could be a raconteur, telling stories for his/her supper, or something along the lines of a town crier, carrying news from neighboring settlements and recounting it orally. Without reliable long-range communications, this sort of informal news delivery could supplement written post.

[Silent Hunter UK]

Of course, there are likely other forms of entertainers; comedians, dancers (not just the exotic kind), jugglers...

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Damocles

Does anyone have any rules for Bards in TW2K?

A SUCCESSFUL ROLL! Everyone remove one "Threat Condition" token now.....

[Targan]

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

The 8th Army Band in S. Korea was part of the base defense plan for Waegwan (Casey?). Protecting the airfield to get the helicopters out and evac the dependents by any means.

Also in Korea, 2ID's band was used as the DTOC's defense force.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

The 8th Army Band in S. Korea was part of the base defense plan for Waegwan (Casey?). Protecting the airfield to get the helicopters out and evac the dependents by any means.

Waegwan is the proper Korean name for Yongsan, which has sizable heliports. That's in downtown Seoul, and sits on prime real estate the South would dearly love to have back. It's the kind of property that makes real estate developers drool. 8th Army HQ is also in Yongsan, which makes it make sense that the band is also there.

[unkated]

A couple quick points:

1. Both DC and T:TNE (using the same mechanics) had an Entertainer career, with a skill for performing based off CHA. You could easily enough make it a cascade skill (Singer, Musician, Actor, Comedian, Physical Performance).

"Phyiscal Performance" is my catchall for dancer, juggler, stage magician, "performance artist" (Oh, I stick needles through my arms while hanging upside down in a red bikini).

i have not looked at the use of that skill in a while but that should give you enough mechanics to start you off, twist and adjust as needed.

2. Cyberpunk had Rocker as a character background or class (been a while since I looked at it), which included the ability to whip up or calm down a crowd.

3. The Scots for centuries used bagpipes to simultaneously incent their troops and terrify their enemies; the English (usually the target) thought them weapons of war - and were happy when Highlander regiments wanted to bring them along (after 1745).

And to use a variation a more recent example...

"At 0405 hrs, use the truck batteries on the amplifier, and cue the 20 piece orchestra. 40 measures into 'Ride of the Valkyries,' cue the mortars and then 10 bars later, we charge in from the west..."

"I turn the music on about a mile out. We use Wagner. It scares the sh*t out of the slopes. My boys love it!" - Col. Kilgore, Apocalypse Now

4. All services have bands (usually multiple), whose job it is is to perform at various functions as well as tour across the nation and foreign bases. Over the years, bands from the Army, Air Force and Navy have come through my little town to perform. These are formed of regular US military personnel who are talented musicians; if they do not do a splendid job, they may find themselves on a frigate in the Gulf, an infantry company in Afghanistan, or a radar station in Alaska.

You could use them as a large NPC group (see above) who can aid your party, or be in need of assistance. ("We're only lightly armed, unless you could our low brass section...")

5. While certainly bugles and drums can be used for signalling, I would not make their use dependent on musically talent, or at least make them an Easy task - the character just needs to make a recognizable pattern, not make men weep with Mess Call...

6. The Bard would certainly make a come back. Your party of strangers enters a town in East Poland or Western Colorado - and everyone looks at them with a jaundiced eye and one hand on their weapons. Whip out a guitar and sing some songs, and they relax a bit (hopefully you sing well enough). If nothing else, the townsfolk should be less suspicious of why you have come.

In medieval times, bards brought news as well as entertainment.

7. Bard sidekicks also have a long history. NPC bards can of course be used to goad players -

"Bravely bold Sir Robin
Rode forth from Camelot.
He was not afraid to die,
Oh brave Sir Robin.
He was not at all afraid
To be killed in nasty ways.
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin."

or perhaps...

"Brave Sir Robin ran away. ("No!")
Bravely ran away away. ("I didn't!")
When danger reared it's ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled. ("no!")
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about ("I didn't!")
And gallantly he chickened out.

(And then they ate Sir Robin's minstrels, and there was much rejoicing...)

Uncle Ted