Bards of Aegic

ynard · Post by **ynard** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 23:16 pm

I think that Bladesingers are so fed up of all these ranger tree-hugging things that they sign off rangers and are one of the crucial members forming the new Bard guild!

Of course, they'll get bit weaker at melee but will gain something in exchange.. And they'll represent the melee branch of the bard guild. Oh and when two bards would fight and sing together in a party they could "duet" and the more the merrier!

And of course in that case the mages, healers etc. would be considered as "groupies".. yes, I'm serious.

tanstai · Post by **tanstai** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 02:58 am

OK, RP would really be needed for a good bard, I'd like to see something like a *guildmaster permission needed* for at least the performing subguild, like the shadowdancers have.

With the RP, Bardic Lore, Storyteller, and Bard Rep, you could be famed and feared. I pen a fanciful story about *player* showing him/her a humorous, and unflattering way...and perform it on the streetcorners...overtime lowering the players rep in the city... Or the opposite of that!

With that, I'd love to see perform be able to be used to perform things written by players! This could make some performance very cool, and have the possibility of members putting on shows.

Would it be possible to compel people to give you money for a good performance (with high enough rep and skill of course). Hey, a bard's got to eat! Or how about a beg skill? Should also have 'disguise', would help with begging, performances, etc. Perhaps the ability to create costumes?

Would like many and varied instruments...and perhaps some songs could only be played on certain instruments.

Ideas on songs:
The Dancing Blades should vary how many blades and for long, depending on spell strength, level, and skill. (like the amount of traps you can set depends on trapping skill.)

Victory be Ours! To boost the party's hit and damage, while a seperate song...Thick be our skin!(or some title) to raise the party's AC.

Hear and Fear Me!(yes yes, I'm not good with the song titles) Inspires awe, and fear in your enemies, reducing their morale, and # of attacks.

Funeral March This death sounding and slow tune causes your enemies to take pause and consider their own mortality, lowering their AC.

Ok that's all for now.
If you need testers, I'd love to have my name on the list!

Tanstai

lemi · Post by **lemi** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 03:18 am

there could be some songs that aren't very useful, just for fun (i'm sorry, i think useless things are much more fun than useful things.. in case you haven't noticed.), maybe some kind of special bard store with different instruments/scrolls with song lyrics/tabs on them. and then once you read the song scroll you learn the useless song?

Post by **belannaer** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 09:08 am

tanstai wrote:With that, I'd love to see perform be able to be used to perform things written by players! This could make some performance very cool, and have the possibility of members putting on shows.

I agree with you. Some great songs and performances could even be added to story database when they get well-known by people and if wizards deem it good.

tanstai wrote:Would it be possible to compel people to give you money for a good performance (with high enough rep and skill of course). Hey, a bard's got to eat! Or how about a beg skill? Should also have 'disguise', would help with begging, performances, etc. Perhaps the ability to create costumes?

Absolutely. If a bard performs in an inn and if his performance is good he gets some food and possibly coins. Players in the same room might also randomly toss a coin or few. This of course can be done only occasionally to prevent abuse and such

tanstai wrote:Would like many and varied instruments...and perhaps some songs could only be played on certain instruments.

There will be various instruments which are made with 'craft instrument' skill and some that are available from some mobs only!

tanstai wrote:The Dancing Blades should vary how many blades and for long, depending on spell strength, level, and skill. (like the amount of traps you can set depends on trapping skill.)

Works like this already

tanstai wrote:Victory be Ours! To boost the party's hit and damage, while a seperate song...Thick be our skin!(or some title) to raise the party's AC.

Possibly. I was thinking some hp boost and melee massacre-like effect to all hearers.

tanstai wrote:Hear and Fear Me!(yes yes, I'm not good with the song titles) Inspires awe, and fear in your enemies, reducing their morale, and # of attacks.

Hehe, nice name. Could fit to one of song spells I've been planning...

tanstai wrote:Funeral March This death sounding and slow tune causes your enemies to take pause and consider their own mortality, lowering their AC.

Hmmh...

lemi wrote:there could be some songs that aren't very useful, just for fun (i'm sorry, i think useless things are much more fun than useful things.. in case you haven't noticed.), maybe some kind of special bard store with different instruments/scrolls with song lyrics/tabs on them. and then once you read the song scroll you learn the useless song?

Yep, if you come up with any nice ones let me know.

argu · Post by **argu** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 12:12 pm

Hmm...

IF Charisma will be major attribute, then ice needs load of +cha eqs...

Post by **belannaer** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 13:49 pm

Actually there are lots of +cha items in the game already. You just haven't noticed them as cha hasn't been that important previously. At least to my knowledge there are even handful of items having +5cha. Believe me, I have done my research

argu · Post by **argu** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 13:59 pm

Ahh...

Ok then

Post by **belannaer** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 20:33 pm

Cannibalized all good ideas into my plans from here (concentration etc.). keep the ideas and talk coming

Post by **belannaer** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 20:40 pm

Also a bit about storytelling:
The storytelling/performance seems to be becoming a nice part of the guild.
Few abilities the storytelling has:
- Possibility tell stories from story/rumour database. These are wizard defined rumours and stories about stuff that keep the world going around

- Possibility to write down your own stories. Database holds 5 or so stories which can be easily altered, cleared and made. These can be told instead of using one's in database.
- Bards can scold/boast other player's acts and heroic deeds. This affects that player's reputation in that community. If you have a bad reputation in Vaerlon for example hire a bard to boast about you and you'll be a hero in no time!
- When bard performs or tells a story in an inn and plays out it well he might get rewarded with meal and few coins from the audience. Players who also hear it might randomly toss a coin or few to the bard.

tanstai · Post by **tanstai** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 21:52 pm

Bel you said way to much for me to use quotes, so I'll just some up! Kudos! Things are sounding great! I'll post more song ideas as I think of some...

Tanstai

labinac · Post by **labinac** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 09:11 am

wow... soooooo much to comment on... HERE GOES!

first id like to say that Final Fantasy X-2 did a pretty decent job with their "songstress" class/skills....

lots of good ideas could probly come from there

for instance.... they have dances and then they have songs...

songs do semi-permanent effect (only need to sing it once per duration of the battle.. or... much like a spell with a time limit)

you could have a song that raises evasion (dex/defence skills bonus) one for strength and offensive boosts... defineately a song to help protect against spellcaster oppenents...

then you have some dances....
now dances could be neat because they could also be a form combative defence (the bard is dancing and dodging.. they will be more agile and can dodge hits etc etc.. ) with dances you can have the effect or whatever last for the duration of the dance... for instance one of the dances i loved on FFX-2 (hate to be referencing that for here but its one the best examples for bards ive seen yet) was a dance that casted haste on the party for the duration of the dance.. or... theres one that makes you score more/all critical hits when you do basic attacking for the duration of that dance... theres lots of neat ideas for temporary bonuses and boosts you can do with dances...

i see songs being more like spells (because often songs ARE spellbinding

) and dances being your more short term ritual type stuff (sort of like rite of success i suppose)

i bet you could even have some type of self-esteem confidence booster thing (skill/spell based charisma, intelligence that type stuff) where you motivate yourself (or others) for your next performance (itd be very much similar to a rite of success i think)

other parts of the bard guild:

yes you probly would have your basic bard songs/skills...but..
in a lot of MUDs or RP games bards are rogues... afterall i can understand... showbusiness can become very materialistic i can assume lol... you could have a type of bards that focus on performances and songs/dances (backrow partying) and ones that are the more acrobatic dextrous sneaky type (altho that might be WAY too closely related with shadowdancers.. so often as the rogue guilds are in MUDs tho... normally wherever theres bards theyre closely related to the thieves/assassins)

naturally bards would be able to sweet talk some deals.. so i think they should have the bargain skill trainable... and i bet the skill when used with bards could be for bargaining more than just objects being sold/bought in a shop... a bard might need to bargain for his life

he might perform something or tell stories and rumors that someone doesnt like lol...

and along those lines... about the rumors and stories and stuff...
are you referring to... like legends of how Aegis came to be?
im sure there could be some conflicts rising between Bards and Priests... as is most common religeous leaders arent very fond of the stories and explanations (specifically the religeously discrediting ones) that showbusiness and performance give to the ppl... on the other hand... theater DID start with religeon and acting out plays about the gods... just some stuff to keep in mind about what guilds may like/not like the bards (And who says they have to get along.. might just mean more excitement

)

ok thats a few ideas i had coming through when reading all those posts

for the most part everything yall have planned looks GREAT! just tossing around some generalized ideas and things.......

i also think itd be neat to toy around with bards being able to hypnotize ppl

... manipulation of the masses or individuals type of thing lol... itd be interesting to see a bard hypnotize a guard or political leader for whatever purposes (of course itd have to be for high levels)

and also i think very quickly bards could become a very powerful and wealthy guild... if you chose to make it that way... so there might be some limits youll have to keep in mind...

like having spells and dances that are useful and cool.. but you dont want them to be TOO convenient you know? and having a guild that trains ppl to manipulate and charm and sweet talk the masses would allow room for some serious "behind the throne" type of power from the bards guild... so i guess youll just have to be careful with how much influence and power over others bards have.. (im sure higher int/wis could affect how susceptible [spelling?] a player/npc might be to this manipulaton...) im also curious how tied the "manipulation" with the bards would be to that of the psionicists (i dont know a whole lot about psionicists or what they can do yet so all that goes without saying)... but yeh.. lots to ponder

everything sounds cool so far tho. sign me up for playertesting if youre ever looking for willing and able bodies

ill keep on thinking up some ideas and stuff....

but thats all the basics off the top of my head

lab

iluth · Post by **iluth** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 09:11 am

most RL bards i know perform better after a couple of drinks, maybe this could be used somehow to help (or hinder if you drink too much) the concentration skill mentioned earlier

labinac · Post by **labinac** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 09:23 am

one or two ideas for a bards skills might be this:

acrobatic flow: it helps with the skill and "flow" one would have when they do their dances... and also would train the bard to be quick footed and agile... and much like motion of combat for monks... a bard who is trained in keeping their body in "flow" with the music/dance is more likely to be in "flow" with the rhythm and pace of combat... allowing for a wide variety of things to spin off that.. wether it be better defence timing and "attack-awareness" (being able to sense whats coming next kind of thing) or the bards own flow of offensive maneuvers and fighting...i think you get the idea on that tho..

a bard who is trained in music and arts and dancing and stuff is sure to have some kick ass timing and awareness skills... and you know that has to pay off in combat somehow

it might also be neat if there was some kind of "vocal training"... not everyone may start out being able to sing or talk smoothly.. so they teach it! lol... sort of like from a book i read once with a bard in it....

"he had the most amazing and beautiful, awe inspiring voice... however a voice like that couldnt be used for ALL things. A voice like that, for instance, could not be used for ordering coal. A voice like that would order coal and get diamonds."

not it exactly... but its a neat concept

lol... of course with vocal training a bard could sing better and know certain inflictions to use in their storytelling.. itd be like one of those automatically in use skills...

and with both of those skill ideas they could be used for instance with making the bard be able to dance longer... or have a more powerful effect... or have a stronger effect when they sing... or longer effect.. or whatever lol...

naturally bards are good at causing distractions.. so im sure some good ideas could spawn off that...

ok enough for now lol.

lab

Post by **belannaer** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 09:24 am

I have to check FF X-2 it seems

I wanted to keep this manipulating/hypnotizing thing to psionicists. They do it more efficiently

labinac · Post by **labinac** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 09:29 am

yeh thats what i figured.. sort of why i added the part of asking where it all tied in...

but defineately bards have the potential to ber a very powerful guild... but im sure yall have ways of making sure things stay balanced

afterall its what yall do

lab