Spring Break Bard Contest: Win a D&D 4e PHB2!
March 18, 2009 by e
Filed under Dungeons & Dragons, Geek Life, Geeky Products, YouTube Goodies
Lookie what I have!
(A new haircut. Highlights. A blanket behind me. Yes, I know.)
Oh yes, and a PHB2.
I’ve breathed on it and hugged it and I’m going to GIVE IT AWAY to one of you.
Just enter the Spring Break Bard contest to get your chance to win!
The Inspiration
Going to the promised land, Daytona Beach:
Enter to Win
Since the PHB2 contains my all time favorite class ever, The Bard, here’s what you have to do to enter:
Come up with a unique character concept for a Bard and post it in the comments below. I don’t need an epic saga, just a few sentences that would serve as a neat jumping-off point for someone rolling up a new Bard.
For example: Gilya’s mother always told her that she couldn’t carry a tune if it had handles. But the young dwarf was determined to sing the song Moradin had put in her heart – and found that the more inebriated she became, the better she sang.
Everyone who puts forth the effort will be entered to win, so give it a go!
The Lucky Winner…
I will draw the lucky winner on Monday 3/23 and ship your PHB2 out to you that week.
E. Foley is a geek girl extraordinaire. She writes amazing online dating profiles for geeks and non-geeks, helping clients all over the world find love. Her writing can be found at Examiner.com, Dating Sites Reviews, and elsewhere as a ghostwriter. By day, she is the Copywriter at ThinkGeek. She lives in Maryland with DaveTheGame and her adorable cats, Mr. Peanut and Don Juan. (Email e, or follow @geeksdreamgirl on Twitter.)
She sings and dance,
and likes an occasional dalliance.
This last part is why Jueria fled her hometown after having a fling or three with all of the Mayors’ sons. Of course the bawdy tavern song about the experience didn’t help. Now she sings about her various adventurous in the great wide world.
I’m simply gaping in astonishment that there’s someone out in the great wide world who actually plays bards!
Is there an equivalent to Rock Band in D&D? Gotta get that in there somewhere…
Sam Judson´s last blog post..Resistance is Futile
@Don -
Damned straight, there is! And the 4e version rocks harder than any before it.
@e -
I already have a PHB2, so don’t send me this (we all know what happened the last time you tried to send me something, anyways
), but I figured I’d share a bit from a non-story perspective.
This weekend, at our FLGS event, I’m planning on rolling up a bard. One of either:
- Gnome Comedian, who stands back and takes cheap shots at the enemy. For this, I have this on my blackberry, to play when appropriate.
- Dragonborn Greatsword-wielding WarBard (since I discovered Songblades can be any heavy blade), played as a bad viking poet. Multiclassing into Sorcerer, Rogue or Ranger, and Barbarian, if possible.
Just because I can.
A promising young singer, Eliamka is the only survivor of a travelling singing group that was captured by a band of Orcs. She was rescued by the local militia after a year of captivity, but the poor living conditions, combined with the abuse ensured that she could never sing again. Left with only a desire for revenge, a wish to keep the same from happening to others, as well as a couple of instruments that the Orcs hadn’t burnt for firewood or smashed for amusement, Eliamka sets out to make her way in the world.
From birth, it was said she possessed an unearthly voice. As she grew, the very words she spoke would draw those around her near, yearning to hear but a quarter-note of her songs. She doesn’t know which god it was that gave her this angelic talent, all she knows is that if she doesn’t sing the song within her heart…
She may very well die.
Jebedo was a quiet fellow…most folks mistook him for a rogue, as that is what he aspired to be, but alas he was cursed…he could only speak in iambic pentameter…the poor sap was destined to have a bit of poetic flare in his day-to-day activities, regardless of how gritty or droll they may be…many thought it a gift, he thought it a curse, and the few who travelled with him found it a perpetual annoyance…
But after much adventuring, he began to take pride in his ability…Jebedo the rhyming gnome had finally met destiny…most famous is his epoch about the lycanthropic rhinoceros…
Reverend Mike´s last blog post..Demotivational Monday: From Mordith’s Journal
From early childhood, Breen knew she had a talent for the harp, as her villagers would gather outside the temple walls to listen to the young orphan string her instrument. Some said her notes caused wounds to heal, and frail bones to get stronger.
Word leaked out to the Great City of Foxious, and the young half-elf was taken to play for the Court of Simoné, Randolph and Abdula the Drunk.
She quickly became an idol throughout the realm, but in a few weeks, faded back into obscurity. Now she struggles to regain that delicious fame back and feels adventuring may put her strumming once again in the spotlight…
newbiedm´s last blog post..What should new DM’s expect from the Player’s Handbook 2?
Besrun could never sit still at his lessons – he was always drumming on the table with his hands, or on the floor with his feet. All his poor studies came to nothing when the kingdom was plunged into war, and he was drafted into the local militia. There, he discovered a new kind of drumming – the stamp of marching feet and the rythmic clash of swords. He wasn’t any better with a sword than he was with schoolbooks, but his commander was a well-traveled man, and knew that weapons alone did not win a battle.
And so it was that Besrun became a wardrummer, keeping up his unit’s morale and striking fear into the enemy. Now, with the war over, he craves adventure, seeking new uses for his talents and new audiences for his music.
Could be any race, though I picture him as a halfling.
The ancient tribal ways had been long forgotten, clan members derided Kord as weak and not fit for combat. The stronger youths went on raiding parties and would come back to the hearth singing of their glorious deeds.
But the elders remembered tales of old where the rhythm of battle was song enough, boastful carousing was shameful, it dishonoured those who fell.
Kord listened to these teachings and followed his own steps, in the next raid he lifted his sword and fought alongside the others but the tune of the combat entered his soul and he began to move in time with the tempo. His every sword play pitched to match the flow of the fight.
Later he composed a musical tribute to the music that had risen from the raid. All the clan members realised he had captured the spirit of the skirmish as they listened again to the pull and thrust of each weapon played back through the strings of his lute.
Aurora did not want to be the village’s chanter. She did enjoy the songs of her tribe, but hated the restrictions the elders put on her. She always wanted to not only spread the music of her tribe to others, but to learn the language of music from others, like the humans she learned her first tavern song from (Which made her chuckle). A song that despite her enjoyment of and the humor it brought, earned her punishment from the elders and a warning to never sing that song or any other again that was not of the tribe. But, like other young Shifters, she was defiant and headstrong. She was determined to head out into the world and learn all she could about the music of the world….
including every bawdy tavern song she could find.
GeekBob´s last blog post..RPG Blog Carnival – St. Patrick’s Day – Entry #1
Danas was always a windbag. He could hold a note out longer than anyone he knew, and would blast the last note from his clarinet as loud as he could. He dabbled in the bardic arts and created a name for himself. The legend goes that one day, a pack of dire boars swarmed a village and set up shop in the thatched huts and wooden hovels. Danas strode into town, and he huffed, and he puffed, and… well, you know the rest.
One of my first characters was a bard, I had the GM convinced that he could cast any spell on his spell list at any time, limited only by his spells per day. oh, that was fun.
but anyway, onto the story:
the character was a bard (non-magical) who loved to play his music and collect tales of great heroes (secretly also wanting to be one) until one day he was in a terrible accident… a five-carriage pileup… the healer told him he would never play music again. Despite this, he tried everything he could to reclaim his music ability, yet he could not. Then, one day, noticed how hard he was working to reclaim his the talent he loved, and granted his wish. As soon as he realized he could play again, he played and played late into the night, much to the dismay of his neighbors. He found that he could play so well that when he did, magic started forming and swirling around him, and with some practice he found he could even control it with his music. he decided to put his magical abilities to use, as adventuring had been a secret dream of his… (and it pays better than playing music at taverns.)
hows that?
MacGuffin´s last blog post..I made it! I am a member of the RPG Bloggers Network!
The bard’s performance method is insult comedy. (Rimshot)
“That giant spider has fewer legs sticking from under it, than your momma’s bedspread!”
The enemy is afflicted with insecurities and while he struggles for a comeback, he suffers a penalty to hit the Bard and his allies. Though this should be played by a very creative player who can in fact come up with such one liners.
I’ve wanted to play an orcish bardbarian since 3e. Just never had the opportunity before 3e came to a close. Now that PHB2 is coming out, well…. I still won’t have a chance for a while, since I’m GMing. That and the multiclassing in 4e is pretty weak. 3e barbarians had all kinds of synergy going on. Essentially, they took a rage, HP, and BaB hit to get a group buff that replaced their BaB, and some low level utility spells.
My vision of the orcish bardbarian is a jungle savage adorned in armor made from the bones of his foes, painted in ritual patterns in animal blood and white lead paste. A haunting stylized skull inked over his face with crude finger strokes transforms him into image of death, makes his foes weak, carving through them with his stone axes, a haunting dirge to ancestral warriors fallen in glorious battle bursting from his powerful lungs.
Others in his tribe may be warriors, may know the warrior’s rage, but it is in him the tales of the tribe’s ancestors live. He is their fury and prowess given form, and it is through him they still battle.
Matthew J. Neagley´s last blog post..Inheriting a Game that You Played In – What To Do With Your Character?
Wow! These are all looking awesome! Keep ‘em coming, people!
“No story,” say the sages, “can be new”
Yet Marnin seeks a story yet un-spoke.
As with a band of players up he grew
His first words “break a leg”, his next a joke.
He knows the roles in all the plays by heart
And sees that many watchers know the same
And feels a story never told may start
To bring their wand’ring interest back again.
His props left in their chest, he wanders out
To seek what has been never seen before
If none yet writ, see things to write about,
No relayed tales like the bards of yore
For those who quest the greatest stories make;
Might he from questing inspiration take?
(Unfortunately for Marnin, the old advice that if you can’t find something new, just do the old thing differently hasn’t quite occurred to him. But that wouldn’t make much of an adventure, now, would it?)
Ravyn´s last blog post..Why We Love Other People’s Ideas
I’ve got an article I wrote a few days ago where I tried to come up with some new ideas for bards.
I don’t want to read these for fear that my “original” ideas show up before my article goes up.
Nicholas´s last blog post..Pet Peeves at the Game Table
I like the concept of playing a bard. The new gaming blog I started actually is about me trying to create a bard though conceptually it’s probably not what you’re looking for so I’ll share a bard-esqe concept I played.
At a gaunt 5′1 Pip can only be described as small. Part of an intrepid band of heroes once before he went into hermitage when his friend and mentor within the team died. He didn’t know that the evil overlord he and his friends had undermined had sent assassins to kill his old friends until they came for him. The assassins didn’t count on Pip having his “insurance policy” with him, a blade that was far too big for him to feasibly wield on-hand.
Pip is obnoxious and has an incurable case of little-man syndrome. He does drugs, complains constantly, acts chauvinistic and will go to bat instantly for whoever he considers a friend, whether his friendship is reciprocated or not. Pip is also a master poet. He’s made it his life mission to use his prose to expose the warlord that killed his friends through his writing and bring him out in the open so that Pip can deal with him once and for all.
I know he’s not particularly realistic or even fantastic, but he was a blast to play. His character flaws and the fact that all the other PC’s squabbled with him almost constantly made him really fun.
Galean was born with a gift for poetry. He was raised a star, performing for huge crowds all over Tir Tara. For well over a century Galean toured and sang, every wish granted, every desire fulfilled. Then doom came to Tir Tara and the Eladrin and elves knew terror. Thousands died, the Fey Realm was subsumed by the Shadow Realm and the long lived races lost their immortal connection to the natural world. Galean represents the corruption that came to his people. His songs now are twisted and evil, his manner foul and dark, his desires unspeakable. He embodies the tainted corruption of Tir Tara, his prodigious talent not lost, but twisted. The scariest thing is, he still draws a crowd, the Eladrin and the elves are listening…
Fezzer was not the fiercest Kobold in his small tribe, and that left him as a bit an outsider. He would be left behind in the cave most nights, while the rest of the males would be off hunting and protecting the territory.
Left alone with the elders, Fezzer would pass the time tapping bones against the rocks. He didn’t realize he was making any sort of music, but the Kobolds who could hear him felt compelled to listen. One night, the tribal Shaman noticed something very compelling about the sounds coming from Fezzer’s corner of the cave.
I already bought the book, so I’m not looking for a prize, here.
There are so many great places to draw inspiration from both in pop culture, myth, and lore.
You could make a character based on the Pied Piper.
You could be a prophet, a la Battlestar Galactica: “All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.”
You could play a character like a rock star, or Diva, influencing culture and people’s daily lives; playing for the troops to raise moral, or special performances for the king, and be larger than life.
You could draw inspiration from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series: A gleeman who traveled amongst the Tuatha’an, looking for the song that helped to create the world. “I will find the song, or another will find the song, but the song will be sung this year or in a year to come. As it once was, so shall it be again, world without end.”
A friend of mine once created a bard who wrote travel guides, recaping the week’s adventure with his latest entry into his book “How to Survive Faerun on two gold a day”
Then there is my favorite source of inspiration: The skald. Sometimes with a twist.
“My name is Ibn Rasheed, Ibn Fahalaan. A man I once knew said a man might be thought rich, if someone would draw out the story of his life; this, is the story of Bulwie, and the Eaters of the Dead.”
At a young age he was sent to the monks of the Raven Queen. He joined their order, and joined their choir. His voice was pure and could bring hope to a dirge, and melancholy to a spring song. As he aged it became apparent that there was something special about him. His songs brought more to them then any voice before, and when he spoke to people to council them in their time of loss he could inspire them to live their lives and accept the passing of their beloved as a natural turn in life’s path.
His own life changed when a stranger passing through was murdered. He was sent to perform the rights of passing. No one admitted to knowing his name, or anything else about him. The young monk examined the man for any clue as to who he was so that he might properly sing for the strangers passing. The song he sung so moved the murderer (who was in attendance with the rest of the village) that she confessed before everyone.
The story was told, and before long the young monk was sent out to sing the songs of the mysteriously dead.
David´s last blog post..Worlds of adventure
As a young dwarf the caves sang to Shard. As she grew she learned to sing back to them, long slow songs that stirred the spirits of her clan. To hear more of the song she took to wandering the caves, finding the song changed -Deep and dark near the haunted lake, powerful and angry near the magmafalls. Shortly after Shard entered adulthood her clan went to war with a tribe of Derro, and Shard went with them, playing her Bagpipes and chanting the chant of the earth to fill the proud warriors hearts with the strength of the earth. However during an ambush she was struck on the head and then, well, evidently she wandered the tunnels in a daze for a long time as when she came too she was in a part of the caverns she had never heard of. Wandering, still disorinted from her headwound she heard a stange song singing in counterpoint with the earth. Following it she walked upwards for several days, finally finding a crack through which strange light poured. Walking thought it she found herself in a world unlike that of the caves, a world of greens and blues. And the song, oh Moradin the song of the sky was beautiful, so light and airy and fast….Since that day she has wandered the world, learning the songs of this new world, the songs of sky, glen and dale. She doesn’t know how to get home, but she figures she can worry about that later, as she has more intresting things to do. For instance she’s hear tales of something called an ocean, and well, if sky and stone sing to her, why not the ocean?
Ok, wrote this at about 1am, no proofing, very little preplaning so I have no idea how good it is. Oh and I will admit I have some recollection of a dwarven druid with a somewhat similar concept being posted in Wizards around the time 3e was released, but well, I think this is somewhere different. As far as I know the idea of the world singing to the young bard is my own, which is whwat I think would dominate the roleplay of the character. I’d loe to see the powers/spells/songs of the bard be based of various places the bard has been- inspire courage from the lava falls, filling the herts with angry power, sleep from restful dale, etc.
Oh yes, Shard has a BEARD. A small cute goatee that won’t get in the way of get pipes (Bagpipes).
So what do you all think?
Canageek´s last blog post..Canageek: RT @darthvader: If you’re stinging from the BSG spoilers on Twitter, maybe this will take some of the edge off – I am Luke’s father.
As a young child living in the city, Alek could never decide what he wanted to be when he grew up.
So he decided that he would be them all…
Aaron´s last blog post..Review: Take Control of Running Windows on a Mac, Third Edition
Vilaria is an elven seeker (as bards are called by the elves) whose voice and music causes the natural earth surrounding her to spring with life, the air to lighten with a gentle glow, the rivers to calm and stirs strong emotions in the animals and people who listen to her song.
Unfortunately, her exceptional gift has caused the destruction of her village home when human prospectors heard of her legend and captured her to be a famous singer in their towns.
Questing GM´s last blog post..Word of Wizards – 21/3/09
Do we get one chance per entry? Yes? No? I don’t really care, I just wanted to share this entry:
D’carte grew up fascinated by tales of noble knights on shiny steeds. He memorized every tale of paladins slaying dragons and great deed he could. When he was old enough he travelled to the capitol to train as a knight. While his physique was not suitable to a knightly calling while there he managed to impress the head herald with his knowledge of knightly tales. It was rapidly discovered that in addition to his amazing memory he had a beautiful singing voice and a natural skill with a trumpet. He graduated from heralds collage in record time and many speculated that he was being groomed to replace the archherald in time. However when he followed the knights he idealized to war he was disgusted by the cruel and murderous behaviour he saw on both sides. Fortunately his downward spiral of depression was broken one day. He once again saw of group of knights looting an innocent town. This time however someone stood against them. A noble paladin strode out the inn and challenged all five knights at once. Abandoning heraldic neutrality D’carte lent his sword and song to the side the noble paragon, and together they drove off the villains. Identifying herself as Grace the paladin asked if she would be interested in travelling with him for a time. Renouncing his heraldic duties on the spot he has travelled with Grace ever since. Seeing each other as a mirror of their ideals the two have become very close friends, and are slowly drifting towards something more, however this is being held back for the time by D’carte’s worry that his feelings stem from his boyhood idealization and not Grace herself and Grace struggling with breaking her orders unwritten rule of chasity.
D’carte is a tall thin man, with long dark brown hair the falls in tight curls. Even in the field he is fastidious about his appearance, something that amuses the more practical Grace to no end. He’s quite a handsome man, and was known to be something of a womanizer while training in the capitol, a fact which he’s attempted to hide from Grace, and she’s politely not told him that she knowns from her time in the capitol.
Canageek´s last blog post..Canageek: DOH. Forgot to get syrup for my pancakes. Ah well, getting full anyway
There once was a halfing village
that bandits came to pillage
Traumatized by the crime
Lyle speaks only in rhyme
Though his friends rudely call it “spillage”
The fellow mostly utters limerick
Making his party pretty sick
Still, they’re better than his sonatas
or his awful try at cantatas
for which he’s been hit with a brick
Complaints don’t get him down
As they travel from town to town
or out through the wild
where his rhymes have beguiled
giving Lyle his own renown
(Came over from http://questinggm.blogspot.com/ This is a great idea, and fun. Now, I can look at the other entries!)
CONGRATS to Helmsman! The d30 favored you and you will get a shiny new PHB2 very soon.
Thank’s very much. I actually joined a D&D 4e game recently so this will definitely come in handy.
Helmsman´s last blog post..Recommending Burn Notice and Applied Problem-solving in RPG’s