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]

Bards NPC`s & PCs

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 NPCs/PCs 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]

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]

Don't forget the ENSA groups

ENSA = Entertainments National Service Association

[Silent Hunter UK]

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.