How are bards generally perceived in the Planescape setting? Are they generally treated as thieves or welcomed as entertainers? I've found almost no information about bards on the Planes. Thank you.
Bards in Planescape
Tue, 2007-11-20 07:36
#1
Bards in Planescape
Tue, 2007-11-20 11:15
#3
Bards in Planescape
See here:
http://planewalker.com/encyclopedia/node/
Where I basically quoted the Planescape Campaign Setting and Planar Handbook.
Thu, 2007-11-22 06:31
#4
Bards in Planescape
I think that even extreamly lawful races like modrons, would appreciate bardic music, but not for it artistic value.
They would apreciate it for its mathematical value, true, creating of composition is work of art, but music has mathematical roots, so reproducing it is simple act of repetition that even modrons could reproduce.
Thu, 2007-11-22 14:41
#5
Bards in Planescape
Modron bard would be hee-larious.
And interesting.
Thu, 2007-11-22 16:09
#6
Bards in Planescape
Modron bard would be hee-larious.
And interesting.
All I can imagine is small pipe organs, built into them.
Thu, 2007-11-22 16:56
#7
Bards in Planescape
The Great Hippo wrote:
Modron bard would be hee-larious.
And interesting.
I always wanted to draw modron bard... 
Charles Phipps wrote:
All I can imagine is small pipe organs, built into them.
Heh, with little cranks on their sides, which they turn to play music.
Also, modron one-man band (one-modron band that is), would be interesting to see.
Thu, 2007-11-22 19:07
#8
Bards in Planescape
Many bards, I should think, are welcomed as entertainers. They are story tellers and there are many stories to tell in the planes. (though, similarly, they aren't always trusted - in the same way you wouldn't want a reporter around in many situations)
They can also make fantastic touts - particularly in the nicer wards.
And if you're going to a plane, or dealing with a creature which might have reason not to like you, the widely recognized diplomatic skills of a bard can be quite useful.
I think, though, like so much in the planes, they are judged on who they are more often than what they are. Most cutters learn quickly that preconceptions get you killed in the planes.
In my games class and race are much less likely to get you judged than Faction and philosophy.
Fri, 2007-11-23 11:01
#9
Bards in Planescape
One of the ideas me and some other guy played around with way back when was a bard who weaved stories that were so convincing and caused so many people to retell them that they'd take on a life of their own. He has caused ridiculous, INSANE amounts of trouble over the planes; no one knows just how many long-established problems, pieces of geography, or historical data have started out as a really pleasant story he decided to tell.
On a lark, the bard one day started making up a story about the Lady of Pain (much to the horror of those listening around him). He was promptly Mazed.
There's a dark hanging around that he's created an entire world of stories inside the Maze; there's another dark that says that one of his stories managed to escape the Maze, and is now in the process of finding a way to let him out again.
Depends on exactly where the bard is and what kind of beings he's dealing with. I would lean more toward 'entertainers.' A bard, in and of himself, isn't innately all that threatening in a setting where Glabrezu walk down city streets.
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