Post/Author/DateTime	Post
kuhTHOOloo 06-25-05, 09:51 AM	My players have asked me for an all bard campaign. It's not going to be all serious, it's just a funny one for the summer. Point of the campaign is for the group of bards to become the greatest minstrels in the land, outperforming all the others, surviving attacks made by other bands, and attacking them as they see fit. I already have lots of cool "bad guys" for my players to face, but I'm having trouble for the major bad ones. What I have so far: •Styx dragon bard •lich bard named Rob Any advice for other major bad guys? I just need like three or four more.
erendor the True 06-25-05, 10:01 AM	Non-serious, hmm? WELL... -A human female bard, who wields her reinforced guitar as a weapon, using it to beat her enemies into submission. Has all sorts of weird quirks, due to the fact that she is from another 'country' and not used to the customs in this one. Name of Haruko. >_> She is seeking to, through the sacrifice of several guitar-subdued high-level people, revive an incredibly powerful Great Wyrm bard, and steal his power. Blatant references ahoy. Forgive me if this was a little much,as I don't want to accidentaly make you Lose any faith or respect for me or anysuch.Not my aim, as you will soon C. Laugh out loud, and nevermind the Acrostics.
Gekkepop 06-25-05, 10:09 AM	How about a bard who is an extremely bad performer, but is still popular because he kills everyone who criticizes him. Maybe you could, instead of his bardic music giving bonuses to party members, make it give his enemies who are forced to listen to it penalties.
Eliza_Stormwhisper 06-25-05, 10:17 AM	A group entirely made of bards, eh? Hm.... How about making the BBEG a school board, who are cutting the music program throughout the district, and your job is to beat them silly and saving the music program. No, I'm not bitter about what happened to my high school music program. Not at all.
kuhTHOOloo 06-25-05, 10:31 AM	Great ideas, I love em. Even if some of them are blatant ripoffs. Those are the best kinds... And Eliza, I am terribly sorry to hear that about your school. I would die.
Mirikon 06-25-05, 10:43 AM	How about a Harpy Bard, with a wizard cohort. The Harpy is using the wizard to channel the beauty of the most beautiful women of the world into herself.
Crystal Monk 06-25-05, 10:44 AM	I remember, years ago on these boards, a thread turned into a running gag defining the Rolling Stones as a group of lich bards. if you introduce them one at a time, and eventually have the group created to challenge your players, that might be fun. messing the names could be interesting too, especially when your players finally get it: "wait, the one singing is named Mikhail Jaa'ger? and the creepy guy on the mandolin is Kiithe Rickard?"
kam_Islash 06-25-05, 10:53 AM	Possible BBEG: Female Paragon Drow bard, scantily clad and given to singing J-pop style songs in Draconic. imagine a hot dark elf chick with a voice like Megumi Hayashibara or Kumiko Kato.... ///
Didge 06-25-05, 11:12 AM	"Spinal Tap" Go now, watch the movie, and learn the history. This will give you more ideas than you ever wanted.
ArtEChoke 06-25-05, 11:29 AM	Have the whole thing play out like a Broadway stage show, or a, "Battle-of-the-bands"
Cantankerous 06-25-05, 11:32 AM	Somewhere within it there must be a band/party called: The Grateful Dead, with their strange but utterly devoted followers/groupies, the Dead Heads, who are hippy/trippy to the max and are still more than slightly sinister at the same time. There is an article of faith among Dead Heads in So. Cali that in the mid eighties, while the Beach Boys were putting together a hugely advertised revival concert, the Dead quietly staged a little "get to jam" in the Hollywood Hills that packed in over two hundred thousand weirded out Dead Heads while the Colliseum sat half empty for the much ballyhooed concert. Something like that involved will do justice to your weird and funny scene in ways that should be good for a laugh or two. Isshia edit: Of course, THESE Grateful Dead should all be undead... and their "fans" somehow become undead by listening to the band/party perform. I
rekbek 06-25-05, 11:58 AM	First idea that popped into my head when reading the topic, was a highish level Orc Bard. In "his time" he was a great singer and performer (amoung Orc), but due to a sonic boom of some sort (Captain Kirk travelling time again?), he lost half of his hearing and thus sings a tone flat and in a different key to what he's playing, even though to him it still sounds good. Now, everyone who hasn't heard him sing after his loss, will "boo" him off the stage. He now seeks revenge by trying to build some kind of Telepathic bond device to link with everyone in the world so that they must listen to his music when ever he feels like singing. The quest of the bards, if they choose to accept it, is to intercept this this telepathic communications and sing their wonderful music. The Orc will also hear this music and then: (Choose A, B or C) A) His hearing will be healed and he will be able to sing again, B) The Orc will be so overwhelmed by the music he will cease to try and sing and be the Bard's manager, C) The Orc will explode and send tons of XP into the air to the PCs Yup, all of this came to me while reading the topic :D
Andrewinator 06-25-05, 12:25 PM	Non-serious, hmm? -A human female bard, who wields her reinforced guitar as a weapon, using it to beat her enemies into submission. Has all sorts of weird quirks, due to the fact that she is from another 'country' and not used to the customs in this one. Name of Haruko. >_> She is seeking to, through the sacrifice of several guitar-subdued high-level people, revive an incredibly powerful Great Wyrm bard, and steal his power. Well I got that FLCL refrence.
Eliza_Stormwhisper 06-25-05, 01:22 PM	Great ideas, I love em. Even if some of them are blatant ripoffs. Those are the best kinds... And Eliza, I am terribly sorry to hear that about your school. I would die. Luckily, they didn't do this until I graduated.
erendor the True 06-25-05, 03:17 PM	Well I got that FLCL refrence. Thank _____. I was afraid no one would see it, and then I'd lose my divine bonuses for this week. As you probably know, I can't directly speak of it. (Although using the beginnings of senteces is O-K.
Mirikon 06-25-05, 06:55 PM	Flcl?
Flushmaster 06-25-05, 07:24 PM	Fooly-Cooly, or Furi-Kuri. It's a 6 episode anime series made by some rather famous folks (they include Evangelion in their portfolio). FLCL is incredibly tongue-in-cheek, though there is a story behind it, mainly Haruko's quest of resurrecting, defeating, and absorbing the power of the legendary Atomisk (sp?) the Pirate King, who is sort of possesing a young boy in Japan without the boy's knowledge. The kid (I forget his name offhand) has some major personal issues and the seemingly batsh*t-loco Haruko (who rides a flying motot scooter that comes when she whistles and wields an electric guitar as a particularly wicked weapon, and she can play some good rock music on it too) actually manages to straighten his head out, but not before a lot of crazy things happen. It's really cool, in the sort of way that while watching it you wonder if you accidentally took some LSD or something (not that I've ever done LSD, but I imagine the effect would be similar to that show). I also have a suggestion for the villain, or at least a sorta-sidequest villain. A snobby and not-too-intelligent rich lady (think Tipper Gore) who thinks that songs performed by many musicians are crude, obscene, and otherwise detrimental to the healthy growth of the kingdom's youth. Secretly a follower of Hextor desiring to control all aspects of daily life through overlegislation, She and her followers try to (and maybe do) implement a system in which appointed "decency inspectors" patrol the streets, taverns, large parties, and anyplace music is played and order just about anybody to stop playing what they are at the time and giving them songs that are approved for performance (make these as lame and bland as possibly, or maybe just retarded like the "Barney" theme). The PCs must expose this evil plot for what it is (and might very well be part of a further evil plot exposed by the exposure of this) and stop it.
kuhTHOOloo 06-25-05, 07:35 PM	I also have a suggestion for the villain, or at least a sorta-sidequest villain. A snobby and not-too-intelligent rich lady (think Tipper Gore) who thinks that songs performed by many musicians are crude, obscene, and otherwise detrimental to the healthy growth of the kingdom's youth. Secretly a follower of Hextor desiring to control all aspects of daily life through overlegislation, She and her followers try to (and maybe do) implement a system in which appointed "decency inspectors" patrol the streets, taverns, large parties, and anyplace music is played and order just about anybody to stop playing what they are at the time and giving them songs that are approved for performance (make these as lame and bland as possibly, or maybe just retarded like the "Barney" theme). The PCs must expose this evil plot for what it is (and might very well be part of a further evil plot exposed by the exposure of this) and stop it. You have my undying respect and admiration. Consider it implemented.
Rntaboy 06-25-05, 07:55 PM	A group of Troll Bards who are really just awful at their craft, but bash anyone who says so.
krichaiushii 06-25-05, 07:56 PM	No, I'm not bitter about what happened to my high school music program. Not at all. But at least they kept football and cheerleading, right? After all, that IS what US High School is all about! (disregard if not from the US). As to the original post's question, Flushmaster wins. Make sure that the group she heads should have an ostentatious name, with the acronym PMRC.
OctoberRaven 06-25-05, 09:23 PM	Hmm...okay, a hot female bard who taunts the players with riparte that is a combination of dirty jokes and threats of dismemberment, who uses her guitar as a weapon (sometimes using the E string to strangle people). A band who all worships St. Cuthbert and plays music about how great he is without giving reasons as to why he is so great. An extremely popular group of bards who play lame, generic-sounding music and shill themselves to no end (like Good Charlotte), who are using mind control to enslave the world or something. The ruler of the land, who outlaws all music, books, and other forms of media. Even the ones that support him. Basically, he hates all youth. For no reason. He just does. DDR Addicts. You can base a whole campaign out of those two words.
clarkvalentine 06-25-05, 09:28 PM	For some bizarre reason I've had the notion "Evil Juggler" in my head for about two years now without being able to find a way to wedge him into a game. This might be the perfect place.
DraytonThain 06-25-05, 10:01 PM	you just gotta use the "devil went down to georgia" baddie in there somewheres. :) or an ac/dc like group of devils...singing hells bells would be a crack up....you did say NOT serious right?? and i think a band of DDRs...DanceDanceRevolutionaries would be great fun...i believe that someone actually posted such a class upon these boards.
moustache guy 06-26-05, 12:22 PM	Sadly, I don't have any cool references. Anyways, while I like some of the funny ideas for lackeys, I prefer to keep the BBEG more srious. An idea that comes to mind is a mafia boss is heavily invested in a particular troupe or theater group and he can't afford to have the PCs cut in on his business. Perhaps the evil juggling bard is the BBEG's crazy cousin Vinny. And that beautiful/handsome bard is the BBEg's niece or nephew. Also, having a more serious BBEg could explain his network in the city. It would give the PCs the opportunity to infiltrate something and make extensive use of their cha based skills. Breaking into the mafia house could also give them opportunity to use all manner of rogue like skills. Lastly, they don't have to kill the BBEG to beat him. Perhaps the publically expose him, with evidence of course, and also find a way to ridicule him.
Malcoren 06-26-05, 01:15 PM	If you haven't done so, I suggest you immediately go to a bookstore, look in the fantasy section under an author by the name of Terry Pratchett, and find a book called "Soul Music". It resembles what you are doing, the effect of the real-world's 'rock music' leaking through into what has to be the most dimensionally unstable fantasy world in existance. Pretty much ever 'famous' band is parodied in the book, and some really weird situations ensue. It doesn't help that the music is alive either. It might give you some really useful ideas. ;)
LCD2YOU 06-26-05, 01:21 PM	Simon. Yup, he can go around criticizing all of the bards and tell them how bad they really are. To make it even more laughable, have one of his cohorts, an older but still actractive female, try to sleep with the younger, better looking males.
kam_Islash 06-26-05, 01:39 PM	Warforged bard: "I am iron man..." "if I only had a heart...." ///
Ekranoplan 06-26-05, 02:24 PM	Non-serious, hmm? WELL... -A human female bard, who wields her reinforced guitar as a weapon, using it to beat her enemies into submission. Has all sorts of weird quirks, due to the fact that she is from another 'country' and not used to the customs in this one. Name of Haruko. >_> She is seeking to, through the sacrifice of several guitar-subdued high-level people, revive an incredibly powerful Great Wyrm bard, and steal his power. Blatant references ahoy. Forgive me if this was a little much,as I don't want to accidentaly make you Lose any faith or respect for me or anysuch.Not my aim, as you will soon C. Laugh out loud, and nevermind the Acrostics. I enjoyed the reference, but I despise FLCL. Ironically though, my AIM screen name is CrystalPepsiFLCL. I am still in complete support of guitars and other instruments being used as weapons. For instance, it is a well known fact that terradactals cannots stand the sound of electric guitars. You could also find a Great Axe/bass, which was a popular weapon in one of my campaigns once.
Valgaav 06-26-05, 02:32 PM	found what you neaded in the Design A Lair competition: this post (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=6379760)