[PF] Golarion International Battle of the Bards (General Ideas)

[anmgarmvits]

My friend came up with a great idea to make a "Battle of the Bards" type campaign, and I decided to steal the idea. Some things that I need some help with:

Making group based performance checks
Options for non-bard characters
Archetypes that would work
What level to start at (Was thinking 3-4)
Encounters for the Venues/ On the Road


Short Description of The Beginning (My Players who Frequent the Forum Stay Out.)
The campaign was going to start with a mysterious patron that is gathering people of Andoran decent to make a sort of super-troupe for the battle of the bands competition to take place 1-2 years after the gathering. The initial meeting would culminate in an audition and group audition versus another group of bards vying for the patronage.

After acquiring the Patronage of the Mystery Man (Later turns out to be Tom Tinkerton of Tinkerton Magical Music Boxes [The Biggest Record Label/Jukebox Company in Golarion]). The campaign would then shift to getting the "Band" more renown, playing at Andoran venues, work their way up the coast, and meeting the other bands that will be at the competition. Each band taking on a Fantasy Aspect of a Real World Band.

[Jack Zander]

That campaign sounds so... awesome!

[Coidzor]

Hmm, there's skill challenges you could crib from 4e and related things, and skill games you could crib from Legend. Might be able to simulate a variety of component parts of this campaign with those toolsets.

Ideas for NPC bard groups.

Dragon (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=185168)force (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140908)

The Thassilonians (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAMRTGv82Zo)(or whatever you feel like there, picking a couple of rune lords to style themselves after could be interesting, since, IIRC, knowledge of that bit of ancient history was uncovered in the past 30-50 years prior to the general start of play.

O (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-funk)(rcish)-Funk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-Funk)

Ancient History that might be of interest: The Disciple of Metal Bard (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19523298/The_Disciple_of_Metal_PrC_Bard).

[Jack Zander]

The party wants to record an album, but the producer is a slimy jerk and makes them run around on a grand task first.
One of the members sleeps with the wrong lady after a show. It could be the mayor's daughter, or the girlfriend of a local crime lord. Either way, they've pissed off someone powerful.
A rival band poisons their drinks the night before the battle. Now their vocal chords are shot and they have less than a full day to find a cure (note, the rival bands could also do several other things, such as steal or trash an instrument, making this hook reusable)
A local crafter, delighted with the party's performance, offers to create the most perfect instrument for one of the members to play at no charge. However, there is something he needs done first.
A rival band, jealous of being between in one of the earlier rounds, ambushes and tries to assassinate the party while on the road.
While on the road, their transport breaks down (meaning various things depending on how they travel) near an old creepy mansion.

This is all just stuff I came up with off the top of my head right now. Hooks for this type of campaign sound really fun and easy.

[anmgarmvits]

Love the Band names, one of my players already loves the Disciple of Metal, and the Hooks are great.

Well What do you think should be the transportation? I was thinking the patron would give them a simple wagon with a horse, or a covered wagon, and as they get more famous, the caravan starts to get bigger.

A few bands:

The Scarabs - An Osirion Pop Band (The Beatles)
Red Hot Flayleafs - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Rage Against the Construct - Rage against the Machine
Elyisuim -Nirvana

And some Encounters building on yours:

"While on the road, their transport breaks down (meaning various things depending on how they travel) near an old creepy mansion."

Turns out it was the Addams Family, and it really isn't set up for combat encounters. And it turns out that it's a half-way home for monsters who want to turn over a new leaf. And they all really like music, and they end up playing a show for all of these monsters from the surrounding area. Or something like that.

Someone Burns their equipment and they have to find out who did, and get new equipment.

Each of the Band Members has their own kind of Legendary Musical Item that they have to find along the way:
The Lute of Theodoris T. Logaine
The Flute of the Aqualung

[hiryuu]

Perform
Perform is a subset of skills, much like Knowledge or Craft. Use the perform skill list below. Audiences can affect the end result of the check. A hostile audience applies a -5 penalty, an unfriendly audience a -3 penalty, an indifferent audience grants a +0 bonus, a friendly audience grants a +1 bonus, and a helpful audience grants a +2 bonus. Hostile audiences give out a worse penalty because they're likely to leave, throw vegetables, and actively try to foul up the performance by asking questions or shouting. Helpful audiences often just sit there and watch or listen, though they may try to answer favorite questions or volunteer to assist you in tricks or actions.

We Challenge You to a Rock-Off
Performing rock-offs, band battles, and actor's disputes is a bit more complicated than just making single opposed checks. You've got to whittle away your opponent's cool, make him blow his top, and march off stage in a fit of anger, or otherwise make him look like a fool. This is done by a series of opposed checks.
Serving
Participants roll initiative like normal, and then each makes a Perform check. It must be the same kind of performance, or else one that segues into the other as a classical form of duet (such as a Sing check and a Strings check to put lyrics to your opponent's improvised playing). This is the Performance Standard; you do not need to overcome your opponent's standard, only your own. If you can't follow up a strong opening, you deserve to fail. Your current hit points total becomes your Cool, as does your opponent's. Mark yours down; your actual hit points aren't going to get hurt, but your feelings might. Whoever had the strongest opening gets a +2 bonus on subsequent Perform checks in the ensuing competition.
Focus
While in the Rock-Off, you have a focus target. Usually, this is your opponent. However, you can move your focus up to 60 feet in a round. Other effects and abilities might make your focus point into a cone or burst, or even add more Cool.
Moves
You make a Perform check in an attempt to beat your own Performance Standard. If you do, you lay into your opponent and reduce his Cool by 1d6 points + your Charisma modifier. If you deal an amount of Cool equal to your opponent's Charisma score, he must make a Will save (DC 15) or be reduced to 0 Cool and give up, allowing you to be borne away on cheering shoulders. You can make "critical" hits; if you roll a natural 20, check to see if you still overcome your Performance Standard.
Bad Crowd
You can also gain a bonus by winning over the crowd instead of your opponent. For each helpful member of the nearby crowd, you deal extra Cool vibes to your opponent. Increase your attack by 1 die type for each friendly member of the crowd (use the weapon chart). Yes, this means you can potentially win by winning over a bunch of audience members and then smacking your opponent with so much awesome he is overwhelmed. You do this by targeting an audience member with your focus and making a Perform check like a Diplomacy check; the check just takes one round. Audience members with earphones or far off in the distance or not paying attention inflict a penalty to this check.
Battle of the Bands
You can do this in groups; you each have a Focus point and can do Cool just like in a duel. There's just more of you the enemy has to take down. You can also bring band members back in by winning over five audience members to helpful to cheer the lost member back on stage with half his cool; the audience members drop to indifferent immediately afterwards. You can also flank.
You can restore an ally's cool just as if you were dealing Cool damage.
Hearts & Minds
You can also initiate a rock-off challenge in response to an opponent that hasn't started combat yet. You set a Performance Standard like normal and make a series of checks against your opponent's Cool like normal, but if you fail two Performance Standard checks in a row, the opponent's attitude immediately drops to hostile. If you succeed, his attitude shifts to friendly.



That's the bare bones, if someone wants to tighten it up, it could become great.

[Ason]

My friend came up with a great idea to make a "Battle of the Bards" type campaign, and I decided to steal the idea. Some things that I need some help with:

Making group based performance checks
Options for non-bard characters
Archetypes that would work
What level to start at (Was thinking 3-4)
Encounters for the Venues/ On the Road


I actually was going to run this very thing myself awhile back, before real life interfered with my gamer circle, but I'm happy to share some of my prep work. If "She Stoops to Conquer" and "Cherry Orchard" are two plays you've managed recently, stay out, 'cause I'm your DM. :smalltongue:


1) If you're worried about non-bard characters contributing to the band, have you considered gestalt? I had the same problem until I ruled that everyone was Bard//whatever they wanted. It lets folks be musicians without punishing them for also wanting to be a ranger or rogue.

2) You didn't ask for homebrew, but here are a few inventions I came up with to encourage music battles alongside actual battles:
a) Any weapon the party wields can double as an instrument (e.g. an "axe" that is also a battle axe, warhammers make drum beats)
b) Every player can make a Perform check once per round as a free action, allowing people to nail a guitar solo while full attacking (allows music and melee)
c) Perform skill is altered- one rank in perform gives you skills in three different performance styles, allowing a lead singer who also plays guitar/dances just like in real life.

3) Toys for the PCs:
a) for transport, the party eventually gains "The Iron Dirigible" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin) after winning a rock contest
b) glam rock themed accessories like the "codpiece of splendor" or "wig of fabulosity"
c) roadies (cohorts) and groupies (followers) as per the leadership feat, once the band becomes world-famous
d) an agent/manager for the band who is a thinly-veiled reference to Murray from Flight of the Conchords
e) cursed undead mime glasses (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlt0cKRjuLM) when you want to throw the PCs a curve-ball

4) Enemies/Battles:
a) a shiny demon standing in the middle of the road (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lK4cX5xGiQ&ob=av3e)
b) a human with a fiddle of gold pursued by a horde of devils (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDm_ZHyYTrg)- the party gets to be music competition judges for a change, but which side do they pick?
c) a crazed stalker who lures the band to a fake gig in an abandoned but dancing-zombie-filled mansion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12622156&postcount=8) while "Thriller" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA) and "Party Rock Anthem" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8&ob=av3e) play over the house's speakers
d) a gnome parody group (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qYF9DZPdw) that satirizes the party's music- the party must fight mocking enemies who already know the group's tactics in-depth
e) aberrations as auto-tuned Justin Bieber/Jonas Brothers knock-offs where the actual monsters are the sound system and the band is just an illusion
f) hipsters who utilize divination, abjuration, anti-scrying spells and silencing/vision-impairing abilities to fight the party (“you’ve probably never heard of this one”, "I cast that spell back before it was cool", "You did that? I saw it coming a mile away- soooo mainstream...")
g) a music group of time-travelling centaur Apostles of Peace named Wyld Stallyns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Ted's_Excellent_Adventure)- does the party fight them and if so how do they beat their ridiculous time-travelling abilities?
h) slaadi jazz artists who can jump around in the initiative order (“you take the solo!”), randomy gain/lose powers and are generally unpredictable- how does the party stop their improvisation?
i) war pigs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZCyOWLrRTE) as general mooks
j) a colossal dubstep beast that nearly fills the warehouse in which the party fights it (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12613044&postcount=6)
k) a massive classical orchestra of infinitely-replenishing modrons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modron_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)) where the party must figure out how to defeat the entire symphony all at once

[Coidzor]

hiryuu: Did you just adjust the performance combat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/performance-combat)rules to make a combat of performances?

[hiryuu]

hiryuu: Did you just adjust the performance combat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/performance-combat)rules to make a combat of performances?

Wow, I didn't even know these existed. Sweet. Cribbin' these now.

[Coidzor]

Wow, I didn't even know these existed. Sweet. Cribbin' these now.

I found them by accident when I was looking up stuff to make a semi-pro gladiator for a Council of Thieves game. They seemed fairly nifty though. Happy to have helped spread the inspiration around. :smallbiggrin:

Oh, and with regards to the skill challenge idea that I referenced with 4e, there's apparently a bit of homebrew called the Obsidian skill (http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-discussion/241440-stalker0s-obsidian-skill-challenge-system-new-version-1-2-a.html) challenge system (http://www.google.com/#hl=en&biw=1440&bih=796&sclient=psy-ab&q=obsidian+skill+challenge&pbx=1&oq=obsidian+skill+challenge&aq=f&aqi=g3g-v1&aql=1&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=1637l4572l0l4746l24l13l0l11l11l1l218l1817l5 .6.2l24l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=d272a33775ff33c4) which seems fairly respected (don't play 4e regularly, and the only times I have it's been Living Forgotten Realms, so no homebrew experience) and I heard was slightly easier to port over to a non-4e skill system.