Battle of the bands

[Brendanicus]

The finale of my al-bard campaign MUST be a battle of the bands! How should it best be run aside from a series of Perform checks? SHould bad guys charms audience members into attacking the players? How creative could the players be in coming up with novel ways to keep the crowd pumped?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Arcana checks to provide the illusory light show, dexterity checks for the face-melting solo, acrobatics for crowd surfing, performance for dance-offs on stage and grappling contests in the mosh pit. Strategic use of Silence and Otto's Irresistible Dance. Intimidation in the war of words beforehand ("this song is for the guy who keeps yelling from the balcony, and it's called We Hate You, Please Die.") Also: rap battles.

[djreynolds]

Bard/warlock/barbarians..... KISS

Borovia Rock City

[JakOfAllTirades]

You need a band of evil bards entirely composed (see what I did there?) of monstrous races.

They're called Bards Against Humanity.

[Arcangel4774]

("this song is for the guy who keeps yelling from the balcony, and it's called We Hate You, Please Die.").

Yes definitely this

[Waffle_Iron]

Besides being a battle of the bands, the fate of the princess depends on your winning!
See, the prize for the battle is the mystical staff of McGuffin, which the dastardly BBEG requires, and which you must now procure.
It happens to be the prize for winning the battle of the bands being held deep in good-guy territory (otherwise, you know, he'd just steal it himself)

So, while the battle of the bands is happening, you have to balance fighting off the evil bards, making performance check to woo the crowd judges, and preventing the contest from killing the audience.

Make a sign that shows a scale from "Rockin!" all the way to "Wasted." and as the players or evil bards make performance checks, move an arrow to and fro.
Also keep an eye out for opportunities to have the bad guys "accidentally" kick braziers of hot coals into the audience to start fires, or "miscast" a spell by selecting the audience as a target, etc.
Choose visibly flashy spells for the bad guys, even when there are better versions of a spell. e.g. Color Spray instead of sleep. Allow those choices to help impress the judges.

Could be fun!