Entertainer ... that sucks at it

[ZorgAlmighty]

Has anyone any suggestions how to DM for a player with an Entertainer background but that has no talent?

I'm running a solo campaign for a half-elf ranger who wants to be famous, and thinks they have musical talent, but actually doesn't. The player likes the idea of having rotten tomatoes thrown at their character.

The "By Popular Demand" trait doesn't really work either.

[CTurbo]

10 Cha Valor Bard that is really good at combat so the character won't be useless.

[Unoriginal]

Has anyone any suggestions how to DM for a player with an Entertainer background but that has no talent?

I'm running a solo campaign for a half-elf ranger who wants to be famous, and thinks they have musical talent, but actually doesn't. The player likes the idea of having rotten tomatoes thrown at their character.

The "By Popular Demand" trait doesn't really work either.

Given them a different Background than Entertainer, like Outlander or Faction Agent, don't take proficiency in Performance or musical instruments, but have them insist they're an artist.

Or have them take Performance and proficiency in musical instruments, just change the background to Dreadful Artist and give them a trait like "people pay you to stop playing, enemies are more likely to flee when you sing, and you can use your Performance or musical instrument proficiency to gain advantage in CHA (Intimidation) checks".

Like the bard in "Astérix" or the Gonnagle in the "Wee Free Men" of Discworld.

[sophontteks]

Definately don't take the entertainer background.

The only way to do this with the entertainer background is to flavor it as them playing music inappropriately. They play well, but the tone and sounds they use clash with the atmosphere they are in.

[Unoriginal]

Definately don't take the entertainer background.

The only way to do this with the entertainer background is to flavor it as them playing music inappropriately. They play well, but the tone and sounds they use clash with the atmosphere they are in.

He could become the Bloody Stupid Johnson (https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Bloody_Stupid_Johnson) of music.

[CTurbo]

Sounds like your modern day rapper lol

[Particle_Man]

Charlatan background comes to mind. You just fool yourself as well as others (until you perform).

[Composer99]

He could become the Bloody Stupid Johnson (https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Bloody_Stupid_Johnson) of music.

Only if you want uncanny disturbances in the time-space continuum, I daresay.

[OracularPoet]

Charlatan background comes to mind. You just fool yourself as well as others (until you perform).

+1 to this.

[XmonkTad]

Or a hermit who believes they're good. Think someone who sings in the shower and thinks they're amazing because it sounds good to them.

They just have a penalty to whenever they think anyone is listening to them.

[GoodmanDL]

Or it could be a William Hung or Springtime for Hitler situation. Maybe he's trying to do drama, and he's really bad at it, but in a way that is entertaingly funny.

[dragoeniex]

How big of a focus is this for the player? Is it their character's main, defining goal? Or is it one personality trait of many?

I honestly don't see a problem with the aspiring entertainer who's awful concept, unless it's the thing they want to do and you're having trouble figuring out how to make it viable. People have passions they're not objectively good at all the time, so I'm curious what your main concern is. Flavor? Story? Mechanics...?

You mentioned your player is a ranger. It could be fun to lean into that and have this would-be-bard use their talents to expertly mimic certain animal noises and calls and arrange those into what, to them, is a touching ballad. It's just unfortunate the audience doesn't speak blue whale and has no idea the bellowing and projectile spitting was a doomed love affair. Etc.

Or they insist on getting local nature (terrain or animals) involved in every act. Like N from Pokemon, but even less situational awareness.

Epic retellings of heroic travels aren't complete unless you have real hills of dirt dumped into the venue to simulate treacherous mountains, or at least get a real semi-trained animal to mock fight/destroy surroundings with. Comedy acts aren't complete until you've found the perfect parrot, monkey or poodle sidekick. And you accept 'volunteers' from the audience's pets.

Maybe some performances consist of 20 minute-long ballads on the mysterious ways of erosion.

Or maybe you just keep looking for new ways to implement your spells into your act of choice and don't have the wisdom to take things like flammable surroundings or the hp of onlookers into account. Being insensitive to surroundings can go a lot of ways.

The player has a lot of options here; these are only a few ideas.

[Daithi]

We had a bard in our group that couldn't play an instrument. He used Minor Illusion to play music -- kind of like a musician where the only musical instrument he can play is the stereo. He did have specific songs for each us --- like Spitfire and Fire Starter by prodigy, and Ironman by Black Sabbath. That was actually kind of cool to have music playing in the background as you were fighting.