Advice for Activities in an All-Bard Campaign

[Vulsutyr]

In a few days I will bring DMing for a campaign where all five PCs are straight bards. They will be attending a conference of bard colleges, and then the plot will start. But I need ideas of bardic activities that they could do at the conference (sort of like a festive and a contest too). The players are happy to act and improvise and roleplay but don’t have any real performance skills, so no actual music playing.

What would the world’s bards do together at a biennial get-together?

[Man_Over_Game]

In a few days I will bring DMing for a campaign where all five PCs are straight bards. They will be attending a conference of bard colleges, and then the plot will start. But I need ideas of bardic activities that they could do at the conference (sort of like a festive and a contest too). The players are happy to act and improvise and roleplay but don’t have any real performance skills, so no actual music playing.

What would the world’s bards do together at a biennial get-together?

Just using the example colleges for some inspiration:

Whispers: Each College has an Agent that is hidden within the crowd. Each Agent has a handful of prize tickets. An agent can hand someone a prize ticket, and that person can turn in their ticket for a prize. Each person can only redeem one ticket at a time, and each Agent gets points based on the number of their tickets that are turned in. An Agent can also catch another Agent, in which case the captor gets all of the points the other Agent would have turned in (so you're incentivized to capture an Agent near the end of the game). This creates a game of watching, creating followers, staying hidden, and manipulating others into traps. All things a Whisper Bard wants to do. People carry on about their day, hoping that an Agent comes by and hands them a prize ticket. Of course, once you're handed a ticket, be aware that someone might be watching you for the rest of the game. Tickets are redeemed in the center of the fair, with the transaction being in view of everyone, so watching people in the center of the crowd, and looking for trends, is an effective way to learn about your opposition. The "game" itself is the entirety of the fare; points are only counted just before the fare ends.

Valor/Swords:
People may buy flowers to cheer on a particular fighter in the Arena. Flowers are purchased in pairs, one red, one blue. Fighters wear masks/helmets to avoid biases, provided by the Arena. When a fighter competes, they earn 20 points for every round that they win, and 1 point for every flower on the arena floor of their color. Therefore, a Fighter can lose a battle but still win the crowd.
Arena battles are of various types:
Horse Fighting (Jousting and Archery)
Acrobatic Fighting (Archery and Fencing)
Dance Fighting (Fighters are in a circle of dancers, first person to touch the dancers loses).

Lore/Glamour:
A game of musical roulette, where you must play something that flows with what the last person played, and the next person must play something that matches your piece. A drummer keeps time, pounding away at 4/4 time, accenting the 4 beats before someone else needs to take the reigns. If you fumble the timing, or if you get booed off, you're out! The game relies on a bit of Performance for your own piece, a bit of Insight to determine how your predecessor will attack you, and a bit of Deception to throw off your antecessor.

[Vulsutyr]

Valor/Swords:
People may buy flowers to cheer on a particular fighter in the Arena. Flowers are purchased in pairs, one red, one blue. Fighters wear masks/helmets to avoid biases, provided by the Arena. When a fighter competes, they earn 20 points for every round that they win, and 1 point for every flower on the arena floor of their color. Therefore, a Fighter can lose a battle but still win the crowd.
Arena battles are of various types:
Horse Fighting (Jousting and Archery)
Acrobatic Fighting (Archery and Fencing)
Dance Fighting (Fighters are in a circle of dancers, first person to touch the dancers loses).


I love the flower idea! I was thinking about fights (with healing at the end) but didn’t know how to make it Bardy. Making it a performance is a great idea.

[Yuroch Kern]

The flowers reminds me of a Bardic Battle of the Bands that required creative use of magic. My Valor Bard did a set that was similar to AC/DC and used Thunderwave for the "cannons" and Dancing Lights as a backup dancer. The crowd would heckle a performer and a panel would judge 'em on their performance, cool, and audience "participation".

[Lunali]

Aside from music, bards typically dabble in everything so a contest for bards could be any contest appropriate for any other class.

[Trustypeaches]

I would be careful not to type-cast your own players just because they're bards.

They may be using different flavor for the class, or simply have a character concept that won't line up with what you have in mind.

[Unoriginal]

They could have a music contest with a Devil.

[Vulsutyr]

I would be careful not to type-cast your own players just because they're bards.

They may be using different flavor for the class, or simply have a character concept that won't line up with what you have in mind.

They wanted to do this, it wasn’t my idea. We had the first session, it was great. I used the flower idea for a slam poetry contest and also had a songs-written-in-one-minute performance contest.

[LibraryOgre]

Bar Trivia.
"Not My Job"... a musical contest where you don't play any instrument you're proficient in.
"The Dozens"... just casting vicious mockery at each other until one of you falls over. Alternatively, an insult contest that goes on until one of them fails an Intimidation or Performance roll.