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Thread: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
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2013-10-14, 04:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
This is a bit of a strange question/request and I wasn't sure where to put it.
You see I am going to be playing a bard coming up and, when I play a bard, I like to use the instrument he plays to be an extension of his character. For example a lecherous bard may play the pan pipes, or a dwarven soothsayer may bang the drums. (drums from the deep!)
Now in the edition I am playing, musical instruments give small bonuses and I like the one on the mandolin ... a lot (ALOT!). However my other players are devising a combined backstory wherein we are all from the harsh north as thulsa-dun slaying barbarians and I am the de facto charismatic leader. I had developed my character as an old father type figure, slow to anger and wise keeper of secrets.
Now my dilemma. The mandolin is a soprano stringed instrument from italy which invokes images of pantaloon wearing street singers and I think it would look odd on a bearskin wearing skald (not the prestige class). The min/maxers may scoff, but is there a way I can make the mandolin more... manly?
Thoughts?Last edited by WhiteDrag0n; 2013-10-14 at 04:14 AM.
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2013-10-14, 04:27 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Some thoughts:
Don't you know that real men wear pink? Unless you are going to refluff the instrument, I think you're going to have to incorporate it. Real men love their mamas, too, so maybe he learned the mandolin from her? Or maybe the mandolin is hard to learn compared to whacking stones together or whatever the locals get up to for music, so when your bard came across the mandolin, he knew here was an instrument it takes a real man to master.
Or, you know, he just happens to like the mandolin. It'll be the counterpoint in his personality. Anyone who dares make fun of the mandolin could evoke terrible wrath from your followers.My D&D 5th ed. Druid Handbook
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2013-10-14, 04:41 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZVq3_u6Co4
Who said mandolins cannot be manly? And that's just a random youtube search I did 3 minutes ago. Rhapsody of Fire uses a lot of mandolins, and so does the OST for the Diablo games.
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2013-10-14, 05:18 AM (ISO 8601)
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2013-10-14, 05:42 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
I think that his position is not that the mandolin isn't manly, but that it's not "tribal" enough. What you could do is discuss with your DM is to get the same bonuses from the mandolin into another instrument, or even have a more "tribal" mandolin, with a rustic appearance...
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2013-10-14, 05:46 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
What could be more manly than an instrument with the word man right in it?
In all seriousness, you could probably use some kind of rough barbaric equivalent, they've had stringed instruments in Russia for ages, so it's certainly possible that some of those might fall into the barbaric ages.My Avatar is Glimtwizzle, a Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist by Cuthalion.
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2013-10-14, 06:00 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
A Lute is fairly similar. And if a Lute is manly enough to be the primary instrument used by bards in Skyrim, it's manly enough for any tribal person.
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The docks of a small fishing village. One of the character's nearly drown trying to catch a fish barehanded.
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2013-10-14, 07:54 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Depends on how industrialized and civilized your northern barbarians are. Would they actually have the materials and interest in making something like the mandolin?
Drums like the bodhran are far more common, as are horns and flutes. If the problem is the mechanical bonus, ask the DM if you can get the mandolin bonus on another instrument.
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2013-10-14, 01:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
The mandolin is the only surviving artefact of an once prosperous pseudoitalian city. Which he razed with his own hands in his youth. Before riding into the sunset with the dukes beautiful daughter and that very mandolin. Manly enough?
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2013-10-14, 02:01 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
I would suggest swiping out the mandolin for a trouper's lute. It's nearly the same thing, and very heavily associated with nomadic tribes. For bonus points, describe it as being of somewhat crude construction (beargut strings, crude wood frame, etc).
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2013-10-14, 02:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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2013-10-14, 03:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Mandolins are also popular with old style Appalachian Mountain music, blue grass and celtic music.
Imagine a old timer wearing overalls sitting on his porch with his trusty hound dog by his side strumming his mandolin.
or a celtic warrior at home when not pillaging playing his mandolin while his children dance to the tune.Last edited by TheThan; 2013-10-14 at 03:11 PM.
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2013-10-14, 06:29 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Check out balalaikas (or however it's spelled). The sound it somewhat similar to that of a mandolin, but it's got a rougher edge and originates from a "harder" culture or whatever.
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2013-10-14, 09:30 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
You could always go outside the box and just pick a different member of the mandolin family. Here's the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandolin. The mandocello might fit the bill with a lower pitch, similar shape, and technically still a mandolin of sorts.
Last edited by sumptesh; 2013-10-14 at 09:31 PM.
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2013-10-15, 01:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Thank you all for your great suggestions
I think that his position is not that the mandolin isn't manly, but that it's not "tribal" enough
A Lute is fairly similar
The mandocello might fit the bill with a lower pitch, similar shape, and technically still a mandolin of sorts.
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2013-10-15, 01:59 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
What sort of barbarian plays a poncy foreigninstrument like a mandolin?
One that's so mean and tough that none of the other barbarians dare make fun of him.
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2013-10-16, 02:43 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Frolic and dance for joy often.
Be determined in your ventures.
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2013-10-16, 03:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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2013-10-16, 03:19 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
One way to use a soprano instrument with such thready sounds as the mandolin in a tribal culture would be to play it up as a "spooky" instrument. Your charismatic leader-bard has an air of mystery to his tribesmen. He uses his mandolin to establish a piercing but quiet vibe and set mood for his dramatic but subtly creepy presence. It's a cold sound, the sound of winter itself.
He is off-putting in the way of the powerful presence that is there when he wants to be and unnoticed when he doesn't. He commands and persuades. He is distant and calm and icy, and people lean in to listen. But then he is suddenly there and overpowering and loud, with the mandolin creating music that is oppressive in the sense that icicles are overhead, rather than a more normal "deep-throated" tone for such massive power.
Be the graceful, elusive, omnipresent force.
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2013-10-16, 03:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Are you using the masterwork musical instruments from Complete Adventurer? The bonus would be nice, I guess, but I don't find them practical at all. Most bards I've seen just sing. (And dance in Pathfinder) This allows them to wield weapons in combat.
And as far as I know, Skalds don't play musical instruments. They recite poetry. Or warchants of some sort...
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2013-10-16, 04:32 PM (ISO 8601)
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2013-10-16, 05:11 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
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2013-10-18, 09:00 AM (ISO 8601)
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2013-10-18, 09:23 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Obviously, in his youth he befriended a traveling bard from southern lands, possibly after the bard saved his life. After many buddy-cop adventures (One's a fur-clad barbarian! One's a useless ponce! They fight
crimedragons!), the bard was mortally wounded and gave your character the mandolin on his deathbed. Because of his great respect for his departed friend, he taught himself to play it even though there's nothing close to it in his culture.
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2013-10-22, 12:29 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
The mandolin was crafted by a druidic bardbarian during the golden age of the tribe and handed down over the generations. Its wood comes from an elder treant felled by holy lightning, and its strings are the whiskers of a moon dragon. Or at least that's what you can tell everyone.
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2013-10-22, 02:06 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
I present to you a solution to your dillema: THE DRAGONBORN MANDOLIN :)
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2013-10-22, 01:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Is that a mandolin or a battleaxe?
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2013-10-22, 04:24 PM (ISO 8601)
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2013-10-22, 04:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Start playing things like this and this when travelling or performing, that should establish the tone.
Then make your mandolin as battered and roughed up as possible, adorn it with tribal stuff and you should be set.
And don't let anybody touch it. Nobody touches the mandolin.
Edit: You could sub out any good stringed instrument track for a mandolin version if you can find it. Pick tunes that work best for you and have a look around. After that your mandolin will be manly if you are, not the other way around.Last edited by Kane0; 2013-10-22 at 04:55 PM.
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2013-10-22, 08:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma
Mandolins are close enough relatives to guitars that I have difficulty imagining them as being un-manly.
And honestly, when you have that much personal charisma and social magnetism, and you start casting magic out of your instrument, people are going to respect you.