A Bardic Roleplaying Dilemma

[WhiteDrag0n]

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?

[hymer]

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.

[Tengu_temp]

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.

[CombatOwl]

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?

Ninjas have given you a Mandolin. Are you man enough to master the Mandolin and get your revenge!?

[dric_dolphin]

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...

[AMFV]

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.

[Belril Duskwalk]

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.

[BWR]

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.

[Berenger]

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?

[ReaderAt2046]

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).

[hamishspence]

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.

It's also appropriate for making "loot" puns, for adventuring barbarians.

[TheThan]

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.

[ufo]

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.

[sumptesh]

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.

[WhiteDrag0n]

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

Yes, exactly. (Though I think I may choose a non-tribal instrument anyway)

A Lute is fairly similar

Yea, but unfortunately a Lute has a different mechanical bonus. As do drums and flutes and such. As I'm already stretching the rules a little, ;) , I really want to stick to Mandolin.

The mandocello might fit the bill with a lower pitch, similar shape, and technically still a mandolin of sorts.

I was thinking of using a Stick Dulcimer and calling it a mandolin. Even though it's kinda a 20th century creation, it has an ancient feel to it. However I really like the mandocello, it has a deep bittersweet tone and It invokes a darker time. So I think I'll go with that.

[Wardog]

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.

[Kerrin]

The mandolin is a soprano stringed instrument from italy...

If the tone of the instrument is part of the issue, you could swap out the strings to go further down the scale. Though it's unconventional, that sort of thing can be done with many string instruments.

Besides, real bards play the concertina!

[The_Werebear]

If the tone of the instrument is part of the issue, you could swap out the strings to go further down the scale. Though it's unconventional, that sort of thing can be done with many string instruments.

Besides, real bards play the concertina!

Real Bards play the crowd

[Segev]

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.

[the_david]

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...

[Scow2]

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...

Actually, they do play musical instruments to provide a background for the song - drums and lyres (Or a relative of the lyre, at least), primarily.

[The Grue]

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.

Confirming lutes are the guitars of medieval fantasy.

[Joe the Rat]

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.

See above. I think "Siberian mandolin-like instrument" is good enough justification for a hard Northerner.

[TheStranger]

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 crime dragons!), 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.

[Gabe the Bard]

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.

[Bulhakov]

I present to you a solution to your dillema: THE DRAGONBORN MANDOLIN :)

[Gabe the Bard]

Is that a mandolin or a battleaxe?

[Segev]

Is that a mandolin or a battleaxe?

Obviously!

[Kane0]

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.

[Slipperychicken]

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.