Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

Today's Order of the Stick comic had the following exchange with the evil overlord (who's the father of the groups's nincom-bard):

"You're the one who taught me that bards are underpowered" "They are! With their mastery of narrative structure, they should be ruling the entire cosmos by now, instead of wasting time singing in taverns."

Which would be an interesting concept, that could probably be used even in a more serious, less fourth-wall-ish campaign. So, give me some powers that could be interpreted in working that way, manipulating fate etc. (Straight-forward, unmodified Luck and Serendipity would be rather boring answers).

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

I would call it an alternative version of the 'Commons Sense' Advantage. The change being that you get to narrate what the common sense is in stead of the GM.

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

Or 'Illuminated'.

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

It could certainly justify Snatching (with some sort of "I had it all along" limitation), Gizmos, and Modular Summonable Allies.

"Now would be the perfect dramatic moment for my old rival/buddy from the sword-master academy to happen by. We have our differences, but we can hash them out after we've taken care of these orcs."

"Good thing I have the only copy ever made of the Lost Book of Toth. Who knew this would be useful when my aunt left it to me in her will." etc...

Also, Wild Talent (w/ retention) would be appropriate for skills pulled from the depths of your back story or unknown aptitudes that save the day at the last minute.

With a very generous and skilled GM, Modular Abilities (One Trait Only: Destiny) could be very interesting.

Affliction (Destiny), Affliction (Enemy), etc... would be great for the changing other people's stories.

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

Well, knowing what's going on (whether that's due to Common Sense or Illuminated) would basically imply that the universe is following those rules itself. And the bard narrating would be mega-cosmic-level reality control, if I understand that suggestion correctly.

Actually, bards being (partially) responsible for the narrative flow is a good concept. Scheming bastards with a rather unique Code of Honor. Or let's follow our usual genre mashups: Druids & bards certainly go together historically. Now our dungeon-y druids often are for a Moorcockian conception of "balance". So what if the bards are the CIA to the Druids' Swiss? Creating cosmic balance through action, heroes and villains, instead of just controling certain areas to make sure everybody stays out of it and the circle of life goes on? I could imagine two factions, but it's also possible that one order of bards does it. Or that there's no order at all, so the whole grouping of post-graduate bards is "chaotic", but their manipulating almost always goes against entropy by its definition, so it all evens out…

Your average party buff *is* a narrative influence, making sure that the actions are more heroic. Some kind of prophetic power would be possible, where only the bard's *character* sees the "meanwhile in the evil HQ" cut scene that the GM is narrating (but can't relate it to the other players due to his CoH and probably an enforced geas-like limitation).

A series of afflictions to enforce Campbellian archetypes ;)

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

Affliction [Social Advantage/Disadvantage] could be terrifying in their application with one example from Doctor Who coming to mind. The Doctor had recently regenerated and was rather displeased with the current Prime Minister and whispered into her assistants ear "doesn't she look tired to you" which became a national meme that rapidly brought down her government with concern for her health.

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

Good old-style Celtic bardic satire could do that.

If the setting has small gods a la Discworld, songs that work on people's opinions about them can be terrifyingly effective.

For best results, work on the things that the GM would like to have happen, but can't quite justify within the setting as he has it.

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

'The Magic of Stories' from Pyramid Thaumatology cranked up to 11.

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

Super luck with Wishing and some kind of limitation that it only happens at dramatically appropriate moments would be a good power for a bard that controls the power of the narrative.

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

Rename it "Genre Aware"

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

"Genre awareness" which lets you predict gameworld events etc. just sounds like precognition to me. You agree with the GM that you get precognitive flashes of accurate information on things that are genre tropes.

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

It seems like it'd be rather hard to separate genre aware from full on meta-gaming wouldn't you say?

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

Are you familiar with Brutal Legend?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%BCtal_Legend

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

I once played with the idea of a tongue-in-cheek setting where all PCs had Illuminated so they could tell the difference between quest givers and scenery (aka everyone else). Never got off the ground, but it was a fun idea.

Re: Bards: Masters of the Universe
 

This is pretty much exactly how bards (Elan at least) work in OOTS. They know stories so they can predict them.


So here's my version.

Power Modifier: Narrative Causailty -15%
Must take Code of Honor (Laws of Drama) [-10]. Always heighten the drama if possible. This can range from posing at opportune times, to starting fights during a lull, to keeping others in the dark about plot elements.
Other bards trying to manipulate the plot act as a countermeasure. Bard powers can be disabled by a Quick Content of IQ+Talent between bards.

Narrative Bards claim to understand reality at a fundamental level and wish to guide others on what they consider their true path in life. Although they are odd traveling companions their apparent ability to see the future, single out items of importance, and the uncanny luck that follows them make them excellent allies.

Legends abound of god-like Narrative Bards able to entirely cheat the Laws of Nature in order to fulfill the Laws of Drama.

Daredevil, Empathy, Gizmos, Intuition, Luck, Rapier Wit (Cosmic, Detect Cliches, +50%), Precognition, Psychometry (Passive Only), Serendipity (Wishing), Super Luck, Social Chameleon, Unfazeable, Wild Talent (Emergencies Only)