Bard (FiD)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page

Bards work magic through performance, using one or more performing arts, such as acting, music, song, or dance. Their magic, often used to charm and influence, can potentially calm raging seas or even enchant death itself.

Ideas about the origin of bardic magic are as varied as the bards themselves. A popular one is that the world was made using the Song of Creation, the first song, performed by mysterious powers at the dawn of creation. This lingers still in the Music of the Spheres, and bards attune to this to do magic. Another idea is that bards charm mighty spirits or great powers to assist them. Wizards and clerics dismiss such notions, claiming bards merely distort spells into performances.

Bards are known by many names: orphics, troubadours, and countless titles for performers, reflecting their varied traditions.

Touchstones: Ariel (The Little Mermaid, 1989), Giselle (Enchanted, 2007), Rapunzel (Tangled, 2010), Miguel (Coco, 2017).

Trauma Condition—Resonance

You use performance to activate your powers. This may attract attention but can blend seamlessly into ordinary performances. As a bard, your first Power Form must be Animal, Darkness, Death, Flux, Illusion, Life, Light, Mind, Order, or Time. These are marked in green on the power list below. When gaining further powers, you can select any bard power you wish.

Special Abilities

Ambience

When you perform for a moment, define the dominant mood of the scene (brave, festive, romantic, solemn). While you perform — and for an equal time afterward or until the scene changes — rolls that align with the mood gain improved Position.

Epic

By performing for 5 minutes with an audience of scale appropriate to your tier (p 221), you reduce the stress cost of a power or Ritual you or an ally uses by two.

Gracious

You can roll your Consort to recover Stress when indulging vice. Your crew also gains this benefit when they indulge with you; they can use your vice and provider. Overindulging this way creates a relation or reveals a personal secret, fleshing out the background.

Inspiration

You can Assist someone without even being there as long as they saw you perform. Say what performance inspired them. This can affect their view of you. You can inspire twice per session without expending Stress.

Listener

When you Gather Information using Consort, you get +1d. Successfully gathering info in preparation for a score gives +1d to the engagement roll.

Star

Gain increased Effect when you perform for an audience, including holding a speech. Your crew gains an additional xp trigger: Cooperate to perform for an audience with scale based on tier (p 221). You know all kinds of performance. If detail is desired, you know a number of performing arts equal to the sum of your ratings in Consort, Finesse, and Sway.

Tete-a-tete

Push a Resolve action to add leverage to a successful action: attract everyone's attention — get a scene alone with someone — escape a location.

Additional Playbook

Select another playbook. You gain immediate access to its Inventory and XP conditions. From now on, you can choose its Special Abilities. You can take this special ability multiple times, each time selecting a new playbook. Prerequisite: To select a playbook, you need an action rating of one in each of its starting actions.

Powers

You can learn these powers, expending a Special Ability for each. Your first Power Form must be one marked in green, later you can pick any power.

Abyss, Air, Animal, Barrier, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, and Water.

Strangers in the Night

˄ ˅ Celest, a bard.

˄ ˅ Haia, a mysterious heir.

˄ ˅ Kalli, an adventurous fan.

˄ ˅ Tam Tam, a crafter.

˄ ˅ Yagatan, an impressario.

Inventory

☐,☐,☐ Fine Bottle of Wine.

◯ Memento.

◯ Scroll (Music Sheet).

◯ Stagewear.

• Fine Bottle of Wine ☐: A highly desirable vintage, effective at loosening tongues and making an impression.
• Memento ◯: A small personal item reminding you of your goals and passions. Reduces the stress cost of a power by one once per score, used after making the action roll. Playbook.
• Scroll ◯: A music sheet that allows one use of a power on the list of bard powers that you do not know. Playbook.
• Stagewear ◯: Elegant and provocative attire. Allows you to push any Resolve action roll (not just powers) at the cost of only one stress. You must carry no more than a light load and cannot use armor. Attracts attention. Conspicuous, Playbook.

XP

• Every time you roll a desperate action, mark xp in that action's attribute.

At the end of each session, for each item below, mark 1 xp (in your playbook or an attribute) or 2 xp if that item occurred multiple times.

• You addressed a challenge using powers or your personal charm.
• You expressed your beliefs, drives, heritage, or background.
• You struggled with issues from your vice or traumas during the session.

Starting Actions

Consort 1

Sway 2

4 points by choice, no higher than 2 in any one.