Reminds e of home :D

Don’t get me wrong. The dungeon quest that they send you on as part of your application to the College … I loved it. I was filled with a kid-like joy at the way that my character interacted with others, fulfilling my own adventure but simultaneously learning about and witnessing the completion of a rousing ancient story … . it was a quest ESPECIALLY meaningful to one who seeks to continue the tradition of tale-telling in Skyrim.

Yet, the true reward that I sought was not forthcoming.

The reward to me was ‘Becoming A Bard’(tm). From the moment that I heard that there was a Bard’s College, that’s what I wanted my first character to be. I set out for Solitude first just on that information.

I thought that, upon acceptance into the College, I would be like the other bards in the game … . able to play instruments, even sing. Even if it was only from a limited list of songs, that ability would have meant something. But I’m here as a student of the Bard’s College and there’s very little to do.

In the same way that someone can join the Companions and actually feel like they’re advancing as a warrior, or join the College in Winterhold and actually feel like they’re learning and growing as a mage, I wish that there was a way for us to feel like we’ve actually become a bard.

I have some thoughts on how it could work. It would be similar to the system which is currently in place for magic and spells.

Training and Interface:

Once you’ve entered the Bard’s College, they send you on two mini-quests:

*Go to an NPC or a shop in town and buy your first instrument. Your character will use the same animations that other bards do.

*Visit the home of a second NPC who will provide singing lessons.

Singing lessons could work thusly: Speak to the NPC. This brings up a prompt where you will choose which voice you want to use. First, you select the gender: male or female. Another prompt brings up that gender’s voice options.

Three of the male voices and three of the female voices would sound suitable for ‘human’ or ‘elf’ characters (high-voiced, low-voiced, middle-path). Then, one of the voices for each gender would be Argonian sounding and another would sound Khajiit — for a total of five available voice selections per gender category.

You sample the voice selection by pressing ‘x’. It will play a short sound file of someone singing basic musical scales (as if the voice teacher is training you in this way, you see? The Nord version of ‘do re mi’).

After you play the clip of the selection, the teacher will say something along the lines of, ‘Not bad, not bad at all. Do you want to try it again?’ If you want to try a different voice selection, you say ‘Yes’ and you’re brought back to the prompt. If you say, ‘No’, then you’re good: the last voice you sampled is now your singing voice for the rest of the game.

Then, you report back to the College and they tell you to show up for a class or two the next day….in a way similar to what they did at Winterhold for Mages. Really not too much of a stretch, since they already have classrooms that could be used for lessons in the Bard’s College.

*At the first class you are given a piece of paper. Once you read the paper, you’ve learned a song (instrumental).

*It shows up in a list the same way magic does, labeled ‘Songs’. This is just a simple tutorial, showing you the basics of how to equip an instrument, how to access an instrumental song; very-good-you’ve-banged-your-drum-let’s-move-the-fuck-on.

*The second class is the same, but you are given a song with lyrics to sing this time. You’ll note that both singing and playing an instrument uses stamina.

Effects on Combat:

*Instrumentals can only be performed outside of combat. They can be used for time-limited buffs for you and your party and it uses a minimal amount of stamina.

*Singing can be done while fighting, but it drains stamina much, much faster. In exchange however, you can inflict powerful confusion, fear or calm debuffs on your enemies. A rare high-level spell you find later on can also engage a ‘fury’ type of buff on your party, making it possible for them to deal double damage for a few seconds.

Obtaining New Compositions:

You can’t buy songs at shops in Skyrim, but now and again you’ll run across sheet music in a dungeon and in that way you can learn new pieces. Also, your bard character can learn new pieces by asking another bard at a tavern or an inn to perform a song you’ve never heard before (since they’re effectively training you, there is a little fee for this). And finally, reading certain rare historical accounts and books of lore will inspire you to ‘write’ your own song about the contents of the book. Slowly, your repertoire will grow.

Crafting Instruments:

The ‘important’ NPCs will always remark if you perform for them on starter instruments. So, make sure that you start off on the right foot.

Once you become a Bard, you will be able to make your own instruments. You can harvest specific kinds of wood from the different types of trees growing in Skyrim. Also, animals will start to drop things like horn and entrails — all these things can be combined with metals, jewels and/or leathers/leather strips to make lutes, drums, flutes and the like. The higher level bard you are, the higher level instrument you can create.

Singing for Your Supper/Bard Etiquette:

Singing/playing an instrument can also be a good way to make a little coin, as well as a fun way to interact with NPCs. It all depends on a.) how well you sing/play, and b.) when you choose to sing/play.

For example, if you enter a town and you start singing near a Jarl’s house, or if you start playing an instrument at 2am in the morning, or if you start singing in the middle of someone’s shop unprompted, people are NOT going to like you very much. Sing in a tavern where there is already a performing Bard, and you may well get into a fist fight.

BUT, if you sing/play an instrument, say, to a resting caravan, while walking along the road to a lone traveler, in a stable, or in a remote mining town — places where entertainment is rare — then you may be well appreciated. And, I’m sure at least one or two random town NPCs are glad to hear a song now and again — it could be the role of a handful of the more chipper NPCs to be more receptive to you, allowing you to ask them, in a conversation, if they’d like to make a request.

When you sing/play in these situations and you are at a low level, you get only a few coins … . say about the same amount you would get doing a menial task like chopping wood, mining ore or picking vegetables.

But, as you advance in speech craft and you find more interesting (higher-level) songs, you get much more money. People may give you items or even quests (go sing at this person’s birthday or wedding or whatever). Get to a super-high level, and some NPCs may actually come up to you unprompted to request a song … . but if you don’t know the song they want to hear, they’ll go away disappointed. One or two of them may even become annoying fixtures of a town, i.e., whenever you blow into town they’ll say, ‘Did you learn the song yet?’.

Perform well for an ‘important’ person, and a composer may approach you who will gift you a new and rare song to sing — so long as you complete their quest of singing it for a patron/critic of theirs.

Being Savvy About Your Audience

You should have to keep the mood of various situations in mind and think about why you are singing/playing a particular song.

For example, if you pass someone who is in mourning and you start belting out with some light, bouncy jig, they’re not likely to look favorably on you. Nor should you be singing a slow dirge at someone’s birthday or dining table. Sing ‘The Age of Aggression’ in a Stormcloak town or ‘The Age of Oppression’ in an Imperial town and you’re sure to get a black eye.

The more appropriate your song, the more favor and coin/reward you are likely to get. Sing inappropriate songs or be a nuisance too often and the local authorities may ban you from performing in their town.

FAV SONG EVER

         This is a pointless waste of time and i hope you ont read it because i was wasting my own time saying this and i thought it would be funny, so if you are still reading this youa re wasting your time. :D haha either way im having fun and your not bc your wasting you time reading this pointless message :D Are you still reading? i thought so. its just what people do, u say dont do it they wanna do it more, but this was entertaining for me.  Still reading huh? oh well depending on how fast you read u just wasted about 5 minutes of your life, all i have to say now is, “Aww, you care so much to waste all this time? Thank you!” haha :D asta la bye bye :D

P.S.: You have probably figured out this has nothing to do with yellow.

P.P.S.: P.S. means Post Script.