These are tips for playing a Bard to achieve victory. On the sidebar to the left you'll see links to subsections containing advice for training skills and stats, as well as critiques and reviews for all of the Bardic enchantes. And on to some general Bardly tips...

Special Bardic Abilities:

Mojo is a reservoir of goodness that only Bards have. It helps the effectiveness of many things Bards do, from magic to combat to performance. Mojo is also used to power special Bardic abilities, such as Scream Defiance and Piercing Whistle (see below). Its "level" is divided into five incremental ranges, which can be measured using...

Practice Assessment allows you to check the level of your Bardic Mojo. Simply type practice assess by singing, and if you can pull off a stunning rendition of the song, you'll know that your Mojo is quite full and ready for tapping. Any other messaging you receive should send you straight to the nearest shady tree to practice your instruments until your Mojo is full again. 

• Make it easy on yourself: This script will check your Mojo level. 

Scream Defiance is an indispensable tool in the Bard's bag of tricks. It is a "pulsing" ability that will attempt to remove a stun upon activation and with each subsequent pulse. It will keep you solidly balanced, and reduce incoming damage not unlike Naming of Tears. This ability is an essential Big Red Button that should be placed on an easy-to-reach macro key. If you get stunned, mash it and you might break out! If you fail, try again when the stun wears off.

• Alternative energies: This ability's damage reduction capability is tied to your Mojo level. The duration of the scream's effect is lengthened by the Vocals skill. The chance of of removing or breaking out of a stun is dictated by Charisma, and it has been speculated (with anecdotal evidence) that your Charisma is a straight percentage of your success in doing so (70 Charisma = 70% chance of win).

Piercing Whistle will provide its listeners a sonic assault, disengaging and removing the "facing" status of all combatants in the room. What this amounts to is a good 5-10 seconds of time that you now have to cook up an escape plan before your enemies wise up and turn around to face you again. What's even better is that while this whistle causes you roundtime, you may perform it while already in roundtime from something else. Also good for helping a friend, too! 9 times out of 10, they won't notice you just saved their life. It should be noted that this ability uses up a little bit of your Mojo.

• Piercing Whistle Protip: Add to your highlight strings the phrases stunning him, stunning her, stunning you, and you are stunned, and maybe even add a special sound effect to them. This way, you'll better notice the very moment you or your hunting pal gets blasted, and you can mash on your whistle piercing\r macro, if you've got one.

Bluff Dead will feign your death to prevent critters from further beating you to a pulp. Beware that this trick uses quite a bit of your Bardic Mojo, not to mention it won't start working until you get your Charisma at least into the high 20s.

• How to Bluff Dead like a pro: Upon getting smashed in the face and sent into a stun by your favorite critter, ask yourself the question, "Will Piercing Whistle or Demrris' Resolve save me this time?". If the answer is "no", start spamming bluff dead until the stun wears off and the bluff sends you into a sprawling heap. Now the important step: wait. Wait until all of your assailants have retreated from you before trying anything funny. But don't use assess to determine when the time is right; this will reveal your ruse and risk transforming your fake corpse into a real one. Just pay close attention, and when your buddies are all a safe distance away, stand up, start singing Hodierna's Lilt, then run like it's fun to the nearest empath.

Voice Throw allows you to make it appear as if something besides yourself is talking, from items to NPCs to other characters, producing all kinds of shenanigans. There are five levels of Voice Throw to attain, with the highest requiring 40 Charisma and Discipline and around 300 ranks of Vocals. While the means to get this ability is a game secret, asking your guildleader about it should give you a hint.

• A word about thievery: Once you have Voice Throw, thieves can attempt to learn it from you. The traditional amount of money to charge for this service is 10 plats for each "level" taught (thieves have 5 levels of voice throw, also). Please request and accept this money as to not spoil the business opportunity for other Bards, as word of Bards "going soft" on the matter would ruin our credibility. If you don't want or need the money, find a younger Bard that does and gift them.

Recall is an ability Bards use to learn Scholarship. Recall Immortal, Recall Famous, Recall Holiday, and Recalling your instruments are all nifty and good, but the real way to learn the Hard Skill is running around towns with historic spots and using Recall History. Rumor has it that 50 Scholarship and 15 Charisma is what it takes to learn the skill from your guildleader.

• Easy advice: Go to my scripts page and grab my Recall Runs. They're great, and they teach Power Perception, too!

Pertinent Link

The Sounds of Time- This is where GMs need to go when they need new ideas for the Bards' Guild. Spooky layout, too.