3. A Bard Is Born

A Bard Is Born


  • Greetings to you good folk of Narfell.

    I come to introduce myself, to ask for your help and to present a new character.

    I've always believed that you should be prepared to give before expecting to receive, so with that in mind, before asking for your community's kind help in refining my PC, I offer a brief background of Reckless Lemming.

    I hope you don't mind my Q and A format. I just thought I'd ask myself the same questions I'd ask me if I were you. (What the hell did I just say?)

    So what the hell does the name Reckless Lemming mean?
    http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/1725-what-does-your-name-avatar-mean-3.html#post152536

    What is your past experience in games?
    DnD (PnP), Pong, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Apple IIe, Macintosh, civilization, Myst, Battle.net: Diablo, NovaLogic Flight Series (F-16, MiG-29, etc.) Rogue Spear, World War II Online, Neverwinter Nights (Richterm's Retreat PW), WoW off and on since Dec. 2004, but nothing the last three years. (and yes I’m that old, 42 to be precise)

    So what have you been doing game wise? Why are you re-installing Neverwinter Nights on your computer?
    http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/5858-why-did-you-quit-your-last-mmo-s.html#post152690
    The last three years have been more work centric with game moments spent making occasional moves in Age of Mythology or flying single-player missions in Combat Flight Simulator 3 and occasionally a session of Mortal Online Open Beta. As you can see through the previous links I always post as Reckless Lemming. 😉

    If you're doing Mortal Online Beta and waiting for release what are you doing here?
    Long story short, my new rig blew the motherboard, and while my laptop is more than enough to run NWN and do the machinima and digital production I'm looking to experiment with, there is simply no way I could hope to run Mortal Online on this machine.

    Does this asshole think we're some backup he can waltz into? (Let him in we'll show him a reeeeeeeeeeeal good time)
    Far from that, Mortal Online aspires to be a game I would enjoy playing for a number of years, but it's a work in progress and at the moment it lacks the creativity community found on a good RP realm. The same went for the Earthen Ring server in WoW. You might be surprised to know how little RP goes on on a WoW RP server. I know I was.

    Why Narfell?
    When I did play NWN in the past I would play on Nordock: Richterm's Retreat.
    http://www.nordock.net/
    While I played sporadically, and I doubt there are any left who might remember me, a reference check of my characters there would show that I'm still an accepted player there with active characters. These days however a dark cloud has fallen over the land of Nordock in the form of inactivity, sadly. Looking over the available realms I saw Narfell with an active community, a non-mod/hak pack server, I average a nice 45-60ms ping with your server out of Dallas, even under server loads of 15-20 people. Nordock is out of Dallas also, but their power was sometime lacking under similar loads.

    Yeah, so what does Reckless Lemming bring to Narfell?
    I guess starting out I would focus primarily on being open to your community's guidance and to pledge to be a good citizen, in so much as a non-lawful Bard can be "good."

    (Melody): Who the hell decides what "good" is anyway? The power hungry trade guilds and senators?!

    Down Melody! DOWN!! You'll get your turn later. My apologies for Melody, she can be a little passionate at times.

    Show me a peek at you personality in-game and answer me this question. What is your greatest accomplishment in any game?
    Honestly it wasn't so much one particular thing, but the first month of WoW's release I met up with some folks in Darkshire. We got to be good friends and 3-manned every instance and outdoor content available before Stratholme (yes that includes ST). Hammerstein's dwarven Hunter, Gronix my bald-headed, gey-bearded, dwarven warrior (I miss you old man), and Angelfire the female dwarven Pally, ahhhh, good times.

    So now, leaving the floor open for any questions you might have for me, hopefully you won't mind if I ask for your help in refining my character: Melody Safiyah (female, human, bard).

    When arriving in Peltarch is there any advice you might want to offer on places or people to see, places or people to avoid? I don't like to game games so my questions are not intended to seek out answers to lessons I should be expected to learn for myself.

    Do you have any suggestions with regards to the class of bard? I usually play meat-shield (WoW-guild-warrior-class-leader-pain-in-my-neck-experience? that's affirmative, moving on), but after escaping WoW I played a wee halfling bard in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes for the free month, but it too was a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase. I enjoyed the class and would like a more creative outlet while affording me the chance to fall back on years of ingrained sword and board instinct when there's no time to think.

    What are, or have, other PC bards done to enhance their RP capabilities?

    Is there anyone who would care to express an opinion on the concept of learning a wide variety of the languages available in Narfell?

    Anyway, I've read all the information I've linked through Melody's Entertainer Portal: http://www.recklesslemming.com/melody-safiyah/
    Let me qualify that remark by admitting I only skimmed over the non-Peltarch Community backgrounds and I avoided the Narfell NPC backgrounds, PC Profiles and PC Shared Stories. Those I would rather unfold to me as they will to Melody. Does anyone have any other suggested reading?

    Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer and I hope my esoteric sense of humor didn't put anyone off. When I write this much however, I have a tendency to want to put nuggets in for my own amusement since I have to read it a time or two for re-wording and proofing and such. Wait, I'm supposed to be thanking you not going off on a tangent.

    Thanks again.

    Reckless Lemming - Melody Safiyah


  • Thank you all for the warm welcome.

    I was thinking of streaming content to fellow adventurers through Melody's Entertainment Portal. The homepage has a "Current Performance Information" link which takes you here:

    http://www.recklesslemming.com/melody-safiyah/audio/current-performance.htm

    When playing in town or adventuring out in the wilderness and striking up with a tune to lift spirits, anyone interested in hearing that particular performance could stream it through a link on that page.

    Changing the performance piece and the listed information between "shows" is simple enough and allows for music, oral tales, dramatic readings, etc.

    The performance of any particular piece would have to come as the result of "practicing" various "parts/snippits" to allow her to play/perform something in its entirety.

    The audio files are small and stream at 135kbs so they're not network intensive. Some examples I've been experimenting with include:

    Fiddle: http://www.recklesslemming.com/melody-safiyah/audio/not-known_celtic-fiddle-jig.wma

    Lute: http://www.recklesslemming.com/melody-safiyah/audio/robert-barto_fantasia.wma

    Irish Harp: http://www.recklesslemming.com/melody-safiyah/audio/thomas-doc-grauzer_the-crested-hen.wma

    I'm not particularly fond of any of these pieces, but they help to demonstrate.

    Is this a good idea or just not needed?

  • A

    That introduction you posted has me thinking that you'll make a great bard and addition to the community.

    Welcome to Narfell!!

    Hope to see you in game soon!

    ~Aota~


  • Hello and welcome!

    If you ever have any issues/questions/comments, feel free to use your Emote Wand and ping a PG/PL (Player Guide/Player Lead) for assistance. We'll be happy to help.

    Cheers! 🙂

    Almost forgot…welcome to the cult :twisted:

  • G

    @7f72c9a626=RecklessLemming:

    (and yes I’m that old, 42 to be precise)

    These gol durn kids think they kin take over…hmmff

    Welcome


  • No advice merely my good intentions Hugs Welcome aboard!


  • The Bardic College and Theatre is the given place for a budding bard, it's true, and has it's own forum where you can both write down your own performances and sneak a peek at others, amongst other things. Elidur and Val Kyrie are arguably the most active PC bards currently, though my own character Lycka would also be happy to give any aspiring bards the tour of the college if I'm around.

    The best place to shop is Renaldo's House of Music in Peltarch, near the market place, where you can find both musical instruments to play and special bardic knick-nacks and outfits. The Wilting Flower Shoppe in the same district is another tip for picking up some items to boost your performance abilities.

    Bard is a very versatile class, and throughout my years on this server, I've seen many different styles of both rp and combat tactics, so there's few right and wrongs in my book. Focus on your own character, and what she wants to accomplish and do, and pick your feats and spells accordingly. Bard song rocks though, most definitely, and you'll want as many of those as you can (extra music and lingering song being good picks). Still spell is another useful feat for combat-oriented bards, as it lets you cast without the fear of arcane spell failure while in armor (a spellslot higher, but still). My own bard often toes the front lines, a taunting and defensively skilled melee type, while others bards may be stealthy and rogue-like, focus on ranged support, or play the role of the invisible support caster.

    For skills, focusing on performance is a given, but I'd also highly recommend lore, as that's definitely one of the bard's strongest cards. Knowledge is power, after all, and that tends to make the bard a very plot-friendly individual - fun in a place like Narfell, I assure you!


  • I would suggest getting in game as quickly as possible, and finding out if it's something for you.

    I've played nordock, granted, Waaay back, in like 03? but yeah, You can certainly get lost in this server. Welcome to the lunacy. Try not to die. 😉


  • Welcome,, and no you are not the oldest player here 🙂 Read the WIKI, it has helped me alot,, but not as much as the most awesome(yea I know I use that word alot) Players you could hope for. You know it's a good world when people have been here for YEARS RL. Just play and have fun,, and oh yea,, when they say welcome to the addicton,, they really mean addiction :twisted:

    See ya IG


  • Wow. Welcome to Narfell, shame you play a bard. 😛

    Played WoW for awhile myself, it is no surprise to me in the lack of Roleplaying. You seem to be pretty enthusiastic, I think you'll do just fine.