I was going over some information on instruments, and I know there was a request for more complex instruments.

*IF* this is something I can change I have ideas for the string and wind instruments, but the percussion is a bit more of a bear.

My question is this, since I found the TABLA is pretty low on the complexity scale for how it actually works in DR versus how it actually works in RL (and while how things work IRL isn't the end all be all of how things work in DR, for instruments it at least serves as a nice guideline), I was considering changing the TABLA to be a more difficult instrument. I would put something else in place of the TABLA so that level of complexity isn't completely gone.

I just want to make sure no one is super attached to the TABLA, or if I should be looking at other instruments that I can just throw a loose Real Life version out the window and just make it a "complex in Elanthia" version (ie. throwing that RL guideline stuff out the window for this particular instrument).

Hopefully that's clear. Sometimes these things make all the more sense in my head and not when I write them!


~Evike

Am I the only one thinking "what the heck is a TABLA?" :)

I had to look it up, and I can see why you would think it is an advanced instrument.

"Playing technique involves extensive use of the fingers and palms in various configurations to create a wide variety of different sounds, reflected in the mnemonic syllables."

I have (cough) a lot of instruments... but I don't even think I own one tabla.

So change away!

If you get a Songbook (I can let you clone one of mine if you don't have one) in the back of it, it has a list of all instruments that supposedly exist in DR.

So Shenney and I were looking at that list the other day and noticed there are multiple ones on there that don't actually exist in game that we knew of.

Was just thinking that would be a good place to look for instruments to make us sound bad while playing on.

I would adore being able to tell the difficulty range of an instrument with appraisal or even assess!! Great idea!

Also more wearable instruments that were weather impervious or at least resistant would be great too.

Linett

This is more from my Bard.

I've always thought it would be neat if you could play an element.

That is manipulate it dance with it, twirl it around, the more adept you are the more material and fancier things you could do with it.

So beginners could only deal with a drop, then a trickle, and so forth (more from a water perspective).

Then for something like fire, a spark, a well I need better words for all the different levels there.

Ice a crystal, an ice drop, an ice stream, an ice wave (maybe wave and stream should be inversed).

And just be a performance type of thing, where you can dance with a twirl and manipulate the elements, I guess very very very masterful people could maybe even manipulate multiples, and even opposites in the truly EXTREME masterful.

I know this is a bit out of the direction of what was asked, but it got me thinking about it, so I'm throwing it out there.

---
"I think anything that forces you to do something no sane adventurer would do just in order to train is ridiculous."
DR-SOCHARIS

---
Victory Over Lyras, on the 397th year and 156 days since the Victory of Lanival the Redeemer.

I totally dig the elemental dancing.

I'm not (personally) a big fan of instruments made out of an element. It's for the same reason I don't like spells that shape themselves into people/animals -- I just find it jarring I guess. They don't seem like the "realistic" shape one could form an element into. But that's just me.

What I would like to see is the ability to create wind and use that to create music. In this way the Bard could play instruments totally impossible for others to play, such as a set of gigantic chimes that only produce sound when elemental air is moved through them. The ability should also allow a single Bard to play multiple (wind) instruments at the same time (in addition to a single held percussion/string).

I'd love to see this as a kind of Performance feat for when that skill is developed.


-- Player of Eyuve