Battle of The Bards!

a musical skill challenge.

Have you ever wanted to run a silly battle of the bands encounter in your campaign? Or perhaps just wanted a set of rules for your players to perform a song? This is the document for you!

Grab your lute, flute, drums and get ready to jam!

Performing a song is a skill challenge: Players roll initiative to determine their spot in the turn order. When it is a player’s turn they have the spotlight!

The Party needs to reach 12 successes before they reach 10 failures in order to perform an epic song! The players can perform actions as described later in this document. Successfully passing the DC for an action will result in one success added to the overall performance. Failing the DC will add one failure. A critical success adds an extra success to the overall performance, conversely a critical fail adds an extra failure! Decrease/increase the ratio to adjust the difficulty and/or the overall length of the challenge.

Note to the DM.

As DM your job is to facilitate a fun experience. Certain assumptions have to be made in this challenge. Players are proficient in an instrument just for this challenge. It is supposed to be fun and not an overly “rules lawyered” experience. Encourage the players to fully describe what they do, how they perform and use their voice or instruments. Put on some fun music! Create an atmosphere!

Players can use spells and class actions such as bardic inspiration in their turn to try and gain a success, or get some kind of advantage. Allow anything as long as the player can justify the action in the context of the skill challenge. Improvise and be creative! As DM you have to referee and give appropriate and fair rewards for any non-standard action. Using high level spells, or rolling exceptionally well on a non-standard action should be rewarded substantially.

homebrew mug

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PART 1 | GETTING STARTED

Getting Started

The players have to form a band! Let them decide on a band name and what their role is. Encourage the pc’s (or the players themselves) to dress up and assume stage personas.

Create a venue and event for them to participate in. If the players succeed the challenge they defeat their rivals and win the prize.

The party needs 1 Drummer or Percussionist and 1 Front Man.

The rest of the players are Instrumentalists and fulfill the other creative roles in the band!

The Drummer can use Strength/Athletics instead of performance to perform the actions.

The Front Man cannot perform a “Face melting Solo!” but has the “Psyche up the crowd!” action.

Actions you can perform

Players can perform the following actions:

Face melting Solo! Dc 22 performance check. Succeeding at a “Face melting Solo” adds 3 successes to the band’s overall performance. A player has to perform a different action in the following round before they can perform a “Face melting Solo” again. Only one solo can be performed by the band in a round.

Keep the beat! Adds +2 to the next “Face Melting Solo” check. The player cannot fail this action. The “Keep the beat” bonus stacks! The stacked bonus adds to the next “Face Melting Solo” increasing the chance of success. The “bonus” resets to +0 after a “Face Melting Solo” attempt. A player has to perform a different action in the following round before they can perform the “keep the beat” action again.

Regular ol’ Jamming! (Just play!): Dc 15 performance check. Succeeding at a “Regular ol’ jamming” check adds 1 success to the band’s overall performance.

Psyche up the crowd! Grants someone advantage on a check or save. The Front Man cannot fail this action. Only the “Front Man” can use the “Psyche up the crowd” action. The Front Man can trade their action for that round to use “Psyche up the crowd” as a reaction. If the Front Man decides to “Psyche up the crowd” they have to perform a different action in the following round before they can use the “Psyche up the crowd” action again.

To decrease the challenge use DC 20 for Face melting Solo! and DC 14 for Regular ol’ Jamming

 

 

the complications table.

One of the unique aspects of this skill challenge is the complications table. Everything does not always go according to plan in a live music show!

If a player rolls 6 or lower on their die for any check, they must roll on the complications table. Similar to a lair action that triggers on initiative 20 and 10 the DM rolls on the complications table and selects a random player as the target.

Roll a d12 and compare the result to the number on the table:

  • 1 ) Something breaks! -3 on all checks. This effect lasts until you use an action to fix the issue.

  • 2 ) You get distracted by someone exceptionally beautiful in the audience! Succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom Save, or have disadvantage on your next check.

  • 3 ) Someone hates the song and shoots you! Succeed on a DC 15 Constitution save, or have disadvantage on your next check.

  • 4 ) Stage assailant! The assailant has +2 to strength. Perform a contested Strength (Athletics) test. If you fail, suffer -4 on your next check.

  • 5 ) Adoring fans! You get motivated! Gain +4 on your next check.

  • 6 ) Stage fright! I have faced beholders, but what is this feeling? You have disadvantage on your next check.

  • 7 ) In the pocket! You are seriously in the groove! Perform an instant and super effective “keep the beat!” Add +4 to the “Face Melting Solo” stack.

  • 8 ) Divine inspiration! You start glowing eerily. You can instantly roll a performance check for a “Face Melting Solo” or “Regular ol’ jamming” without losing your action in the current round.

  • 9 ) “Howling Jimmy Jefferson” the Spirit of jazz possesses you! Lose control and start playing jazz! Your attempt at jazz disturbs the next player who gets -3 to their next check.

  • 10 ) Harmonise! The next player to perform “regular ol’ jamming” adds +2 to their performance check as you sing silky backing vocals. (does not apply to keep the beat or solo)

  • 11 ) Eyes of the serpent! You magically gain a die of inspiration (d20) you can use in the skill challenge.

  • 12 ) Double time! Roll twice and use both results! If you roll 12 again reroll that die.

We will be here all week!

I really hope you enjoy this skill challenge. Please consider checking out Tabletop Troupe’s Youtube channel and support us by subscribing and leaving us some lovely comments and feedback!

If you want to see these rules in action this video we released uses the first iteration of the rules I created. It is a fun video of what happens when a pitfiend wants to recruit some new court musicians!

PS. I have updated and refined the rules for this document

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Authored by Attie Basson.

homebrew mug 2 PART 2 | COMPLICATIONS