Magic Bells

Magical powers have been attributed to bells for much of human history, in both the West and Far East. The basic premise is that the chiming of the bell drives away evil spirits/lightning/thieves/bad luck/etc. They are essentially a tool that weaponizes sound, directing it at (often) incorporeal or abstract targets. In Garth Nix's Old Kingdom Chronicles, necromancers use a set of 7 bells, which tap into the powers of primordial beings, to unleash specific effects (sleeping, reanimating, forcing movement, speech, thought, binding, and death itself, respectively). This core concept, bell magic, lead me to write my first set of custom rules, an Old Kingdom Chronicles RPG built on a D&D 3.5 chassis (the only system I knew at the time), and gave me my start as a DM.

Based on the folklore, bellringing works kind of like turning undead - while sound emanates from the bell, a targeted type of thing is driven from the space. If we limit it to types of creatures, the bell may ring in the audible frequency range, but it has distinct overtones beyond it only perceptible by the targeted group (or it magically has a low fundamental that matches the targeted creatures' natural frequency and will, over time, vibrate them apart).

Handbells

Now for the implementation. Silver bells repel Sidh and Yokai, an extension of how silver dispels their magic and burns them.

Handbell players have a variety of options when it comes to playing a handbell - the first is a question of how many bells are played. Everyone can ring one bell per hand, but more skilled players can play with 2 or even 3 bells per hand, sounding either 1 at a time or all of them. Furthermore, while a single strike of the clapper is the norm, the bellringer can circle the bell, causing the clapper to slide around the inside of the bell and sustaining the pitch (like sliding your wet finger around the rim of a partially-filled wineglass).

The first ability is something to take note of for later, but not immediately necessary for these rules. However, the ability of a bellringer to arbitrarily sustain the pitch of the bell is a powerful one in this context.

This means that the most important feature of a bell is its loudness, most importantly, the range at which it is still audible (and thus effective). Finding hard numbers on this is somewhat tricky, so I'll cheat. By rearranging the equation I can find relating audibility distance and loudness, I get

r2=10^(L1-L2)/20

Where r2 is the distance at which the sound is L2 loud, if the sound is L1 loud at a distance of 1 yard from the instrument.

Looking at instrument loudness ratings, the upper limit on the sound of a handbell is 100dB (the approximate volume of a fortissimo piano). Now, a 100dB sound is audible for 56,000 yards (since the threshold for hearing is ~5dB for pitches written on the musical staff), which is a massive sphere of influence for a single bell, even at the extremes - that's about 32 miles (admittedly, 32 miles on what I presume is a flat, featureless plain with no sound competition, but still). Perhaps a better range is 55dB, the loudness of a casual conversation. This reduces our 100dB handbell's effective range to 178 yards, which is a far more reasonable range. However, 100dB is the upper limit on how loud a handbell might be - most are not nearly that loud. A 90dB bell is (roughly) half the volume, and travels only 56 yards before crossing beneath our effective threshold, but I want to use 85dB as the standard - it's the threshold for ear damage from prolonged exposure, which means that characters who ring bells for too long will suffer permanent damage, but they can easily ring the bell more quietly for a limited range indefinitely.

Being a fan of round numbers, we'll say that handbells can be played at 3 volumes: 90dB (loud), 85dB (normal), and 80dB (quiet), with effective ranges of 56, 32, and 18 yards. We'll play one last trick and redefine our distances from yards to feet (so that these loudness measures represent what the bellringer hears, not what someone standing in front of the bellringer hears), which lets us shrink these ranges down to 19, 11, and 6 yards of effective range, or 20/10/5 to keep things nice and round.

Returning to silver bells, Sidh and Yokai within the affected range must succeed an Ascetic test (or Magic saving throw) in to remain within that area and their magic becomes more difficult to manifest, requiring them to make casting checks.

Larger Bells

Of course, bells come in more shapes and sizes than just handbells. Churchbells are still a huge part of the soundscape of most European cities - even competing with modern urban noise, one can still hear the churchbells ring out the hour all across the city. The bell and belltower become the center of those communities lucky enough to have one. In most medieval-fantasy settings, the only "practical" reason for this might be the vantage the belltower provides and the ability of the bell to warn of danger. The bell's function in liturgical communities was obviously as a call to prayer (since they had 7-8 different services every day), but we can do better.

The obvious extension is to add bellmaking as a medium under sculpture for the artist/bard. I'd need a new entry in the table detailing different effects a mastercrafted bell (or set of bells) might cause in the countryside. However, I am intrigued by Alexis' discussion of happiness in bardic artwork. Frustratingly, the solution he proposes is impossible for my game - I don't have character levels, so a mechanic that allows them to be acquired faster is not particularly useful, and expediting other kinds of character growth (notch acquisition) is not a particularly elegant solution.

While Alexis was still musing about in what direction to take the bard, I proposed creating a scale of behaviors based upon happiness - an x-happiness settlement behaves in this way, whereas a y-happiness settlement behaves in this other way. It's a ridiculous amount of work, but I think the benefits extend beyond bardic artwork, especially when I return to talking about the settlement campaign at some point in the future.

We can interpret the list of effects bells were thought to abjure in two ways: the first is that bells essentially make the owner/user more lucky (in avoiding theft, lightning strikes, wildfire, evil spirits, whatever) - they are focused upon evading some potential harm, when the chances of that harm occurring are fairly low already. If I still ran my game from a random encounter table, this might be a sensible choice - if the probability of something bad happening is 1-in-6, a community with a bell has instead a 1-in-8 or 1-in-10 chance of suffering that same event. But I don't do that anymore; I want to approach the game as a narrative written by the players that observes cycles of tension and release, which makes that kind of approach less useful.

Instead, community bells increase the happiness of the population that lives near them. The word "happiness" is somewhat problematic. In modern psychology, "happiness" is a technical term that only tangentially relates to its vernacular meaning: "happiness" describes a state of general contentment and inner peace, which quickly links to Buddhist and other non-Western faith traditions. Within the Western psychological literature, "happiness" correlates with trust and risk-taking (which are somewhat linked already). The idea is that happier people are more willing to take chances on something that might make them unhappy because taking that risk allows them to expand, develop, and grow - it is an awareness that one's comfort zone can only expand by leaving it. It's still fairly abstract, but I think this path will give me a powerful tool in the end.

Neglected Space

I want to open by saying that I love Imogen Heap's music. Her more recent work is an excellent fusion of avant-garde and pop sensibilities (which is a weird and compelling combination). One of these tracks is called "Neglected Space" and narrates the thoughts of a house as it is built, abandoned, and reinhabited. The video accompanying the track features beautiful ink-painted graphics which add to the poetic feeling of the piece.

The relevance to D&D is this: imagine that every constructed space features an accompanying spirit, an entity that receives all of the emotional energy expended upon the building, remembering everything that has happened within it. These memories shape the "personality" of the structure. As the spirit gains definition (through the acquisition of memories), the relationship between the spirit and the structure shifts - the structure becomes an extension of the spirit. The architecture seeks to perpetuate the types of memories possessed by the building - a place of evil will try to accommodate those who commit acts of cruelty within it, while a home full of warmth and cheer will be unfriendly to the bandits that massacred the family living there.

One of the consequences of Alexis' and my expanded conception of the bard is that the bard's singular ability, bardic music, makes absolutely no sense for any bard that doesn't work with music. Why can a sculptor help people fight better through the playing of music? It doesn't make a lot of sense. I'd like to have each discipline allow the bard to interact with the world on a regular basis through the lens of their medium.

The idea of a building's spirit gives us the answer for architectural bards. Such a bard has the ability to interface with, in some limited capacity, the spirit of a structure. Through such communion, the bard can glean information about the current and previous states of the building by listening to it.

More importantly, the bard can project memories into the spirit of the structure, causing its architecture to shift accordingly (since the building is an extension of the spirit) - the bard can remove a lock, create a doorway, cause the flooring to weaken in a strategic place, etc. These projections last a limited time, after which the building might reject or act against the bard.

Thoughts? Obviously, I am not presenting any rules here, only the impetus for them, but this feels weird and cool and similar-but-different to what arcane spellcasters can do (with things like stoneshape and the like).

Playing Again

Well, Alexis is running a new set of online campaigns, and I was fortunate enough to get a slot. This is exciting on a number of different fronts: not only am I playing again for the first time in years, but I'm playing with a DM I greatly respect and a respectable group of players. I am also quite excited to see how a lot of the rules Alexis' has mentioned actually work in practice.

This comes at a particularly welcome time as I've stalled a bit on developing things for both this blog and my world - without a game to drive me, my output has slowed to fits and spurts.

One of the things I've been working through is the bestiary project I outlined a while ago.  I was rather unhappy with what I churned out initially and decided to take a somewhat different tact (especially with regard to the voice of Patrick MacAlan. I'm sorry about that.). Because the ultimate goal of the project is to sell it, spacing is an ever-present concern. I've decided on page sizes (6x9, which makes for a very handy book), but this makes space an ever-present concern. Fitting at least two paragraphs from different authors simply requires too much space, so my current mindset is to write out each author's descriptions in full and then quote them to communicate their voice and information without losing all of that space.

Additionally, I've significantly reworked the shard magic spells to incorporate a more science-fantasy vibe, the results of which I'll post later this month.

Lastly, I'm still tinkering with the bardic artwork tables I outlined a while back. What I presented was an excellent first draft, but it fails in two counts. Some of the abilities are not presented within the psycho-magical framework that underpins the whole endeavor, and much of the abilities require a fundamentally Judeo-Christian worldview, something that does not jive with my aggressively multicultural setting. I've finished editing a couple of them, but I want to get the whole series done before posting it.

Speaking of Sacred (Catholic) Music...

Reading for a class and I come across a section from Chris Page's book, The Christian West:

"Some time before 1123, Peter the abbot of Cava in Campania found that the local seigneur was sporadically emerging from his castrum of San Severino and harassing the workers on the rural estates of the monastery.  He even drove them from one of the fields as they were in the midst of sowing.  The lord's motives are unlikely to have been very complex; the archives of the abbey of Cava are extensive and they leave no doubt that the monastery owned a considerable amount of land.  Lord Roger of San Severino had every reason to enlarge the scope of his tenantry by threatening its rural serfs as a prelude to appropriating its good arable land, and it would not have taken much for his group of armed and mounted men, the garrison of the castellum, to see off the abbey's peasants in the field.  Instead of raising a militia or appealing to a diocesan, however, Abbot Peter decided to defend the furrows with plainsong.  He went out to the field with the serfs and a few monks and 'instantly began to sing chant'.  Lord Roger appeared with his men, but at the sound of the plainsong his mood was softened to the point where he became penitent, even lacrimose, and prostrated himself at the abbot's feet. 'Thus', says Peter's biographer, 'we know that psalmody softens the ferocity of evil spirits and puts them to flight.' (394)

Furthermore, we also get these gems:

"plainsong was a means of healing... it was also, as the miraculous appearance of saints during worship occasionally revealed, a form of conjuration." (394).

Some things to think about when considering how music might play a role in your worlds, especially your sacred music.

The Muhaddi - Bardic Storytelling

I want to start producing useable material for the Pioneer campaign, and that requires a little more time to incubate.  But I did want to expand a little bit on bards and talk about one of my classes, the Muhaddi.

I've always been frustrated by attempts to shoehorn non-Abrahamic faith structures into the Cleric class, in all editions.  Religion in canonical D&D is a Western polytheistic construct based on a Christian idea of paganism (probably all Gygax and co. knew about actual polytheistic faiths practiced in the real world).  It does not model, in terms of the specific powers it grants, Buddhism (any form), Daoism, Shintoism, Hinduism, or any of the Native American faiths, to name a few.  It also does a piss-poor job capturing what Grecian polytheism was like, as opposed to the Roman conceptualization of Grecian polytheism.  Remember that the Romans appropriated the Greek gods, gave them new names, and also fundamentally changed how they were discussed and worshiped.  Prior to the Romans, the Greek gods didn't have domains or areas of interest.  Instead, the faith was a collection of stories about the titans and their children.  There were temples and shrines devoted to specific characters in these stories, but one didn't necessarily pray to Hera for marital success while giving offerings to Apollo for musical prowess.  You would instead go to the local temple, devoted to whatever patron figure had claimed your geographic area, and ask them for help.  The Romans bureaucratized this process, with temples to multiple gods and requiring specific offerings for each god for each aspect of each god and so on.

Both of these are really interesting faith systems, but they are totally distinct in theology and practice.  What was particularly intriguing to me, though, was the similarity, at least to my non-expert eye, in the role of stories between this Grecian polytheism, some Native American religious traditions, and Zen Buddhism (which is often taught in a martial arts context entirely through metaphoric stories).

This idea of religion defined entirely through stories was incredibly interesting to me, so I designed one for my world, tentatively referred to as the Endless Myths of Fiája, the Wanderer.

Prior to the Tarluskani's unification and subsequent conquest of the lands north of the Sea of Shadows, they were disparate nomad tribes that sustained themselves via raids on the Confederacy to the south.  Each tribe had a single leader, usually the best warrior among them, and they were counseled by a Muhaddi, a divine storyteller.

The Muhaddi, in their dreams, travel to a strange land named Fiajodo, where Fiája the Wanderer tells them the stories of her travels.  In all the stories, she is a peerless warrior and canny thinker who wanders the land solving people's problems.  She is joined and opposed by other First Ones, individuals with skills to rival Fiája's.  The Muhaddi share these tales (via oration, dance, or song) with all who will listen, inspiring their listeners to attempt the epic deeds depicted in the stories.

While the origin and background of the Muhaddi are drawn from my world, their abilities are very similar to the Performing Arts bardic artwork effects I discussed previously, but on a much less powerful level.

The first ability of the Muhaddi is quite mundane.  They can perform a loud chant that draws people to pay attention to the Muhaddi, affecting all who can hear the Muhaddi's voice. 

Muhaddi can also curse people, with the number of people affected increasing with their level.  The curse gives penalties (ultimately leading to death) to those acting against the Muhaddi (attacking them, stealing from them, and so on).

Muhaddi can tell stories that inspire their listeners.  The stories take anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour in the telling, and all who walk away find that their ability to perform a task, emphasized in the story, has been improved for the rest of the day.

A Muhaddi, with another story, can also enflame the passions and pull at the heartstrings of that audience, inciting them to take some specific action immediately after the story ends (essentially a Suggestion spell).

Their final ability is to become an incarnation of one of the figures from the stories, gaining Master-tier in a few disciplines for the rest of that day (essentially they gain all of the abilities of another class at 15th level), with the caveat that they are no longer themselves - they are this character that they have summoned (like extreme method acting).

These powers can't provide an immediate and enduring effect for a community, but they do have a limited ability to shape action in the moment.  This, to me, gives me an alternate list of bard abilities beyond whatever core abilities are given to them by the game system (that often implicitly assume a musical bard) that strongly parallels the artwork rules presented earlier.  While I don't think such a thing is possible for each choice of medium, it is nice to have ways to further differentiate between them (and, since the Performing Arts list of art powers is not nearly as powerful as most of the other lists, it is a nice way to give a Bardic Performing Artist a little more oomph).

Bardic Art Series Summation

The first major project on this blog is finished: the Bardic Art series.  The goal of this series of posts was to:

1. Provide a framework for bards to create artwork meaningful on a mechanical level.
2. Provide a list of medium-specific effects to make different kinds of bards have different effects upon the world, reflecting the differences in their medium.

At 1st level, a Bard is considered an Apprentice artist, 3rd a Journeyman, 7th a Specialist, 12th a Master, and 18th a Grandmaster artist.  The table below shows the general duration of effect for a piece of art at the given quality level as well as how long it takes a bardic artist of the indicated skill level to create a piece of art at each level of quality.

More profound artwork are capable of expressing more supernatural effects and sustain them for longer, since they are by nature more complex and deep.  Except in a few cases, the artwork itself is not magical; the magic lies in the response of people/the world to the artwork.  Because of this, the effects generated by bardic artwork are not permanent - a Grandmaster work of art loses its potency after 10 years of exposure - it ceases to inspire in the same way it once did and thus can no longer conjure the same magical response.

I think that about 50% of the effects generated by a given piece of art should be under the control of the artist, while the other 50% are random - art does not always do what the artist expects or asks of it.  Apprentice artists can trigger 2 effects, Journeymen 3, Specialist 4, Master 5, and Grandmaster 6.

Alternatively, and I think I might like this approach better, each bard has a list of 6 or 8 effects they can draw upon for their art, taken from their medium's table.  When they use an effect in a piece of art, it is replaced by another one, determined randomly from the larger table.  In fact, the size of their effect list could increase with their skill level as well, perhaps 2 for Apprentice, 3, 5, 7, and 9 for Grandmaster bards, and they would be able to choose all but 1 of the magical effects of a work of art (which would be rolled randomly from the larger list).

Furthermore, bards are able to copy other artworks, duplicating their effects.  Copying from within the same medium produces an identical artwork, but all effects are reduced by 25% (their numerical effects or, if no numerical aspects, there is a 25% chance the effect will not manifest).  Copying from a different medium entirely has a 50% reduction on efficacy.

Now for the list of mediums and concentrations.  Each bard must choose one concentration within the medium.  They are able to produce artwork with another concentration within their medium as though they were a bard 25% lower level (so a 4th level Drawing (Charcoal) bard could produce paintings as though they were 3rd level), but they cannot produce artwork from a different medium (they can only copy it using their own, as described above).

Architecture
Ceramics (Hand-building or Throwing)
Cooking
Drawing (Charcoal, Painting [Ink], Painting [Oil], Printmaking, or Tattooing)

Literature (Poetry or Prose)
Music (Court [Instrumental], Court [Opera/Vocal], Regional Folk, or Liturgical)
Performance Art (Dance or Theatre)
Sculpture (Bone and Wood, Glassblowing, Metal, or Stone)

I will say that this is only a first draft of all of these tables - I'm done with this project for now, but I'd like to at the very least double the size of each medium's table sometime in the future.

The Bardic Sculptor

And we come now to the last kind of art, sculpture.  Unlike the other art forms, I've divided the table below not on specific sub-medium but on the subject of the artwork.  Representational statues are of a specific thing (a person, creature, or tableaux).  Totemic statues are more abstract, attempting to sculpt intangible properties or indescribably beings (we don't have full-on abstract sculpture until, I believe, the 20th c. so this is as close as we get).

Bardic sculptors would still choose a concentration: wood, metal, stone, glassblowing, or wax.  They would then be able to choose the subject of their sculpture, representation or totem, which would determine which column to use as a source for the artwork's magical effects.

Also, I wanted to make explicit that the Totemic category goes remarkably well with Alexis' work on Fetishism.

Roll	Representational	Totemic
1	The figure depicted is majestic, refined.  Increases the demand for luxury goods by 20%, as well as the chance to find rarer items.	The statue can only be properly viewed in the light of the full moon, wherein it calms the restless dead and grants the ability to see fully in moonlight for a lunar cycle.
2	The figure is industrious and focused, inspiring others to be the same.  All projects finish 20% faster.	The figurine is ghoulish and crude.  It scares away evil spirits as a cleric turns undead.
3	The statue commemorates a great deed, reminding passers-by of their old glories.  Increases nativism, increases morale by 1.	The statue is forbidding and fearsome, warding off outsiders as a Magic Circle, but is seen as friendly to those living near it.
4	The statue depicts a Divinity.  Where such depiction is allowed, belief is further strengthened, increasing the power of divine spells cast nearby.  Where such depiction is forbidden, the statue increases resistance to the faith's teachings, decreasing the power of divine spells cast nearby.	The totem is designed for a specific (wilderness) location.  After 1 year of being placed, the statue will be covered in plant growth and reach its full potential.  It showcases the eventual triumph of nature over the machinations of mortal-kind and boosts druidic magic in the region.
5	The statue is of a local military leader, increasing pride in the military and also boosting the enlistment/volunteer rate from the region by 10%.	The statue appeals to the spirits of wild creatures, allowing them to flourish.  Wild animal-based industry flourishes by 20%.
6	Depicting different creatures and races collaborating in common cause, the statue fosters cooperation between unlikely allies.  Persuasion attempts are easier nearby it.	The totem is grotesque and ugly, attracting hatred and vandalism from the local community and providing a focus for their resentment.  Happiness for the majority population increases, while minority groups are ostracised and victimized.
7	The statue attempts a cultural fusion, merging symbols and figures from a distant place with local ones.  Local views will change for the better or the worse as per the intentions of the bard.	The totem is precariously placed.  When creatures of ill intent pass by, it will topple.
8	The statue draws on divine or unholy imagery, sanctifying or desecrating the area around it.	The totem is hollow on the inside and can trap incorporeal creatures who draw too close.
9	An array of statues makes the chosen installation imposing and powerful.  Commands given from within the array are more likely to be followed.  Increases patriotism.	The totem absorbs magical energy over time.  Meditating or praying near it has a heightened chance of summoning a powerful spirit to converse with the supplicant.
10	The statue does not depict an actual individual or creature.  The community's collective unconscious creates a new myth surrounding it, which has a chance of becoming real.	The totem is linked to a local population - if the community is 'good', the totem grows beautiful; if the community is 'bad', the totem becomes malformed.

The Bardic Performing Artist

The performing arts, theatre and dance, are frequently referenced as being 'bardic' but bear the least resemblance to how the bard's abilities traditionally work.

Theatre would include professional actors doing plays (Moliere, Shakespeare (although his plays aren't translated out of English until the 19th c.), etc.) as well as improvisational acts like Italy's Commedia dell'arte tradition.

Dance is complicated.  In 17th c. Europe, we have 'folk' dance traditions, with group and partner styles and we have 'court' dance traditions (minuette, rondo, waltz a little later on, etc.), but ballet is rising to prominence at this time and is one of the hallmarks of the French artistic scene.  Going outside of Europe, each of the tribes of Africa had indigenous dance traditions as part of their religion, just to start.  The dance effects I list attempt to create some sort of singular whole that can accommodate for a variety of foundations for a bardic dancer.

Roll	Acting	Dance
1	The performance is cathartic.  The audience leaves satisfied and happy.  All resistances are slightly improved for 24 hours.	The dance summons spirits of hearth, home, and healing, who bless the dancers and audience.
2	The spectacle presents a great injustice that incenses the audience, who riot from the performance to right the wrong.	The composition embodies the heights of human grace.  In memory of this, the audience's Dexterity increases by 1 for 1 week.
3	The play satirizes a prominent local institution, formenting dissatisfaction with it.  Or the inverse.	The dance invites a non-corporeal entity into the body of the (lead) dancer.
4	The work presents characters struggling with and overcoming personal trials.  Increases number of lvl 0 hirelings available by 20% for 1 week.	The piece is narrative, representing a local myth or legend.  The resultant patriotism increases morale by 2 for a week.
5	The performance uses semiotic ghosting to create a secondary narrative, inviting underworld types and others who play double games to contact the performers.	The piece is an abstraction of a local myth or legend.  Trying to link movement to action forces the audience to think more broadly, increasing Wisdom by 1 for 1 week.
6	The work subtly rewrites recent history.  The local populace will remember the play's version, not the 'real' one.	The movements reinforce the ley currents of the area, bringing good weather and banishing bad.
7	The play is both deeply intellectual and crudely funny.  It dominates all conversation in the area for the next six months, bringing (temporary) fame to the performers.	The work is transcendent, bringing attention to every subtle move the dancers make.  The attention to detail increases experience earned by 10% for 1 week.
8	At the heart of the play lies an old incantation that, when recited to a full audience, enacts a high level wizard spell.	Hidden within the dance are the foundations of martial arts.  The region will see a 10% increase in the number of unarmed fighters over the next 10 years.
9	The play emphasizes a specific character trait.  Repeated works emphasizing the same trait will impart it upon the community.	The dance uses an ancient, potent movement vocabulary, allowing it to expel malevolent forces: all suffering from poison, disease, or compulsion effects receive an additional saving throw.
10	The text is an adaption of a preexisting bardic literary work and may duplicate its effects in full.	The coordination of the dancers is remarkable.  For the next week, characters acting in tandem receive a +2 bonus.

The Musical Bard

And now we come to the musical bard, the 'traditional' version of the class.  With every other form of art, I've looked to other games, myths, and fiction for inspiration, and this was no exception.  However, I found a whole lot of junk and very little that was salvageable.  Yes, that was a list of sound-based Pokemon moves that I just referenced.

Before I get to the list, I want to clear up a common misunderstandings about music: it is not a 'universal language'.  That myth was perpetuated by old white European musicologists and music theorists who had almost no experience with non-Western musical traditions (and, for that matter, little experience with European folk ones, either).  Music is only effective when speaking to someone raised in the culture that produced that music.  For example, Franz Schubert, the master of Lieder, was essentially the Mariah Carey or Beyonce of his day.  Take a listen to some of his songs (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a particular favorite singer of mine).  That probably won't evoke the same resonance as it's contemporary counterpart.  Styles and tastes have changed since the early 19th century.

I break down here how the musical bard would function in the 17th century, but these categories (with the exception of opera) work throughout European history from the Medieval period to the Long 19th Century.  Summarizing, there are three (really four) genres of music found in the 17th century: folk or local music, court music, and liturgical (church) music.  Court music in the 17th century is then broken down into instrumental music and opera, which had just swept the entire continent, reigning supreme over every other type of music until the modern era (even Beethoven spent his entire career trying to write an opera).  Each tradition will have its own sphere of influence: folk or local music will be effective among all common folk of a similar geographic region, but it will be most effective for the specific region of origin of the bard.  An Irish fiddle tune does not have the same effect on the Chinese Imperial Court as it does at a ceilidh.  Court music, of both types, will be effective among the nobility of that region and ineffective among the common folk or nobility of other regions (imagine the Chinese guqin played for Louis XIV).  Liturgical music will have the broadest cross-class reach, as it will affect all who adhere to a particular faith: Catholic music, Lutheran music, Episcopalian music, etc.

Additionally. liturgical music also includes the setting of sacred texts to vocal polyphony - a liturgical bard would be either an organist or singer, although they would need at least one other and preferably two other singers for polyphony to have full effect.

Roll	Folk Traditions	Court Traditions (Instrumental)	Court Traditions (Operatic)	Liturgical Traditions
1	With virtuosic melodic figurations and expressive rhythms, the melody can enthrall an audience.	The piece's unusual arrangment of topics communicates a message decipherable only by the musical elite.	With virtuosic melodic figurations and expressive rhythms, the melody can enthrall an audience.	The composition violates many of the rules of the liturgical tradition, inviting unholy creatures to hear the music.
2	The steady dance meter and spirited melody invites those listening to get up and dance.	The steady dance meter and spirited melody invites those listening to get up and dance.	The melody is innately beguiling, drawing a targeted creature towards the singer.	The holy music consecrates the area in which it is played, for as long as the piece lasts.
3	The tune is somber and mournful.  Those listening are stricken with grief.	The musical themes conjure cantrips, which manifest while the work is played.	The tune is somber and mournful.  Those listening are stricken with grief.	The music is sufficiently angelic that divine spirits appear.
4	The skill required to play the tune conjures local spirits - divine, unholy, or of the wild.	The piece plays with musical conventions, amusing listeners and attracting Sidh/Fey.	The song is intimate and touching, fostering trust between the singer and audience.	All who sing the melody together find increased loyalty and camraderie.
5	The song is fast and free, inspiring revolution in those who hear it.  Those under compulsions or curses may make an extra saving throw.	The work provides an elegant atmosphere, lulling listeners into a false sense of security.  Lessened chance to notice non-obvious things.	The singer portrays extreme naivete; those acting against the singer feel guilty and shamed, decreasing their morale by 2.	The work is a requiem.  If sung over a dead creature, the creature's soul will find peace and never return to this plane.
6	The music touches on long-forgotten religious rites; all who sing or tap along are blessed with a +1 bonus on all checks for the next 24 hours.	By playing a work of anti-music, something that violates musical convention, those within hearing range are disoriented and sickened by the aesthetic shock.	The song is loud and bombastic, intimidating those who hear it and granting Sanctuary to the bard.	The music evokes a feeling of profound serenity.  Aggressive action cannot be taken while the music plays without a saving throw.
7	The tune is sufficiently catchy that the bones of the dead begin to tap along.  As long as the bard plays, bones in the area will do nothing but rattle along.	The piece is tightly rhythmic, helping coordinate movement.  Creatures fighting in formation without training take no penalty as long as the music plays.	The song is so depressing that those who listen must save or commit suicide.	The ceaseless repetition of the cantus firmus is inspiring; when performing the same action twice in a row, receive a +2 bonus to the roll.
8	The melody captivates those who listen, and they will follow the bard until they cease playing.	By employing harmonic frequencies, glass and similarly-breakable things shatter within 60'.	By employing harmonic frequencies, glass and similarly-breakable things shatter within 60'.	The abundant use of perfect consonances are repellent to unholy creatures, forcing them to save or flee.
9	The music is silly, full of whimsy and musical tomfoolery.  While the music plays, morale is improved by 2 and things that might cause offense are taken as jokes instead.	The music is silly, full of whimsy and musical tomfoolery.  While the music plays, morale is improved by 2 and things that might cause offense are taken as jokes instead.	The melody can lull those listening to deep sleep.	The work uses an older liturgical melody, reminding those who recognize it of their faith. If acting within their faith's guidelines, morale is improved by 2.  Else, morale decreased by 2.
10	The tune is sweet and gentle, attracting and enthralling animals.	The order and clarity of the piece are supernally soothing, aiding recovery.  Decrease the time required to heal severe injuries by 20%.	The tune is sweet and gentle, attracting and enthralling animals.	The music is great and terrible.  All who hear it stop.  Those who have dismissed faith must save or repent.

The Bardic Wordsmith

There are two general types of literature at this point in history: poetry and novels.  Cervantes' Don Quixote, published in 1605 and 1615, mark the beginning of the modern idea of a novel - a long form narrative with central themes and characters.  There were several different genres of novel - pastoral, romance, history, and the picaresque, but at this point in history, the genres begin to blend together.  Epic poetry, evinced by Milton's Paradise Lost, was published a little later in the century, and of course we have Shakespeare's sonnets from the end of the 16th century as well.

Unlike the other forms of art discussed in this series, prose works and poetry can only really affect folks who can read - while some of the effects mentioned in the list come from reading texts aloud, their true power is reserved for those who have studied the written word.  As such, their sphere of influence is limited and it takes a great deal more time for the magic to take effect; even if a poem is only 14 lines long, its meaning has to be teased out in a process that might take hours of thought and discussion.  Consequently, the duration of much of these magical effects is longer than the other art forms.

Roll	Poetry or Prose
1	The text inspires the reader to question a specific local institution (the Catholic church, the local lord) and forments dissatisfaction.  The ideas spread like wildfire through the literate population.
2	The text glorifies a specific local institution, improving public confidence among the literate population.
3	The text enflames the passions, making those who read it more susceptible to persuasion/seduction by someone who presents themselves as a cunning rogue or rake.
4	The story is inspirational, motivating the literate population to greater efforts and improving workmanship by 25%.
5	The text presents an appealing distortion of historical events.  Those who read it, and did not directly experience them, will remember the text's version rather than the actual one.
6	Embedded within the text are the basics of magical study.  For the next 20 years, there will be 10% more arcane spellcasters produced in the region.
7	The work whispers of the mysteries hidden away within the local religious order.  For the next 20 years, there will be 10% more priests/clerics produced in the region.
8	The text is a pastoral, extolling the virtues of the simple life.  For the next 20 years, there will be 10% more literate rangers/druids, and crop yield will increase by 20% due to the nobility spending more coin upon their farms.
9	The text depicts criminals sympathetically. While the populace at large will revile the author, underworld types will respond positively to them.  Small chance that a criminally-minded noble will seek the bard as well.
10	The text is filled with whimsy - fabricated words, wilfull ignorance of grammatical conventions, etc. - to the point where the reader's mind is destabilized.  Unless they succeed a saving throw, their mind becomes trapped in the work's fantasy world.
11	The text appears to contain a spell within it.  However, the 'spell' is one that eats other prepared spells.  If written in a spellbook, other spells in it will gradually be replaced by copies of this 'spell', and if prepared, casting a different spell has a 50% chance of casting a cantrip instead and losing the prepared spell.
12	The text discusses infinite labyrinths and grapples with inestimable constructs.  Spellcasters who have read it can prepare 1 additional spell per day, of any level they can cast.
13	When read aloud, the word sounds are innately charming, calming the emotions and soothing the soul of those who listen.  Herbivores are attracted to the sound as well.
14	Can be read aloud to counterspell a spell with an incantation.
15	Reading the work makes one contemplation.  By taking 10 to 20 minutes after earning experience to reflect, experience earns are increased by 15%.
16	The exploits of the work's heroes are too numerous to fully recall.  However, one or two might come to mind when one is in a similarly perilous situation, granting a +2 bonus to escape it.
17	The text is salacious and does not scrimp on the details.  Those who read it (or hear it read) must save or be driven to quickly find satisfaction.
18	The work draws upon local culture and folklore, evoking a keenly nostalgic feeling when read.  Local patriotism flourishes, and morale, when acting in the interests of the area, is increased.
19	The text's emphasis on things close-to-home and parochial close the minds of those who read it, improving their resistance to magic and persuasion.
20	Portions of the text act as a low-level cantrip: when read aloud, nearby magic glows an ethereal blue.