Bard Guild Specialties¶

Blitz Eternal: Adventures Beyond the Mists — v0.4 Draft¶

The Bard Guild's mechanical layer: the Opening Ability granted on joining, and the Specialties a Bard Guild Character can buy afterward. The Guild's vocation and its Echelons of Recognition rank lore live in setting/guilds. How joining a Guild and buying its Specialties works is in character-creation, Advancement.

Opening Ability¶

Reputation precedes you. NPCs who would otherwise default to hostile default to wary instead.

Guild Retainer¶

Joining the Guild grants the right to recruit a Bard Retainer into your Company (companies-and-command, Part Five). It uses the Archer base stat line and advances as an Archer (companies-and-command, Part Three); the Guild adds one perk. Between fights, it may attempt a Check to secure a favor, rumor, or minor boon for the Company. Provisional and untested.

Specialties¶

Performer¶

3 Advancement Points. An instrument played outside of battle to hold a formation together, not inspire it to violence. While the Character plays, Communication Range doubles to 20 squares for their own Company (see companies-and-command, Part Four), letting a spread-out march or approach stay one coordinated Pool instead of splintering into Detachments. Stops the moment the Character stops playing.

Idol¶

3 Advancement Points. A song loud and known enough that a formation holds around it even when its own officer falls. While the Character plays through a fight, any allied Company whose Character Falls does not disengage or scatter; it keeps fighting under GM control until the Combat ends, the same as if its Character had simply stepped back (core-rules, Part Twelve, When a Character Falls). Answers what was previously an open question for exactly this case; the general case, no Idol-rank Bard present, is still a GM judgment call.

The Long Watch¶

3 Advancement Points. Played during a march, a vigil, or any extended stretch of travel: a Presence Check, and on success the Company does not accrue Fatigue for that stretch. Smaller and personal where the Root Ritual's Blessing of the Long Watch is communal and ceremonial; no circle, no other casters, just the one instrument.

Before the Horns Sound¶

3 Advancement Points. Played in the stretch before a fight begins, never during: the whole Company gains one extra die (+1d6) on the first roll of the Combat. Nothing further once the fighting starts; the smallest and safest of the four, since it never touches the bank-and-push loop itself.

Information Broker¶

3 Advancement Points. Migrated from the Legends Diplomat and placed here rather than left open, because gathering and steering what a place believes is the Bard's own remit. During downtime in a settled area, a Presence Check (GM sets the Difficulty by how buried or how sensitive the matter is) to either learn something of real local weight or to plant a rumor that takes hold. Larger or more outlandish efforts are Extended Checks (core-rules, Part Seventeen), resolved across several downtime attempts. The Bard understands the shape of rumors well enough to trace one to its root and to seed a message that reaches only the ears intended. See diplomat-migration.md for the full migration record.

Changelog

2026-08-06: Added the Guild Retainer section (base stat line, advancement, and the Guild perk), moved here from companies-and-command, Part Five.
2026-08-05: Created. Bard Guild mechanics moved here from setting/guilds as part of the per-Guild Specialties split.