I. THE CHARACTER MANAGER

The chances of you reading this before you've played are slim, but it's not too late for a fresh start. Some have rerolled *Lord*-level characters after finding themselves in a box because of bad early decisions, and it's better to shrug off the dozen hours you've played a bard up to now than to realize two hundred hours down the road you've made mistakes that seriously impair your future advancement.

One theory is that your stats should total 620-650. My benchmark is three stats above 80, five above 60, and none below 40. Rules are made to be broken, though, and if you're holding three 95s, you're nuts to ditch them because of a 35.

Your best score goes in Strength. Bards are fighters, and without a very high STR, your hitting, damage and carrying capacity will be subpar. Second comes Aura, which not only affects your spell casting, but is one of the "double-dip" stats most influencing your training capabilities (but don't use a score over 90, because you get a +10 class bonus in Aura). Discipline is the second "double-dip" stat, and should also receive a high score.Charisma affects certain bardic powers, and comes in fourth.

Of the remaining stats, if your priority is on combat skill, favor Dexterity and Reflexes; if on absorbtion of experience, Intelligence and Logic; if on hardiness and hit points, Constitution. Never mind Wisdom.

Dissenting opinion: how much does being grotesquely powerful matter to you, enough to spend several hours of your life in the Manager punching stats?If roleplay is why you are here, and you don't honestly care about becoming a superhuman hunter, consider Quick-Gen.You'll have some beginning trainings in odd places, and your stats won't be optimized, but if it doesn't bother you, go for it.The benchmark for stats was once 600 points, then became 620, and now there are crazies who claim you can't compete without 650.If you truly wish to spend ten hours repetetively banging keys trying for those elusive numbers, be my guest.

Once you're done, pick a name. Please make me happy and go with something original? I swear, 80% of Elanthia have names out of either Jordan or Tolkien, and at times it gets old. People *will* react to names: I favor nice-sounding ones, and react as expected to people called "Devilspawn Bardkiller" or suchlike. In addition, Simu will compel you to reroll characters with blatantly non-genre names, so forget "Richard Nixon" or "TidyBowl Helper". Be aware that others played this game before you did.Yes, I know every character you've ever had in a game has beenGaladriel," but there are about twenty variations on that name active in Gemstone, unfortunately, and you are NOT going to be distinctive by naming yourself "Galladrielle."

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II.TRAINING

Training in skills is the basic core of your play.General note: Bards are hand-to-hand fighters. I won't tell you not to play a bard if you want to combine loresinging with wand waving, but you're putting yourself in a terrible box, so be forewarned. Here are my recommendations:

WEAPON:Pick Edged Weapons - it's the best combo of striking power and defense cost-effective to bards. Missile weapons aren't implemented, and anything heavier isn't worth your while. If you want to be a stick jock, roll a Warrior instead.ALWAYS train twice at each level in your weapon skill (called "double-training")! Some bards swear by polearms, but damned few of the top bardic fighters are among them.

ARMOR/SHIELD/COMBAT MANUEVERS/PERCEPTION/FIRST AID: Single train in all of these. If you plan to wear heavy armor, double train in armor, butmetallic armor impedes spell use. You need four trainings for light leather, more for heavier stuff.

MULTI-OPPONENT: If the long-promised Engagement System ever comes in, this will be of use. The ES has been in the works for years; don't bother with the skill now.

TWO WEAPONS: Avoid it; you can't afford the loss of defense.

PHYSICAL TRAINING: Hit points top out at a fixed number. The more efficient long-term use of your training points is single training in it. Some feel that since double training gets you HPs faster, you'd be more survivable in the early going.It's a judgment call.

AMBUSH/STALK: There are combat advantages to attacking from concealment, but it takes a long while to get good in it. Your choice.

SPELLS: Get a spell every level, no matter what! This is an area where bards can shine. Take the Bardic spells through to 1007 (Kai's Triumphant Song) and move on from there to the Minor Elemental List, as the Bardic spells beyond 1009 are unimplemented, and 1008 and 1009 are pointless. By contrast, the Minor Elemental spells are powerful and useful.

** NB: (November 1996) Rumor has it that more bardics are to be implemented.As they've been years in the making - and such rumors kick around every so often - I'd wait myself until they definitely were before making plans to select those spells.

** (It's now April 1997.Only one of the long-unfinished spells, Sonic Blade (1012) has just been implemented, but is useless if you're much below 40th level. And so it goes.)

There's considerable support for learning a few Minor Elemental spells first, so you can get some defensive spells.I stand by my advice -- it's easy to find someone to cast defensive spells on you, but a LOT harder finding someone who can boost your offense.

CLIMBING/SWIMMING: Plan to pick up about a half-dozen trainings in Climbing, all told, and a couple in Swimming, over your first dozen levels.This depends on your favored hunting areas, of course. If you hunt Gremlins, you need at least ten levels in Climbing.

MANA SHARE: This is a "social utility" spell, in that you can help others (and they can help you back) by giving them spare mana to cast spells. It's good to have; don't worry if you don't.

SCROLL/ITEM USE: If you're wedded to using wands and scrolls, go for it, but there are lots of useful skills and never enough points. Leave the lightning bolts to the wizards.

LOCKPICK/DISARM: Some bards swear by these.You do eventually get spells that do just this (the 7th and 8th Minor Elemental spells), and there are professional lockpickers you can patronize. If you DO elect to go this route, your Wisdom needs to be decent.

PICKPOCKET: Whether or not you intend to rob your fellows (do me a favor - don't), a couple ranks in this skill greatly decreases your chance of being successfully picked ... or at least it did before the Steal command was ruined. This may change, but it's starting to look unlikely.

TRADING: Don't bother. I once was DOUBLE trained in this, and I can spot no difference between twenty-five ranks in it and zero.

Higher level training: There's considerable debate among Legend-level bards what you need in order to survive at the upper reaches. Some say you ought to double-train Combat Manuevers, others that you have to double-train Shield. Some say single training in Ambush is required, others that you ought to plan on twenty trainings in Swimming. A lot will have to do with future system changes and implementations, which is something you ought to keep in mind.

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III. ETIQUETTE

Every society has its code of conduct. Elanthia is no different. Newcomers are expected to conform to that code, unless they enjoy being untrustable outcasts.

A good plan is to behave as you would in real life.Would you punch an innocent stranger in the head? Cut in front of others in a bank's line? Steal someone's dropped purse when she was injured and out cold? Walk up to someone you'd never met before and ask for sexual favors? Of course you wouldn't, and you shouldn't in Gemstone either. Hunting etiquette is rigorous. If a creature enters your location limping, don't attack it! Someone was beating on it in an adjacent location, and will be "chasing."If you enter a location where someone is already in combat with a creature, move on.*Never* search someone else's kill or make off with goods piled at a player's feet.Be careful when swinging - while you can abbreviate the name of the creature you're attacking (ATT KOB rather than ATT KOBOLD), the more you abbreviate, the more likely it is you'll zap a bystander ... a hunting partner named Koshaya will NOT appreciate "ATT KO".

No one "owns" a hunting area. It can get frustrating when an area is too crowded, but if it's too much, don't start blowing fuses - simply try another area, or hunt at a different time. Furthermore, if you just camp in a single spot, sooner or later the gear of the defeated pile up, which slows down system response time and increases the chance of the game crashing outright.Don't do it. Other general tips:

- Failure to pay attention to you is not a crime. People may be busy with their own business or not have answers to your questions. People are likewise not required to cast beneficial spells on you, give you info on secret societies, take you hunting, escort you to Icemule, or anything of the sort.

- People aren't necessarily touchy-feely.Don't go hugging, kissing or tickling strangers ... and don't get huffy if they're offended when you do.

- Remember that everyone has friends. You might feel safe picking on that 5th level rogue, except that she's my in-character granddaughter, and you have bought yourself a world of hurt ... or you feel safe in abusing that 4th level wizzie, except that he's MY alternate character, and I take notes.

- There is a mindset of self-reliance. Clues about advancement in secret societies or solution to puzzles are to work out for yourselves, not about which to pester dozens of people for answers.

- Avoid speaking all in caps.It's presumed to be yelling and obnoxious.

- Making enemies of Lords is dumb. Making enemies of Lords carrying pre-Ice Age gear (such as shaalk) is *very* dumb. My observation is that the vast majority of whining about how Lords are arrogant bullies stem from the whiners having committed offenses, ignored requests to cease the behavior, and eventually being given a lesson by exasperated nobility.

The systems that run Gemstone (GEnie, America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy) as well as Simutronics have rigorous guidelines for behavior. Violations of these guidelines, including the use of obscenities and sexual harassment, can and will result in your ejection from Gemstone, as well as such further penalties as your host system may impose. If someone does anything of the sort to you, type REPORT , where is the line you want sent.REPORT alerts all online GMs. Don't use this unless you have to, and especially don't use it for situations in which you use ASSIST instead.If you *do* complain about someone's conduct, be SURE you tell the truth; you would be surprised at how comprehensive are the logs GMs can reference.

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IV.ROLEPLAYING

Roleplaying is what sets a game like GSIII apart from all others. My prejudice is for roleplaying over all other considerations, such as amassing huge personal power. Why bother? None of you reading this will ever be the most powerful bard in the world - there are people with five years lead on you - and if your only goal is to kill monsters and rack up huge scores, you can do that more cheaply by playing Nintendo, and besides you get nifty graphics you won't in Gemstone.

In roleplaying, you choose and develop a persona. Many people play self-portraits of one sort or another, and that's fine ... others play characters that they aren't. The non-violent store clerk may delight in running Blooddrinker the mercenary; the elementary school teacher in playing a philanderer over whom his lovers pine away. That's fine too.

There never is any "right" or "wrong" in roleplaying. Your character choices are your own. Be aware that just as you have the right to play an obnoxious persona, others have the right to react to you accordingly, and give you as little help and support as they might to a similar persona in real life.

Along those lines, as mentioned above, certain "types" of roleplaying are not permitted by SIMU management, nor by the host system which you are on. Powerful characters preying on weaker ones is not allowed, and the GMs won't listen to explanations of how your character's religion requires you to murder a newbie an hour. Likewise, the family nature of the host systems means you can't perform sex acts in Town Square or use profanity anywhere. Use some common sense.

There are numerous "fun" commands having nothing to do with combat mechanics or spellcasting that are in place to further RP. Among the most useful ones are SMILE and SIGH, since you can trail a sentence behind them. For instance:

> SMILE at his beloved daughter, leaning over to kiss her forehead softly, and takes her hands in his

will result in this:

>> Bevan smiles at his beloved daughter, leaning over to kiss her forehead softly, taking her hands in his

The preceding works even better with other system commands.I could follow that up with:

> KISS TANRI FOREHEAD
> CUDDLE TANRI

>> Bevan kisses Tanri on the forehead.
>> Bevan slides over and cuddles Tanri in his arms.

The ACT command is also useful.As with SMILE, you can put a line of text after ACT, which will show up in parenthesis to onlookers.This would turn from the former to the latter:

> act rests his head in Dremerie's lap, snuggling happily

>> Bevan rests his head in Dremerie's lap, snuggling happily

More than with most character classes, bards are there to roleplay. You're minstrels, one and all... be flamboyant!

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V. LORESINGING

Loresinging is a unique bardic ability granting the power to gain information about items.The format is simple - hold the item in your right hand, with nothing in your other hand, and use the SING command to sing out a question to the item:

> SING Forged from elf-silver, broadsword, I'd know; What is your worth when I fight with my foe?

will result in:

>> You sing:

"Forged from elf-silver, broadsword, I'd know What is your worth when I fight with my foe?"

In this instance, the result I would get would be the weight of the broadsword and its rough value in silvers. I'd also learn whether there was metal in the weapon.If I wanted to learn more - whether the weapon was enchanted and if so, how powerfully, for instance - I would sing more verses.

There is a strong tradition that bards learn loresinging from other bards, by observation, not by one telling another what to do. I honor that tradition by giving only a bare handful of pointers - for teaching, seek out an experienced bard!

- Bards have had success with two line, three line, four line, and six line verses.In the case of a two line verse, the name of the item should be in the first line, and your "loreword" (the key word which asks the information you're looking to receive) should be in the second. Verses are separated in the SING syntax by semi-colons. There are many lorewords.

- Loresinging uses mana.Watch out for it.You'll also be put in round time, so for pity's sake do NOT do this in a hunting area!

- Depending on how comprehensive is the information you seek, you may have to sing several verses and go back over information.

- There are a surprising number of weird rumors. For the record, loresinging does not get you experience (I wish), does not clear your mind faster when you're at the "must rest" experience stage, or rattles off detailed histories of the items.It is also a common fallacy that loresinging must rhyme, which given some thought as to how the Gemstone computers must handle the skill is obviously impossible.

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VI.PERFORMANCE

Ah, this is what people have been waiting to see from me - I have this strange reputation as a skilled performer, goddess help me, so naturally I must be chock full of pearls of ancient wisdom.

Surprise. I don't have all THAT much to say.

First off, skill in composing poetry and setting up an esthetically pleasing performance has nothing to do with what character class you play or what level you've reached.For instance, my vote for the finest current performer in Elanthia goes to an empath who at this writing is 11th level.

Secondly, I can't teach you how to be a poet.What I CAN do is give a few hints:

- Practice, practice, practice.You get better by doing.
- NEVER settle for anything less than the best you can do. If you strive for excellence, you won't perform sloppy pieces because you can't be bothered to do the extra work to get it right.
- Learn about poets.Get books of poetry, read them, and see how well you can develop your own poetic style.You can't learn to write without reading great writers, you can't learn to sing without hearing great singers, and you can't compose poetry without some familiarity with what you're doing.
- Write about what you know, from your heart... My observation is that some of the best poetry speaks from the writer's own pain and experience.
Anything less may be nice enough, but not Art.
- LEARN TECHNIQUE! Scansion - the use of lines with like numbers of syllables and emphasis, and ensuring the lines flow in a consistent and artistic fashion - is to my mind the single most important poetic skill. There have been times I've reluctantly thrown out some nifty phrasings just because I couldn't make them scan or rhyme properly.
-It is painfully jarring to me (and to others) to see poems performed without proper spelling and grammar. If you want others to pay attention to your art, you must write in an artistic, pleasing style. If you don't care whether you do, why should others care about your writing?

For performances in Gemstone, you can use either the SING or RECITE commands to speak out verses. The syntax is the same as given in the Loresinging section, for both commands - the only difference is that with the former you get "Bevan sings" and with the latter, "Bevan recites."

A critical element to any performance is showmanship.Be honest, folks - which of the following excerpts excites you more?

You sing:

"In the shadowed silence before the dawn
Soft sang the sea, in midnight tones that bless,
In the dark world of Dream - its holiness
Enchanted the winds, soft across the lawn,
Caressing with phantom touch in the night -
My slumbered form, closed to waking sight
In the shadowed silence before the dawn..."


"Was it a dream, or did you really come
Past the faerie gates of the Dreaming, with
The night winds in your wake?Did you not give
Me the magic passion sound of your tongue
Singing in the tender gloom, near, more near
Your sweet lips drew to mine and rested there -
Was it a waking dream, or did you come?"

*****
Alright, pleasant enough, and I rather like it. But:

(Bevan takes his lute into his hands, touching his slender fingers to the silvery strings, testing the tuning ... and, finding the sound, raises a quicksilver gaze to you, a light older than Time's in his vivid dark eyes. Slowly, he picks out a soft melody as he begins to speak - )

"There are hours of the night when the spirit world is very close to us, my friends... and, in those blessed hours of repose and silence, sometimes ... sometimes the seeking thoughts of passion break free through the twilight world of Dream to seek out the ones we love best."

Bevan smiles quietly, momentarily lost in thought - though the music falling from his fingers like hushed snow from the sky never ceases - and the elf's eyes sparkle... perhaps knowing very well of what he speaks. Bevan turns back to gaze at you all once more -- again he speaks, his words flowing music in prose, low and vibrant -

"What would the feathertouch of thought feel like?What would we sense, standing by the merestone bordering the Dreaming and the waking world...?"

Bevan smiles sweetly, the melody awakening from the lute in good earnest, as his voice rings out: "Perhaps we all know, deep within ourselves.Perhaps it is like this ..."

You sing:

"In the shadowed silence before the dawn Soft sang the sea, in midnight tones that bless, In the dark world of Dream - its holiness Enchanted the winds, soft across the lawn, Caressing with phantom touch in the night - "

Bevan smiles softly, his voice a mere whisper in the night air ...

You sing:

"My slumbered form, closed to waking sight In the shadowed silence before the dawn ..."

Bevan smiles serenely, walking amongst you as he plays, circling couples and lovers almost as if in a dance ... a faint afterimage of light and mist travelling in his steps, enfolding you in an argent glow, magic born on the wings of pure song ... touching you, seeking your memories ... waking the dim remembrance of when - perhaps, on a long-ago moonlit eve - *you* were that form on the coverlet, listening for the dreamvoice of your love ...

You sing:

"Was it a dream, or did you really come Past the faerie gates of the Dreaming, with The night winds in your wake?Did you not give Me the magic passion sound of your tongue Singing in the tender gloom, near, more near Your sweet lips drew to mine and rested there -"

Bevan smiles poignantly, a fleeting brush of pain on his features ...

You sing:

"Was it a waking dream, or did you come?"

Bevan smiles gently, tracing a radiant circle in the air with his lute, rippling ribbons of light flowing forth at the touch of each chord... then falling silent... still... quiet as a dream.

*****

Sorry for inflicting that on you -- aw, what the hell, this is MY Guide, and I can be wordy if I want to be!In any event, the second version is a lot more interesting, and draws out a piece that is rather short for an actual performance.

How did I do it? The ACT and SMILE commands. You *were* paying attention upwards, right?

If you have macro or script capability, use it! There's nothing more frustrating than to have numerous typos because your fingers are freezing up trying to type faster than you can manage. With scripts, you can also time your verses to match with system speed and your audience's preference. Most of you will be playing Gemstone with Wizard, which has script capacity; most other commercial telecom packages also possess it.If you have the time and patience to compose poetry, you have the time and patience to read your program's documentation about scripts.

Hm. Maybe I had a few things to say after all.

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