Music & the bard

Music is the game’s first performance system (protocols v20–v22). Anyone with an instrument in their inventory can play; Bards start with one, and everyone else can try to earn the right to buy Signe’s spare in the town square.

Playing

Type in chat:

/play_music [title]

Everything is resolved server-side:

• You need an instrument — anywhere in the inventory, bag or hands (currently the two mandolins). Without one you get “You need an instrument to play music.”
• Titles match loosely — whole or as a fragment, ignoring case. Leave it blank and the server picks a tune at random. The songbook is the game’s BGM track list, so anything you have heard out in the world can be requested.
• A query that matches nothing answers “No such song.” — no performance wasted.

While you play:

• Your character strikes a performing pose and everyone nearby hears the track; chat announces the title the way it announces a chest being opened — you never have to say a word.
• Background music makes way for the performance, and listeners who walk up mid-song join at the current position, not from the start.
• Several players can perform at once, and the performance ends with the track.

The Bard class

Selectable at character creation. A d6 hit die with DEX +2, CHA +2, STR −2, CON −1, WIS −1 — full numbers on Character & attributes.

Bards start with a Worn Mandolin on top of the common kit, so they can perform from minute one. Like Signe’s own, merchants won’t buy it — it is a working tool, not loot.

Signe in the town square

Signe is the resident bard NPC, and her day runs on a schedule:

• She busks in the town square while anyone is around, one song after another, chatting and taking requests between songs.
• After dark she lights a campfire and plays by firelight; when it is time for bed the day’s music is over, and she is back on the square in the morning.
• Before the first song of the day she sells yesterday’s tip trinkets to Rica.

Tips and requests

To show appreciation — as of protocol v29, Signe sets down her own Busker's Hat before she opens a set. Coins dropped in it go straight to her wallet, with just a system line in chat; trinkets still land at her feet as before — items changing hands are visible to everyone (protocol v22), and she gathers those between songs and remembers who gave what. When her schedule moves her — heading home, changing pitches — she packs up the stall and the hat together automatically.

The gilded mandolin

Signe carries two instruments: the Worn Mandolin she plays every day, and a Mandolin (40s) tucked in her bag. That one is a keepsake — it never shows up when you browse her stock, and asking to buy it gets you turned down.

She only parts with it for regulars she has come to like. Tips, compliments, song requests, staying for whole sets — she remembers all of it. When she decides you have earned it, she will make you a personal offer: valid only for you, for a single mandolin, and it expires within minutes — take it or lose it. A sold keepsake is restocked after a while, but the next one goes to the next regular.

The trading rule behind “sold only to a chosen buyer” is covered in the economy database.

Tip hats (protocol v28)

Any player who wants tips uses the Busker's Hat item — any class can use it, and Rica sells one for 2s. Signe uses the same item herself (see above).

• Using the item sets a hat down two cells ahead; using it again picks it back up. The item itself is never consumed.
• The hat only exists while its owner stays close — straying past 5m, changing floor, or logging out packs it up automatically and returns it to its owner.
• Clicking someone else’s hat walks you into reach and opens a tip dialog. Type a mixed amount like 1g20s30c, or a bare number for copper. The server checks your wallet, that you are within 5m, and blocks tipping your own hat.

Playing live (protocol v52)

/play_music queues up a whole BGM track; live instrument mode lets you play it note by note yourself. Type /play_instrument or open the panel from Social → Play Instrument. The server only accepts it for a living, world-ready player carrying an item in the instrument category.

The keyboard has three registers:

Register	Keys	Notes
High	Q W E R T Y U I	C5 D5 E5 F5 G5 A5 B5 C6
Middle	A S D F G H J	C4 D4 E4 F4 G4 A4 B4
Low	Z X C V B N M	C3 D3 E3 F3 G3 A3 B3

Mouse and touch share the same latch — a key sounds once per press and rearms on release. Up to four voices sound at once; a fifth replaces the oldest, and retriggering your own note replaces its previous voice. Escape closes through the overlay stack one layer at a time, and Ctrl combos pass through while the panel is open.

Audio is synthesized locally with a damped plucked-string model and a procedural room impulse, so no extra sound assets were needed. Listeners on the same floor within 30m hear you, except anyone who has blocked you. The playlist BGM yields to a live performance the same way it yields to a bard NPC’s earshot; battle music and /play_music keep priority.

You can’t move or fight while playing: moving, attacking, landing a hit, dying, losing the instrument (dropped or sold), opening a trade, pressing Escape, or disconnecting all end the session. Changing gear doesn’t interrupt it — the instrument counts from the bag or the hands either way.

Heroic tales (protocol v50)

When Signe moves her set to the inn after dark, she sings about things that actually happened on the server — a boss kill, a rare enchant that landed or shattered, a legendary catch. Each night’s set picks three true deeds as that night’s topics, and the next topic isn’t sung until at least two ordinary songs have played since the last one, so the whole night isn’t stories and late arrivals still get a chance to hear one.

The first pass logs the verses to chat; repeats show only as a speech bubble, without filling the chat log again. The performance language follows the audience: all-Chinese stays Chinese, all-English stays English, and a mixed or silent room alternates languages by topic. The names in a tale are real — the story itself is Signe’s own embellished retelling.