Art within D&D

After another wonderful DM master-class with Alexis Smolensk, we started talking about the bard again, and that provided the seed for this post.

What are the effects of artistic works upon the people who view them?

Bards produce art, whether they are musicians, painters, sculptors, or dramatists.  Furthermore, because of their supernal skill, their art induces magical effects in those who witness them.  This begs the question, what kinds of effects could an artist character have on their game world?

In a sense, each thusly-created art object is a magical item.

This execution for this comes from the Korean light novel series, Legendary MoonlightSculptor.  The series' protagonist, Weed, has a 'useless' class within a fictional MMORPG - that of the sculptor.  However, he discovers that his sculptures, because of his class and skill, can provide transformational effects upon the world.  In one instance he has just vanquished a nest of vampires from their frozen castle and carves a massive statue out of ice.  The beauty and grace of the statue fill the valley with warmth, allowing human beings to resettle into the town and keep.  Furthermore, crops grow more bountifully there, and heroes who stop and gaze at the statue find their outlook improved, health fortified, and speed increased for a time.  The existence of this statue brings trade and prosperity to the town, eventually bringing it enough status and power to rival the capitals of the other kingdoms (leading to other conflicts later).

In this vein, we need a way to provide in-game benefits for great works of art.  This can add a whole new dimension to the game, and also provide bards a completely different role to play within the game world.

There has to be a caveat, however.  The second time you see a work of art is often less impactful than the first.  The third even more so.  Even for those works of art we adore and return to over and over again (favorite symphonies, The David, etc.), we don't try to engage them in the same way each time - the way we seek to understand and appreciate them evolves over time.  Novelty is a crucial factor determining an artwork's impact (cue the desire of many dramatists and dramaturges to have been in the first audience of Waiting for Godot!).  For this reason, the effects of any static work of art must change over time, declining in intensity for most.  The rate of decline will depend upon the quality of the work of art - transformative, transcendental works will retain their impact for years and years, while more amateurish pieces will quickly lose their appeal.

In Prodigy, disciplines (skills) have tiers that describe how proficient the character is at them: Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Specialist, Master, and Grandmaster.  Novice corresponds to almost no training or experience in the skill, while Grandmaster represents the level of skill just beyond the limits of human achievement in the real world (Hildegard von Bingen, Archimedes, Hawking, Shakespeare, etc. are all Master-level).

Artwork Level	Effect Length	Novice	Apprentice	Journeyman	Specialist	Master	Grandmaster
Novice	Momentary	1 hour	5d4 hours	--	--	--	--
Apprentice	1 day	45 minutes	4d4 hours	2d8 days	--	--	--
Journeyman	1 week	30 minutes	2d6 hours	2d6 days	3d10 months	--	--
Specialist	1 month	20 minutes	2d4 hours	1d8 days	2d12 months	2d4 years	--
Master	1 years	15 minutes	1d6 hours	1d6 days	2d10 months	1d6 years	2d8 years
Grandmaster	10 years	10 minutes	1d4 hours	1d4 days	1d12 months	1d4 years	2d6 years

The table above shows not only how long the artwork will still induce effects in those who see it but also how long it takes an artist of the indicated skill to produce an artwork of each level.  Also, as works become more artful, they require more resources and also take up more space (physical or temporal) - this is due to the fact that the subjects addressed/represented by these more artistic works simply require more space to be fully realized.

Now, I'd probably allow a bard's player to attempt to make a work of art of a given quality in less time - letting it be crafted as though it were one tier less artistic but increasing the difficulty one step.  Furthermore, I'd wait until the end of the time spent making the work of art for the player to make the roll.  So if a Journeyman artisan wanted to make a Journeyman-level painting quickly, they could spend 2d6 hours painting and then roll a Specialist-difficulty check to see if the piece of art was successfully created or an artistic failure.

The next bit, the actual effects of a work of art, will take up more time, so I'll address that next post.