GFA18 - MCC Bard

Although I'm not trying to break my writing into its smallest publishable units, I thought the next article from the 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac would blog better in three parts. My alternate character creation rules for Mutant Crawl Classics result in more pure-strain humans than the MCC rules. Because of this, I recommend adding more human classes. 
   
The original DCC Bard was written by Jose Lira and published in CRAWL! no 6: Classic Class Collection. Rather than presenting the complete class, I offer suggested modifications needed to make the Bard work in the Terra AD setting. My vision of bards in Terra AD is that they're lore-collectors who inadvertently become hackers, because the old stories they learn let them reprogram the machines that run the world. Bards get access to the non security-focused patrons, and leave GAEA as someone who only Shamans can invoke. Keith Garrett edited this and the other pieces in this series, and Karim provided the art for the series.
 
 
MCC Bard
Bards in the world of Terra A.D. travel and perform, giving hope and comfort, recording events and tragedies, remembering the fallen and lost, inspiring others to greatness.
 
Magic: Unlike shamans, bards are dabblers who do not serve the AI patrons; they hack them. Their inquisitive nature and tendency to collect odd bits of lore and old tales exposes them to the ability to access, download, and run wetware programs by spoofing logins, falsifying credentials, and phishing older passwords that still check out.
 
Because of the way that bards access wetware programs, they cannot use glowburn as shamans do. Bards access wetware without the patron AI's knowledge, utilizing a series of callbacks, backdoors, scheduled tasks, scripted replies, and automated responses to run their programs in the background of an AI's consciousness. These procedures are memorized by rote and not fully understood by the bards who use them. As a result, bards learn wetware programs completely randomly. When a bard reaches a level to acquire a new program, the player rolls to determine which program the bard has learned to access (see below). Re-roll if the bard already knows the program.
 
Table: Bard Wetware Program Selection

• Level 1-3: Roll 1d8: (1) Biological ark; (2) Invoke HALE-E; (3) Invoke ME10; (4) Invoke TETRAPLEX; (5) Invoke UKUR; (6) Nanogram; (7) Query; (8) Sightblinder.

• Level 4-6: Roll 1d6: (1) EM spike; (2) Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation; (3) Memory worm; (4) Polygons; (5) Scripted illusion (from CRAWL! 6, by Yves Larochelle); (6) Ventriloquism

• Level 7-10: Roll 1d4: (1) Attune with artifact; (2) Restore backup; (3) Trans-replication; (4) Virtual reality

 
Lore: The lore roll can be used to remember the purpose or function of an artifact, but not to remember its operation or improve the artifact check.
 
Darwinian luck: Pure strain humans are very lucky as a species. Bards regenerate spent Luck at a rate of 1 point for each 24 hour period. Unlike DCC bards, MCC bards do not apply their Luck modifier to talent checks or lore rolls.
 
AI recognition: Because of their close resemblance to the Ancient Ones, all pure strain humans (including bards) gain a natural +2 to AI recognition rolls.
 
Archaic alignment: Bards may begin as members of either The Clan of Cog or The Curators archaic alignments.
 
Artifact check bonus: Bards have a natural affinity for understanding the artifacts of the ancients, resulting in an added bonus to artifact checks. Bards use the artifact check bonus recommended for DCC wizards and elves. Lvl 1-2 ACB +6, Lvl 3-4 ACB +8, Lvl 5-7 ACB +10, Lvl 8-9 ACB + 12, Lvl 10 ACB +14.