Amateur Bard

The Campaign

This blog is dedicated to my journey to relearn violin after a seventeen year break, with a strong dose of role-playing game flavor to amuse myself and because, of all things, Baldur’s Gate 3 reignited my love of music. It is also a place to document my build of a BG3-style bard costume and accessories, because I miss dress diaries being a thing.

The Characters

The Person: I’m Essie, a perpetually tired freelancer. I fell in love with the violin at a young age, but I didn’t have the opportunity to start playing until I was ten, when my school system allowed students to take ‘Strings’ class. I started private lessons at eleven and continued through the end of high school. I was in no danger of becoming a virtuoso, which suited me fine since I much preferred playing in ensembles, especially chamber music. Unfortunately, there was a strong conflict of personality between my teacher and I, so by the time I entered college, I was completely burnt out by not just violin, but music in general. In the years since, the most I’ve done is learn a song by ear and lead a couple of tutoring sessions. Then the strangest thing (well, several strange things!) happened while I was playing BG3: I loved the music in it so much that I wanted to learn to play it–and play it well.

The Persona: Rabbit is a retired bard who lives in Baldur’s Gate and does his best not to get dragged into Adventures.