Suilad Mellon !

First post from a French loremaster, I first want to say thank you very much to Cubicle 7 for The One Ring, I've been waiting for a very long time for such a game ! The spirit behind the rules is great.

Now to the point of my post :

One of my players chose to play a Barding Lady starting with a Reward. He decided for his character Lif to be a music player and asked me for a "special" Harp as his reward.
I really want to allow him this as he created a character with a good background... but, there is no such reward described in the rulebook so I have to think about it and I couldn't find a good idea yet.
I'm open to suggestions as long as the result stays in line with the other possible rewards, not a better item, not a worse either.

Thank you everyone.

Welcome to the forum!

Mechanically, I'd go with the Harp allowing the player to roll the Feat dice twice (and keep the better result) and having it apply to actions using the Song skill.

I think Rich H nailed it.

I can't think of anything better.

I have done the same thing with a Harp in my campaign, only difference is, I did not make it a reward, it's just a magical item they found in a treasure horde.

It's elven and my PC's have trust issues with elves (bad first social encounter), so they haven't used it yet.

As a side note, the Laketown sourcebook has rules for special items you can buy at the market with Treasure (instruments are one of them). They give you one or two extra skill dice – though when you raise your skill, you lose the bonus (since you now have outgrown the benefit). That is one way to handle it.

I agree with Rich, though, for a Reward. Roll twice and keep the best falls in line with the rest of the Rewards.

I agree with the rest of the folks... except I would ask the player in what manner they wanted to use the harp.

Because the player might be expecting something that works only in combat, or social encounters only, or capable of being used in both, or some other aspect of play. Taylor the harp to the player's area of interest in the matter.

Alternately it could provide an extra half die (+1d3) to their skill. So instead of being Song 2 they're effectively at Song 2.5 in skill rank. If that seems too much go for a third (+1d2). Not sure how this would affect over-all game mechanics though.

Maybe I read it differently, but I thought it was a flat +1 or +2 to the total roll...not an entire die added on.

Oh, quite right. Don't know why I read that as +1/2 dice.

*cough, cough* Wishful thinking *cough*

I'm the LM in my group, so maybe rather, I dunno, unconscious masochism.

Touche! You would indeed be creating more work for yourself by handing things in that manner. Heck, if I was a player in your campaign I would probably want to stay in the Laketown vicinity just for replacement swords of that capability.

The idea seems excellent ! I'll go with it. I know my player, he doesn't care about combat situations so it will be perfect for him.

Thank you everyone !