Title: Adding a working Bard to Custom House Mods
Author: Aralore Vlex
Date: 6/3/2012

Adding a Bard to your house mod

I have looked and looked for days on Google and other site to figure out of to add my own working Bard to my castle mod. After tinkering with existing Bards and several failed attempts, I have figured it out. Now I pass it on to all.

Step1: Creating the NPC
First we need to make an NPC we want to be our Bard. Not hear that the voice you give the NPC is very important. There are three listed in the BardSongs Quest, MaleYoungEager, FemaleYoungEager, and MaleUniqueSongoftheDragonborn1. I have tested this with the first two (2), but not the last. Anyways, create a new NPC by going to Actor in the Object Window, in the right panel, Right Click and click New. Now give the NPC a unique ID, Name, check Essential and Unique, Race, now for a male Bard make the voice MaleYoungEager and for a Female make it FemaleYoungEager. See example below. After this you can go to the Inventory tab and dress the NPC as well as the Character Gem Parts and Morphs to customize the look of your NPC.


Step 2: Factions and AI Package
While still in the NPC window of your new Bard NPC, click the Factions tab. Right click in the empty window and add two (2) factions to your NPC, BardSingerFaction and JobBardFaction.


Now over to the AI Packages tab. In the window right click and click Add. Search for the default package DefaultSandboxCurrentLocation1024 and add it to your NPC. This is just so the NPC will move around and stuff. (We will place a marker somewhere later to tell the NPC where to stand when singing.)

Once this is done you can press OK and save you progress. I can’t stress SAVE OFTEN enough.

Step 2b (Optional): Grey Face bug Fix
Before we move on now if the best time to take about the Grey Face Bug, as I call it. Have you ever played a mod that added custom NPCs, or one of your own, and noticed the faces of the NPCs were Greyish? After clicking OK on your new NPC window, look in the objects window and in the filter bar type the ID name you named your NPC and click once on it to select it. Now hold the CTRL key and hit F4 once (CTRL+F4). Click Yes on the window that pops up then Done on the next. What this does is exports the file the make up this textures on the NPCs face so that is will show up the scars, war paint, etc. in-game. Be sure to include these in your package when uploading your mod.

Step 3: Location
Now in the Objects window find Location under World Data. Here right click and click New. Now give your new location an ID (Mine is cdvCastle) and Name. At the bottom you will see a box that says Keywords above it. In the box right click and click Add. Now search for and add LocTypeInn. Now click ok.

Now right click on your cell in the Cell View window and click Edit. In the Common Data tab you see the dropdown box under Location. Click the arrow and find your created location (Mine is cdvCastle). And hit OK. SAVE!!


Step 4: Placing NPC and XMakerHeadings
Now place your NPC where ever you want it to be in your mod and an XMakerHeading where you want your Bard to sing . Double Click on the XMarkerHeading and give it a REF in the top bar and Click OK

Double Click on the NPC and in the window that pops up first go to the Persist Location tab and in the dropdown menu find your Location you created earlier (Mine is cdvCastle).

Next go to the Linked Ref tab and Right Click in box and click New. Now in the next window click “Select Reference in Render Window” and Double click on the XMakerHeading you placed. Now in the dropdown box beside Keywords find BardPlaySpot and select it. Now click OK on that window.


Finally go to the Location Ref Type tab and in the dropdown menu find and select Boss. Click OK and Save work.


Step 5(optional): Audience XMakerHeadings
If you have other NPCs around and want to make it so that when the Bard is singing they will gather around and listen, dance and clap then add another XMarkerHeading where you want them to stand and double click on it. First give the XMarkerHeading a REF like “BardAudience1REF”. Go to the Location Ref Type tab and in the menu find and select BardAudienceLocation1. Click OK. Now when selecting the BardAudienceLocation1 under the Location Ref Type tab you may notice the are five of them. (BardAudienceLocation 1-5) This means you can do this for five different XMarkerHeadings, being sure to give it a REF and the next in line on the Location Ref Type tab. (BardAudience1REF gets BardAudienceLocation 1, BardAudience2REF gets BardAudienceLocation 2, and so on)
That’s it, you’re done. Save all your work and check it out in-game.

Thank you for reading my tutorial on adding a working Bard to you custom house mod. Any questions please ask them on Skyrim Nexus or email me at aralorevlex@yahoo.com.