Bardic Backgrounds (It's not quite what you think)

[Book Of Hours]

Bards on EfU have typically had a lot of advantages, and so making the custom bardsongs harder to find as they currently are now makes some sense. However, the shame of it is that finding the flavorful bardsongs that fit your PCs concept has become (seemingly) next to impossible. Just look at all the bards using Ymphian Jungle Hymn, which is far and away the easiest to find ingame currently.

A way to resolve this, and allow PCs to acquire those songs that truly do fit their concept, would be to have a variety of backgrounds, chosen when the bard reaches a certain level. The advantages of such a background would be minimal, or perhaps even non-existent stat-wise. However, what the bard would get is a single song (or maybe two in the case of those songs that are very weak) to add to their songbook.

This would allow bards to own at least one song that falls in line with their concept, instead of the horde of Hymn-hummers that currently exists.

[Urlen]

there were originally perks for it and changed. I believe just make more songs common.

[Egon the Monkey]

Yeah, I don't like the Lucky Dip, because of the random nature. I'd prefer to instead have the NPC sell the songs at higher prices depending on their power so you can get the ones that suit the PC. making them more common doesn't help, it's about making a PC able to select the one that suits the concept, not only what they find. Imagine if Wizards could only use scrolls they found, not choose them on level up?

What I'd love to see would be to add some of the weaker in combat but flavourful songs added to the PC starter merchant in the OOC area, so all Gnomes can start with the party Song, a Dwarf can have Goldbrick's etc.

[Book Of Hours]

Part of the problem, Egon, is the NPC is gone. It's near impossible to find a decent selection of the songs. I personally have little hope of finding one that fits my PC.

[Talir]

If you guys have suggestions for flavorful or setting-oriented bard songs, by all means come with them. I think they should be a bit more available as well.

Making backgrounds just to give songs I'm not so sure about.

[Moon]

Don't forget you can get songs from other bards who do have what you're looking for too! Trade is always an option, and with the rarity of magic songsheets, is something that shouldn't be dismissed too easily.

[Egon the Monkey]

Trading songs is exceedingly expensive in gold and XP for many of them, and only works if someone else is willing to pay the XP cost to sell the song.

I think it would be a good idea to give each faction store a relevant songsheet for sale. Order can have Canticle of the Righteous, Muster get Anthem of Awareness, Conclave have the Chant of Ancient Netheril and so on. That way faction members always have a tune that's suitable. Of course what would be exceptionally cool is if each faction got an anthem with unique bonuses that you may not use unless you are a faction member. However that might run into issue with acquiring other PCs' songbooks.  The big problem with the random song giver was that you couldn't choose one that was appropriate. I know there are some songs that are notably more powerful than others in many situations and we don't want every PC having all of them in week one. However, if the weaker or more situational song's like Goldbrick's and Ix's were available for sale you could build a suitable repertoire for a concept. My other suggestion would be to have an NPC in the OOC area that lets you have one of the weaker songs free of charge if you are a Bard.

As for ideas, there's a lot of songs named after Underdark PCs but none since then. There's a few ideas below with the sort of bonuses the songs would eventually reach.

Vednyev's Ruby Refrain
Boris Vednyev was a spy and infiltrator who later became one of the chief lieutenants of D'Arthido's Ruby Army that sought to conquer Mistlocke. He was known for his talent at encouraging defection and feared for both his skill in combat and his master-crafted armaments.

+AB, +Fire Damage, +Intimidate, +Discipline, +Will, +UMD

Easy's Serenade
Caliphar "Easy" Frankie Stokes was a laid-back Conclavist politician and envoy to Mistlocke whose love of the arts was matched only by his love of pretty girls. This song was a favourite means of flirtation for him.

+Magic Damage, +Persuade, Lore, +Perform, +1 Charisma

Anderson's Last Stand
Consort Alvin Anderson was an ambitious half-orc engineer and diplomat  with a thirst for vengeance against orc-kind. He died in the Enclave's  counter-attack against H'bala, his rousing encouragements to fight on  but a vain hope against the undead horde.

+AB, +Blunt Damage, +AC vs Undead, Temp HP, Heals HP.

Nightal's Shifting Allegiances (Curse)
Abigail Nightal was a exuberantly feminine entertainer whose ambitions switched between Mayorship and base crookery, demon cults and heroic defence of Mistlocke.  She will be remembered as an enigma, wrapped in a deception, wrapped in an extremely revealing outfit.

Fort save vs Wisdom Drain, -Mind saves, -Discipline, -AB -dmg

Howler's Pack-Call
The native known only as "Howler" was an infamous bandit of the Wolf Tribe Stargazers who plagued the lands around Mistlocke until his final defeat by civilised men. His attacks were often preceded by a terrible, bestial howl.

+AB vs Lawful, +Sonic Damage, +Animal Empathy, +Tumble, +Movement Speed, Summons a Wolf to fight for you.

[Book Of Hours]

Yes, the problem with buying songs is no one's selling. People don't want to take a 600-1,000 xp hit in order to turn a 200-300 gp profit, it's simply not worth it to them.

Furthermore, there's a large discrepancy on who has songs and who doesn't. Older PCs that are rarely played have decent songbooks because they benefited from the easier access, also newer PCs lucky enough to somehow acquire one of these older bard's songbooks have songs. New bards who don't get lucky in this manner don't have songs. I know from personal experience, after playing my current bard a month, I've seen three songsheets I have found/been gifted. All of them were Ymphian Jungle Hymn. Also, a PC asked mine to tell him what songs the recently deceased dwarven bard had in his book...he had none.

There's these great songs that add to a concept currently ingame, and no real way to access them. This is why I suggested the background idea, so each bard can at least have a single song that matches their concept. If the power of some of the songs would be a concern then it's easy to keep them off the list of songs a bard can acquire in this fashion.

I know I'm personally quite disappointed that it seems so impossible to find a song that fits my concept. I feel that it's desirable that players can tailor their concepts through these sorts of things, and bards could in the past. Right now they can't.

[Spiffy Has]

Snoteye being the DM who scripted the Songbooks and Songs should weigh in on this, imo. His diligent and hard work certainly made the server a much cooler place.
 
However, replacing the random song giver with unique NPCs that can be accessed through randoms, quests, etc...is certainly a good idea. Adding the Chant of the Righteous to the Quest Loot to Warrens of the Faithful and the Numinous Order in "The Gnoll Pack" would seem feasible.
 
The Spider Chant to the Brood Quest (Or increase the amount of times it drops)
 
Add Chant of Netheril to Observatory or Tower of Mercy.
 
Songs that seem to have a theme in undeath to the various undead quests.
 
Purple Mines might get a certain ballad about rothe!
 
And so on!