It's time for the truth to be revealed. Maybe I never really wanted a game that's action-filled in the first place. I have always dreamed of a D&D game with an all-bards party, where they'd go on a world tour. Or something similar for another system. I lost this dream of mine somewhere along the way to Game Dev years ago and have forgotten about it... until today.
It's time to showcase how the musical pillar will work for the Runehack RPG!
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| A quick musician doodle redeemed from Mishroomarts |
Music Pillar
There are four qualities that the music can have:
- Intensity can range from Calm to Strong, describing how loud the music's loudest tones are. It utilizes Muscle.
- Tempo can range from Slow to Fast, describing the general speed at which the music is played. It utilizes Agility.
- Authenticity can range from Bright to Dark, describing whether the music is more upbeat or emotional. It utilizes Comprehension.
- Creativity can range from Stock to Fresh, describing whether the music is predictable or if it's unafraid to experiment outside of the music theory's range. It utilizes Hunch.
Note: You can select a musical instrument in place of one of the expert areas that your Training gives you in the Core Pillar. If you do so, you will have expertly knowledge in how this instrument works, its history, maintenance, and significant artists who primarily played this instrument.
The musical instruments can have the following properties:
- Pedaled. Advantage on rolls for Intensity.
- Two-handed. Advantage on rolls for Tempo.
- Multi-tonal. Advantage on rolls for Authenticity.
- Contiunuous. Advantage on rolls for Creativity.
- Static. Advantage on rolls for both Intensity and Tempo.
- Custom-made. Choose one of the musical qualities. You can use Training in place of the original stat when rolling for that quality using this instrument. You can take this property multiple times.
Musical Performance
When performing, it is important to appease the crowd's demands. The GM begins by secretly rolling 4d6 and dividing the numbers between the qualities. The highest roll stands for a preference for high rolls in that quality, the lowest roll stands for a preference for low rolls in that quality, and anything in between begins neutral. If multiple numbers are the highest/lowest, it's applied to multiple qualities. If all four numbers are the same, they correspond to low (1-3) or high (4-6) rolls. The GM keeps them in the order of Intensity, Tempo, Authenticity, and Creativity behind the screen.
At the start of every round, the GM rolls 2d12 without adding them together to see which preferences flip. If they were neutral so far, they get tipped either way at GM's discretion.
- 1-3: Intensity
- 4-6: Tempo
- 7-9: Authenticity
- 10-12: Creativity
These preferences can be represented in crowd actions. These are, on purpose, ambiguous to keep the band guessing. For convenience, each is listed twice to be easier to reference. The GM should mention ideally two of them (one if there aren't two) at the start of each round to clue the players in on what the audience demands.
- Intensity (low)
- or Tempo (low): swaying
- or Creativity (low): whistling
- Intensity (high)
- or Tempo (high): head-banging
- or Authenticity (high): stomping
- Tempo (low)
- or Intensity (low): swaying
- or Authenticity (high): lights above heads (e.g. lighters)
- Tempo (high)
- or Intensity (high): head-banging
- or Creativity (high): playing air instruments
- Authenticity (low)
- or Creativity (low): screams
- or Creativity (high): crowd wave
- Authenticity (high)
- or Intensity (high): stomping
- or Tempo (low): lights above heads (e.g. lighters)
- Creativity (low)
- or Intensity (low): whistling
- or Authenticity (low): screams
- Creativity (high)
- or Tempo (high): playing air instruments
- or Authenticity (low): crowd wave
The DC for all music-making rolls is 8 unless said otherwise. However, the players must either roll above the DC as usual, or under if the audience demands low for some musical quality. Whether a player is trying to roll over or under 8 should be announced before the roll along with the musical quality (e.g. "I'm trying to go for low Tempo). Due to this, any musician can choose to roll with a disadvantage at will, and they can choose whether their stat is ignored, added to, or subtracted from a roll after it is made. The goal is to play according to the crowd's preferences, confirmed by the reactions described by the GM. If a musician succeeds in playing according to the crowd's preferences two times in a turn, or when they roll exactly 8, they get a Starpower Point.
Starpower Points are a way of performing extra actions while keeping up the performance. The pillar will feature some special actions that can be performed by spending an act or a number of Starpower Points. The details aren't worked out yet, but for now, examples could include:
- getting the crowd to sing in your place,
- dance moves,
- musical instrument tricks,
- activating special effects such as fireworks,
- jumping onto the crowd and letting it carry you,
- tossing a keepsake into the crowd.
Each would have its effect, but right now I don't have any further details worked out. Maybe some could coordinate their preferences or something like that.
That's about it for now. Of course, once finished the pillar would feature its own roles, their features, and so on, but that all should be done on another day. All that being said, ... it should be obvious this isn't what I want my game to be about, but I do want it to be an actual part of the game. It's not on my priorities list, but I had some time to spare during Easter and thought of working this out before I get to the final details of the core system I want to release this year as a way of relaxing. It might not come off as all that funny of an April Fools joke, but I came up with it not too long ago. The article was written in about 2 hours, most of this isn't set in stone yet. Obviously, it borrows some ideas from Play It by Cheer!, and that's because I really liked the foundation I've laid out there. Its stats map nicely onto this system's stats, Training is an awesome "ace in a sleeve" stat that'd work universally elsewhere, and... I think when I get to making the roles for this system, I'll make it so that the roles are named differently. Writing all this out made me realize that the roles probably should have different names in every pillar.
Anyway, writing the Core Pillar article took me too long, I wrote like 5 or 6 articles since I mentioned it last time it, so I can't promise I'll publish it before I begin the playtests. I'll see what I can do though. I like the way the game's development is going, and my 12 good games resolution is going to be finished soon enough. Or, it would be, if Witcher 3 wasn't still ahead of me.
That's about it! Thank you for reading, and happy beginning of April, everyone!
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