From:	Patrick Goodman remo@***.net
Subject:	Musical skills (was Atmosphere Music)
Date:	Sun, 22 Aug 1999 10:40:12 -0500

K broke this off because most of the message was talking about Asia;
however, some of the skill conversation is actually relevent here, so I'm
bringing that part back.

>> What I've been fiddling with is splitting the skills, similar to what
>> you appear to be doing; Singing, Guitar, and Drumming would all be
>> Active skills, with Background Knowledge skills as per normal. The
>> Background/Theory skills can also be purchased separately (for instance,
>> I know a little bit about Guitar Theory in real life, but I can't play
>> one to save my life).
>
>The *only* think I don't like is I just *cannot* see paying that much karma
>to learn all of those instruments like that.

Why not? It's no different, to me, from paying Karma for the Centering
skill, and the Creative skill that it's based on, and the Talismongering
skill, and the Enchanting skill, and on and on and on, for magicians (oh,
and remember all that bitching I did last year about sammies getting ripped
off with all the different skills they had to learn? Well, I take it all
back after reading MITS some more). I don't see it as any different from
having to buy four or five different gun skills and their associated B/R
skills for sams.

Basically, this is how the musician makes his living, and that's where most
of his effort is going to go. I wouldn't expect a shadowrunner to be a
virtuoso with a lot of instruments, though it would be a good bit of
character development to have him be a killer guitarist as a means of
relieving stress (as a for-instance). But for day-to-day gaming, I don't
think it's particularly out of line.

>> Most of your guitar-like instruments can be played using Guitar skill;
>> Specializations would include Acoustic, Electric, Electric Bass, and
>> 12-String Acoustic, for instance. Singing could have specializations
>> like Chant, Rock, Country, Opera, and Soul.
>
>Hmm....This would make more sense, true. It would also justify a bit more
>the karma cost for so many *active* skill bases.

As I said, I don't think there are quite that many active skill bases. No
more than a sammie or a mage needs to be top-of-the-line in *their* chosen
field, at any rate.

Besides, it's not as if they're going to be masters of all forms, or *have*
to be masters of all forms, to be successful musicians. While it's true
that there are virtuosos in a huge number of instruments (TAFKAP comes to
mind), most of your musicians out there, even the spectacularly successful
ones, are masters of maybe a couple of instruments at most. Probably my
favorite musician, Brian May, is really only master of the guitar. He's a
capable singer and plays bass and keys, but he's really only master of the
one instrument.

--
(>) Texas 2-Step
El Paso: Never surrender. Never forget. Never forgive.