Finer musical skills

A bard tries to earn some cash for the party
after being transported to 20th century Earth

Cole carefully narrated the challenger. "Xuan is a confident classical pianist who has been training since the age of 3. With a skill level of 16 in Piano, he will be difficult to beat in this Street Piano Duel!"

"Wait, I'm a jazz pianist. Do we even compare?"

"Umm..."

Musicians have been playing different styles since music began. While Cole could've just eyeballed a modifier, players who pour points into music may appreciate more rigour for their hard earned skills. Whether you're playing a teen high school anime or a bard that's transported to a new realm, the following provides a useful new skill: Musical Instrument (Specialised).

Musical Instrument (Specialised) IQ/Average
As Musical Instrument (p. B211) but you must choose an instrument and a specialisation (e.g. Violin (Folk) ). Default to -2 for specialisations on the same instrument.

This skill assumes that you have a 'basic' coverage of all techniques within a given specialisation, so techniques are generally based on Musical Instrument (Specialised) without a modifier. GM has final say on what coverage means (see Techniques of Style, down below)

Techniques and Limitations

As any musician knows, no musician's skills are perfectly balanced. The following techniques allow players to emulate a spread of skills, especially narrow skill sets.

• Techniques of Style (i.e. different specialisations)
• Techniques of Function (e.g. skills for being the best at accompaniment) 
• Limitations as levelled disadvantages (e.g. bad at sight reading? take Sight reading (Piano, Jazz) 2[-2] to get a -4 on all sight reading rolls for piano jazz)

Techniques of Style

These techniques allow players to buy up to a new style up to a maximum of two styles. Players wanting 3 or more styles should buy the standard Musical Instrument at IQ/Hard. The following are suggestions:

These techniques default at Musical Instrument (Specialised) - 2. (It goes without saying that players cannot train a technique in the same specialisation and instrument, for that buy more skill!)

Jazz (Average)
Play jazz tunes, including chord charts and improvised solos.

Classical (Average)
Play pieces from sheet music from the Baroque era to modern classical.

Folk (Average)
Play folk pieces from limited sheet music or by ear. This technique does not include advanced classical techniques such as special fingering

Techniques of Function

These techniques cover frequent functions of musicians, most of which are not required to know to play the instrument. They should specify an instrument and specialisation.

For example, this allows a character with Piano (Jazz) 16 to default to Accompanying with Piano (Classical) 14 unless they spend two points to bring it up to 16.

Their default is Musical Instrument (Specialised) unless otherwise noted.

Accompanying/Comping (Average)
The ability to accompany other musicians (even if the other musicians mess up!)

Small ensemble playing (Average)
The ability to play in a small group, such as a rock band or jazz trio.

Orchestral playing (Average)
The ability to play in an orchestra, follow a conductor, etc.. This technique requires the ability to read music!

Improvisation (Hard; default: special)
The ability to make up music on the spot. Note this is highly dependent on specialisation, for styles that do not actively include improvisation (e.g. classical), default at -4 instead of 0. GM has final say on whether a style includes improvisation.

Limitations

These disadvantages are -1 pt per level and represent a lack of knowledge. Characters suffer -2 to their skill per level. Players may buy up to -5. At 5th level, GMs/players can assume that the listed disadvanage is not possible at all.

Can't sight read (at 5th level, Can't read music)
Can't read the notation most common in their culture/specialisation (e.g. staff notation 🎶 for classical). Since sight reading is the ability to read music at speed for a given instrument, at 6th level this becomes Can't read music[-5] (instead of Can't sight read 5[-5])

Can't learn by ear
Difficulty in replicating a tune/chords from only listening.

Ensemble playing
Playing with others is difficult (however, the character has no difficulty being accompanied as the accompanist follows them)

Final note

This skill and its associated techniques and limitations should add a bit of spice to any campaign that relies heavily on musical skills. I'd be interested in any play reports, so comment below if you find it useful!

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