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Old 05-06-2016, 06:08 AM   #11
RogerBW
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Musical Composition and Musical Instrument

Haydn's cello concertos (cello plus orchestra, but with the cello very much in the foreground) should be reasonable evidence that one doesn't need Musical Instrument skill to compose for that instrument – and yet he'd probably have been lost if someone had asked him to write a piece for the shakuhachi. It's possible to know very well what sounds an instrument can produce, without being able to play it at all, but I wouldn't represent that with skills; familiarities, perhaps.

I have successfully arranged pieces intended for a single singer into something for a four-part harmony group (with and without conductor), and I don't think I necessarily have skill=IQ in Singing – and I certainly don't in Conducting.

(At TL8 with score-arranging software this becomes even more wrong-headed, because you can throw a part onto a stave, test it with synthesisers, and let the software warn you that a real-life bassoon can't do that.)
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Old 05-06-2016, 06:28 AM   #12
simply Nathan
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Musical Composition and Musical Instrument

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I suppose if you use can reliably use music to further your murderhobo agenda it doesn't count.
Also one of my preferred examples of a worked adventurer in fiction is Link from the Legend of Zelda series who, in addition to being omni-proficient with implements of death, is also omni-proficient with musical instruments (and, when transformed into a wolf, singing as well).
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Old 05-06-2016, 09:25 AM   #13
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Musical Composition and Musical Instrument

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Am I the only one who includes a few musical skills in each of my PCs just to dilute the inherent Murderhoboness of most RPG characters?

My go to is violin+piano+Musical Composition+Connoisseur (music)
Just to add on to what others have said, no you are not the only one. The majority of my characters tend to have some skill in musical instrument. Mostly as a hobby, but sometimes as a means to make money.
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Old 05-06-2016, 07:44 PM   #14
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Musical Composition and Musical Instrument

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In one of my early GURPS campaigns, the PCs were present-day British teenagers who strayed into the realm of the fair folk, aka the lands of eternal twilight. I asked the players to come up with a reason that their characters were all together on Midsummer Eve; four of them decided to be musically talented attendees at a summer music program. (The fifth decided to play the soccer hooligan son of the janitor at the facility.)

This was in the days of GURPS 3/e, when Musical Talent was 1 point/level; they took from two to five levels, and the woman playing the group's vocalist also naturally took Voice, so she had something like +7 to her Singing skill, I think. They travelled from Glastonbury to the Highlands to Ulster, or their twilight lands analogs, singing and playing and being treated as honored guests. There were more music rolls than combat rolls. In fact a typical song performance tended to call for a Singing or Musical Instrument roll for each of them, a Performance roll for each of them, and a Sex Appeal roll for the vocalist (the player had also taken a really high appearance rating). There were also rolls to compose new songs. At one point a member of the human group got into a dispute with the local queen's bard, and challenged her to a duel, which ended with a singing contest.

As to murder hobos, I haven't run a campaign with that focus in decades, and my players don't seem to want one. The most sociopathic of my campaigns was either the In Nomine campaign about a reality TV series made in Hell, or the campaign about a group of very talented consulting criminals.
Now there's a thought. What if the Fae's motive for kidnapping babies was not that The World's More Full of Weeping then they Can Understand, but that they are mad artists and they wish to breed a select race of hypertalented bards?
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Old 05-06-2016, 09:17 PM   #15
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Musical Composition and Musical Instrument

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Originally Posted by Minuteman37 View Post
Am I the only one who includes a few musical skills in each of my PCs just to dilute the inherent Murderhoboness of most RPG characters?

My go to is violin+piano+Musical Composition+Connoisseur (music)
Nah musical skills are very common, you can usually count on at least one character in my group to have musical skills.

In my current game one character took musical skills to represent his carefree comfortable lifestyle before adventuring where he would stroll around the gardens, play his lute and watch the sunset. So he has both Lute, singing, connoisseur and poetry. Of course he is the face character so he has Voice advantage as well.
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Old 05-06-2016, 09:28 PM   #16
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Musical Composition and Musical Instrument

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Originally Posted by Minuteman37 View Post
Am I the only one who includes a few musical skills in each of my PCs just to dilute the inherent Murderhoboness of most RPG characters?

My go to is violin+piano+Musical Composition+Connoisseur (music)
It was long common in many cultures for epic heroes(who sometimes aren't all that different from murder hobos) to have a cultured side to them. In fact we see this with many of the best characters in modern writing to this day.

Violin might be better then piano though as it is more portable. Another thought is to pick an instrument that doesn't have quite such urbane associations. Call a violin a "fiddle" for instance. Or use a lyre or a bagpipe.
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Old 05-06-2016, 11:23 PM   #17
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Musical Composition and Musical Instrument

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Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
It was long common in many cultures for epic heroes(who sometimes aren't all that different from murder hobos) to have a cultured side to them. In fact we see this with many of the best characters in modern writing to this day.

Violin might be better then piano though as it is more portable. Another thought is to pick an instrument that doesn't have quite such urbane associations. Call a violin a "fiddle" for instance. Or use a lyre or a bagpipe.
Reminds me of an old joke when a musician was asked why he played a harmonica and responded 'because I can't fit a piano in my back pocket.'
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Old 05-06-2016, 11:27 PM   #18
simply Nathan
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Musical Composition and Musical Instrument

The only musician in the single GURPS campaign I played in was the IQ 8 "ninja" martial artist. He had a single point in Musical Instrument(Guitar) and people at the inn were constantly booing him or begging him to stop playing.

Sometimes there's comedy potential in incompetence, which our two IQ 8 warrior-types had in spades, the ninja far more than the dwarf (player with Impulsive taking Trained by a Master, Weapon Master, Common Sense, Impulsive, and IQ 8 all on the same character in a 100 point game...).
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Old 05-08-2016, 02:24 PM   #19
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Musical Composition and Musical Instrument

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. . . the In Nomine campaign about a reality TV series made in Hell. . .
You mean some aren't?
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Old 05-08-2016, 03:21 PM   #20
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Musical Composition and Musical Instrument

In a Lovecraftian Mythos campaign, Musical Instrument (Viol) and Musical Instrument (Pipes) should be usable for occult purposes like keeping otherworldly creatures at bay or keeping them docile. Using inspiration from the world of Charlie Stross would also allow Musical Instrument (Violin) to be used as a dangerous weapon.
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