Perk: Singing based on IQ

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Possible, based on HT makes the most sense to me though.
Singing is about projecting properly and knowing how to follow or remember the lyrics. So there is a learned component to it.
However its really a very physical activity, especially if your doing it for awhile.

And yet certain singers are known for the intelligence of their singing. Angela Lansbury is still sought after as a singer because she is simply far better at both communicating the meaning of the lyrics to and audience and demonstrating to other singers by example how to sing difficult passages well. Singers love to get recordings of Lansbury, Sinatra, or Ella Fitzgerald to learn how to resolve tricky problems in singing.

[dataweaver]

And fencers are sometimes known for being extraordinary not because they're necessarily nimble, but because they're good at outsmarting their opponents. That doesn't stop Melee Weapon skills from being DX-based.

In the same way, I could see musical skills being based primarily off of Perception, but with things like Musical Composition (to craft the tune) and Poetry (to craft the lyrics) being IQ-based. I don't think there's an attribute that's a perfect fit; I'm just saying that if I had to pick just one, I'd rather go with Perception.

Of course, the other part of that is that I'd like to expand “Perception” beyond just “did you sense something?” Basic Set describes it as your “general alertness”. I tend to generalize it a bit to being your aptitude with all things sensory, including an intuitive understanding of how colors, sounds, tastes, etc. go together. That could also be used as a justification for why it's tied to IQ: it's a kind of intelligence.

And yeah, I could get behind the notion of “minimum HT” ratings for various musical instruments, with singing being more demanding than, say, the violin, but not as demanding as the aforementioned tuba.

[malloyd]

It's always valid to float any skill to another attribute when it makes sense. Most performance rolls of Singing probably should float to IQ for *everybody*. The HT base may be reasonable for rolls made in adventuring situations - e.g. where the goal is to determine if you can get the song out loudly enough to be heard in the middle of a battle when you are already breathing hard from your exertions - but it's pretty much nonsense for singing a lullaby or during a studio recording session.

Despite the wording in the official descriptions of Attribute Substitution, it is only reasonable to charge for it as a perk when it allows you to make the substitution in cases where it *does not* make sense - using another attribute where it does make sense is already covered by Using Skills With Other Attributes on p.B172, and doesn't cost additional points. I'm perfectly willing to let you take Attribute Substitution (Singing defaults to HT) or any other skill defaults to its "normal" controlling attribute, to *avoid* floating it to another attribute in a case I think that's required.

[AlexanderHowl]

There is a different between being a practiced singer (Dylan) and a talented singer (Jimi Hendrix).

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

There is a different between being a practiced singer (Dylan) and a talented singer (Jimi Hendrix).

Musical talent is incidentally one of the few talents that really is a great deal.