My player wants to be a rock mage..., I think Shadowbeat got to his brain. Options

[Rifleman]

This one completely blindsided me, so I need some advice on this one.

We've decided that it obviously has more in common with the shaman style of play than the mage, and we have decided that it has a shamanic mask of sorts in the form of music that seems to play in the background when the mask is manifest.

Charisma is the main stat (for obvious reasons,) and it works off of the 'music of the spheres', the drain is caused by them working their 'music' in this grand celestial symphony.

Spirits is where we broke down. We felt that the spirits were based upon 'the five natures of music' but we could not agree as to what spirit went with what magical association with what type of music. Now, I could pull rank as GM, but I'm not so sure myself.

Here is what we were looking at:
My Opinion
Classic/Blues:-------Healing
Rock:----------------Detection
Alternative:---------Illusion
Punk:----------------Combat
Rap:-----------------Manipulation


The Player's Opinion
Classic:-------------Healing
Rock/Punk:---------Detection
Rap/Scat:-----------Combat
Blues:---------------Manipulation
Pop:-----------------Illusion

We didn't even get to the spirit types. Feel free to post your own opinions/thoughts.

[PlatonicPimp]

Charisma is obvious. Of course, I'd say that as a rocker mage, he'd have to stick within things that could be considered rock and roll, as opposed to all musical stylings. Because even a connoseur tries to keep some consistencey on his mix tapes.

Combat --- Earth spirits --- Heavy metal
Detection --- Spirits of man --- Protest music/Folk music (cause it's about spreading the truth)
Healing --- Fire spirits --- classic rock. (That old time rock and roll, it just soothes the soul.)
Illusion --- Water spirits --- Synthisyser (Cause it ain't the real deal)
Manipulation --- Air Spirits --- Pop. (Cause pop music manipulates the minds of young listeners.)

[Kyoto Kid]

Bards in the 6th world.....

I like the concept. I'll have to work a bit with this myself & get back to you.

(BTW, I still have my old copy of Shadowbeat too).

[Rifleman]

I didn't think to call it a bard! (And here we were wondering what to call it, lol.)

[littlesean]

If you can find a copy, check out "Gossamer Ax" by Gael Baudino. It really gives a good feel for a rock mage, even though the setting is 20th century.

[Azralon]

Ew. Bards. *shudder*

[snowRaven]

[NightmareX]

Don't forget Dark Angel (not exactly a rocker mage, but definitely magic)

Anyways, props to PlatonicPimp and Snowraven, but here's my version:

Combat spells - Fire spirits (rock, punk, and all things heavy metal)
Detection spells - Earth spirits (hip hop, rap, r&b)
Healing spells - Water spirits (classical, the blues)
Illusion spells - Air spirits (alternative, pop)
Manipulation spells - Spirits of Man (industrial, techno)

[snowRaven]

I was considering your set up for manipulation, but I couldn't really fit rap into detection and be comfortable with it...

[FrankTrollman]

Wouldn't a Rocker Mage just play Rock? Sure, the different spirit types could come out of different types of Rock, but it's all going to be Rock. Otherwise it's not a Rocker Mage, it's a Music Man.

So while it's all very well and good to play Thrash Riffs when casting Combat Spells, Rythm Guitar when casting Detection Spells, and subtle chord progressions when casting Manipulation spells, it's all going to be Rock. Similarly, the spirits aren't going to pop out of the woodwork representing non-rock musical genres, they are going to represent different facets of ROCK.

So you get five spirit types. All of those spirit types represent Rock, they all rock and roll all night and party every day. All of them. You'd probably call them things like "Amplifier Spirits" and "Spirits of Listeners", and they'd in turn probably have no elemental feel to them at all. It's all about the music, and it's only Rock and Roll. But I like it.

My suggestions would be:

Air - Illusion (Spirits of Sound, "Amplifier Spirits")
Ancestor - Health (Spirits of Roots, "Classic Spirits")
Beast - Combat (Spirits of Dance, "Pit Spirits")
Man - Detection (Spirits of Listening, "Audience Spirits")
Worker - Manipulation (Spirits of Support, "Roadie Spirits")

All Rock, All the time.

-Frank

[Rifleman]

Actually his idea was a 'Music Mage' , just aspected towards Rock. We decided a renamed Mentor would fit that bill, but first we had to go through everything else.

[Edit: That, and as the player just told me upon examination of your suggestion, "It's about the music."]

[hyzmarca]

[snowRaven]

[yesman]

wow. great minds think alike....

http://www.smarmybastard.com/srun/ace.htm

tee hee.

[NightmareX]

[NightmareX]

[apollo124]

Taking a look at what's been written so far, with the exception of yesman, all the others have discussed this as a Hermetic thing. I tend to think it would be more appropriate as a Shamanic deal, since it's less about logic than creativity.

Try this on for size:
Mentor spirit: Musician (or Muse, if you want to open it up to other types of artists)

Musician is part of the heart and soul of all men. Whether in the annoying tri-vid ads, classical music, or the latest Trog-Rock, Musician communicates the deepest of feelings with a driving beat. He is about setting loose the bounds of creativity and touching the souls of those listening, but he does have more than a little of the showboat in him. Life cannot be properly appreciated without sharing it with an audience.

Advantages: +2 dice for magical tests when belting out a tune at full volume, which also grants +2 dice to Perception tests for others trying to notice him casting spells.

Disadvantages: -2 dice for magical tests when attempting to cast without attracting much attention.

I would think a Musician Shaman would use the Hermetic traditions' spirit associations with Drain :Willpower+Charisma. The reason for using the Hermetic associations is that music is first and foremost about Men, not Beasts.

A Musician Shaman would always have a shamanic mask, but only auditory, not visual. As he casts a spell, he would be surrounded by invisible sources of backup sound as a Mana effect. The more powerful the Force of the spell, the louder and more complex the backup sounds. Think of it as an invisible chorus or band singing along in tune.

Rather than setting aside specific styles of Rock for various spell catagories, I would suggest either leaving it open to the spontaneous judgement of either the GM or the player, or setting up specific songs for individual spells. Imagine if you will, "Iron Man" whenever you cast Armor, elevator Muzak when you cast a Stunball, or Metallica's "Of Wolf and Man" for your Shapechange spell.

For some other ideas, you should check out SOTA 2064, the Path of the Adept chapter, pages 40-68. Lots of great ideas in there dealing with Artist Adepts, some of which can translate to a full magician.

Hope this helps.

[NightmareX]

[apollo124]

[NightmareX]

[Nikoli]

Well a music based tradition lends itself to both stles (Shamanic and Hermetic) Freeform Jazz with no sheet music to speak of would be shamanic, where classical music that is exactly metered out and played would be more hermetic. Virtuoso's playing with half notes up and down from the music as written aside.

[FrankTrollman]

I don't think you're going to get agreement on which genres of music correspond to which schools of magic. I don't think it even makes sense to try. The thing is that both the genres of music and the schools of magic can evoke very different emotional states. Consider two old-timey songs: Down by the Water and Keep on the Sunny Side. The first is a graphic first person account of brutally murdering a woman and stashing the body, the second is an uplifting exhortation for optimism and perseverance in the face of misfortune. Same genre, radically different emotional/magical effects. One might be appropriate for combat or illusion spells, the other might be appropriate for detection or health spells. Similarly, let's consider a single spell: Mob Mood. It's important to consider this spell, because as a Music Man you are going to cast this spell more often than all other spells combined. All by itself, it can be successfully represented by any song with any emotional impact, that's the whole point.

That being said, I still think that you are going to want to pick a genre and go with it. Remember, even performers who collect music from different traditions generally put their own spin on them, and in turn are actually lumped into a genre. That genre is either "Folk Rock", "World Beat", or "Noise", depending upon whether the musical stylings you've collected were originally made by white people, brown people, or in the case of Noise Bands - lots of different people and played sequentially at high speed in the same song.

To be the big Music Man, you're going to want to play music from all kinds of genres and cultures, and you're going to want to switch those out as fast as you cast different spells - so you're going to be switching from an upbeat Gospel Riff to a discordant powerchord in often less than 3 seconds. So you're going to end up sounding like Naked City, and the genre you belong to is "Noise".

So all of your spirits are there to help you mix various musical styles into a "perfect" whole that encompasses all and belongs to none. So you're going to want an Ancestor Spirit to find old music for you (Detection). You're going to want a Worker Spirit to patch things together (Health). You'll want a Warrior Spirit to destroy traditional ways of looking at things (Illusion), and you'll want an Air Spirit to generate harmful and unappreciated dischords (Combat).

Finally, you'll want the most important Spirit in your inventory: a Man Spirit to represent your actual performance (Manipulation). Remember, Manipulation is where your Mob Moods and Influences come from, so that's always going to be your focus.

Of course, you resist drain with Charisma. That goes without saying.

[Rifleman]

Fortunatly, I'm not trying to get the many opinions of the web to agree with me. :D The player in question is already considering the options put forth on the board, and I think by the end of work tomorrow I'll be ready to put up our end result.

We're gonna end up going more with the 'emotions behind the music' as of right now.

[Azralon]

[NightmareX]