Performance, Singin' an' Dancin' in Nashvegas Options

[MADness]

I've noticed a lack of performace skills in SR4, and I need them for some characters I'm making for a series of runs in Nashville. I figure Charisma for vocals and dance, intuition for instruments. Any thoughts?

[Tanegar]

"Artisan" is the placeholder skill for any and all artistic endeavors. Whether you want to treat it like Exotic Melee Weapon/Exotic Ranged Weapon and have each artistic discipline be a separate skill, i.e., Artisan [Singing], Artisan [Dancing], Artisan [Guitar], etc. (this is my approach) or have each discipline be a Specialization is up to you.

[MADness]

"Artisan" is the placeholder skill for any and all artistic endeavors. Whether you want to treat it like Exotic Melee Weapon/Exotic Ranged Weapon and have each artistic discipline be a separate skill, i.e., Artisan [Singing], Artisan [Dancing], Artisan [Guitar], etc. (this is my approach) or have each discipline be a Specialization is up to you.

Artisan seened to be for the crafting of objects, not performing.

[Tanegar]

The Artisan skill represents a number of different creative skills, including singing, painting, and the like.

Emphasis added.

[SpellBinder]

Gymnastics is also what's used for Dance (one of the listed specializations in SR4a, page 124). Both Gymnastics and Artisan are what's referred to for the adept power Enthralling Performance (SM, page 176).

Mind too that singing is an ability to carry a tune with your voice and dance a display of agility and coordination. Neither aren't really a reflection of one's social (Charisma based) skills.

[Midas]

Mind too that singing is an ability to carry a tune with your voice and dance a display of agility and coordination. Neither aren't really a reflection of one's social (Charisma based) skills.

I don't disagree with you, but I do think that high Charisma would be required for a good front man - in a gig dynamic, a good singing performance is all well and good, but engaging with the crowd is what really gets them going (Leadership?).

[SpellBinder]

Oh, I get you there completely, Midas. Probably Charisma + Etiquette for engaging a crowd in whatever (stories, jokes, etc.), but I don't think all performers IRL have this skill. The longer lasting ones most definitely would.

[Irion]

Shadowrun only links one attribute to every skills. Thats not very fitting for more complex tests.

[Glyph]

Artisan is a mega-skill that encompasses a wide array of artistic endeavors. It is fine for a campaign where artistically-inclined characters will still be peripheral to the plot. For a campaign where artistic performance plays a larger role, though, it might be a bit too much to have everyone be a master of multiple artistic disciplines. Some ways to fix it:

Instead of specializations, make each form of art an individual artisan skill: painting, singing, etc. You can also change the linked Attribute for some of them (maybe computer graphics uses Logic, while keyboarding uses Agility, etc.). The only problem is, this limits the skill a bit too much.

Alternately, you could have the base active skill, with knowledge skills representing the character's actual areas of interest. In other words, someone with artisan could have knowledge skills of songwriting and poetry. The only problem is, this is pretty demanding of the finite resource of knowledge skills.

The third way, my favored approach, although it is more subjective and time consuming, is to sit down with the player and have them enunciate exactly what areas the character is (and isn't) artistic in (or better yet, spell it out in the character background). Maybe one is an exotic dancer who also studied ballet and burlesque, who knows stage and costume design, and makes her own nanotatt designs on her commlink. Another could be a singer who also plays several musical instruments, writes songs and poetry, and relaxes by doing watercolor or inkbrush painting. This way, they still get decent mileage out of the skill, without being a bunch of identical masters-of-everything-artistic.

[Machiavelli]

Hmm...i wonder if it would be possible for a face to stop enemies from fighting if he interacts with a social skill. Social skills are not extended tasks, so a complex action should be sufficient to use one, isn´t it?

[pbangarth]

Hmm...i wonder if it would be possible for a face to stop enemies from fighting if he interacts with a social skill. Social skills are not extended tasks, so a complex action should be sufficient to use one, isn´t it?

This happens all the time in RL. Anything from the putdown from the girl they are fighting over to the old guy who simply says, "enough." CHA + Intimidation or Leadership or Con.

The latter example reminds me of an old dog I once had. He could end the nastiest dogfight by just stepping in the middle and 'looking' at them. I thought of buying him one of those dog bandanas in UN blue.