The recent thread by jmecha regarding an armor focus encouraged me to ask the DS folks at large about another idea for a magical device.

I have a PC who is a young kid who sees himself becoming the greatest drummer that ever lived. (Yeah, yeah.) His highest rated skill is Artisan (Percussion). he would like to have a magic drum that a) helps his playing, b) might be needed for him to achieve his dream, to play the 'heartbeat of Gaia'.

Aside from fluff, there actually would be in-game uses for him for such a device. (eg. Enthralling Performance) Any ideas how one might go about making such a tool, and what game mechanic it might affect?

Peter

One mechanic for it would be a centering focus. Your character would obviously, when he learned centering, use artisan (percussion) as his centering skill. And thus a centering focus that's a magic drum would make perfect sense, since you would bang on it to use centering.

A centering focus wouldn't make your character a better drummer, though.

It could also be an Anchoring focus, which would store a spell until activated, and you could activate it by playing the drum. It could be an increase intuition spell, or an entertainment spell, or just about any spell you could think of that would make your drumming better somehow.

If you were an adept, you could use the Attunement metamagic and attune your drum, giving you 1/2 initiate grade bonus to playing with it. That wouldn't be a magic drum, but it would be some magically enhanced drum playing. And an Adept could learn Enthralling Performance, which is probably the ultimate trick for a virtuoso musician.

Well, he could make the drum a talisman (to fulfill a geas) and then attune it. Still wouldn't help his playing, but it would be flavorful.

I would say use the same basic rules for any foci that adds dice, simply that it applies only when played. Probably bonding cost of Force x 2, and Force x 5,000¥. You could use this for any trade tools (mechanic, armorer, artisan, etc.)

This actually reminds of a discussion I had with one of my players about using a taiko drum as part of an offensive, probably ritual, magical tradition. Anyone seen this idea worked up?

As a drummer i would say that the best drum to use would be a small frame drum or Irish Bodhran, the skin could be painted or written upon and its size makes it very portable, there is a picture in the Tir-Na-Nog sourcebook of a celtic druid with such a drum, not sure of the page and i have no time at present to search the book. Other types could include many other hand or beater played frame drums from around the world or middle eastern and african drums such as the Doumbek or Djembe. Go look on one of the many ethnic drum sites on the net for inspiation.

Tir Na Nog pg 61, just couldn't help myself

If one can enchant a sword so that the user swings/thrusts more accurately, then one should also be able to enchant a drum so that one tends to hit just the right spot for the desired tone. I'd say that after the design work is done, a skilled user could produce one for ¥5K per point of Force, and karma cost for bonding modelled on, say, spellcasting foci. A bonded user gets bonus dice equal to Force. I don't think Weapon Focus follows the usual limits for bonus dice, so I imagine that an Instrument Focus would work the same.

As if the music industry wouldn't already be ruled by adepts with Enhanced Ability. Not that it comes up much in Shadowrun, but an opera singer with Magic 2 and all of it in Enhanced Ability Artisan (Singing), and say she has Artisan 4 (Singing) (+2 Opera) is throwing a large dicepool; she can outperform a mundane with a Skill of 5 or 6.

An adept with Artisan (Guitar), plus Enhanced Ability, plus a bonded F4 Guitar Focus, would play riffs that Fripp could only dream of!

What other tools, if any, could be enchanted for bonus dice? Brain surgeon with a Scalpel Focus?

Im with ixombie in that the best way to get what your thinking of is with a Centering Drum focus. It would not improve your Artisan skill, but it would reduce modifiers. Also, is this an adept? If so, just get Improved ability (Artisan (Percussion)) at 3 (assuming skill is at 6). With Enthralling Performance, you will be rocking for a LONG time.

Yes, the PC is an adept, with Artisan up the hoop and specialization in Percussion, and with Enthralling Performance and Improved Ability(Artisan), plus Nimble Fingers (for switching drumsticks), Multi-tasking and Three-dimensional Memory (because I've seen what some percussionists have to do), Eidetic Sense Memory (for picking up music on the fly), Missile Mastery and a bit of Power Throw (for those barroom brawls where he has to hurl the cymbals), and Linguistics, Commanding Voice and some Enhanced Perception .... just.... because. He's a kid out on the streets who is making a go in the shadows. Not so much a fighter, but there isn't much he misses (though others might miss their credsticks), and nobody can see the rest of the team sneaking by when he starts playing an intricate rhythm on the garbage cans next door.

In fact, Sticks, he does have a djembe. Though he is called Bongo Slade (a nickname from my own past... yes I was around in the 70s) it's probably the drum he would like to make the special one. The character is a bit me, a bit my daughter the drummer, a bit the pain-in-the-ass kid of a friend of mine.

EDIT: sorry - double post

I like where you are going with the character! It's a concept I've never seen before. I hope it works out well. Im not sure I'd max out my dice pool at char gen though, kind of takes the fun out working for it.

Thanks, nathanross. Nothing is maxed, there's room for growth everywhere (except of course in those adept abilities that are all or nothing). So, Magic can be increased with karma, as can the adept power Improved Artisan. Even more so for the combat-related powers.

Well. OK. his Artisan skill is 6. I figured him as a kid who lived, breathed and slept music. I actually think Artisan is too broad a skill, and would feel better if there were a finer breakdown of artistic skills. But I guess I can just play him so he doesn't also paint, sculpt, build garages and play guitar with the best of them. It's hard to resist, though. Especially when the team may profit from him being able to draw what he saw with amazing accuracy.

As I read the BBB, one buys the Artisan skill separately for each discipline. My illusionist PC has Artisan (Phantasm) and Artisan (Storytelling), as separate skills, each with their own rank and cost.

Putting equivalent BP/Karma into combat skills might get used more often and result in more "spotlight moments" during play, but on another hand, just thinking of my character's expressive side makes playing him more fun even when the non-combat skills are totally in the background. (As WeaverMount has pointed out, each player imagines their own PC with a level of detail not usually shared with the rest of the troupe.)

I dont have the rules in front of me, but I also think of Artisan like Exotic Weapon, something that has to be bought separately for each area. So I think Artisan (Percussion) with a specialization in whatever his favorite type of drum/instrument is (Timpani, Drum Set, Taiko, etc.).

As for the BP/Karma cost, I personally treat it as a knowledge skill for sake of cost. I really like the idea of the PCs excelling in things other than Combat, Magic, Hacking, etc. and want to promote their use.

If a player came up with a character concept like yours, it would be entirely possible to "acquire" a magical drum that would add to ones performance. Such a venture would require many missions etc to find one to build it, seek out the formula, seek out the needed materials etc.

One could also get a drum that has superior tools mods of +1 or greater. Using AR interface with the correct softwares could also gain one bonuses in a performance.

WMS

Thanks for the feedback guys. I don't see in the description of Artisan that it is to be divided as Riley37 suggests, but I have played the PC as if it were so.

Now, given that Bongo Slade is a Shadowrun Missions character, I have to figure out how to get the drum in that milieu. And to survive his fellow PCs who I suspect think of Bongo as a bit of a flake.

the team could land a job that involves the music industry. bongo could give them an inside edge. heh. i just thought of most runners playing undercover as a band.

i'd run this magic drum as a weapon foci. and i believe active foci have to touch skin, so if he's playing something like a drum kit, the foci could actually be his drum sticks. he could even use them as actual weapons perhaps. and then you've got to consider that whatever the foci, it could go astral with him if he can switch over. astral bongo drums.

if you really want to give it some more kick, maybe his playing could add some dice to shaman ritual magic. he could play at the ritual and help encourage the shamans. maybe he could enthrall a spirit of man with his playing. or counter sound based magics like illusions or the sound elemental spells.

Every reference to using the Artisan skill in the books, whether for Woodworking or Sculpting or Music or Jewelry Making or Metalworking or Etching, has simply used the base skill, not Artisan: Puppet Making or Artisan: Flower Arranging. If the skill were supposed to be used like the Exotic Weapon skill (or the SR2 Etiquette skill), then there would have been some mention of this, and references to the skill would be more precise.

Cool ideas, sungun. Thanks.

Wait.

You want to be a Cyber-Patapon?

Looks like a great game, just up Bongo's alley! He would be less a cyber-Patapon than a magic one, though.