Greets,

How can I create a simstar sensation in SR4 who not only looks good, but can also play musical instruments and maybe even sing?

Sp far looking through the text and rules there is not much option of it, besides the amazing power of DNI. How about skills, do you play guitar with an active skill?

What are your thoughts?

There's an art skill that covers it all.

Special active skills seem to be about it. Cha for singing and Agi for dance and guitar wouls be my call.
Page 127 in Sr4 and 128 in Sr4a

Missed that where is it?

I don't have my books with me, but I'm pretty sure I remember an "art" skill.

The skill is called Artisan. It specifically covers Guitars as a specialization, but I suppose it would include singing as well. Dancing is covered under gymnastics (Once again specifically mentioned as a specialty).

You could also use the Fame quality from RC to show just how good you are, and combine with the Day Job to represent your time spent doing your Diva related things. Having Fame increases the pay of your Day Job, so I suspect it is specifically designed as a sort of Diva thing. Other than that, a good Con would likely be needed for acting, some disguise skill to represent being so used to wearing makeup and generally not quite being yourself.

There is an artisan skill which is governed by Intuition. This makes sense as a catchall for the skill. If a GM wants to break it down further to micromanage art, then more power to him. The system isn't really setup to make artists that are adept at multiple arts, well actually it is, but I'll get to that. Perhaps your a great guitarist, songwriter, and singer. Thanks to the artisan skill and the specialization system, you're now just as a good a painter as you are a songwriter. Somehow being a great writer translates into a knowledge of sculpting. I think for some skills, GM should have discretion on allowing multiple specializations in the skill, and artisan would be one of them.

Further skills would be at discretion, though gymnastics and social skills would probably be valuable.

Attribute wise, body, strength (art form dependent), agility (art form dependent), intuition, and charisma would define the character. Live performances are require endurance. In fact, I sometimes wonder if perhaps the more scantily clad females are doing so for functional reasons (lets more of the body breath and cool down) as much as make her more attractive.

But quality-wise....

For positive qualities, Fame is an obvious one. Inspired may be worth taking. SINer. For negative qualities, Addiction could be one worth picking up, that seems to be a common occurrence as the famous fail to cope with the limelight. Day Job as well.

It would definitely be a contact oriented character as well.

And if you make her an adept, she will be even more remarkable. I think powers like "enthralling performance", "voice control" and "talented" or "gifted" (?) are supposed to work for artisans. And - of course - you can get additional dice for your artisan skill.

I just had a great image of a shadowrunning diva being followed by a gang of paparazzi as she walks into a meet with a J, and the J's eyes going wide as he stares at the score of people with cameras. Then trying to discuss their clandestine dealings with a dozen mics pressed into their faces... I think there is a reason there isn't alot of stuff to support a diva in SR.

Naturally your entrance is grand
Red carpet rolls out on the side they stand
Worshipping you like a god (like a goddess)
Somehow, you've remained modest
Flashbulbs pop, paparazzi goes wild
With amazing grace you walk and smile
They answer to your beck and call
You're flawless
After all overqualified for the position
Your dreams see fruition
Mere class on a higher plane
Everyone wants to know your name

Just like perfection
Needs no correction
Like no other
Absolutely

It actually sounds like a fantastic idea for a Shadowrun in LA. Followed by competing news casters and news companies, the Shadowrunner group work hard on succeeding their missions before being arrested by Lone Star. Watch as they foil another dastardly plot by Lieutenant Stork and his group of special unit cops on beign arrested.

Members:

Hans Grubert. Austrian extreme sports champion who was disqualified from the 2069 word championships for being an adept. His hobbies include metrosexual men, kayaking, surfing, and bicycling through Seattle. His day job is a parkour courier in Seattle.

Soundbyte: "Vat else can go vrong?"

Jack Harrihausen. Special operations veteran with a shadowy past. Underneath the gruff exterior of a grizzled veteran beats the heart of a caring man. He's still a bit torn up with the loss of his brother to Tanamous and tries to make it up with his brother's estranged widow.

Soundbyte: "I shoot people in the face for less."

Veep Masterson. Boy kid wonder, speaks 16 languages and can control toasters with only his mind. His extensive literary knowledge comes from his expensive comic book collection.

Soundbyte: "So what should I say to her."

Lady Violet. Mysterious past of this simsense star can only be described for her perchance on finding the most revealing attire for every run. Some say she is Chinese by her mad kung-fu skills, but she prefers to be identified as simply Asian. There are rumours that she was a secret sweetheart of Jack.

Soundbyte: "I dare you."

THE DANGER ZONE now on TriD channels 256-289 every hour on the hour.

Haha, sounds great and I think I even remember something like that being mentioned in one of the books, about how some runners record and broadcast their runs after the fact. I'd imagine that makes it all the more difficult to not get caught, but the payoff should be fairly huge.

The whole idea is based off of Rammstein's Ich Will video, but with more cheesy characters. They really have to be the kind who you can have drone cam go around and film awkward moments with.

Maybe its partially done in reality and partly done in an UV node. They can the release all sorts of Big Brother stuff, while the real actors can have a cigarette break.

I'd just drop a few points in artisan, and then forget about skills altogether. Even today, if you believe what you hear on tv, the only things you need to be a Diva are a passable singing voice and a weight problem.

-milk.

Consider Toronto too instead of LA. It's the UCAS's entertainment centre right? Change things up from LA and its image.

I'd actually buy an Artisan skill for each type of instrument, or art, and of course for singing, purely house-ruled. I don't see why being a good singer also makes you a good painter.

Qualities... Braggart? Compulsive behaviour (Vanity) or something. An Addiction too.

Oh and buy Bodyguards. They're in SR4A's general cost thing I believe.

Yeah, I was just thinking about a show like TMZ in 2070. With all the access to high-tech snooping devices, I imagine the Stars and Starlets must take some extreme counter-measures at times. Isn't there a case in the news about Tom Brady's bodyguard(s) shooting at photographers.

Imagine the 'stalker'-type fans in 2070. Whoa.

Waterproof microdrones with cameras. They climb through your plumbing to embed themselves in your shower head in order to take photos.

I vote for Toronto as well, but I'm prejudiced. It's one of my favourite cities, and already bigger than Seattle in 2072. And building (already built?) the biggest movie set in the world. International Film festival. International Jazz Festival. A great opera house that looks like a box but sounds like heaven. City bylaws, etc. are printed in multiple languages, and the city help line works in 90 languages. Peter Ustinoff called it "New York, run by the Swiss." Fallen from that image lately, with gang wars and corruption. What more could a gamer want?

The Artisan Skill is, of course, the way to go. I too wish there was a way to spread the goodness of that all-encompassing Skill.

Check out Bongo Slade for a mix of many of the Qualities, Skills and Adept Powers mentioned here. I use his Enthralling Performance only for his Artisan specialization in drumming. He's currently taken a job for his agent/fixer to go undercover in a band in Seattle for a couple of months in the Way of the Yen thread. All he knows is something 'doesn't feel right' to the agent, and 'something dark' might be going down. Just the right job for a kid in the shadows.

That's our current run, protecting a star from her fan; the stalker also happens to be an ex-Tir Ghost....

i worked up a technomancer once who was supposed to be an indie audio/visual artist. i got the inspiration when i was working with pure::dyne, a live-boot version of linux that works around the program Pure Data, a visual programming language for audio and video effects processing. the very basic level of integrating computer based audio and video composition started me thinking about how easily a technomancer could work together a pretty spectacular A/V presentation using "improvisation" and the like.

heavy artisan skill, lots of social bonuses, idoru paragon, inspired quality, thread edit up to 12 and you have yourself a damn decent audio workstation program. simrig complex form to record bits of life experience to splice into the performance.

anyways, that was my take on a diva. never played the character sadly, but it was supposed to be an LA-based game and her whole goal was to maneuver shadowrunning plus P2.0 into a successful music career.

It's not hard to do a singing/dancing type in SR4. A real diva, I see as a mix of performer and face.

For dancing, gymnastics with that specialty, and there are tons of ways to boost Agility and to boost athletic skills.

For singing, the artisan skill with a specialization in singing, and a decent Intuition. The Inspired quality adds +2 to the skill, and a vocal range enhancer also adds +2 (most pros probably get the cyberware enhancement, instead, though - not as good performance-wise, but with playback, you can always give an optimal vocal performance even when your throat is dry and you are simultaneously doing a complicated dance number).

If you take SURGE or make her a dryad, you can have the Glamour power.

Adepts can also get Kinesics and enthralling performance.

Don't forget to give the diva the Aptitude quality for her artisan skill (be it singing or dancing or whathaveyou if you want her to be genially talented) or the Exceptional Attribute for Charisma (if you just want her to be a fad celebrity that is pretty to look at).

Just my thoughts on the subject.

Sign--

Wacky

Yeah, Glamour looks amazing.

Playing an instrument is more intuition than agility. Performing for an audience however is one part talent and two parts charisma. So I guess that in the studio I'd go with Skill+Intuition and on stage I'd go Skill+Charisma. Weird I know.

Nah, for stage performance I would do Skill + Intuition to make sure you don't screw up performing the art, then Charisma+Con to see how the crowd responds.

Bump.

I got an idea for a troll glam rocker adept - Artisan Skill (Guitar), Improved Ability (Artisan), Attuned to his Gibson. For fun, throw in some Kinesics and Improved Ability (Unarmed Combat), Mesmerizing Ability, Commanding Voice and Improved Initiative (speed guitar!). Make him SURGEd for Metagenic Attribute or Glamor and voila! and you now have a true SR rocker.

- J.

That reminds me of a troll combat adept I made once named Bass. He was playing with a indie band as the bassist, and ran the shadows part time to cover rent. His bass guitar was his baby and his weapon focus, with retractable monofilament axe blades that could be activated with the push of a hidden button on the reinforced neck of his monster bass guitar. I loved playing him.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThePowerOfRock ?

Hahaha, I should remake Bass with the Mentor Spirit: God of Rock (Probably based off the Horned Man). But there are so many choices for which great musician he should be represented by.....

You might also consider a Mystic Adept or Magician from a customized Tradition based on the power of music.