A while back I had started working on a tradition of magic based on modern bards, musicians who pour their very essences into their music as the basis for working magic. However, I came up against a wall based on the fact that music comes in so many different styles and tastes that I felt that a single tradition cannot contain them all. If nothing else, what is music to one person is just noise to another. (I, for example, believe that there are two words that are antonymous with music. “Doof” and “Wub”.)

So I started working on traditions that each embodied a broad category of music, but RL happened and it fell by the wayside. Then Brütal Legend hit the shelves, I finished it and, well, this came out. I originally posted this on the Jackpoint foums, but I’m curious to see what Dumpshocker’s make of it.

METAL MAGIC

Concept: The sounds and themes of Heavy Metal speak to the soul and call through astral space to the spirits. Through the elements of Metal, Noise, Blood and Fire, the modern bard can unleash the power of the beast within.
Type: Metal magic is both a summoning and possessing tradition. The difference come with the magician's view. Is the magic of metal something that flows into the listener, or is it something that surrounds and lifts them up?
Combat: Fire (Fire)
Detection: Beasts (Blood)
Health: Guidance (Noise)
Illusion: Man (Man)
Manipulation: Earth (Metal)
Drain: Willpower + Charisma¹

Mentor Spirits: Conceptually, certain mentor spirits can work really well for this tradition. Adversary, Artificer, Bull, Dark Goddess, Dragon, Sky Father, Dark King, Dragonslayer, Firebringer, Seductress and Wise Warrior all fit due to Metal drawing much of it's symbolism and themes from European legends.

And the following is courtesy of CanRay on the Jackpoint Forums²


Adepts: Many Adepts also follow this tradition, and while the Artist’s Way are heavily represented, so are the Warrior’s Way, who practice a blend of Capoeira and out-an-out street-fighting. Surprisingly, some “metal adepts” follow the Invisible Way, blending into the seething crowds and weaving effortlessly through the chaos of the mosh pit.

Mundanes: Metal, in all it’s varieties, has weathered the awakening and two crashes quite well, and is often a favourite of troll and ork gangers, making metal and rap the two most prevalent street-level sounds in the sixth world. Additionally, some Technomancers can be found amongst the followers of this tradition. As one once said, “Not all Idoru are pop-singers.”

¹: I was originally going to make Intuition their drain stat, but as Artisan runs off of Intuition, I felt that it was better to spread the love around a little.
²: I’m personally not happy with the bonus to damage resistance, so I went with combat (fire) and Fire or Earth (Fire, Metal)

the Spirit of Metal needs a second bonus. Every mentor with a composure test at least gets a choice of two bonuses.
Balance test it vs Bear first.

As for bonuses: +2 to a Technical skill of your choice(this counts artisan btw). +2 to Roadie spirits(task) or Groupie spirits(man), or a unique bonus that reduces drain and ap values on Metal element spells.

Needs to be a way to transform into a winged demon.

That and a custom face melting spell.





-k

Oh, I agree. But with Damage Resistance being so powerful, we left it as it's stands. Maybe +2 Artisan, +2 to Beast Spirits? (This is, mostly, a re-imagining of Ormagöden)

What do the words in parentheses signify? Are those the traditional names for the spirits or what?

I'm not sure how many spells there actually are but how about +2 dice to sound based spells?

Metal, Noise, Blood and Fire are the "Elements" of Heavy Metal, according to Brütal Legend's background. Mostly I used that because it was better than nothing. If people have better suggestions for a set of five spirits that could represent aspects of metal, I welcome them.

Very few are printed, but swapping out one element for another is apparently perfectly acceptable, as per the soundwave spell in Street Magic, which is just a fireball with sound instead of fire. But given that Metal, Sonic and Fire are all elements of Heavy Metal, and most represented in the combat spells, and combine that with the push to vulgar action over subtlety...

+2 dice to Combat Spells, +2 dice to summoning either Beast Spirits or Spirits of Man (player must choose one)

The choice represents to two common forms of The Spirit of Metal.

It occurs to me that the mentor still works quite well outside the tradition, also. I also think that I might swap man to health and guardian to illusion.

I don't think that +2 to Combat spells fits the Metal theme very well. This bonus includes very subtle spells like stun bolt/ball but does not include spells like Sound Aura/Wall which are much more thematically appropriate IMHO.

Metal Invisible Way adepts sound weird to me as well.

BTW is it a Possession or Materialization Tradition?

Welp, I found something I'm going to try to worm into the game. I love this.

♪ Dio can you hear me? I am lost and so alone, Im asking for your guidance wont you come down from your throne. ♪

A short prayer in the church of metal

Possession or Materialization is a tricky one...
Becoming metal incarnate is fitting... But so is summoning some ridicolous monster only fit for an album cover...

Have a spirit of metal inhabit your vintage Flying-V to help you shred even more brutally!

Thanks for this, I'm going to tweak it around, post my changes, and try to get to play it in an upcoming one-off with my group.

Should prove to be interesting/fun.

There isn't a single category that doesn't have a little subtlety. Combat fits because it's mostly blatant effects and a large amount of elemental effects as well. Remember, this is for the Spirit of Metal, not Metal Magic as a whole.

Metal Invisible Way adepts would be "the face in the crowd" types, instead of "become one with the shadows" types.

I'm leaning towards Materialization, simply for the different appearances the spirits could manifest in. Possession can seem to make sense on the surface, but ultimately it's counter to the metal culture's belief in individualism. Note that I said "belief", not actuality.

Stagehands and Roadies.

Anybody reminded of this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%BCtal_Legend
or this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jCjlqAri_s

Dang, the dubbing and subtitles unbearable. Here's the original.

And in response to Lionhearted's prayer: Kickapoo 2:08

What about the dice pool bonus for doing power-slides?

Maybe because of the second paragraph of the original post? Just a thought.

Adjusted the mentor spirit's advantage again. Now, if only I had the strength to post across to jackpoint. (Tired and have a head-cold.)

If I ever get to run SR, I think my players shall find themselves face to face with a pair of metal shamans: Jon and Criss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkysjcs5vFU

Dio!

I just came here to say

" WUBwubwubwubwub wuuwuwubwubwub wub wub wub wuwubwubwubwub!"

That is all, carry on minion.

Dubstep tried to kill the metal! But the metal is far to strong!

Dubstep tried... Period.

Metal killed it without even noticing it was around!

CanRay, why must you be so awesome?

Insanity Wolf is currently curled up around my brain.

No, literally, his fur is itching the inside of my skull one hell of a lot.

Fortunately, not all traditions are one or the other, so I've put this to a matter of choice.

There already is a Metal Tradition. The Norse tradition. FREYA!

How's invoking the goddess of fertility metal?

Lets see... possession check... 3 of the 5 best spirits known in the game with no good reason for any of them... check...

Classic exercise in full blown munchkinism and powergaming.

None of the 5 best spirits showed up! I didn't see Mantis, Wasp, Ant, Roach OR Spider!

Edit: Or radiation. (No armor and you WILL die in 24 hours without treatment if exposed to force 9+. You can't say that's not awesome!)
"Munchkinism" and "powergaming" both seem a little strong, in this instance.

Not strong at all... the spirits you just listed are toxic... and not available to PC's.

The spirits in street magic + spirits of man are all noticably stronger than the other spirit types. You'll notice that most posted traditions make far heavier use of those than the ones in the starting book. Think about the reason for that..

Possession is almost always tops on the munchkin charts... especially when both guardian AND task spirits are involved (instant magical skillwires with almost any skill combat or technical... and the type is charisma, which means it makes sense to buy the social charisma skills anyhow for the char).

So lets see... here
Combat: Fire (Fire)
Detection: Beasts (Beasts)
Health: Guardian (Noise)
Illusion: Man (Blood)
Manipulation: Task (Metal)


Fire makes sense, beasts makes sense, noise is nebulous... but guardian doesn't reaally fit except as a powergaming choice, same goes for blood... water is a far better fit, and metal once again... earth. task or guidance makes more sense for noise..

Only You Te0dio...

Hey, how about posting a suggestion BEFORE simply labeling this as "munchkinism and powergaming."

Far heavier? I use two, instead of one. So fucking sue me.Any combat or technical skill, per 3 force of the spirit. And that overrides ALL the host's skills. So you'd have to REALLY want that particular skill RIGHT THEN AND THERE.

And I gave my reasons for choosing Charisma over Intuition in the OP. If I went with INT, you'd have Metal Mages who were by default, Metal GODS, as the artisan skill (singing, playing musical instruments) comes off of... Intuition. Yes, a Metal Mage should be inspiring. Should they be artistic geniuses?

Again, Guardian fits only as they're linked to Health Spells. They way you put it, that would be the ONLY reason to do it, which is just ridiculous in it's generalization. That said, I agree that it's not the best choice, but that's because noise is nebulous, as you put it. Water is not a good fit for Blood because what blood symbolizes in this tradition is the heat of emotion and the power of the music flowing through the listener. Hence why the element is tied to Illusion Spells and hence why they are Spirits of Man.

Still, you've raised a good point with the Task Spirits on Metal. I got caught up in the imagery given for them in the book, and I really shouldn't have allowed that. Looking back on it now, after having tweaked it over the last couple of months, I agree that Spirits of Earth fit the slot in a far better manner than Task Spirits. And as for Noise... Yeah. Guidance. Not Guardian.

Now, off to edit the OP again. Thanks for the input.

Weldun... when you've seen as many people trying to play fast and loose with the rules... it's hard not to call a spade a spade. Normally they have certain things which make them easy to spot... intuition is the most common custom drain attribute (it dovetails with assensing, resisting astral combat, and a whole bunch of other magical activities such as being the stat which resists spells when willpower or body isn't). They normally normally use spirits of men and the ones from Street Magic because those 5 are generally considered more potent than the elementals and beast spirits.

I wasn't criticizing your choice of charisma it makes sense.


And yes possession is full of problems for the GM. Get the metamagic which allows you control your own body while possessed. Channeling. And by strict RAW you have access to both the spirits skills and your own. Not only that the spirit not only augments your physical attributes but replaces your mental AND special attributes (magic and edge) for all purposes except resisting spells cast at you... then you use the lower. So yes you summon a force 6 task spirit on the fly with two skills you don't have and possess yourself with channeling and you have them too.

I don't believe they intended for the vast majority of that. but that is how they wrote the rules for possession and how the channeling metamagic alters them.

Fair 'nuff. As I said, I've adjusted the OP to reflect the new spirit selections. And having the choice of Possession and Manifestation is simply one of theme, they both make sense for the tradition.