One fun cinematic shtick is when the main character's theme music starts playing. You know that when the music starts playing, the character is going to do something dramatic and amazing.


So, how's this for a fun rule? Every character can take theme music, a clip of, say, 1 minute or something in length. Once per campaign, the player can play the clip of music. While the music is playing, the PC gets -1 TN to all target numbers.

The clip must be played from start to finish....you can't pause the tape and "save" bonus time. This means that even specifically when you hit play is a matter of strategy.

You mean like the entrance music of those funky WWE wrestlers?

Interesting idea but it seems like it would be unfair to some character types as opposed to others. A face brokering a deal real time is going to take a lot longer than a decker blasting through multiple IC or an adept mowing down some gangers.

Altho the idea has some merit as long as the music is derived from 80's porn soundtracks.

Sounds good to me. Anyone know where I can pick up "Eye of the Tiger"?

My character's theme music is Tab…

(Tab… is 32 minutes long EDIT: which you already covered. Never mind )

~J

Stairway to Heaven.

I ran a session one time as a GM where I gave every character something unique as a bonus to their character after I read through their back-history and their gear and talked with them about what they wanted to do with the character.
None of them knew I was going to do this.
Anyways.
One of the bonuses was really quite fun.
The Troll received a -1TN everytime he put on his headphones and cranked his music up (which was old school metallica by the players choice).

However...for every bonus, I gave a handicap. The problem with his bonus was that he couldn't hear jack-$h!t else when he had this going.
That was funny a few times...like when the rest of the team decided to ditch the mision and run...he didn't hear that so he ended up all by himself gunning away with a big cheesy grin.

I choose "Carol of the Bells".

Performed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Metallica.

My votes on Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music, White Boy. That, or the Village People's YMCA (which was the best fight song in a movie ever!).

I don't see how Making of a Cyborg lends itself at all to a dramatic 'moment' of the kind that this would be useful for/suited to. Ignoring the one minute clip thing, you're better off taking stuff from the Innocence soundtrack (eg Kugutsuuta Kagirohi wa Yomi ni Mata Muto would be awesome).

I mentioned that. Possibly Run Rabbit Junk from the first Stand Alone Complex soundtrack would work better?

Character is a rigger, though, so the feel of the music and the feel of the scene can be detached reasonably.

~J

It absolutely would. Admittedly, not a song to play if you plan on your dramatic moment being a conversation, but, then again, the idea is more suited to action and is pretty heavily tongue in cheek anyway.

Our current group (Docmortand's group) has 2 runners who can be best described by a pair of songs by Jim Croce.

"Big, Bad Leroy Brown": Leroy, Ork PhysAd, deadly at close range, and very hard to bring down (just ask Doc and his head-shots. )

"Don't Mess With Jim": Gentleman Jim, Ork Sammy, long gun specialist, not as tough as Jim close up, but very good with a rifle or AR.

This seems like a great idea for running a campaign. (Though, it brings images of the band from "I'm gonna get you Sucka" to mind.) I imagine it'd be another great use for a laptop on the gaming table too -- edit the MP3 to a 1 minute length, and your timer for everything is built in.

As far as actual songs go, I think "Thieves" by Ministry would be a great one for a Shadowrun character.

Did anyone ever play "Tales from the Floating Vagabond"??? There was a character trait that theme music always played when your pc was around. Like if you were sneaking it would be Mission Impossible. Was fairly funny...

The Bloodsport theme. Naturellement.

Altho if anyone from my group starts playing the theme from "Rocky" I will have my NPCs start gunning for headshots with APDS rounds. Great theme song, but I have a violent reaction to it due to something cheesy in my background. *laugh*