Music

If you are in a band, you will need to practice to prepare for performances and then play shows to get yourself out there. Captivating an audience can be difficult, though.

PracticES

All members of a band must be present to Practice. Practicing takes 2 Blocks and gives you +1 Proficiency with your instrument and one additional song per 2 Practices. In addition, every practice your avatar’s attack (see music battles) increases by 5.

ConcertS

When playing music to an audience, use these rules. Your audience has a pool of points similar to HP called Audience Points, or AP. There should be one AP for every member of the audience. The higher the AP of the audience, the more people like you. There can be many layers of AP. The audience can start at negative AP, or they can start at positive AP. This can go all the way from triple negative (we hate you) to triple positive (fan forever). The layer that the audience starts at depends two factors: how critical the audience is, and whether your genre matches the genre of the dominant band in the area. The audience also has a stat called Taste, which should be in the range of 20-30, depending on the audience’s reluctance to accept the new band’s music.

During a concert, you can play as many songs as you have prepared/ time for. Each song is one round. Each band member takes a turn and effectively makes an attack against the audience, just like in combat. Thinking this way, Gain functions as damage (but remember to add instead of subtract damage to the audience’s AP) and Balance as bonus to hit. You also add in your proficiency as normal. No stats are added, however.

In this way, you try to bump up the audience’s AP as much as possible. The level you reach with a certain audience (double positive, etc.) should carry over to your next show in that area. Once you reach the maximum level for that area, you are the dominant band of the area.

Music BattleS

Music battles are shows in which your band and another band play simultaneously. In these battles, you have two goals: win over the audience and defeat the other band’s avatar with your own. An avatar is a ethereal manifestation of your band’s unique sound and musical power. Basically it’s a big glowy monster that appears when your band plays.

Your avatar has two stats: Attack and Sustain. Attack starts at zero and is increased by having practices (see practices). Sustain is equal to (the number of people in your band + the level of the audience’s AP) x 10. Your avatar can take any form, but by increasing it’s sustain it will either become bigger or divide into several smaller avatars.

In music battles, each member of the challenging band takes a turn, and then their band’s avatar takes a turn. Then the same goes for the defending band. An avatar can only do one thing: attack the other band’s avatar. In a music battle, each band member can choose to attack the audience or devote their turn to their avatar. For each member that devotes their turn to their avatar, the avatar gains 1 attack on its next turn.

A music battle is ended when one band’s avatar has been defeated or the show ends. In the case of the former, whichever band defeats the other’s avatar wins. In the case of the latter, whichever band is most liked by the crowd wins.

SOUND SYSTEMS

Usually you will use the house’s sound system, but if there isn’t one, you will have to use a less conventional method. If the price is listed per unit, you need one per person, except for drum sets.

Practice Amp: -4 balance, $100 each

PA: -2 balance, $500

Small Cab: ±0 balance, $300 each

Large Cab: +2 balance, $500 each