Rockopolis
Rockopolis Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Disclaimers
- Chapter 0.5: Role-Playing
- Chapter 1: What Is Rockopolis
- Chapter 2: The World of Rockopolis
- Chapter 3: The Characters
- Chapter 4: Character Creation
- Chapter 5: Traits
- Chapter 6: Relationships
- Chapter 7: The Muses
- Chapter 8: Skills
- Skills to Pay the Bills
- Blues Skills (minimum requirement for acquisition and use: Blues value 2)
- Glam Skills (minimum requirement for acquisition and use: Glam value 2)
- Metal Skills (minimum requirement for acquisition and use: Metal value 2)
- Punk Skills (minimum requirement for acquisition and use: Punk value 2)
- Example of Skills in play
- Skills to Pay the Bills
- Chapter 9: The Band
- Chapter 10: Game Rules: The Off Stage
- Chapter 11: Game Rules: The On Stage
- Chapter 12: Character Growth
- Chapter 13: The Narrator
- Chapter 14: The World in Detail
- Chapter 15: The Adventures
- Chapter 16: Playing the Muses
- Character sheets
Disclaimers
Disclaimer 1
We, the authors and publisher of Rockopolis, do not encourage or incite any of the behaviours that the Muses describe in this book.
Rockopolis is a game that uses the imagination of the Players as its engine, and it is only within the fiction of the game that such behaviours must remain.
In no way do we intend to offend or ridicule anyone who, in real life, suffers directly or indirectly because of these behaviours.
On the contrary, we hope that seeing them in that safe environment, isolated from reality, which is the game, may help people realise how dangerous they are and keep them away from the lives of our Players.
We leave the Muses and their consequences to the Rockers we portray, and we keep for ourselves only the enjoyment derived from the game. The Players may use the Characters to make mistakes and learn to know their consequences, even if only within the fiction.
This is the only experience we would like to see passed on from Character to Player.
Apart from enjoyment, obviously.
Disclaimer 2
"It's not fair, they cited the 'Saccharose of Death' and didn't even mention the 'Glucose of Sorrow'."
"Yes, and imagine, a whole sentence for the 'People's Front of Judea' and none for the 'Judean People's Front'. Shameful..." *
In this manual we name some rock bands. As many will notice, only some of the most famous are cited, and in any case only a few of all those that make up the vast panorama of Rock music.
Having to choose the bands that represent this musical genre, we did not feel up to leaving out the most famous in favour of others, certainly no less deserving but surely less well known to the general public.
How long do you think it will take, after this book is published, before the first complaints arrive because the favourite band of this or that reader is not cited among these pages?
We are convinced that the first remonstrances will arrive before the ink of the print has even dried, so we try to forestall them with the following disclaimer:
We cannot cite all the rock bands in the world.
We are obliged to limit ourselves to some of the most famous, to encourage immersion in the theme of the game even for those who know very little or nothing about Rock music.
It is not that we do not know other Rock musicians, mind you: one of the two authors is an enthusiast with a huge collection of vinyl records, the other has a past as a singer in a Rock band. Even the publisher writing these words is a musician.
We will not be the greatest experts in the world in the field, but we have accumulated some experience, otherwise we would not have undertaken this crazy editorial project.
Simply put, we had to make choices.
If these have meant that the name of your favourite band is not cited in this manual, well... don't break your balls over it.
- No political reference, only a film quote.
Disclaimer 3
In this manual you will find citations, sometimes explicit, sometimes less obvious, of famous Rock bands and songs (and not only Rock).
They are often written in the text in italics. If you do not know the titles presented, look them up and listen to them. They are the soundtrack that accompanied us in writing this manual, and they can be perfectly integrated into your gaming experiences.
Minos Games and the authors of Rockopolis obviously do not hold the rights to any of these songs.
Truly. We are sorry, but it is so.
We would have liked to write things like Is this the real life, is this just fantasy? but unfortunately others got there before us.
Perhaps, had we had the time, we could have done it ourselves, but they beat us to it.
Moreover, had we invested our time in writing lyrics like these, we would probably not have had any left to dedicate to this book, and you could not play Rockopolis.
We have sacrificed ourselves for your enjoyment.
Be grateful.
Disclaimer 4
In this book you will find what is called "explicit language".
Swear words, vulgar expressions and references to things as real as they are unbearable for some. The Muses, in this game, represent the worst vices of people, and it is inevitable that we go a little way into describing them, since they are one of the load-bearing elements of the game.
We never go into depth, we never explore the abominations or the worst aspects in detail, but if you are people with imagination it is easy that you can imagine them yourselves.
If you are frightened or disturbed by this, it is better that you stop reading now.
If you want to continue, we have warned you.
Chapter 0.5: Role-Playing
Rockopolis is a Role-Playing Game (usually abbreviated RPG, or GdR in Italian).
A fucking Role-Playing Game, we would say, but for now we keep up a semblance of seriousness.
Most people who read this manual probably already know what it is, but some may not.
So let us try to give a definition that may help newcomers and make the "experts" grumble (because the "experts" always grumble).
A Role-Playing Game is, first of all, a game. Surprised, eh? No? Don't lie.
A game, whatever other characteristics it may have, exists to satisfy its participants.
So, for convenience, we can sum it up: the aim of Rockopolis is to have fun.
Since you are not reading this manual to tell jokes, how does one get fun out of Rockopolis?
By playing a Role.
Playing is guided by two elements (you decide the order of importance):
- the intentions of the player;
- the rules you will find later in this book.
Playing a Character in a Role-Playing Game is like playing the typical childhood game "let's pretend I was..." with a few rules added. It is starting the telling of a story with "What would happen if...?", in a curious blend of fable, board game and improvised theatre. *
In the case of Rockopolis, it could be "What would happen if we were a group of Rockers aiming for success who have to clash with the harsh world of up-and-coming bands and with their own personal demons, which they cannot free themselves from?"
Any variation on the theme is of course just as good. As long as there is Rock music, perdition and fun, Rockopolis can give you what you want.
In this Role-Playing Game, one of the Players will take on the role of the Narrator.
The Narrator is the one to whom the other Players turn to establish what happens in the world in reaction to their Characters' choices. The Narrator is the one together with whom the other Players build the story of their Character and of the Band, narrating all the elements of the "story" that the Players act out together.
As the other Players put their imagination into playing their own Character, the Narrator puts their imagination into building the game world and into the conduct of the characters and stories that bring this world to life. All these constructions are shared with the others, according to an agreement (implicit or explicit) among the players, so that EVERYONE can have fun.
From now on we will call the Player who is Narrator simply the Narrator, and all the other Players simply Players. This does not mean that the Narrator is not playing. Never forget it.
What do you need to play?
This book, your imagination and little else: some printed sheets of paper (the Character Sheets, which you find at the end of this book or on our website, together with a cool editor to customise them: http://www.minosgames.com/rockopoliseditor/ita/rockopoliseditorita.html), something to write and erase with, and a few normal six-sided dice (from now on called d6).
The Character Sheets serve to note down the main things that happen to your Rocker, and the dice are used to simulate "fate" in his or her life.
When the crowds are gone
When does a Role-Playing Game end?
When the participants want it to, or when the story built by the players "wants" it.
Your games can last the length of a single evening, or be articulated over several "sessions". Some Role-Playing Games can go on for years and see the evolution of the Characters over time and events.
There are no constraints; the decision belongs to the players alone.
And what happens between one session and the next?
Life goes on and, if the game has involved you, you will find yourself thinking back to your Character, waiting to be able to play them again, and reliving their adventures in your mind.
Or at least, that is what we hope for you.
We would like Rockopolis to be, for you, that concert you always dreamed of playing, or even just of seeing, that Band you would have wanted to form to SMASH IT UP BIG TIME.
We would like that, between one session and the next, what remains of Rockopolis is the feeling of when, after a concert, the crowd slowly leaves, carrying away its own music and its own life.
- These words repeat the definition given by Cristian Papi, author of the Role-Playing Game "1300". They seemed to us simple and all-encompassing enough to deserve quoting.
Finding other words just as valid would have been very difficult; why struggle needlessly?
Example of play
What follows is an example of how a possible session of Rockopolis might unfold.
Around the table we will have our Narrator (N) and the Players Alex (A), Barbara (B), Cecile (C) and David (D), who play the Characters of the same names.
The session opens with the Narrator introducing the scene. In our example the scene seems to have already begun, with the Band having already had to face some mishaps.
N: You are now in front of the address you were given. You can see the sign of the "Rabbit Cage Club", the venue where you have to play tonight. It would be hard not to see it: it is enormous, with a very strong light. In the area there seem to be mostly closed shops, given the hour. Few houses. Ah, the sirens that were following you seem to have faded into the distance: you can still hear them faintly, but they seem to be far behind you.
C: Finally! Rabbit Cage, the Teddy Bear's Claws are arriving! Tonight we smash everything!
B: Congratulations, Alex, spitting at the cops was the idea of the century. You made us really late, as usual.
A: Screw them, those bastards! Because you lot got in the way and took me away, otherwise I would have...
C: The important thing is that we lost them. Good for you that I drive better than they do. If it were up to you, we would never have got here tonight.
A: Running away, that's what you're good at! Five minutes with those pigs was all I needed, and...
B: Shut up, you idiot, you always get us into trouble.
C: While they keep bickering, I try to park as close as possible.
N: There seems to be no space nearby, all the spaces are taken. There must be an awful lot of people in the venue, since it is unlikely that they are residents of the area. You do remember, though, having seen a small car park about a kilometre from here, as you were arriving. It is not very big, but there might be room.
C: Damn, all those people for tonight's concert... who knows how many there are. Come on, come on, come on, I'm so pumped!
D: What, do you want to park down there? We've got all the instruments to carry, if you park far away we'll arrive wrecked and even more late. Forget whether there's a space. Put it on the pavement, in a garden, between the pews of a church, wherever you like! Just don't make it fall to me again to carry all the instruments on my back, as usual.
C: You're not wrong... so I'll park wherever, as long as it's near the entrance.
N: There's only the pavement.
C: Fine, the pavement. Carefully, I don't want to ruin the car by climbing up.
D: Perfect, as soon as we stop I get out and start unloading. And I'll light a cigarette, since you can't smoke in this car: heaven forbid the upholstery gets ruined...
C: In your car you do as you like, in mine I give the orders.
D: Hey, Barbara, Alex, stop arguing and give me a hand.
A: What? But it's her that...
D: Stop it.
B: No, it's him who always plays the arsehole...
D: ENOUGH!
A: Ok, ok. My jaw still hurts from last time, don't get worked up.
N: While you unload the instruments, you see that in front of the doors of the venue where you are to play shortly there are some people. There are five of them, in dark clothes, and they are coming towards you.
B: Audience?
C: I reckon Security. And what if they want me to move the car?
B: Who cares, they're not police. They can't even give us a fine.
A: Who are they?
N: They are burly, but they would not seem to be Security. It seems to you that you know them.
N: As they come a little closer, under the light of the street lamps, you recognise them. They are the Panic Fairies.
D: Who, those stupid meatheads we ripped the instruments off the other night?
N: Yes. They do not have a friendly expression. As you will remember, they are all quite burly, with pumped-up muscles that they willingly show off with tight T-shirts and sleeveless denim jackets. Here and there a stud or a chain shows. The one in front, the blond long-haired guy with broad shoulders, stops a few metres from you.
"You're the bastards who robbed us, eh? Tonight we'll give you the concert out here."
D: Oh, how lovely. I had a punch with your name on it, just saved.
C: But you don't even know his name...
D: It says "Arsehole Face", it can only be him.
N: The guy goes pale. The others behind him move forward, and the lad beside him takes something out of his pocket, like a long, thick pen. He smiles while fiddling with it for a moment, then the tip catches fire; a bluish flame. He smiles more and more as he shows you the gadget.
B: Could it be a portable blowtorch?
N: It really does look like one, yes. The long-haired one from before smiles at you malignantly. "This time we'll really hurt you."
B: Ohhhhhhhhhhh, how lovely, how lovely, how lovely, HOW LOVELY!
N: The five seem about to attack you, but hearing you scream like that they hold back. "What have you got to be so happy about, bitch? Do you like burns?"
B: Do I like them? More than anything else! I take out the bottle, I said I had it ready under the car seat.
C: What bottle? What crap are you keeping in my car?
B: It's a "special" bottle. Let's say it can serve as a reserve if we run dry. Or to set off a bit of fireworks.
C: What does that mean?
A: I'd say it means she's prepared a Molotov.
C: You had me driving around with a Molotov under the seat? So that if they caught us for what Alex did and searched us, they'd lock us up for that too?
B: No, it's not a Molotov. To be a Molotov it has to have the fuse, and this one doesn't have it yet.
D: If you want to make up for it, I have a cigarette. Would that do the trick?
B: I'd say not, but you can always try.
D: I've got a lighter too, of course, here it is.
A: Not to interrupt your delightful little sketch, but we have five tender little muscular problems in front of us. What do we do?
N: Looking at them, you notice that they no longer seem to have much desire to pick a fight. David's lighter and the word "Molotov", which they heard mentioned after seeing the bottle, have had their effect. Little by little the Panic Fairies have begun to back away, taking advantage of your argument. They are not running yet, but it is clear that they will start doing so any moment now.
B: No, no, don't you dare go away, eh... You wouldn't compare a blowtorch with a cigarette, would you? Do you realise how much more spectacular it is to light up with that gadget? Come on, tonight we really will light up this street, not like this bloody sign!
A: There it goes, starting again. Shouldn't we at least try to stop her this time?
D: Why? Every time she starts something fun happens...
C: Because we're late, because until five minutes ago the police were chasing us, and because if she starts setting things on fire she won't stop until the whole neighbourhood is razed to the ground.
D: Ok, in fact those seem to me like two pretty valid reasons.
A: There were three, idiot.
D: Shut up, you know numbers aren't my strong point.
A: Ah, is that it? I thought it was because you're already half drunk before the evening even starts.
D: Says mister "The amplifier was broken, so I threw it out of the window before realising I hadn't plugged it in".
N: The Panic Fairies now turn and run away. Perhaps they thought they were frightening and could easily intimidate you, but if you had listened to your own argument from the outside you would understand how much fear such madness can unleash.
B: No, bastards! They can't leave, I want that blowtorch! I'm going after them right away.
C: No!
B: I've already gone, too late. I'm not letting them get away.
A: Shit, I'll try to run after her.
C: Me too.
D: I knew it! In the end unloading the instruments falls to me again. Ugly bastards, as soon as they come back...
How will this session end? Will the Teddy Bear's Claws manage to play at the Rabbit Cage Club, or will Barbara's Muse Ifrit get the upper hand, turning the evening into a gleaming hell? Will the concert be a success or a failure? Will the police manage to find them again? Will David break his back carrying all the equipment?
When you are the ones who play the Characters and the Narrator, you will be able to find out together.
And if, at the end of reading, you have thought that you would have done things differently, and that if you had been the ones playing those Characters things would have gone another way, then this introduction has served its purpose.
Now you are ready to live your adventures to the sound of Rock.
Chapter 1: What Is Rockopolis
This is not the greatest RPG in the world, no, this is just a Tribute.
If you are reading this page, it means you want to enter a world made of crowded venues, terrible vices and an enormous amount of Rock music.
Become a Rock star!
It is, or has been, the dream of many. In Rockopolis we cannot guarantee that you will become one, but you will certainly experience what it means to try, and above all, what its price is.
You will need no musical skill at all to play Rockopolis.
Rockopolis is a role-playing game that will let you experience the intoxicating thrill and the deadly difficulty of being an up-and-coming Rockstar.
You will live as outcasts, longing for a crumb of recognition for your efforts.
You will step onto the stages the way gladiators went down into the arena, ready to fight for something as great as it is ephemeral.
You will climb the steep slopes that lead to success, falling several times along the way.
Finally, if your spirit, your music and your Rock essence are sufficiently solid, you may reach the summit of success.
Be warned, though: from up there the falls are more dangerous than ever.
Like Icarus, who flew too high and crashed to the ground, your Characters risk the same fate.
The road you travel may be a steep staircase to Paradise or a wide motorway to Hell. The staircase is very slippery and the road extremely fast to travel, especially when something inside you drags you with all its strength along exactly that path.
The Players play individual members of a Rock Band, all devoted to achieving a single goal: to become Rock idols starting from the bottom. Perhaps from their garage, or from an abandoned building.
Or they may already be Rock idols, forced to fight their worst vices in order to stay human while surfing the crest of the wave.
The Characters may have to compete with the other bands of the city (or of the state) to emerge, picking their way through the various sub-genres of Rock to satisfy their own tastes and those of the audience.
They may have to try to get noticed by the most important producers or sponsors, or fight to carry forward their message of rebellion in a society that is all too conformist.
The choice is yours.
What matters is that there are challenges and difficulties. You play Characters who are part of the real world: you do not think you will get by without facing one challenge after another...
In Rockopolis you will face the stench of rehearsal rooms, the terror of the Characters' darkest paranoias, and the monstrous individuals who populate the dense undergrowth of the Rock underground.
If all this does not frighten you enough, let your Characters look inside themselves, so that they can be frightened properly.
Crazy Train
The greatest enemy often does not come from outside, but from inside.
The danger lurks, hidden in the personality of every Character, in the way they manage to find inner peace and their own Inspiration.
Their Muse.
The Muse is what forces the Character into highly antisocial behaviour, binding their personal and professional life. The balance between the creative drive and the preservation of one's own "inclusion" in society is very delicate.
The price of failure will be the abyss of isolation or self-destruction.
Unfortunately, every victory will only postpone the next challenge.
But that is life: it never tires of testing the Characters and their personal demons.
The very life of the Band, including its internal and external Relationships, will be influenced by the Characters' Muses. In the tendency of the Characters to give in to their own Muse in order to obtain the coveted Inspiration for themselves (and, sometimes, for the Band), lies the constant risk of the Band being isolated from the useful contacts that could provide them with precious musical opportunities.
Or of not even being able to walk safely around the city.
Halfway between the desire to assert oneself and the desire to self-destruct, forever poised between the ambition for applause from society and the refusal of that same society, will you be able to resist the call of your Inspiring Muses enough not to fall into the abyss into which they try to draw you?
You will succeed only if you know how to defeat your worst opponent: yourselves.
Your companions, your Band, may perhaps come to your aid, if only they are not the first to give in to their own difficulties.
Fighting the World
The Band is your family. Your band of adventurers against the monsters that infest the gloomy dungeons of society, as fans of the Fantasy genre might put it.
Only with a united Band will you be able to subdue your enemies with your mastery of the endless weapons of Rock, and to keep its demons at bay.
If the outside world excludes you, chews you up and spits you out, rejects you and forces you to fight for your dignity as artists and as people, the Band is what will let you survive all of this.
The goal is one, shared by the whole group: arm yourselves with dice and all your desire to shatter the world, turn up the volume, switch on the lights and begin the first show of your career.
That career which, in Rockopolis, will lead you to become Young Rock Idols.
From the Cradle to the Grave
All Rock Bands have had different events and certainly unique stories.
Nevertheless, it is still possible to isolate some almost obligatory steps that every Rock Band has met along its path.
The (crazy) idea of forming a Rock Band can arise from any condition: it ranges from love of an already famous Band or song to the desire to impress someone with one's music, passing through the simple desire for fame and money.
Even boredom can be a valid reason to start playing in a Rock Band.
It may happen that you answer ads found online or pinned up in music shops or pubs, reading things like "Metal guitarist seeks band to play covers and create original material", or "Amateur singer wanted, not a prima donna".
If you have never read any and are curious, or want ideas to use in the Rock adventures you will live with Rockopolis, search online for "band ads" and educate yourselves.
The number of members in a Band varies enormously from group to group: from two to more than a dozen.
The White Stripes had just two members, while Parliament had more than ten.
The most common line-up is four or five members: vocals, guitar, bass and drums (with an occasional keyboard or second guitar). Nothing prevents a band member from playing more than one instrument (typically vocals plus another).
As in any good Role-Playing Game, therefore, here too the only limit is your imagination.
If you already know Rock Bands you may freely draw inspiration from them to create your starting line-up, or develop an ensemble all your own.
If you do not know any Rock Bands, go and look for some straight away and educate yourselves!
The musicians who make up the Band, and their inclinations, will determine the Band's style. Each musician brings their own influences, and from the first rehearsals the main characteristics will emerge which can make the style and sound of your Band unique in its kind.
If at first there is a bit of uncertainty, that will be more than normal: only time and togetherness will allow the Band and its members to find "their own path".
Needs of the Band often emerge from rehearsals.
These may concern the need for better technical preparation (study, you goats!), or equipment: mixers, stage clothes, effects and instruments better than those already owned, and anything else that can make the Band's performances better in some respect.
All these things, alas, cost money, so obtaining them will not always be simple.
Once the rehearsals are done, the Band is ready to play a concert!
The first concert is a bit like a boxer's first fight: you climb into the ring expecting the taste of success on your lips, and you come down with the taste of blood (and a few bruises).
But there is no defeat that does not strengthen, and soon the Star soul of our musicians will be able to come out and show itself in all its splendour.
Speaking of Genres: Rockopolis uses four Rock "sub-genres" as Souls (that is, as descriptors of the Character's basic abilities), namely Metal, Punk, Blues and Glam. But these are absolutely not the only musical Genres you can play with your Band in Rockopolis.
You will find the detailed rules on this in chapter 11.
The start of live concerts is something of a watershed in the life of the Band, and the first important hurdle to overcome.
Will you be able to recognise and carry out your task as entertainers and artists, or will you retreat back into your private life, continuing to rehearse and play only for yourselves and a few intimate friends?
If you manage to capture the attention of the listeners and enjoy the feeling of your own performance, then you will have opened the doors of your career in Rock.
One thing no Band can do without is rehearsals.
Rehearsals are essential for practising, deciding the setlist for concerts and preparing the songs to bring to the stage (whether covers, that is, reworkings of other Bands' songs, or original material).
Live concerts, moreover, are the moments in which the "personality" of the Band (and the musical personality of its members) evolves, using internal dynamics which, if well exploited, may become a sort of trademark of the band.
The case of the Beatles is emblematic, and is often held up as the prime example of the alchemy of a rock band.
The Beatles perfectly represented the evolution of the internal dynamics of a Rock Band.
At first the Band was cohesive, being entirely directed towards a single goal, and the personalities of the individual members made it possible to diversify even their audience target: the nice but serious John Lennon, the histrionic but more carefree Paul, the silent but talented George and the underrated madcap Ringo.
The internal dynamics of the Beatles also developed as rivalry between the members of the Band, to the point of leading to misunderstandings never fully resolved, including over the composition of songs (often split between Paul and John, with George pushed to the margins despite his artistic maturation, and Ringo almost completely ignored).
In this case the Beatles' dynamics represent the classic explosion of Rock genius for better and for worse: the members of the band can draw close and move apart with equal force.
Careful!
Not all dynamics can be positive.
It may happen that you disagree about musical genres, or about your roles on stage (remember the advert that was looking for a "singer, not a prima donna"?).
If the Band is not professional (that is, if being a musician is not the only job of the Band's members), work commitments may get in the way, or family or personal ones may do so.
The Band is the first to feel these problems, and every small blow it receives can contribute to its breaking up.
Was it not someone who sang, "It's a long way to the top, if you wanna Rock 'n' Roll"?
The Band is also the place where ideas, vices and approaches to life meet. This can be a strong bond, or it can become a breaking point.
Members often mature together, and growth does not always bring their paths together.
In short, an emerging Band, whether it wants to become famous or to remain at local level, is a delicate mechanism in constant danger of becoming unbalanced.
What will the future of the Band be?
Will it decide to become ever more professional, improving its technical and interpretative aspects, aiming at a wider audience and greater fame?
Will it record albums, take (or give) music lessons, end up on posters, or collapse under internal and external pressures?
We Will Rock You
Let us say our Band has managed to make a name for itself locally and build a following of loyal fans. This could be the right moment to make the leap in quality by becoming a professional Rock Band.
They will therefore begin to earn a "salary" from their musical passion!
What can go wrong in a dream like this?
More or less everything.
Performing non-stop, creating original songs, taking part in exhausting tours, recording as many albums as possible so as not to be forgotten and to make ends meet, consoling oneself with the growing number of fans in order to face the growing number of haters, fighting one's own invincible, worst urges, surviving media exposure.
Look out, it's rough and mean!
If the Band does not hold up, if its members cannot bear this enormous weight, they may still enter history.
Their star will have shone with all the intensity it could, burning them and consuming them in order to keep itself alight.
Not all myths become such while alive.
History will continue to carry their names, if not their lives.
And if History one day forgets them, we hope that you Players never will.
Prologue
What follows is the story that our fans had the chance to "play" and partly write through our Facebook page.
It represents what could happen during an adventure of Rockopolis.
From June to September 2018, every Monday and Thursday a paragraph was published, at the end of which there were some options to choose from. Readers voted each time for the choice they preferred, and the next paragraph was written in accordance with the choice made, carrying the story forward.
For this reason, if at the end of reading a paragraph you want to know which choice the readers made and how the story went on, you need only go to the page indicated at the end.
1967, Monterey Pop Festival.
Jimi Hendrix, living legend of the guitar, sets his instrument down on the ground, douses it with flammable liquid and sets it alight.
Not many people know that it is not his beloved Stratocaster, to which he is extremely attached and which he does not want to damage.
While the flame is still burning, Jimi grabs it and smashes it repeatedly on the stage, destroying it.
The concert enters history.
At the end of the evening, when the time comes to clean up the stage and the backstage, the person in charge is faced with an incredible fact.
The destroyed guitar is there, intact and working, although bearing the evident marks of the "torture" it has suffered. Fractures in the wood, burns, and yet... it seems ready to play again.
The attendant makes it disappear, and for years nothing more is known about it.
All sorts of rumours have circulated, and many have turned up with an instrument resembling the legendary guitar, but nobody has ever managed to convince all the experts.
A few years ago, however, Mr. Wildcraft, one of the most famous music collectors in the world, made a revelation: after years of searching and chasing, he managed to obtain the original guitar, now the most valuable piece in his private collection.
Nobody knows through which channels he procured it, but it is known that the man has contacts all over the world, with people of every kind.
The very few, mainly experts and collectors in their own right, who have had the privilege of seeing it in the owner's mansion were stunned: the guitar is undoubtedly original, and although it shows the signs of the damage it has suffered, it is incredibly playable.
When Wildcraft used it to play a few chords, 1967 came thundering back through that instrument, which, it is clear, the gods of Rock have decided to save.
What seemed a legend has thus proved to be truth.
But the guitar's ordeals are not over.
A couple of months ago Wildcraft's villa was burgled. Of the entire collection, the only piece that vanished was precisely the legendary instrument.
The owner is willing to do anything to get it back, and the news has reached you, who are convinced you know the thief.
You are only undecided about which of two people you know very well it could be.
You are perhaps the only one who knows details of their past that make them the most probable culprits: for as long as they kept up their musical activity you played together and shared endless misadventures, until you parted on terrible terms. So terrible that you still carry the scars of that night, of that shootout.
You also have an idea of how you could make the culprit expose themselves in order to recover it.
You are Michael King, a Rocker with a past of great promise and even greater disappointment. Your passion for fire and for gambling has got you into trouble that your music has not managed to solve. Although you have stayed in the scene, for years you have not landed a proper gig.
Now you have a new band with which you are ready to smash it, and if you could ingratiate yourself with Mr. Wildcraft you would have a foothold to reach unexpected heights.
Or if you could get that guitar...
Read the first paragraph on page 35.
Transcriber's note: the printed book directs the reader to page 35 for the first paragraph, but the paragraph printed as "Paragrafo 1" is on page 33, in chapter 3 (see "Story: Paragraph 1" there). The page reference is reproduced as printed.
Chapter 2: The World of Rockopolis
We Built This City on Rock 'n' Roll
Where is Rockopolis?
The world in which this game is set is a terrible world: ours.
There is no "city" of Rockopolis, unless you want one: the city in which you set your adventures is the one (or those) that you yourselves choose as the stage.
The chaos of the cities, the ferment of concert halls, the noise of bars and alleys: these will be your scenery.
Everything else, whether trains, metro, cars, roads, shops or citizens, will be the elements that give depth to your stories, making them more vivid within the imagination of the Players.
When is Rockopolis?
It can be today's date, slightly in the future or slightly in the past. With a minimal effort of adaptation it can be in the recent past or the near future. Pushing the effort further one can move even further...
Pushing the effort further, one can move even further back in time.
This book assumes that you want to play "now" and is designed to fit today's reality.
What Are the Important Elements of Rockopolis?
The presence of certain elements in Rockopolis stories is almost obligatory.
Musical instruments and the shops where they are bought, venues and stages on which to perform, rehearsal rooms in which to practise, and an audience more or less adoring in front of which to let loose. Imagining Rock without these elements would be, to say the least, a stretch.
Nothing prevents you from trying to create stories that contain none of them, but this book will describe them as though they were always present.
In this chapter, in particular, rehearsal rooms and venues will be described.
Note: this does not mean that all the elements described above must be "close" to our Players or easy to reach.
They may be found in other cities, require conditions of access, or in any case not be easily available.
Other elements, on the other hand, are entirely at the discretion of the Players and the Narrator, as are their characteristics.
What Is There in the Cities (or, more generally, the Places) Where Your Stories Take Place?
The choice is yours.
Planning these elements is essential to create a coherent, credible and interesting environment in which to play.
A setting in which there is no element typical of Rock could be excessively difficult (a desert island would not offer many adventure hooks in this game), just as one so "paradisiacal" for rockers that no need, no particular impulse to action, arises.
The right mix, the exact dosage of the places that will form the backdrop to your stories, will be chosen by you; the important thing is that there be stimuli so that the Characters can live adventures through which to grow musically and personally.
Being a game set in the modern world, it will certainly not be difficult for you to find inspiration for the necessary elements and describe them adequately.
Since the Characters will have to interact with an audience (or at least, one hopes so for their sake), it will also be important to decide what kind of audience these places host.
Their musical tastes, the fashions they follow, the venues they frequent, their relationships with the Characters' Muses: all these can be important points in creating a setting that is interesting to play.
Below we list some questions that the Players and the Narrator can use to establish the main characteristics of their Rock "world".
It is not essential to answer all of them, of course, but even with some of them one can outline a world sufficiently interesting to set your stories in.
What size is the city in which the Characters move (or the cities)?
What particular social or political conditions does it have?
What places important to music are there in the city (rehearsal rooms, venues and stages to play on, musical instrument shops, other)?
What are the important places (both musically and otherwise) near the city?
Can the history of these places have repercussions on the Characters and on their music?
What are the musical tastes of the city's people?
Which venues do the city's people frequent?
Which fashions do the city's people follow?
How do the city's people relate to the Characters' Muses?
What other musicians (famous and otherwise) are present in the city?
Who are the Non-Player Characters who may come to be part of the Characters' stories?
These questions are, of course, not the only ones capable of defining your "world", but they can already provide sufficient information and in some cases already supply hooks for adventures to the sound of Rock.
In the Mood
Besides how to characterise the world of your Rockopolis adventures, you will also have to decide its mood.
Rockopolis gives you the possibility of living carefree, swashbuckling and fun adventures, but also the possibility of reflecting on the life of those who suffer from addictions, of those who cannot avoid burning out in order to reach success.
Many usually choose the first option: think of the film The Blues Brothers and the adventures its protagonists live. Rockopolis can give you exactly that kind of fun, and it is no surprise that many decide to play in pursuit of this result.
Others, however, we have noticed, decide to explore the darker side of their Character, examining their difficulties and weaknesses, and reflecting on how these condition their life. Not only the life on stage, of course, but also and above all the social and human one.
There is room in Rock for this too, even if at a superficial glance it may not seem so.
The choice is yours.
Some of you may not know this historic film.
No problem, the following instructions can remedy that.
- Close this book, keeping your finger on this page.
- Turn the book so that the spine faces your face.
- Strike your face violently with the hard spine of the book.
- Note in your diary, paper or digital, that you must repeat this exact procedure for the next 7 days at the same time. At the end of the 7 days you must automatically renew the procedure for another week, unless in the meantime you have remedied your unjustifiable ignorance.
Chapter 3: The Characters
Who Do You Think You Are?
In Rockopolis, a Character is the playful alter ego of one of the Players, and is one of the many children of Rock.
Music is one of its reasons for living, a source of leisure and, why not, of work. Sometimes it is the solution to its problems, sometimes it is the source of them.
Our Rocker will probably be a musician able to play an instrument (usually bass, drums, guitar, keyboards or voice, but the options are many more), and embodies all or some of the aspects of the world of Rock.
Rebellion against preordained patterns, brotherhood with fellow Rocker friends, the abandonment of inhibitions in search of inspiration, going beyond what we know: all of these could be some of the characteristics inherent in the soul of our Character.
The Character Sheet
In Rockopolis each Character is described on its Character Sheet, which you can see on the facing page. At the back of the book you will find it reproduced again, also in a printer-friendly version, so that you can photocopy it.
On our website, at http://www.minosgames.com/rockopoliseditor/ita/rockopoliseditorita.html, you can also try our Sheet editor with which to create and print your personalised Character Sheet.
Let us analyse the elements of the sheet.
Name
Do you really want us to explain what is meant by "Name"?
Granted, Rockers usually love beer, but do you not think it excessive to leaf through this manual completely drunk?
Okay, okay, as you wish, we will explain this too.
In the space that follows the word "Name" you must write the name of your Character.
Incredible, eh?
Feel free to give full rein to your imagination.
Stage Name
Sometimes the Names that Characters carry from birth are too common, banal, uninteresting.
Sometimes it is more interesting to present yourself with a stage name, a pseudonym that contains within it a part of the Character's musical message, more than the ordinary name given to them by their parents could ever do.
If with the Character's Name you have given free rein to your imagination, with the Stage Name you must outdo yourselves: it is what will be written on the billboards, it is what your fans will learn about you before anything else.
Want something that stays with them? Rack your brains.
Experience
This is a score that represents how much the Character has learned during their career as a Rocker.
A Character starting out will have a very low Experience value or zero, but as they gain experience in the hard world of Rock this value will increase.
When the score has reached sufficient values, it can be "spent" to improve your Character. More information on this is given in chapter 12.
The Souls
The 4 Souls (Metal, Punk, Blues and Glam) define the "skeleton" of the Character.
They indicate the areas in which they are more or less capable, and are the basis for the use of all the subsequent descriptions.
The Character Sheet printed at the back of the book has these labelled fields: Name; Stage Name; Experience; the Souls 1 to 4 (Metal, Punk, Blues, Glam); Inspiration; Traits; Relationships; Muses; Skills; and Equipment, with the sheet's side column labelled MONEY (Denaro).
The Souls (continued)
Each of them has a value ranging from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 4.
The higher the value, the more important the influence of that Soul on the Character, and the greater the chances of success when involved in situations that require relying on that Soul.
Let us look at them one by one.
Story: Paragraph 1 (Prologue)
In the rehearsal room Patrick, the Band's bassist, is lying on the floor.
Two seconds ago he was not, but he would not stop shouting, preventing you from explaining your idea.
You had to use the only method you know works perfectly with him.
A headbutt.
A single, HARD headbutt.
You start talking again, calmer, rubbing your forehead:
"As I was telling you, I'm certain I know who stole Wildcraft's guitar. We organise an underground contest and the thief will turn up. We return the guitar to Wildcraft and that's that: he'll help us break through."
Adele, the drummer, looks at you as if trying to focus on a very small object: "Ok... can you repeat that? A bit more slowly, please..."
You look despairingly at Rebecca, who is placidly stroking Mr Spice, a cross between a cat and a tax collector, which is lying in her lap. She, who calls Adele "That Lush" (making the capitals incredibly audible) when the latter cannot hear her, says to her: "I'll explain it to you later, dear."
Then she turns to you, while Patrick gets up grumbling and, passing well away from you, goes to sit on a chair at a safe distance.
"Ok, let's say the idea is feasible. IF Finch gives us the place to play. IF we find the money to sponsor the event. IF enough bands take part. And IF you prove you're right about the thief. A whole pile of IFs... Which do you want to solve first?"
- Contact Markus Finch, who runs the "underground" channels of the city, to try to organise the clandestine event?
- Try to contact Mr. Wildcraft to get economic help from him?
- Spread the word among the bands to get the greatest possible turnout for the event?
- Caution is never too much: call your contacts in the underworld to get confirmation of your suspicions?
Continue on page 44.
Attention! The fact that Rockopolis's Souls are named after four "sub-genres" of Rock does not in any way mean that these are the only genres you can play, or that the game takes them into consideration! You can create Pop, Ska, or musicians with any other musical inclination you want.
Metal represents physical strength and sturdiness. In short, the Character's physical prowess. A high value of Metal indicates a mighty physique, a low value a frail one.
Punk indicates the speed and dexterity of the Character, as well as their quickness of reflexes. A high value of Punk will mean a fast and skilful character, a low value a clumsy and hampered one.
Blues represents intellectual abilities: with a high value of Blues it will not be hard to overcome difficulties with intelligence, while with a low value one must rely on other things.
Glam represents social abilities: with a high value it will be easy to create bonds and friendships, and to move comfortably within society. On the contrary, a low value makes all these things much harder.
Each Soul will be used in play when situations arise that require the use of the ability linked to it. If there is a situation you wish to resolve by force, then it is Metal that you will use.
The Rolls, described in more detail in chapter 10, are based on the Souls.
The Souls, however, are not merely descriptors of the Character's physical, mental and social characteristics. The predominant Soul, the one with the highest value compared with the others, will also tend to be the main "attitude" of the Character when they face various situations.
A Character with a high value of Metal will tend to use physicality to solve their problems. This does not mean they will not consider other opportunities, or that they will blindly charge forward every time flexing their muscles, but as a general rule they will tend to find a more physical kind of approach easier.
It is also easy to imagine and understand: if you are a muscle-bound giant, strong as a bull, it will come naturally to you to use this quality to get out of as many problems as possible. Why struggle with approaches based on characteristics in which you are weaker?
The same goes for Punk, Blues and Glam: the Character will tend to behave in a way that reflects most strongly the Soul that makes them most exceptional.
If you were shy, bashful and awkward in speech, would you face every situation relying on your gift of the gab, or would you look for other ways?
Lenny is Carl's Character, and has Metal as his highest Soul, at a 3.
Strength and sturdiness are his main attributes, the ones he has relied on longest and most successfully in his life.
Faced with a locked door whose key he cannot find, Lenny will probably choose to open it by barging it (or at least try to).
Faced with the manager of a venue who is making a fuss about paying them, he will probably choose to settle it physically, intimidating, threatening or, in the end, even directly using his own strength against the fellow.
Warning: this does not mean that your Character's "main" approach will always be the best. Sometimes tact may be needed where you would tend to use brutality, or your innate thoughtfulness may lead you to miss the best moment to act, which you would have seized with a readier and faster attitude.
Nobody is perfect, after all.
Lenny is faced with the manager of a venue, to whom the Band has asked to arrange an evening on which they can play.
The manager is busy, and knows that the Band is not famous enough to bring a worthwhile number of people in to drink at his venue, so he prefers to avoid wasting time on these newcomers.
Other members of the Band want to keep talking to him to try to convince him, but Lenny gets fed up and decides to grab him by the collar of his shirt and shake him.
The manager could rebel against the assault, perhaps starting a brawl, or calling for help from the venue's staff.
He could even report Lenny to the authorities and spread the word among the other venues that it is better to have nothing to do with a band of thugs like that.
Unfortunately, the chances that, with behaviour of this kind, Lenny and the Band will get what they want are not very high.
These Souls are not a binding pattern of obligatory behaviour. A Player may decide to rely on other aspects of the Character's "personality", behaving differently from usual, but there should always be a valid narrative reason (that is, one tied to the story the Character is living at that moment) for doing so.
The Player in question and the Narrator will reach an agreement by which such behaviour will be justified.
Lenny has a few problems at home. His brother has got into some trouble, and is now with him and their parents, while the parents despair over the situation.
He knows that his brother will not hold back for long from repeating the behaviour that got him into trouble, and, if it were up to him, he would be sure that a good thrashing would help him stay focused and "clean" for longer.
He also knows, however, how much their parents would be grieved to see them come to blows, and, although reluctantly, he decides to try to persuade his brother with words rather than slaps.
All of this does not mean that a Character is a puppet at the mercy of its basic characteristics. The influence of the Souls on the Character's behaviour is indeed pervasive, but it must not be a sword of Damocles threatening to deprive the Player of control of their creature.
There must be no constraint in the way the Player plays: the nature of the Character, and its following the predominant Soul, is always subordinate to the enjoyment of the game.
We do not let excessive rigidity negatively affect the playing experience.
If in some less important situations we "forget" to consider this aspect of the Character's nature, no god of Rock will hurl their thunderbolts at us, nor will the authors of the game come to check on you while you play (though they will accept any invitation to do so, provided it is accompanied by plenty of beer).
Metal
Metal is a genre that was born, with screeches and shouts, in the very late 1960s, took its first steps in the 1970s, and finally reached full maturity in the 1980s and 1990s.
Metal is strength in its pure state: driving riffs, drums with double bass, bass that pushes all the other instruments with runs and gallops that increase the tempo.
Metal is a train at full speed: either you catch it on the fly, or it is likely to run you over.
Metal does not know half measures: either you are in Metal or you are against Metal.
If you are in it, you can be certain that the brotherhood of metal will never abandon you. It does not matter what your family of origin was: now you are a child of Metal, and every metalhead is your brother.
Metal lives on the streets, knows the devastation of this world, but fights it face to face: no retreat, no compromise. Metal is here to stay!
Among its many performers, Metal counts some very famous names: Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Blind Guardian, Manowar, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and literally hundreds of others.
Perhaps more than other genres, it presents many specialisations or sub-genres, such as Speed Metal, Thrash Metal, Epic Metal, and so on.
Nothing prevents you from specialising your Character, or even your setting, with subsets of the Metal genre, at the discretion of the Players and the Narrator.
In Rockopolis the Metal Soul is the part of the Character intimately linked with physical impulses: therefore Strength, Sturdiness, resistance to fatigue, the energy unleashed and the will to power that can unleash the beast that lives in every metalhead.
Punk
Punk was born and grew up in the 1970s, presenting itself on the rock scene as a furious and disruptive alternative to the social conventions of the period.
It is destruction, it is anarchy; Punk goes against all the other genres of rock too (with Metal as its main "adversary", perhaps). Punk is so Punk that it even goes against Punk.
Punk often tackles themes of discomfort, of breaking patterns, of destroying in order to rebuild. You do not need to be "cool" for Punk; on the contrary, being "weird" is the best way to make the nose of those do-gooders who are the ruin of every society wrinkle up.
Lovers of Punk live for the tearing down of every barrier, of every injustice. In a certain sense, Punk considers itself the true custodian of the destructive spirit of the original rock, the one made of dances out of step against frilly waltzes, the one that roared with the deafening engines of souped-up Cadillacs, the one that sometimes ended up crashing into a pole.
One of the musical characteristics of Punk rock is speed: pure, raw, sometimes even an end in itself. Technique, skill and virtuosity often do not count. This does not mean there are no technically "good" Punk musicians, but this ability will certainly not make them stars in their genre.
Punk must give vent to primal needs such as anger, speed and destruction. For this reason the Punk rocker tends, on purpose, not to conform. They might carry their challenges even to the workplace, with their clothing, appearance, language and manners. They will certainly not hide their rebellious soul.
Among its many performers, Punk Rock also includes the following names: Ramones, Clash, Sex Pistols, Dropkick Murphys, Rancid, Green Day and very many others.
In Rockopolis the Punk Rock Soul is the part of the Character intimately linked to the ability to act quickly, to resolve situations in a short time, sometimes without much thought beforehand.
The revolution does not wait, and you must always be quicker than the cops, more of a bastard than whoever wants to rip you off.
Blues
Blues has its roots in the music of the African Americans of the American South. Its inspiration lies in themes of marginalisation, in melancholy at the inescapability of life, in the hope of a better future, often a mere illusion.
Blues soon became a close relative of Rock, finding in it an excellent complement and giving rise to Blues-Rock.
Contamination is the crucial point: it is what carries Blues everywhere, it is the key that lets it infiltrate every soul and every place in music.
When Rock Blues struggles, it does so to affirm life, accepting all its facets, not rejecting what is negative in it, but devising ways to overcome difficulties.
Blues adapts: it is capable of constantly changing while keeping its own identity, its own roots.
Blues-Rock, father of the sub-genre sometimes called Hard Rock, counts among its most famous performers these very great names: Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Steve Ray Vaughan, The Doors, Janis Joplin, Cream and dozens of others.
In Rockopolis the Blues Soul is the part of the Character intimately linked to characteristics such as wisdom, intelligence and memory. Deep inner awareness makes the Blues Soul the one that best marries knowledge of the world, and reflection on what surrounds us.
Glam
Peacock feathers, glitter, boots with very high platforms, outrageous make-up and garish clothes like those of the Rio Carnival parades.
Is this Glam? Is it only appearance?
Be careful saying so to Glam Rock bands: it might not end well.
Glam Rock was born in the United Kingdom around the 1970s and has part of its roots in psychedelic rock, but it elevates the concert to a true spectacle.
Glam Rock is contamination with theatre: it is transforming the band itself into a show. Not only does it step onto the stage and play, but it entertains the audience with attractions across the board. It goes beyond music, projecting itself directly onto the listener, making them a participant in an emotion produced by the fabulous mix of music and image.
It may seem strange, but not the kind of strangeness that keeps people at a distance; it is the peculiarity that attracts, the fashion you did not expect and that captivates astonishingly. No matter if it is ephemeral: its energy taps channels that other genres usually cannot reach.
Elegance in sound and bearing are to be sought so extremely that life is lived entirely in the fast lane.
Among its many performers, Glam Rock has the following names: David Bowie, Kiss, Poison, Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister, Guns N' Roses.
In Rockopolis the Glam Soul is the part of the Character intimately linked to the ability to relate to others and to understand their intentions. Being able to express inner emotions and give a fascinating form to the message being conveyed: charisma, persuasion, communicativeness.
Each genre may include specifications and sub-genres of its own. If you wish, the various genres can be combined to create "mixed" genres.
Inspiration
Inspiration is the source of adrenaline, the charge that animates the rocker and enables them to be a creature of the stage and an extraordinary person when not performing.
It is what a Character most often craves, and this desire can lead them into very serious trouble.
Inspiration is the product of the Muses (described in detail in chapter 7 and, from the point of view of interpretation, in chapter 16), hence its danger. What would a Rocker be if they were not inspired, if they felt no impulse for their own music?
Every time a Rocker performs and lets their energy explode, freeing their most intimate and wild self, that Rocker is drawing on their own Inspiration. Unfortunately, however, it is not an inexhaustible reserve to draw from.
Inspiration is a score that is obtained through the Muses. By giving vent to the Muses, the Character gains Inspiration, which they can spend when carrying out Off Stage actions, or when performing in On Stage situations to improve their performances.
It is the most "reliable" resource a Rocker has at their disposal, which is why it is so coveted.
When Inspiration is sky-high, success almost never fails to smile on the Characters.
As we will see in the chapters on the Muses, however, obtaining it entails risks and sacrifices. For this reason, spending Inspiration is something the Players must learn to calibrate well, if they do not want their Characters to "burn" the best fuel they have at their disposal too quickly.
Relationships
Relationships indicate the people with whom the Character has emotional or otherwise important ties. They are the ones who matter to the Character, both positively and negatively, and who could therefore influence the stories the Character lives.
A Relationship may also indicate a conflictual bond; the people who weigh most heavily on what we do are not always exclusively those we love.
A Relationship may also refer to a group of people identified by common characteristics: an example could be the followers of a political party, or those who follow particular fashions and have specific behaviours.
Each Relationship has a value that can range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 3.
The higher the value, the more important that Relationship is to the Character, and the more influential it can be when involved in an action.
In fact, if the person to whom a Relationship refers is involved (even only potentially) in the action about to be taken, one may decide to benefit from that Relationship's value to obtain better results.
Each Relationship may be exploited only once a day (in game terms).
A more in-depth description of Relationships and how they work in play can be found in chapter 6, dedicated to them.
Traits
Traits are what the Character is really good at doing.
Traits indicate particular abilities that can prove useful in various situations.
They too have a value that can range from 1 to 3. The higher the value, the greater the advantage that will be gained when one decides to use that Trait to obtain better results in an action.
Traits, unlike Relationships, can be used partially, in full, or "burned".
A list and a more in-depth description of the Traits and how they work in play can be found in chapter 5, dedicated to them.
Skills
Skills are what a Rocker learns to do when they gain experience, drawing on their Inspiration to perform feats at the limit of what others consider possible.
Whether on stage or not, when a Skill is used with the right dose of Inspiration, advantages are obtained that the "uninspired" can barely imagine.
Each Skill has a different effect and can be acquired and used only if its Soul requirements are met.
Acquiring a Skill has a cost in terms of Experience.
A list and a more in-depth description of the Skills and how they work in play can be found in chapter 8, dedicated to them.
Muses
The Muses represent the source of Inspiration, what brings the Rocker to exaltation and gives them the impulse to surpass themselves each time.
They are also, at the same time, their greatest cross to bear: the vices that will always try to tempt the Character and make them lose control.
Whether or not one yields to the Muse, she will always be lurking, ready to delight with the coveted Inspiration and to torment with her bewitching promises.
The Muse is what dwells within the Character and can provide, each time, the strength needed to overcome human limits, while at the same time condemning them to a life of dissipation.
The Muses are what guides the Character's life far more than you imagine or want.
One may choose to yield to the Muses, or try to resist them.
In the first case, Inspiration will pervade us, intoxicating us.
In the second, succeeding means silencing her insistent voice for a while, reducing her effect and regaining a little control over oneself. Failing, however, is as risky as yielding.
The 12 Muses of Rockopolis are described in detail in chapter 7.
Given their importance in playing the Character, this aspect is further explored in chapter 16.
Money
Do you want us to explain what a Character's Money is?
Really?
Did your parents or your teachers at school not teach you?
How did you buy this manual?
With baskets of fruit, with threats, with promises of favours of a more or less personal nature?
Shame on you.
Money is the currency you will use to buy goods and services in Rockopolis.
Happy now?
But be careful: as Pink Floyd sang, it is also the root of all evil. Do not be surprised if you are not given any when you ask for a raise.
Some of the expenses that Characters may have to bear with their Money are described in chapter 14.
Equipment
Equipment is any object a Rocker may use to live their stories.
These can be ordinary objects, musical instruments, stage costumes, and so on.
They may also be "special" objects, capable of giving the Characters particular help, which can be used on the hard road to success, but which, owing to this "abuse", will have a limited duration in time.
Many of the objects that can make up Equipment are described in detail in chapter 14.
The Band
The Band of which a Character is a member is not indicated on their Sheet. This is because it is so important that it merits a Sheet of its own.
The Character is therefore far more than the simple sum of all their descriptors: they are themselves and also a member of the Band. Their personal story will intertwine with that of the Band itself, and will rejoice and suffer with the successes that their career brings them.
The Band is described in depth in chapter 9.
Chapter 4: Character Creation
Ok.
Although you have been warned what it means to be a Rocker, what it means to face every day your own damnation, you have nevertheless decided to create a Character of your own.
Happy for you...
Character Creation is done by filling in the Sheet following these instructions:
- choose a real name and, if you wish, a stage name for your Character;
- distribute 7 points among the Souls. Each Soul may not have a value lower than 1 nor higher than 3. With Experience they may rise to 4, but during creation such a value cannot be assigned. For an in-depth description of the Souls, refer to chapter 3;
- choose at least two Relationships and the subjects with whom the Character has these Relationships (which may be single persons or groups of persons). For each of them establish whether it is a positive Relationship ("Love") or a negative one ("Hate"). Among the chosen Relationships, distribute a total of 3 points, with a minimum of 1 for each. A newly created Character will therefore have, at the end of creation, only two Relationships (one with value 1 and the other with value 2), or three Relationships (all with value 1). For an in-depth description of Relationships, refer to chapter 6;
- choose at least two Traits and distribute among them a total of 5 points. Each Trait may not have a value lower than 1 or higher than 3. At least one of the Traits must be an Artistic Trait, which determines the instrument played (or, in general, the role in the Band). The list of Traits and their descriptions are in chapter 5;
- choose at least one Muse and distribute among the chosen Muses a total of 3 points. Each Muse may not have a value lower than 1. A newly created Character may therefore have one Muse with value 3, two Muses with values 2 and 1, or three Muses all with value 1.
Warning: a Muse with value 3 constitutes a considerable difficulty in resisting her, especially for a newly created Character. Players who wish may nevertheless assign three points to a single Muse during Character Creation, but it is important that they are aware this is a choice that may leave the Character little escape when it comes to trying to resist the call of Inspiration.
The list of Muses and their descriptions are in chapter 7. Further specific indications for playing the Muses are in chapter 16.
- write 1 as the value of Inspiration;
- write 0 as the value of Experience;
- write 1000$ as the value of Money. This will be used to buy the Equipment your Rocker will need;
- at the end of this sequence, the only blank spaces left should be those of the Skills (which the Character will acquire in the future, by gaining and spending Experience) and of the Equipment (which will be filled in as soon as the Character has the opportunity to spend their Money).
Paragraph 2
"Let's call Finch."
Dial the number and wait. The voice that answers after a few rings is that of someone who already knows everyone's needs. The tone is that of someone who already knows what to ask in return for satisfying them.
"Ciaaaaaaoooo, my dear, it has been an age since you got in touch. Tell me everything!"
"Hi, Markus. I need a favour."
In the silence that follows your words you clearly hear the imaginary sound of a smile widening.
"Come to me, dear. We'll discuss it in person."
And he hangs up.
You look at your group-mates. You know Finch will have a request ready, and you know he knows each one of your weaknesses.
Unfortunately, though, you have no choice: his help is too important.
You travel crammed into your car, since Rebecca insisted on bringing Mr. Spice in his bulky carrier, and, after twenty minutes of exhausting struggle between Patrick and Adele over which tracks to listen to on the stereo, you arrive at Finch's house.
You ring the bell with the same feeling you had as a boy, when you had to go home knowing your parents were waiting to give you a telling-off for something you had done wrong. Finch has always been very good at making you feel small.
His residence is one of the weapons he has always used to produce this effect, and now that you enter you notice that it is even more excessive than the last time you came here.
Markus Finch possesses no furnishings.
Markus Finch possesses solidified traits of personality, furniture that seems made from the wood of trees that tried to strangle the lumberjacks.
Markus Finch has a house that shows a character which the owner's appearance conceals very well behind a veil of coarse excess.
Markus Finch is the type of man who wears underpants with his own initials spelled out in sequins. He is probably wearing a pair right now, as he comes to meet you, covered by the sober golden dressing gown that reaches down to his knee.
"Markus. We need to organise a contest, quickly, and I thought that you could..."
"Stop right there."
You fall silent, as you see him smile.
"As you know, for an old friend like you I can always find a spot. I have always helped you, after all, so why should I stop doing it now? But..." he pauses, and it makes you shiver "...I also need a favour, just these days. Is it not a happy coincidence that you can return the favour I am going to do for you, without you having to carry the weight of an unrepaid help?
You know, I have precisely a mission that you and your band...
By the way, you haven't yet told me what you're called."
"Dear boy! I see you all looking very well, you and your band. And... a cat... Come in, sit down."
You don't like the way he eyes you, smiling, as he has you sit on two wide sofas.
He settles himself into an armchair facing you, holding a glass with residues of ice cubes and amber liquid. He does not offer you anything to drink.
"Well then, tell me what favour you need."
It is up to you to speak, the others are silent. Adele seems to be shaking herself out of the stupor from before, but still does not seem able to express herself with sufficient command. Patrick seems to be gazing excitedly at something behind Finch. Rebecca pays attention only to the cat.
"We need a venue for an event..."
Yes... what is your band called?
- Teddy Bear's Claws
- Banana's Dream
- The Dolls Undressers
- Praising Dogs
- The Panic Fairies
- Disciples of Lightning
Continue on page 52.
Example of Character Creation
Jason decides to create a brand-new Character in order to start playing Rockopolis.
He begins to fill in the Character Sheet.
Name: Nathan Houston Stage Name: Crash Experience: 0 Inspiration: 1
He wants a fast, ready, nimble Character, and decides to assign the maximum of points (3) to Punk. He does not mind whether he is a fine thinker or a sturdy guy, but he wants him to have friends and be capable of maintaining relationships, so he assigns 2 points to Glam. Metal and Blues therefore stay at 1.
Souls: Metal 1 Punk 3 Blues 1 (printed as "Bues") Glam 2
For Nathan he imagines a very strong bond with his first instrument teacher, Sam, while he feels a deep hatred for his father, who abandoned the family a few years earlier. He decides that the positive Relationship is stronger than the negative one, so under Relationships he writes: Sam 2 (love), Dad 1 (hate).
Since Crash plays the drums, he assigns him the Trait Tireless Drummer at the maximum value (3). He also wants to reflect the choices already made with the Muses, so he also chooses Athlete 1 and Diplomat 1.
In Jason's mind, Nathan has only two interests that capture him as much as music: sex and gambling, so he decides to take Kama Sutra and Las Vegas as his Muses.
He writes Kama Sutra 2 and Las Vegas 1 on the Sheet.
Finally he writes 1000$ in the space dedicated to Money, and the Character is ready!
Nathan Houston, known to the public as Crash, is ready to go out and play at breakneck speed, unless he is busy with some sex story or some reckless bet.
Who knows whether his teacher will be able to help him keep his head straight, or whether the anger at his father will lead him to vent on the world...
Your Character is now ready, all shiny and gleaming like a racing car just out of the showroom.
Nice, eh? Don't worry, at the first bend it will skid and go off the road.
The more you grow fond of your Character, the greater the pathos when they face the hardest challenges.
Of course, you may also treat them as if they were not your creature, to avoid the anguish linked to their sufferings. We will not judge you. Or rather, we will, but in silence, discreetly.
Only you will know what horrible people you are.
Variants to Character Creation
Players may, if they wish, provide for some variants during Character Creation.
A common variation is to assign Equipment to the Character in advance, to spare them the moments in which they would have to haggle over the price in order to obtain that battered guitar they could never otherwise have afforded.
Very similar is the variation concerning the starting value of Money.
It represents a Character who comes from a more affluent background, or who simply has more savings put aside, perhaps coming from the pay of some concerts already played. These will serve for further Equipment, or to pay for services otherwise inaccessible to a penniless novice.
It is also possible to provide that the Character, in addition to their starting Money, has a monthly (or weekly) income from some source.
It could be the hard daily work, or be your parents' pocket money (fine rebels you are... and maybe you even call yourselves Punk). It could be a disability pension, or the money that the people you blackmail with your violent and intimidating methods pay you.
The choice is up to the imagination of the Players and the Narrator, provided it is shared.
And again, one might wish to create a Character who has already acquired some Experience.
This represents a Character who has already taken their first steps as a Rocker and is following their path to become a true veteran.
To this last variation may correspond some modifications deriving from the Growth of the Character, described in detail in chapter 12.
The Character could therefore begin their story already having Skills, more Traits or higher values, more Soul values and even more Muses.
Your novices have turned into seasoned musicians before they even left your mind: it is a bit like missing your child's first steps, but who are we to stop you from being terrible parents?
Although the impact of some of these variations, particularly those linked to Equipment and Money, is not so excessive on the dynamics of play, we advise trying them only after having played at least once with Characters created according to the "standard" procedure described above, or if the Players have musical skills that allow them not to overdo it, avoiding excessively simplifying the game.
Now catapult yourselves into the world of Rock!
Just like the projectile of a medieval catapult, fly high above the towers of society, look down on the defenders of the fort you are about to knock down, and prepare for the inevitable impact that will splatter you against the walls.
If you are lucky, you will leave an indelible mark that everyone will remember. Or a hole ringed with death and destruction.
Chapter 5: Traits
A new level of confidence and power
Working Class Hero
Just as not all people resemble one another, not everyone is capable of doing the same things.
In particular, not everyone has the same particular abilities, those areas in which they can truly call themselves competent.
How do Traits work?
In Rockopolis, the specific competences of Characters are called Traits.
Each Trait that a Character has written on their Sheet has a value ranging from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 3.
The higher the value, the higher the degree of competence in that specific ability, and the greater the advantage the Character can exploit when they find themselves in situations that can benefit from that competence.
The value of a Trait before it is used is called its maximum value.
When the Trait is used, its remaining value may decrease, but the maximum value remains unchanged.
Every Character must have at least one Artistic Trait at the moment of their creation, corresponding to the instrument the Character plays or, more generally, to the Character's role in the Band. For the purposes of this requirement, Artistic Traits that do not identify an instrument do not count: being a born Leader within a Band is of no use if you cannot do anything musical.
The only exception is the Trait Great Manager, which can have a prominent role without necessarily having musical competences.
It does not matter what value is assigned to the Trait thus acquired (the minimum is always 1), but there cannot be a singer without the Trait Voice That Rocks.
The other Artistic Traits may of course be taken either during Character creation or later, with the Character's growth.
It is soon explained: every time a Character faces a situation in which the ability described by their Trait can be useful, the Player may decide to make use of its help.
In the Roll that will determine the outcome of the Character's action in that situation, the advantage given by that specific Trait may be exploited.
For each Roll it is possible to use only one Trait; in no case is it possible to combine more than one.
Rolls and their Off Stage use are described in detail in chapter 10, while chapter 11 covers the use of Rolls in On Stage situations.
Traits that cannot sensibly make a contribution to the current situation may not be used: to try to use the Trait "Accomplished Songwriter" to gain an advantage while being chased by the police, for example, is rather foolish.
The Player will therefore decide, in that situation, how many points to "spend" from the value of their Trait, from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 3.
It is obviously not possible to spend more points than the value of the Trait.
One may therefore spend an amount less than the total value of the Trait (but never less than 1), or an amount equal to the remaining value.
For each point spent in this way, one extra d6 may be rolled in the Roll in question, thereby increasing the chance of success.
The decision to use a Trait to obtain additional d6 in Rolls must be declared BEFORE the Roll is made.
Example
Otto is fleeing from the managers of a venue that he has smashed up after raising his elbow too much. He risks being caught and beaten up!
His Punk Soul is worth 2, so he should roll 2 d6 to try to lose them, but having the Trait Athlete at value 2, Otto can exploit this advantage.
Otto's Player decides to use one point from the Trait; he will therefore roll 3 d6 instead of only 2, clearly increasing his chances of pulling it off.
Any remaining points of the Trait may be spent on the occasion of future Rolls. In these cases, obviously, the maximum number of points that can be spent is equal to the remaining points left.
In the situation above, Otto has lost all his pursuers, but now finds himself in a dead end that ends in a rather high wall.
Turning back would certainly mean being caught again, so he wants to try to get over the wall.
Having first spent one point from his Trait Athlete, he now has only one left. This is the maximum advantage he can use in this action.
Traits that have been used, either completely or partially, can be recovered through rest.
In the case of a short rest, for every hour of rest without stress or exertion the Character may recover one point in a Trait of their choice that still has at least one remaining point. Points cannot be recovered with a short rest in Traits that have no remaining points.
In the case of an extended rest, usually a good night's sleep, though reasonable alternatives may also be considered at the discretion of the Players and the Narrator, the Character recovers all the missing points in all Traits, including those with no remaining points.
If you think you can stay up late every night and keep yourselves incredible performers, perhaps you will have to think again.
If you think it's easy doin' one night stands Try playin' in a rock 'n' roll band
Burn
There may be particular situations in which the Character gives "everything they have", using to the full every reserve of energy and every competence.
In these cases, the Player will declare that they wish to Burn the Trait in question.
When a Trait is burned, it immediately provides a number of dice equal to its remaining value PLUS as many dice as its maximum value.
A Trait can be burned regardless of how many remaining points it has: one can burn a Trait that is still at its full maximum value exactly as one can burn a Trait that has no remaining points.
Otto realises that the wall in front of him is decidedly hard to climb, and he must really put his back into it to avoid being found sooner or later. He therefore decides to Burn his Trait Athlete.
On the next action in which he tries to climb the wall, Otto adds 1 d6 deriving from the remaining point of the Trait PLUS another 2 d6 deriving from the maximum value of his Trait Athlete, for a total of 3 d6, which will give him the help needed to accomplish such a difficult feat.
If he had had no remaining points in the Trait, he would have obtained only the 2 d6 deriving from its maximum value.
If instead the Trait had not been used before, he would have had a total of 4 d6 (2 for the points he could still spend, 2 for its maximum value).
When a Trait is burned, its remaining value immediately drops to zero, and it cannot be used again even after a long rest.
It is recommended to mark burned Traits on the Sheet by placing an asterisk or some other distinctive sign beside them, to remember that they are unusable.
To recover the use of a burned Trait, a Point of Inspiration must be spent.
Once recovered, the Trait returns to a remaining value of 1 (regardless of its maximum value) and may be used again (even burned again).
Any missing remaining points may then be recovered through normal rest.
Paragraph 3
"Disciples of Lightning..." the name is said slowly, as if savouring it.
"Nice name. Very... evocative. So, dears, I need a favour. Since I am a very generous man (why else would you have come to me?), I offer you two different possibilities.
The first is a simple, very relaxing little trip out of town. Tomorrow morning you will take one of my cars and go a few kilometres from here for a delivery. Within a couple of hours you'll be back. Just fasten your seatbelts and respect the speed limits. You wouldn't want to get stopped by the police, would you?"
He smiles.
You do not.
You look around, and notice that Rebecca has stopped stroking Mr. Spice. She would not want to show it, but it is clear she has pricked up her ears. Considering her history of addiction, this first offer seems to interest her a great deal.
Finch stands up, spreading his arms and so opening the front of his dressing gown, revealing a white, soft belly.
The glass in his hand flings a little liquid around like an unusual sprinkler. Patrick is hit by the splash, but seems not to notice: he is busy with his phone, frantically pressing the screen while listening to something through his headphones.
"The second option is also for tomorrow morning. You will only have to play at a wedding. The group that should be going is unfortunately unable to, and we cannot let the son of Jeff "Winchester" Mayer get married without a suitable musical backdrop, can we?
You will only have to play your repertoire. You only need to agree that, for the event, you will be called 'The Serial Huggers'. It is a request from the bride, and we would never want to spoil her happiest day. Don't you agree?"
The whole thing stinks: you know that Finch and Mayer have been rivals for years, since both work in entertainment, but Mayer seems to be the one who came out better. He has always dealt with commercial music, light years away from the Rock he detests, and has achieved unhoped-for success.
Today he is one of the most hated figures in the Rock scene. If Finch is rich, Mayer is a fucking sultan. And if Finch is a shady, vindictive type, Mayer can make him look like a saint.
Markus's smile confirms there is something going on.
He pauses briefly.
"I'll pass the appropriate clothing on to you," he says with a very broad smile. "So, tomorrow, will you be musicians or drivers?"
Make your choice:
- Will you go and play at the wedding?
- Will you go and make the delivery?
- Will you refuse and go and blab everything to Mayer, hoping he will decide to help you instead of Finch?
- Will you refuse every offer and go looking for something else?
Continue on page 58.
Repairing the Sky and Similar Feats of Strength
Below we present a list of Traits usable in Rockopolis, with their descriptions.
This list, although it presents the Traits we have created, tested and tried, is in no way meant to be exhaustive. Players and Narrator, by agreement, may supplement it with abilities they have thought up that fit well with their Characters, with the setting or with the stories they will play.
For example, Players might wish to use Traits suited to other instruments not present in the list presented here.
Go ahead and create without fear. This is YOUR Rock.
The first group of Traits is that of the Artistic Traits, representing those abilities it is taken for granted are associated with stage performance. Nothing prevents you from finding them a use even outside your Characters' performances, but remember that a Trait may be used only when that ability can actually help in the situation in question. Being a Brilliant Guitarist will probably be of very little use inside a Courtroom.
The second group, on the other hand, represents the abilities that usually find use outside stages and performances, the so-called Generic Traits. Here too, if you manage to find them a sensible use in less intuitive situations (during a concert, for example) you can still use the Trait, but always remembering that it is not allowed if that ability cannot actually provide an advantage.
If the Narrator and the Players decide to create their own Traits, they must decide which of these two groups they belong to and whether, if they are Artistic Traits, they may be considered valid as a choice during Character creation.
Any specific competence you wish to assign to a Character must correspond to a Trait with a minimum value of 1. This does not apply to competences that any person possesses, or at least that most people possess: if the Character is of age, no particular Trait is needed to indicate that they can drive a car or motorbike.
If instead you want the Character to have particular skills, such as a fair knowledge of Renaissance history, you will need to create and assign a specific Trait (in this case we could call it "Renaissance Historian") with at least value 1.
Artistic Traits
Solo
Every so often a solo is what is needed to make a piece great. Whether it is on guitar, bass, drums, keyboards or voice, this Character will know how to do it (exclusively with instruments in which they are competent).
Perfect Bassist
When this Character has the bass in hand, they never miss a note, never a change of rhythm. A guarantee for the band.
Tireless Drummer
This Character can beat like the engine of a racing car and with the precision of a metronome.
Brilliant Guitarist
The Character has an impressive ability in playing the guitar, perhaps the fruit of innate talent or of thorough study.
Accomplished Songwriter
Whether from a thorough study of harmony or from a soul brimming with stories to tell, the Character is very skilled at composing original songs.
Covers Lover
The Character loves to play covers of famous songs; original songs are not for them, better the songs that everyone already knows and loves. Who cares about writing new stuff.
Perfect Follower
The Character cares about the group's goals, and their ability to follow orders and instructions to perfection will be a great help.
Born Leader
The Character is naturally inclined to be the protagonist, the one who guides the people around them towards common goals.
Great Manager
The Character knows how to sponsor their Band, presenting it around and smoothing its path on the road to fame.
Versatile Keyboardist
An excellent pianist? Not only that: this Character can literally do whatever they want with their black and white keys.
Voice That Rocks
The Character has a magnificent voice, capable of creating emotions and with a timbre always perfect.
Generic Traits
Athlete
The Character is athletic, capable of excellent physical feats. Their agility will help when it comes to running, climbing, practising sport or physical activity in general.
Underworld Contacts
The Character has a certain number of contacts in the environments furthest from the "upper quarters". Some phone numbers, a few names and a lot of rumours that can always come in handy.
Music Scene Contacts
The Character has some friends in the entertainment world: producers, musicians, shopkeepers and fans make up a network of contacts in which they manage rather well.
Persuasive
The Character knows how to make others listen and do what they want. It is hard to listen to them and decide to disappoint their expectations.
Light-Fingered
The Character has that velvet hand, that gentle touch that makes it so simple to relieve others of objects and riches.
Diplomat
The Character seems at ease when interacting with other people, being good at adapting to situations. Their words often succeed in easing conflicts, when this is possible.
Lawyer
The Character knows the laws, and is hardly likely to be taken in by an unfair contract presented by an unscrupulous record label executive. And besides, it may always come in handy in case someone in the Band ends up in Court.
Hacker
A Character with excellent computer skills. Put them in front of a computer and watch them work with wide eyes. Or perhaps it is better not to, they may not appreciate the attention.
Fashion Master
The Character does not follow fashion, they create it! Or at least they try. Always at the cutting edge, they will advise perfectly anyone who does not want to look like a caveman with their clothing, their manners or their outdated habits.
Doctor
The Character has competences in the medical field, some of which may be useful even in emergency situations. They know a bit about medicines, and perhaps even some drugs...
Meditation
The Character seeks, and often finds, inner peace. Through meditation they manage to overcome some difficult moments in their life, as well as to bear the stress of everyday life better. Or that of their own Band.
Pilot
Engines hold no secrets for this Character: they can drive anything at its top speed. Certainly not a tank, perhaps, though they would probably not be afraid to try.
Gunman
The Character has a fair talent for handling firearms. They have aim, knowledge of weapons and, above all, the guts to use them.
Handyman
If something breaks, the Character repairs it. If they have to do it quickly, the repair may not be perfect, but it could "work" for a short time.
Locksmith
For this Character a padlock is just another puzzle to solve, probably one they have already solved many times. It is well known, after all, that the locks in the city are the best antidote to boredom.
Chapter 6: Relationships
Friends will be friends
In Rockopolis the Characters do not live only on music, excess and flights from the police.
Relationships indicate those ties, more or less marked, that mark the life of the Character, linking them with the lives of others. Each Relationship may refer to one or more persons.
The groups of people with whom Relationships can be held may be very varied: political parties, people united by a trade or a faith, fans of a team, families, and so on.
Just like Traits, the Relationships that a Character has written on their Sheet have a value ranging from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 3.
The higher the value, the stronger that bond with that person or group of people, and the greater the advantage the Character can exploit when they find themselves in situations that involve the people in the Relationship.
Each Relationship may be positive (called Love) or negative (called Hate).
This will indicate not only what kind of relationship the Character has with the other subject (or subjects) in the Relationship, but also which circumstances must occur for the Character to benefit from that Relationship.
Paragraph 4
"We are a band. Bands play. We'll go to Mayer."
Finch nods, satisfied, while smiling smugly.
"You'll have a good time, I guarantee it. You" and he points a finger straight at you "you'll probably have more fun than anyone else."
This sentence on the one hand worries you, on the other makes you hope for something interesting.
You have been quiet for days, and it would really be time for something electrifying.
Finch takes you to a storeroom with a section overflowing with stage costumes. Here he helps you choose clothes suitable for tomorrow's event.
You start cursing as soon as the first item of clothing is handed to you: you get a pair of salmon-coloured trousers, a white shirt with frills on the chest, a waistcoat to match the trousers, and a white hat with sequins.
On your feet, pointed boots, in python skin.
You feel ridiculous, as you did when your lawyer made you dress smartly for court. Even while they were sentencing you for arson, one of your main thoughts was how uncomfortable you felt in those clothes.
You at least have the meagre consolation that your companions have fared no better: you snigger for a long time when you see how Adele and Rebecca are dressed, and Patrick is in no better condition.
But he seems not to notice: he talks intently with Finch, and although you cannot quite make out what they are saying, you know that when he fixes on something he always manages to involve the whole band.
No harm done, you tell yourself. Whatever it is, the situation cannot become more complicated than it will be from tomorrow.
When you have taken everything you need you are shown out. A moment before you leave through the door Finch holds you by the arm.
"A little present for you."
Behind the door, he shows you a canister. Full. The smell you catch leaves no doubt: petrol.
"I prepared it when you called me."
Your eyes shine; Markus knows you well. Now you know you did well to accept the offer. You get into the car with a smile you have not had for some time, and when you part from your companions after agreeing the time to meet up, the smile is still there.
It will not be easy to resist, but you have decided to keep the fun for tomorrow.
The next morning you travel well ahead of time to the villa where the wedding will take place. You know that the guests have access to the entertainment offered at the venue, and you decide to take advantage of it.
As soon as you arrive, you understand that Finch was not referring only to the little present he gave you when he said you would have fun.
The guests are offered complimentary chips to play in a small casino inside the villa. You dive in and start wandering among the tables, followed only by Patrick, strangely silent. Rebecca and Adele go off to drink in the garden.
Leaving Adele alone with alcohol can be risky, but right now your mind is focused elsewhere.
A few glances around, however, are enough for you to realise that the gambling here is not as exciting as you would like.
Practically everyone limits themselves to playing the little they have been given as a gift, and stops after a couple of rounds, whether they win or lose. Some, however, prowl restlessly among the tables. You look them in the face and recognise in their eyes the same gleam that animates yours.
Returning the look, they too notice the same thing in you.
One of them comes over to you, immediately followed by a couple of other people.
"Hey... you wouldn't fancy a game? A REAL game, I mean." he says, showing you a pack of cards that he has just taken from one of the villa's dealers.
Before you can even think of answering, Patrick, until now silent, whispers frantically in your ear.
"Come on, Mike, clean them out properly. I need that money for Finch."
You have no time to ask him what he means; the temptation burns you like a fire, you had not felt so alive for weeks.
What will you do?
Will you give yourself completely to the impulse of your Muse?
Will you try to resist her?
Continue on page 66.
Although the Relationships chosen during Character Creation may perfectly well be very simple and straightforward (for example: Love for Mum, Hate for the Government), our suggestion is to create plots and storylines connected to the Relationships.
The subjects involved may indeed be an excellent source of adventures and provide many diversions during play, if suitably interwoven. For example: you have a Relationship of Love with your girlfriend. But... your girlfriend is a policewoman, and your Character's antics cause her no end of problems at work. Of course, sometimes her job may prove a help, but how will she behave when she has to decide whether to intervene or not in a situation in which our Character is also involved?
Further plots providing interesting developments arise when the Relationships touch subjects who have to do with the other Characters. In the example above, if my girlfriend is, as chance would have it, the sister of another member of my Band, then the matter can take on different shades and create interesting situations to play.
One may even have conflicting Relationships towards the same subjects (one Character has a relationship of Love with them, another has one of Hate).
Finally, Relationships (whether positive or negative) may also be created between Characters of the same Band.
It is important to keep one thing in mind: Relationships need not necessarily be mutual. A Relationship indicates the relationship that the Character has with another subject, but this does not mean that the other subject thinks the same way or, indeed, is even aware of it.
It can be very interesting, in game terms, to have to play "one-way" Relationships, since they tend to create small relational imbalances which can easily become a spur for adventures or for interesting episodes within the stories.
To make play sessions more interesting and less linear, moreover, we suggest assigning to the Character at least one Relationship of Love and at least one of Hate. This diversifies the situations, creating ever-new moments and leading to a more varied playing experience.
The Narrator should always keep the Relationships that the Players' Characters have in mind, so as to allow their easy entry into the stories that will be narrated, without forcing things.
Use Me to Use You
How are Relationships used in play?
As with Traits, whenever a Character finds themselves in a situation in which they could benefit from that Relationship, the Player may decide to add to their Roll a number of d6 equal to the value of the Relationship.
Once a Relationship has been used, it cannot be used again until the Character has rested completely. Partial rest does not affect the recovery of Relationships.
Unlike Traits, in the case of Relationships it is not possible to split the value: a Character with a Relationship of value 2 cannot add just one d6 to their Roll and "keep" another d6 for a further Roll.
The Relationship is used in full every time.
We suggest placing an asterisk or other identifying mark beside the Relationships used on the Sheet, so as to remember which have already been used, and removing it after the Character's complete rest.
The use of the additional d6 provided by a Relationship is obtainable only if the Relationship can really help the Character in some way. It may be the push needed to try harder (for example, when the Character is playing on stage and their best friend, with whom they have a Relationship of Love, is watching them), or practical help (the policewoman girlfriend from the example above may be useful in case of trouble with the law). What matters is that the story the Characters are living is at a point where that bond has enough importance to actually change how things turn out.
The day after its use, the Relationship will again be ready to be used, at its full value.
Remember to erase any mark you placed beside it on the Sheet.
Great Expectation
As well as indicating relationships with other people, a Relationship will also give clear indications on how to play your Character when those other people become involved in a situation.
A Character may not like the members of a rival Band that plays in the city, but if they have a Relationship of Hate towards them they cannot simply ignore them when they come face to face. The urge, the desire to make trouble for them will often be too strong to resist, and unless there are valid reasons to avoid it, the Player must play their Character accordingly.
Example: Wulfgar has the Metal Soul at 3 and has a Relationship of Hate towards Racists 3.
During a music event in Springfield, a well-known group of racists from the city turns up shortly before Wulfgar's Band performs. From the group come racist chants aimed at a group of people of East Asian origin who are attending the concerts.
Wulfgar decides that this behaviour is intolerable to him and declares that he will charge headlong at the group of racists.
Wulfgar must make a Roll on his Metal Soul (a physical test) and would have 3 d6 available, but his Relationship is intimately connected with this Roll, so he adds another 3 d6.
Shouting "I hate those Illinois Nazis", he charges, rolling a full 6 d6, and, considering that the Narrator had thought 3 successes would be needed for Wulfgar to succeed, well... the racists have found their match.
In the case where a Relationship is not "maintained", that is, the Character does not behave as the relationship with the other subjects would actually require, that Relationship may change over time. A single occasion is certainly not enough, but after a few occasions the Narrator and the Players may agree that things are no longer really as they were. The value of the Relationship may drop by an amount agreed between Narrator and Player, even reaching zero, thus making that Relationship "disappear" from the Character's life.
Since these are very strong bonds for the Character, they will suffer unpleasant consequences for having abandoned some of the social relationships that most defined them: for a period of time agreed with the Narrator, the Character suffers a "malus" to all their actions, rolling 1 d6 less on every Roll they make, whatever the situation (this can in no case bring a Roll below 1 d6).
During this period the Character may, if they wish, try to restore the previous value of the Relationship. It is up to the Players and the Narrator to establish, case by case, how and whether this is possible.
At the end of the established period, the Character no longer has the malus, but if the Relationship has not been recovered its value remains lowered to the new level.
Important social changes in the life of the Character cannot go unnoticed...
It is important to note that this can also happen with negative Relationships: a Character may realise that some of the reasons that drive them to hate someone are mistaken, the product of their own prejudices, and this reflection may lead them to seriously question themselves and their own view of the world.
Here too a time frame is established within which to try to restore the Relationship, during which the malus is suffered. When that period has passed, the malus will vanish and the Relationship will remain at its lowered value.
Yet the opposite can also happen: a Relationship may see its value increase when the Character's behaviour and the situations allow it. In this case, adjust the value on the Character's Sheet, remembering that a Relationship can under no circumstances exceed the value of 3.
A Character may also acquire new Relationships, which they will write on their Sheet.
The decision to acquire a new Relationship must always be agreed with the Narrator and must be rooted in the story the Players are playing.
A Character might suddenly begin to feel hatred towards someone because of an unexpected event. For example: a dear friend who is beaten to a pulp by the fans of a rival team, causing the Character to develop a Relationship of Hate towards that group of people.
The same can apply to Relationships of Love. The value of this newborn Relationship may be freely determined by agreement between Narrator and Players (remembering that the maximum limit is 3), but we suggest always starting from a value of 1.
If this Relationship is stable and lasting, it will have every opportunity to grow.
Example
Nathan has a positive Relationship with Sam, his first drum teacher.
Given the problems with his father figure, he often turns to him when he has problems that he would normally confide to his parents.
Sam is a good man, who cares very much about Nathan's future, and who simply cannot stomach the excesses into which Nathan often throws himself.
In particular his problem with gambling enrages him, since his own brother ruined a promising guitar career for the same reason (Muses are not the exclusive preserve of Characters; they may also be present in the stories of other people).
One day Sam receives a call from Nathan's number. He answers, happy that his former pupil has called him, but at the other end of the phone there is not who should be there.
A man, apparently very angry, begins to curse and shout. Between one profanity and the next, Sam hears shouting that Nathan will not manage to get out of it without paying his debt.
Gambling debts are paid, or else Mr. Baseball Bat will make sure he pays for them.
As soon as the call is cut off, Sam calls Nathan's home, worried, but nobody answers.
Even more anxious, he gets in his car and runs to see for himself. After several minutes at the doorbell, Nathan comes down to open for him, half-naked. Behind him appears a girl with her make-up completely smudged, who covers herself with a sheet.
"Hey Sam," exclaims Nathan, happy with the surprise.
"There's little to be cheerful about. Who is the guy who had your phone and wants the money you owe him for the game?"
"Ah... nothing, and how do you know about it?"
"He called me, on your phone, so don't try to deflect the conversation from the main problem: why do you owe him money? Hadn't you stopped gambling?"
"Sam, it's complicated... I did stop, but every now and then it happens, and then he..."
"How many times have you already told me you've stopped? I think we're somewhere around twenty."
"Hey, Sam, don't exaggerate. Nothing has happened, just a few games that went wrong, but I'll make it right. Tomorrow evening I have a match, and I'm sure to clean up. I'll come back with lots of money to pay him off and take you out to dinner. What do you say, would that calm you down?"
Sam turns around, without answering, and goes back home.
Nathan and Jason, the Player who plays Nathan, realise that something quite serious has happened.
Sam will not let things slide as easily as they have, and this could really worsen the Relationship between the two.
After a short discussion, they decide that the "recovery" time is one week, during which Nathan will feel so bad about the rift in his relationship with Sam that he suffers a penalty of -1 d6 on each Roll he has to make (but this can never go below 1 d6 rolled per Roll). At the end of the week the penalty no longer applies, and either Nathan will have recovered the Relationship, or its value will remain lowered.
A few days later, Nathan is playing on the stage of a small venue.
The evening is not going very well, partly because he is really down about how things are going with Sam. The most intense track in the set comes up, the one on which the Band hopes to lift the fortunes of the concert.
Nathan, too low on Inspiration to give his best, makes rather a lot of mistakes, and the audience notices. As soon as the song ends, amid few applause, some whistling also starts. When Nathan looks among the audience to find the source, he is stunned to see his father.
The man, who has beside him a girl of more or less the same age as Nathan, does not clap.
On the contrary, he looks at his son and turns his thumb down, to show his contempt. From the movement of his lips Nathan can read "You're a loser". He would like to jump down from the stage and make him pay for it, but his companions notice and hold him back. The show must go on, and they still have two pieces to play before ending the evening.
With a sneer of derision and a shout of "Losers!" directed at his son and the whole Band, the man leaves.
The Players and the Narrator decide that this is enough to increase Nathan's hatred for his father. Such behaviour certainly cannot be tolerated.
From now on, the value of the Relationship of Hate that Nathan has with his father rises to 2.
A few more days pass. The evening went badly and the relationship with Sam has not been mended, though the bond still holds. Moreover, Nathan is still struggling to find the money, so he finds himself in a rather problematic period.
While they are out drinking after the rehearsal, Nathan vents to Jenny, the Band's bassist.
Jenny knows how to listen (thanks in part to her Diplomat Trait), and gets on well with Nathan, even on stage.
When the others go home, Nathan and Jenny stay to talk for a while, thus giving the drummer the chance to tell everything.
In the following days, between rehearsals, gigs and various problems, the two continue their conversation.
Once Nathan has told everything, it is Jenny's turn, who in turn has some problems because of her alcohol addiction. Moreover, in town many people have it in for her, since she has openly challenged the main church, whose preachers she hates with a passion.
After some time has passed, the Narrator and the Players, particularly those playing Nathan and Jenny, decide that a connection strong enough to merit a Relationship of Love has been formed between the two.
Both add the Relationship to their Sheets, assigning it the value 1.
Note well: this could have happened anyway if Jenny had already had a positive Relationship towards Nathan written on her Sheet. This is because there is no obligation for Relationships to be mutual.
Moreover, this could also have happened not with Jenny, but with a subject outside the Band.
Chapter 7: The Muses
What is and what should never be
The Muses are what guides the Character when everything else loses importance, when every other external stimulus ceases to have meaning and is covered by a dark veil.
Like the Muses of Greek mythology, the Muses of Rockopolis provide Inspiration to our Characters so that they can create their art. Without their Muses a Character would be nothing more than a banal human, incapable of raising their Rock above the heads of the ordinary people surrounding them, to fly where only Rock Stars dare to go.
Together with their Muses, a Rocker can create and undo entire worlds, reaching the highest artistic peaks.
The Muses would be the best thing that could ever happen to a Character, if after loading them with Inspiration they did not then try to drag them along with them into the abyss of self-destruction.
Yes, because every Muse gives you a great deal, but asks in exchange everything you own. Inspiration, one of the things the Characters of Rockopolis most aspire to, becomes the currency with which they slowly acquire the whole soul of the Character.
One can resist them once, perhaps even more than once, but they remain there, lurking, never tiring.
They do not even hide: on the contrary, they show themselves off, sure that no one will ever manage to remove them from their position. No one who does not intend to be lobotomised, at least.
The Muses live inside the Character, in their brain, in their heart and sometimes in other organs.
Uprooting them from there is impossible: there are no tools powerful enough, nor forces strong enough to eliminate them.
Paragraph 5
Flop, Turn and River; points and pots. Flop, Turn, River - Flop, Turn, River - Flop, Turn, River
It needs no words for your answer: a smile and a gesture towards an empty table in a secluded corner is enough.
You sit down while you feel the adrenaline rising, and four others join the table.
Patrick sits down behind you. Normally that would annoy you, but right now you are too excited.
You decide on Texas Hold'em with pot limit, and you begin. You take the first two cards and put on your best poker face.
K and Q. You do not smile; the poker face hides every emotion, but inside you start to burn.
Flop, Turn, River - Flop, Turn, River - Flop, Turn, River. They repeat like a very fast, driving riff, which grabs you and makes you unaware of everything else.
The adrenaline is at its peak when you feel a touch on your shoulder.
It is Patrick, very agitated behind you, who says: "Hey, go easy. It's the last round, you've got nothing left."
You look at the table as if seeing it for the first time since the beginning. It is true, you are practically broke, and this could be the last round. The 200$ you had in your pocket have practically gone without you noticing, and the game is about to end. At least for you.
That is what burns you so much. It is not losing money, that is part of the thrill that pervades you when you are at the table. It is the fact that if you do not win now, you can no longer play.
You are the dealer now. You deal the cards and a 4 and an 8 come to you.
If you fold you have no money for the next pot. If you play you have high odds of losing.
If you cheat... well, you can always cheat. You know how to do it, it has saved you from disastrous situations already. And, more than helping you with money, it will let you keep playing.
You handle the cards skilfully. On the River you have a Full House. You win this hand and start to replenish your finances. Inside you are burning as never before.
Patrick is more and more excited. Now he is standing, clenching his fists in the grip of emotion.
You are well and truly hooked and keep piling up money upon money. You propose going from pot limit to no limit, and two of those present at the table withdraw.
Two others remain, with a fiery gleam in their eyes.
YES!!! This is what you were looking for!
Patrick now jumps about, as if crazed. He knows he is not a hardened gambler, but his eyes shine too. One of the two remaining players drops out soon after, completely cleaned out, though he stays hovering next to the table, absorbed in the challenge.
The last one remains, and you carry on a while longer, until you have the upper hand. You have left him without a penny.
You get up from the table, stuffing the money into your pocket, but that one grabs you by the sleeve of your shirt.
"Hey, mate. I don't think you've behaved very well. That's not how it's done, among gentlemen. We saw you."
He indicates the player who has just abandoned the table, who nods.
They saw you!
The man at the table stands up. He is no little fellow: he is at least fifteen centimetres taller than you and weighs at least twenty kilos more.
It is not looking good: if it came to fists, Patrick, who has a boxing past, might help you, but perhaps it would be better to avoid drawing too much attention, even though the room has almost completely emptied at this point.
"I'd say that if you give us our money back we can forget all about this," says the man, unbuttoning the cuffs of his shirt.
What will you do?
Will you accept to give back all the money to him?
Will you try to escape upstairs, mixing into the crowd?
Will you raise your fists and plant a straight punch in his face?
Continue on page 74.
Each Character can only live with them, trying to give them the minimum indispensable nourishment, and taking in exchange the Inspiration they so long for. Vice, depravity and the self-destructive drive shine so brightly that they are like lights for moths, unaware of the blaze into which they will turn when they come too close to the source.
The Muses are all this and much more.
Muses have a value ranging from 1 to 6. This value indicates the "strength" of the Muse, that is, how difficult it is to resist her. A Character with a Muse at value 1 will be able to overcome the test fairly easily, while one with a value of 5 will have enormous difficulties.
When a Character finds themselves facing a situation that could represent a temptation for their Muse, the Player must decide whether the Character will yield to it.
You're My Temptation
How do the Muses work?
The Muses "activate" each time the Character finds themselves in a situation that could constitute a temptation relating to the vice they embody.
For someone who keeps company with Bacchus, the Muse linked to alcohol dependence, an unattended bar cabinet may be the trigger, while for someone who "hosts" Ifrit in their subconscious, a can of petrol and a lighter may be the triggering elements.
Be careful: Muses are never considered activated by trivial things, but only in cases where they really entail an attitude that a person would not normally adopt.
A Character with Jökulhlaup who snaps a pencil is certainly not prey to their Muse (although, probably, in their life they will snap more pencils than others do), just as someone who has Ifrit will not be tempted by a lit cigarette.
Likewise, acts are not considered sufficient to satisfy a Muse (whether committed by yielding voluntarily or by failing the attempt to resist) unless they are a genuine expression of the vice that each Muse embodies.
If my Muse is Las Vegas, I will hardly be able to satisfy her by betting 1$ heads or tails with a friend.
The value of the Muse indicates the number of Successes needed in the Roll to resist her very strong call. Rolls are described in detail in chapter 10.
Depending on the choice to resist or not, and on the outcome of any attempt at resistance, there are different consequences:
- deciding to yield voluntarily to the Muse earns 5 Inspiration points, but raises the Muse's level by 1;
- attempting to resist and failing earns 2 Inspiration points, but raises the Muse's level by 1;
- succeeding in resisting the Muse earns no Inspiration points, but allows the Muse's level to be lowered by 1 (which in any case cannot go below 1).
To attempt to resist the Muse, a Roll is made based on the Character's lowest Soul: your Muse knows you, your Muse knows when and where to strike.
In these Rolls the Successes guaranteed by Inspiration may not be used to help yourself: unfortunately, the energy supplied by the Muse is of no use when you try to oppose her strength.
However, additional dice from Traits and Relationships may be used, if they apply to the context.
Courtney is a Rocker struggling with her Muse Bacchus.
She has already been in some trouble because of him, but he has also always been essential to finding the strength to go on, both in music and in private life.
After a concert in a venue that went rather well, the Band is asked to give an interview seated at one of the tables near the stage. The Band agrees.
Unfortunately the interview soon takes an unpleasant turn: the interviewer is far from friendly and tries to put the Band on the spot, which by now is rather worn out after the performance. Some of the people attending the interview, moreover, are fans of other rival Bands, and they start whistling.
Courtney is starting to lose patience, especially because the audience, which had applauded them before, now begins to join in the whistling, perhaps out of social pressure or simply the urge to join in.
The bar is within her reach, and in situations of stress her response has always been to drink.
Given the situation, the Narrator and the Players decide that Courtney's Muse tries to show herself, to obtain satisfaction. The Player who plays Courtney thinks about it for a moment and decides that in this case she does not even want to try to resist Bacchus!
With the right Inspiration he can certainly turn the situation around, and whatever goes wrong she will have something else to think about.
The Muse Bacchus rises from value 1 to value 2, and Courtney gains 5 Inspiration points.
Courtney orders a drink. Taking advantage of the fact that there are five of them at the table, she orders five whiskies which, once they arrive, she lines up in front of herself.
The interviewer is astonished as he watches her empty them one after the other, and when the interview resumes he does not fail to mention the musician's problems with alcohol.
She, after a short while, is so drunk that she transforms: she no longer accepts the questions passively, she answers vehemently, shouting and waving her arms. The audience notices this change of attitude and gets involved in the discussion.
Now the musician is on her feet, gesticulating furiously and answering every question with other questions that put the interviewer on the spot. When he leaves the table the whole audience erupts in applause. Courtney, though drunk, has won them over for the second time in the same evening.
Unfortunately, Courtney not only has Bacchus as her drinking companion, but also problems managing the violence of Berserk, currently at value 2.
A few evenings after the interview, she meets on the street some of the guys who had whistled at her after the concert.
She recognises a couple of them, and they recognise her, and they start insulting her, calling her a drunk and a failure.
For Courtney it is late; she should run to get to the venue where she has to play, but those bastards are provoking her too openly.
The Narrator and the Players decide that Berserk is beating its fists to get out into the open.
As Courtney would rather not, her Player decides to try to resist the call of the Muse.
Unfortunately the Muse is treacherous and knows where to strike: Courtney is forced to make the Roll to try to resist, using only her lowest Soul, Blues, at value 1.
She can therefore roll only one d6. If she gets a 6 she might roll another die and have a chance of succeeding. Not much, but better than nothing.
She makes the Roll and... 4.
A single Success is not enough. Berserk bursts out and Courtney raises her fists, increasing the value of the Muse by 1 (which goes to 3) and taking 2 Inspiration points.
The guys in front of her smile at first, but soon realise they are facing an enraged beast. A brawl breaks out, which will end only later, with various wounds scattered among the combatants.
Time passes, and Courtney is about to go back on stage.
The evening is demanding, in one of those venues you come across perhaps only once in a lifetime, especially if you fail at the first opportunity.
Courtney knows she is "flat", low on Inspiration, but she also knows that tonight her mother will come to hear her, whom she loves very much and with whom she has often had problems because of her behaviour.
She knows she would certainly play much better if she gave herself "a boost", and the bar of the venue, freely available to the musicians, is an almost irresistible temptation.
This time, however, Courtney wants to try to remain sober, for her mother's sake.
The Players and the Narrator agree that Bacchus tries to tempt Courtney, but she will try to resist.
Since her mother is also at stake, with whom she has a Relationship of Love at value 2, Courtney adds to her d6 from her Blues Soul at value 1 an additional 2 d6.
The Muse now has value 2, so she can resist if she gets two Successes.
She makes the Roll and... 2-4-5.
Two Successes!
Courtney has managed to resist the temptation. She gains no Inspiration points, which would have made her shine tonight, but she can play sober, and she can also lower her Muse Bacchus again to value 1.
Once a Muse reaches the value of 6, the Character becomes for a while completely prey to temptation.
The way in which the Muse vents her perverse desires is decided by agreement between the Narrator and the Players, and the Character must behave accordingly.
At the end of this period the Character is again fully manageable by their Player, with the value of the Muse lowered to 4.
The value of a Muse may therefore change several times during play, but it may never drop below 1.
However much a Character tries, they can never entirely free themselves from temptation. They may make it easier to resist her, but the Muse knows how to be patient. She has a whole life, your life, to wait.
"I can stop whenever I want" is the phrase that many Characters repeat over and over.
Under the Bridge
There are also two other systems for lowering the value of a Muse without needing to resist her while the Character is being tempted.
If the story allows it, that is, if the events taking place in play can realistically lead to such an outcome, and if the Narrator and the Players agree, a Character may reduce a Muse by 2 but acquire another Muse at value 1.
Fight fire with fire, as the saying goes. Fine stuff, this so-called "popular wisdom"...
Alternatively, the Character may embark on a metaphorical "journey", a path of recovery that will require time and commitment. It could be a banal rehabilitation centre, but if the Narrator and the Players agree it may also be something a bit more eventful and interesting.
Things like seeking out and tracking down an ancient Buddhist temple at the top of a mountain to meditate with the monks, or looking for everyone we have made suffer through our wicked acts driven by our personal demon, and asking them for forgiveness.
This system can be used as an interesting spur for adventures, since the story must be able to incorporate these events. If the Band, with its baggage of Muses, moves together with the Character in search of "atonement", who knows how many absurd things might happen.
This procedure, however, can never be immediate or improvised. One cannot "reset" one's vice so easily.
If this option is chosen, the Narrator and the Players agree on a penance by which the value of the Muse is reduced. The Muse may also be brought back to 1 (never below), if it is judged that the path has sufficiently "redeemed" the Character.
Down with the Sickness
Below is the list of the 12 Muses of Rockopolis with a short description of each. For more detailed advice on interpreting the Muses, refer to chapter 16.
BACCHUS – Six Pack
You find Inspiration at the bottom of the glass, or of the bottle; it all depends on what you can get your hands on.
Those magic potions called alcoholic drinks and spirits point the way, give you the strength. The strength to go higher, to climb onto a stage and show yourself to the whole world, to create music that no one else has ever thought of creating before.
The Character in whose head, and in whose liver, Bacchus lives will try to have a little drink whenever the opportunity may arise. If the opportunity does not present itself, the Character certainly knows how to find one. It does not take much to find an excuse to offer, or to be offered, a little drink.
When Bacchus reaches the value of 6, the consequences can be many. The Character may lose control and behave absurdly until they take the reins back in hand, or suffer physical damage more or less serious. Alcohol poisoning awaits those who let themselves go for too long, and although the liver is a resilient organ, it will never be resilient enough to withstand an unleashed Bacchus for long.
BERSERK – Fuckin' Hostile
Words are worth nothing!
Those who do not suit you can discuss things with your fists and your feet. Fuck them, and their protests: the next thing they will hear from you will be just your fist on their snout.
The Character who "keeps company" with Berserk believes that there are many who need a lesson, and would know very well how to deliver it. Strong measures are the best road, the quickest, the easiest for all those bastards out there to understand.
Occasions arise continuously, without even the need to look for them. They are the ones who seek out the Character, in the form of sidelong glances, slights on the street or in venues, unwelcome words and provocative attitudes.
When Berserk reaches the value of 6, the consequences can be terrible: if the Character has at hand someone who is not able to defend themselves adequately from their violence, who will be able to stop them once they have lost control?
IFRIT – House of Fire
Poetry feeds on inner fire. Fire burns apathy and lifts the spirit in red, yellow and orange swirls, to elevate the soul. In the hypnotic fire you find the words, the notes. Come on, baby, light my fire and let me warm this world.
What is more exhilarating, beautiful, attractive than a dancing flame? Only a flame that dances following your will, like an orchestra following its conductor.
And when it sings, fire does so with crackles and pops that strike you in the soul. A voice that is at once music, light and energy: what human being could ever match a performance of such grandeur? Ifrit is the highest art form.
The Character who catches fire with Ifrit wants that spectacle of light, heat and pure energy that is fire. That same fire that consumes and brings everything back to its primordial state, to the smoking base from which everything can be rebuilt. It is the soul of fire that gives life to exciting spectacles such as fireworks: a tiny spark, the most infinitesimal fraction of that fabulously flaming creature, is enough to create a kaleidoscope of intoxicating explosions.
No act is too extreme. None.
When Ifrit reaches the value of 6, the Character wants to see only flames, everywhere! Heat and light, as if a little sun had come down to earth to give us everything that is the source of life. And, of course, of destruction. It does not matter what is in front of them, whether objects, animals or people; all that matters is the fire. Destruction, moreover, is catharsis. The energy flows from within us into objects, which receive its power as best they can, often shattering. Let us not deny it: it gives immense satisfaction.
ILÙVATAR – The God That Failed
Inspiration does not belong to this world: it reaches the artist only through the intercession of higher entities who provide the believer with the words, the sounds, the strength to celebrate their perfection.
Let us unite in prayer to raise glories to the highest essence!
The Character who believes in Ilùvatar venerates a higher entity, be it God, Thor, Satan, Allah, Eru, Melkor, Odin, Buddha or any other. No action is spared in its glorification, nothing is too tiring.
Exaltation is the way one is repaid for one's prayers and one's actions, an exchange for which one is immensely grateful. And when one is so fortunate, why not spread the word, the verb of those who so generously give us what, more than anything else on earth, we desire?
Be warned, however, that the precepts to follow are rigid, and there will be many infidels who will stand in the way of the path towards blessed exaltation.
When Ilùvatar reaches the value of 6, there is nothing the Character is not willing to do to glorify their own divinity, nor any opponent they will not flush out and fight to prevent them from besmirching its name.
The blind will never see the truth, but the Character looks at it every day, and will be the worst condemnation for anyone who tries to obscure its light.
JÖKULHLAUP – Symphony of Destruction
One cannot create without first destroying. Life is not simply lived; life is confronted and demolished. It is no accident that the Universe was born from a gigantic explosion.
The Character who walks alongside Jökulhlaup nurses a constant rage, which they usually do not wish to vent against other people, but against things. Destroying is what matters; striving to the maximum to produce the greatest possible damage. The means used does not matter: one's kicks may be like a bulldozer; what counts is the effort put into the destruction.
Sometimes even the thing on which we vent our violence can give a particular satisfaction, if it is something important or unusual.
When Jökulhlaup reaches the value of 6, the Character will no longer be able to hold back their destructive frenzy. There will be no more brakes, constraints or limits: destroying solely for the sake of causing destruction will be the only imperative.
And it does not matter if there is someone who will try to stop them: what matters is to continue the devastation.
KAMA SUTRA – Whole Lotta Love
To love and be loved: what else matters?
We have Rock 'n' Roll; if we also have sex, we can easily do without drugs. Lust can bring just as much of a buzz, and it can be paid for, decidedly less.
The Character who lives according to what Kama Sutra dictates will make sex their favourite pastime, their main purpose in life. What pleasure can be greater, after all?
Let others consider it a base, dirty thing to be ridiculed: they will never know what they are missing. Or they know it, and mock it because they cannot get enough of it.
Who said that only money and material goods can be staked? The most precious thing a person has is their life. Who knows whether someone will say "I call" when the Character bets it.
But how much is enough, when it comes to the purest, most elementary pleasure? There is no "enough", there is no "too much": satisfaction is temporary, and needs constant renewal. It is not hard, after all: the world is full of people, and for all of them there is something they like.
When Kama Sutra reaches the value of 6, the Character will no longer be able to think about anything but sex. They may seek it out even by force, deliberately ignore the consequences of their "conquests", or get into serious trouble with a society that does not tolerate excess of this kind.
How many people have fallen victim to an overrated "feeling" when all they were looking for was simple pleasure of the flesh?
Paragraph 6
"Give us the money." he insists.
"FUCK OFF!" you shout in reply.
You raise your fists, ready to step forward, but before you can throw a punch you see a shadow pass beside you and strike.
Patrick, as excited as ever, has moved and knocked down the man in front of you. The other guy next to you does not even have time to react before he too is hit.
Two punches, two knockouts. Patrick, extremely excited, turns towards you...
AND HE THROWS A PUNCH IN YOUR FACE!
You fall backwards, crashing onto a table, luckily with no one on it. You do not even have time to recover before you feel two hands pulling you up and dragging you forcefully. You pass through the room while the few people left stare at you with wide eyes. The two guys knocked down by Patrick have not yet got up.
As you are dragged up the stairs you realise it is Patrick who is pulling you. Feeling your face for blood, you look at him with a puzzled, astonished expression.
"For yesterday's headbutt," he replies, smiling. He has the face of a happy child who has just eaten a delicious cake.
He always does this, you cannot stand it.
Perhaps, however, his way of doing things has created enough confusion to put you on the side of the attacked in the eyes of the other people. Now that you have been led upstairs, where people are gathering for the arrival of the newlyweds, you find yourself facing Rebecca and Adele.
Adele has already started drinking, and is in one of her pre-drunk phases of rage.
"Where the fuck were you? We have to start playing soon. Do you want us women to do everything?"
As she shouts at you she pushes you towards the small stage where the equipment is ready.
"We haven't even decided the setlist yet, you arseholes!"
As you put on your guitar and stand in front of the microphone, you have to decide which song to open the setlist with.
What will you choose to begin with? Will you try to please an audience that seems anything but inclined to Rock, or will you stick to your repertoire?
Master of Puppets – Metallica Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana Sweet Child O' Mine – Guns N' Roses The Number of the Beast – Iron Maiden Careless Whisper – George Michael My Way – Frank Sinatra
Continue on page 82.
LAS VEGAS – Ace of Spades
Sooner or later you will win, no matter if you are losing right now. It is simple statistics: all you have to do is keep playing. There are no limits, no rules; do you say it cannot be won? Shall we bet you are wrong?
Whoever sits down at the gaming table in the company of Las Vegas will try in every way to challenge fate. There is no gamble, no bet they refuse.
Where does the thrill come from, if not from uncertainty, from that mixture of fear and desire you feel an instant before revealing the final card?
It does not matter what the stake is: that only serves to convince others to commit, to give their all. What matters is only to play.
When Las Vegas reaches the value of 6, the Character will be completely in the grip of gambling fever. They may steal money and equipment from the Band to gamble it, or make ever more reckless bets with ever more dangerous outcomes.
The police will probably soon learn of such a dangerous individual, and how will the people around them react?
MACH – Highway Star
Some say that life is a journey. Others say that destinations do not matter, but the route taken to reach them. But there is no journey or route worth travelling unless it is at 200 km/h.
The accelerator is the metaphor of existence: if you want to go on, to progress, you must push. Any other pedal, any other thought, serves only to distract us or, worse, to stop us.
When speed becomes high, what we see narrows, concentrating on what is exactly in front of us. And what else should interest us, if not what is in front of us?
The Character who lives chasing Mach runs in every situation in which they can. If they cannot, they find a way to be able to.
There are no limits, there are no rules; there is no risk to safety; there are only speed and exhilaration. The whistling of the air is the only sound that counts when one runs, unless we also love the roar of the engines.
The means does not matter: whether one's own feet, a car, a bus or a train, what matters is to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. Quickly, so that then we can go to point C.
When Mach reaches the value of 6, the Character takes off, almost literally. They will not be stopped by anything, will shatter every record, break the sound barrier, and leave everyone else behind wondering who that comet was that just passed by a moment ago.
Will they be able to control such speed, or will the risks, in the end, materialise?
MALAPHAR – Breaking the Law
Things. The things that are yours, the things that are mine. The things that were yours and are now mine.
It is not so much the things that are important, nor ownership itself. I don't need any of this, really.
But taking them, the moment when this incomprehensible idea that is "property" changes hands unknown to the one who "held" it: that is where the magic lies.
"Holding", what a horrible word. It recalls prisons, constraints, deprivations of freedom. If we can give freedom to things, let us give it to them. A theft breaks no truly important rule; on the contrary, it serves to redesign the world, or at least the arrangement of the elements within it.
Stillness is typical only of death; we create movement.
Whoever has Malaphar as a travelling companion will create quite a lot of movement, at least among the things they have around them. It matters little where they come from; what matters is that they end up near the Character.
When Malaphar reaches the value of 6, the Character will no longer be content to "move" only what is around them, or what could be moved without drawing too much attention.
The greater the audacity, the greater the adrenaline. What is risk, if not the very reason for which an action is taken? The consequences will come later; now let us devote ourselves to pleasure.
MASOCH – Pain Is So Close to Pleasure
Sore in just the right way!
Pain is the key to pleasure; pain is what leads us to discover ourselves and our senses. Pain defines us. Pain is catharsis and a source of Inspiration.
The Character who lives with Masoch will seek out every source of pain as a source of pleasure. Mostly in private, but when the desire becomes urgent, also in public. After all, everyone suffers, and there is no shame in showing one's pain.
When Masoch reaches the value of 6, the Character literally begins to abuse themselves, ignoring even the consequences this might have for their health. Everything fades into the background, wiped out by a piercing and prolonged pain which will eventually leave room for only pure, distilled pleasure. Even if it is the last one.
SPARTACUS – I Fought the Law
There is no uniform worthy of respect, no uniform that does not hide something rotten. Those who wear them pretend to care, to commit to the citizens, while in fact creating obligations, restrictions and abuses of power.
No authority is legitimate, no obligation will be respected!
The Character incited by Spartacus seeks confrontation, struggle against any recognisable form of authority. There is no officer he would not argue with, no official whose job would not seek to obstruct him, whether alone or in more or less organised groups.
Protest is all that matters, sometimes even an end in itself.
When Spartacus reaches the value of 6, the Character will find no further reason to hold back, no brake to hinder their protests.
These will become ever more impulsive, ever more devastating, ever more violent. Any restriction imposed, however minimal, will be met with the most open rebellion.
The consequences are things others will think about.
STORMBRINGER – Brown Sugar
Reality is frightening, reality is sad; Inspiration is to be sought in other worlds, with other forms, other colours, other flavours. Breaking down the walls that separate us from these worlds is possible only through getting high.
"Breaking down the walls of perception," someone would say. It is beyond them that all those realities lie that you would want and that life cannot provide.
The Character "victim" of Stormbringer will find it easier to seek a solution to their problems, or even just the strength to pull on, within the chemical substances on which they depend.
Stormbringer passes through the veins, the lungs and any other organ to take gradual control of everything. And it does so insidiously, making sure that you do not immediately notice that what it is, in all its effects, is slavery.
When Stormbringer reaches the value of 6, the effects are similar to those of Bacchus: total loss of control, more or less widespread physical damage, and the ruin of the social bonds involved at the moment of collapse.
Overdose is that last step that always seems too far away, the one beyond which you are convinced you can still climb, but the foot stumbles into the void looking for a support it cannot find.
Chapter 8: Skills
I want it all
The Skills of a Character are particular abilities that can be acquired as they gain Experience.
Each Skill has a deep and intimate affinity with one of the Souls of Rockopolis, and both their learning and their use are limited by the current value of that specific Soul.
Acquiring Skills has a cost in Experience that keeps rising: 5 Experience points for the first Skill chosen for acquisition, 10 Experience points for the second, 15 for the third, and so on, increasing by 5 Experience points for each further Skill the Character wishes to possess.
To acquire a Skill, in addition to spending the correct number of Experience points, the Character must also meet the minimum requirement of the corresponding Soul: only Skills whose related Soul has a value of at least 2 may be acquired.
Further information on acquiring Skills is in chapter 12.
The same limit applies to the use of Skills: if a Character sees the value of that Soul drop below 2, they may not use any Skill of that group until they have brought the Soul back up to at least 2.
Skills may be used both On Stage and Off Stage, provided their use is sensible and coherent from the narrative point of view: the Skill Poet (Blues) is perhaps of little help during a physical clash against a rival Band, and the Players and the Narrator should agree not to use it unless a specific situation is created in which doing so makes sense.
To use a Skill, the Character must also spend 2 Inspiration points from their reserve and declare how they will use this special ability, inserting it into the narration of the story. The Players and the Narrator will agree the outcome of the action resulting from this use, possibly integrating the use of the Skill with appropriate Rolls to resolve any problems that arise.
Once a Skill has been used, it cannot be used again until the Character has rested completely. Partial rest does not affect the recovery of Skills.
We suggest placing an asterisk or other identifying mark beside the Skills used on the Sheet, so as to remember which have already been used, and removing it after the Character's complete rest.
Overlap between Skills and Traits: there are cases in which the effects of Skills and Traits may share some aspects. For example, the Skill Poet and the Trait Accomplished Songwriter may both influence the creation of new songs for the Band. The ways of using Traits and Skills are, as you have had occasion to read, different, and the way any points of contact work is left to the imagination of the Players and the Narrator.
The Narrator and the Players may, depending on the story, slightly modify the effect of a Skill.
The list that follows is absolutely not to be considered closed: you may decide to expand it with any other Skill you wish to create.
Before inserting new Skills, we advise you simply to play some of those already listed, so as to have a better idea of how they work and thus be able to create Skills balanced with the others.
The final word, as always, lies with the Players and the Narrator.
Skills to Pay the Bills
Below you will find a list of the Skills available to your Characters.
The descriptions of some Skills are divided into Off Stage and On Stage. The first description indicates what the effects of the Skill may be if applied in any context in which the Character and the Band are not performing. The second indicates the effects if the Skill is used during a concert.
A fuller description of the Off Stage and On Stage dynamics is given in chapters 10 and 11 respectively.
These descriptions are indicative: if the Skill's suggestion is sufficient, and whether there are situations in which the Character does not have enough basic elements and therefore cannot use this Skill, the Narrator and the Players must agree.
Blues Skills (minimum requirement for acquisition and use: Blues value 2)
Blues Energy The Character may add to any Roll they are making 1 additional d6, plus as many d6 as their Blues Soul value. They may also add this value in Rolls that do not use the Blues Soul as a base. They may not use this Skill to help themselves resist the temptation of the Muses.
Intuition (Intuito) Faced with a situation about which the Character knows little, thanks to this Skill they are able to intuit, deduce or in any case derive, by cross-referencing the information in their possession, far more than another person would know how to. Off Stage: the Character may have an intuition that helps them understand or "imagine" (taking as given the most likely consequences of what they already know) some information that is not in their possession at the moment. The Player who plays the Character may ask the Narrator for a hint that will set them on the path to understanding. Such a hint need not necessarily supply the missing information in full, but must nonetheless allow the Player to begin a sensible line of reasoning in this regard. The Narrator and the Players must agree whether the hint is sufficient, and whether there are situations in which the Character does not have enough basic elements and therefore cannot use this Skill. On Stage: if the Band takes the stage with an untested setlist, or changes one or more songs of it, thanks to this Skill the Band will not suffer any negative modifier from the problems with the setlist. The Narrator and the Players decide whether this can work for all the untested songs, or whether for some of them the Character's intuition fails to work.
Poet (Poeta) The Character is extremely skilled at using words to compose lyrics, both when creating songs and when improvising on stage. Useful also in contexts where good writing ability may prove advantageous, such as writing books. Off Stage: the Character knows how to use words, bending the use of language to their need. Composing lyrics becomes easy and, with effort, the Character can obtain very interesting results. They may use this Skill to write songs of strong impact (including for the instrumental part), or other texts capable of rising above the heap of mediocre literature that infests the market. A single use of the Skill may not be enough, however, if one wants to write something long and elaborate, such as a book. Finally, it can always be used to make an impression on other people. On Stage: the improvisation ability may be used by the Character to create short, impromptu fragments of text, so as to surprise an audience that expects the text it already knows. Applied to instruments, it allows interesting improvisations and variations, making that performance unique. It may be used to obtain additional Applause, to lengthen a performance that is too short, or to keep the audience focused while the rest of the Band does something else. If applied to instruments, the duration of the Skill may generally be considered longer than when applied to voice or writing.
Precise (Preciso) The Character's precision is such that some might call it pedantry. In fact, however, if you are looking for a person able to carry out a job rather carefully, the Character is just what you need. Off Stage: on any occasion when a task must be carried out with absolute precision, the Character is able to do it better than anyone else, provided they have enough time. Combining this Skill with any other capability of the Character (including those coming from Traits) brings any action within reach to the extremes of perfection. In Rehearsal: their precision in setting up the songs and sounds of the Band means that the Band benefits from 2 additional Cohesion points at the end of the rehearsal, provided the Character is given enough time to make all their adjustments. On Stage: once on stage, the Character can use this Skill to best arrange the Band's sound and its set-up on stage, especially if there is a sound engineer (or mixer) alongside them. The Band may therefore make use of 3 additional Cohesion points and favourably impress the part of the audience that is most attentive to detail. These additional points, however, may not be used to make up for the Cohesion needed to go on stage (see chapter 11 for further detail).
Glam Skills (minimum requirement for acquisition and use: Glam value 2)
Acrobat (Acrobata) The Character's acrobatic gifts are out of the ordinary: a skill useful Off Stage, but also On Stage, to entertain the audience and gain a little notoriety (fame or applause). Off Stage: for the Character there is no obstacle, roof or balcony that is impossible to jump. Halfway between a traceur (one who does parkour) and a circus acrobat, the Character can perform manoeuvres that leave onlookers astonished. Perfect for attracting attention, or for gaining advantages in hectic situations such as escapes, clashes and so on. Since this is a Skill very tied to the context of the action, the Players and the Narrator will agree any bonuses (in the form of additional d6 in a Roll) the Character may receive when using it. On Stage: jumps and manoeuvres are certainly an excellent way to send the audience wild. The Character may also study and use astonishing moves which, if used frequently during shows, will become a sort of "signature" of the Character, such as to guarantee their recognisability. This recognisability may also positively influence the Band. Here too, the concrete effect in game terms is left to the decision of the Players and the Narrator, who may apply positive modifiers to Applause, to the Band's Fame and/or to the Character's Personal Fame.
Paragraph 7
You look around, noticing all the posers present at the party (and deliberately ignoring the fact that you are dressed like one of them).
A mobile phone rings; the ringtone is one of those hateful songs by some guy called Justin or other.
You have decided. "Fuck it, let's give them a bit of real music."
Violent, incisive, nasty, the way you like it. A lot of eyes turn to look at you; whoever was chatting amiably now falls silent.
You shake your head while strumming the guitar strings, the others following suit. Adele seems mad, she is even taking the tempo far too fast, but it does not seem a problem to you.
You arrive at the microphone and shout with all the voice you have:
"END OF PASSION PLAY, CRUMBLING AWAY"
Now people are talking animatedly. You obviously cannot make out what they are saying, but it is clear they are talking about you. Apart from a couple who have already started to nod their heads, they are all evidently annoyed by your music.
"OBEY YOUR MASTER!"
Members of the villa's staff have also appeared. Some of them smile, but most are scowling. For those few happy ones, you give it all, and so do the others.
You arrive at the last shout with the whole audience watching you. Someone has probably been struck by your performance, but many more evidently wish you would stop this "noise".
Before they can even make themselves heard over the last echo of your sound, you decide to carry on. You launch into "Sweet Child of Mine", and the others know how to follow you.
While you play, you glimpse the newlyweds in a corner, looking horrified towards you. The bride is covering her ears, and beside her an older man is completely purple in the face. Mayer.
You are in trouble.
It is perhaps the worry about Mayer, but you are not giving your best. The voice is off, and although on guitar you are as great as ever, your companions are not setting the place alight. You reach the end of the song knowing you have not made a great impression. It will not change much with this audience, but you would at least have liked to fire up the few who seem to react positively.
At the end of the piece Rebecca points out a guy in a black suit, sunglasses included, watching you from against a column not far away. You have the feeling you have seen him before, but cannot remember when.
He looks at you one last time, as if inviting you to follow him, then goes into the villa. But this is not the moment to stop.
You launch into "Breaking the Law" without even waiting for Adele to give the count-in, and decide to go on, whatever it costs. Now you are on stage, you can only let them break you! Here you go all out, arriving at the end short of breath, wildly exhilarated.
Under the stage there are now also the two that Patrick knocked out; one of them seems to be carried away by the music, but the other has a really menacing look.
Now that you have finished this song you should leave, for your own safety, but the adrenaline is still too much. There would be just one more song needed to close with dignity. One more song to leave here in great style.
What do you do?
Will you play "The Trooper" – Iron Maiden?
Will you gather your things and flee in a hurry?
Will you come down from the stage and go looking for the man in black?
Continue on page 90.
Lucky (Fortunello) The Character has one more chance when things seem to be turning for the worse. After making a Roll, in either an Off Stage or On Stage situation, the Character may re-roll up to 5 Failures obtained, or roll 2 additional d6 (instead of only one) for each 6 obtained on the first roll.
Glam Energy The Character may add to any Roll they are making 1 additional d6, plus as many d6 as their Glam Soul value. They may also add this value in Rolls that do not use the Glam Soul as a base. They may not use this Skill to help themselves resist the temptation of the Muses.
Iconic (Iconico) The Character has a bearing or style such that it makes them the reference point on stage or in any other setting. Those who do not appreciate their exceptionality are probably just envious. Off Stage: the scene belongs to the Character; it will be very difficult for anyone to draw others' attention away from them. Whoever observes, listens to or in any case reacts to them is captured by them and their actions, losing interest in everything else. On Stage: there is no fan who is not hypnotised by the Character, by their charisma, simply by their magnetic presence on stage. The Band gains 1 additional Success during a song and may spend Cohesion points to obtain 2 further Successes for each point spent, rather than only one. At least half of the Fame obtained from this performance, however, must be assigned to the Character as Personal Fame, leaving only the remainder as Fame for the Band.
Metal Skills (minimum requirement for acquisition and use: Metal value 2)
Chest Beating The Character psyches themselves up by beating their chest and showing their muscles, instilling fear in potential opponents nearby. Off Stage: the physical power, the exposed musculature and the Character's angry shouts are able to make back away anyone who tries to confront this explosion of pure animal fury. Their companions, on the other hand, may be inspired by this demonstration of brute strength and be positively encouraged in the face of a difficulty. On Stage: the audience, faced with the Character's impressive display of brute force, can only cheer and show just as explosive energy. The mosh pits that may be generated by the use of such a Skill can distract the audience from a performance that is not quite perfect, tilting things in favour of the
the outcome of songs that are not simple to perform. The full extent of the advantage deriving from it will be established each time by the Players and the Narrator.
Defender The Character calls upon the strength of the Gods of Metal, which grant them the capacity not to suffer wounds or fatigue for a few seconds. Off Stage: the Character is able to fight tirelessly against opponents superior in strength and number. For a few seconds (a short time decided by the Players) the Character can ignore the wounds or fatigue arising from their activities. It is usually advisable not to ignore more than one or two wounds in this way, but the Narrator and the Players may agree on a greater number. On Stage: when playing, the Character can ignore any negative modifier to their Rolls, for example those coming from a wound that reduces the value of a Soul, or those from a worsened Relationship. They may also re-roll up to a maximum of 3 Failures obtained in a Roll.
Hulk The Character has the ability to develop a strength usually impossible for other people, for certain moments. Off Stage: the Character can exploit incredible strength for a few moments. They can hold up weights, bend bars, lift shutters, or in general carry out efforts that others would not be able to perform. On Stage: the Character may use physical strength at the limit of the superhuman to perform spectacular actions, perhaps even potentially dangerous ones (such as throwing amplifiers at the audience), or use this power in some other manifestation useful on stage. For example, they might let out a superhuman scream into the microphone, with a power such as to make the whole sound system whistle and potentially damage it. Silencing the audience with this method, although decidedly unorthodox, would certainly obtain their complete attention.
Metal Energy The Character may add to any Roll they are making 1 additional d6, plus as many d6 as their Metal Soul value. They may also add this value in Rolls that do not use the Metal Soul as a base. They may not use this Skill to help themselves resist the temptation of the Muses.
Punk Skills (minimum requirement for acquisition and use: Punk value 2)
Flash (Prova a prendermi, "Catch Me If You Can") The Character is so fast that they can do things that seem incredible. Off Stage: moving extremely quickly, the Character may carry out two consecutive actions in the time it would take them to carry out one. If the actions are different from one another, the Players and the Narrator must agree that they are reasonably chainable actions. On Stage: the Character is able to exploit speed to recover notes played badly (converting up to 2 Failures into Successes in a single Roll), or to use two different Traits at the same time. The Character manages to lose their tracks in an instant, vanishing among the shadows. Off Stage: if the Character wants to, tracking them down is very difficult. Blending into the crowd is not hard for them at all, especially if they have ready the clothing that will let them blend in even further. On Stage: the Character can almost literally disappear. Go behind an amplifier and reappear in the middle of the audience or at another point on the stage; or use various tricks to present themselves as someone else and reveal their identity later on (and vice versa). Such expedients may be used purely to astonish, perhaps gaining extra Applause, to make up for a setlist that is too short, or in any case to distract the audience.
Rouse the Crowd (Incitare gli animi) The Character knows how to warm up those who listen to them, using in their speech a vehemence such as to sweep along the people who hear them. Off Stage: the Character is able to convince a group of people to do a specific thing of their choice. The Narrator and the Players must agree that it is an action the crowd could reasonably carry out: inciting a group of people to attack someone they already disliked may be feasible, whereas asking them to do the same to one of their loved ones is almost impossible. Various other factors could contribute to the success and degree of success of such an attempt; it is up to the Players to establish any changes to the functioning of this Skill given by the circumstances. On Stage: during a concert the Character can convince the fans to move as one body, acting on their command. The logical restrictions described above for Off Stage apply. The effects on the concert in progress are to be established case by case, ranging from additional Applause to the interruption of the concert for safety reasons, or any other outcome that the imagination of the Players and the Narrator can suggest.
Punk Energy The Character may add to any Roll they are making 1 additional d6, plus as many d6 as their Punk Soul value. They may also add this value in Rolls that do not use the Punk Soul as a base. They may not use this Skill to help themselves resist the temptation of the Muses.
Example of Skills in play
Igor is the bassist of the Band Not in my name, famous for its mostly Punk songs. He is a musician with a certain experience, with a few years of performances behind him; he can be considered anything but a beginner.
Thanks to the Experience he has accumulated, Igor has been able to acquire the Skills Catch Me If You Can and Rouse the Crowd.
His Muse Mach has got him into trouble more than once, and on the last occasion he damaged the car of a mobster during an acrobatic overtaking manoeuvre.
The guy is looking for him, and knows that if he finds him there will be trouble. He therefore decides, agreeing with his Band-mates, to disappear for a while, imitating his idol Joe Strummer of The Clash.
He spends two Inspiration points (which he had gained precisely thanks to his stunt at the wheel) and activates his Skill Catch Me If You Can to get away from the rehearsal room, just an instant before the malicious individual reaches him. He takes from the room some clothes he had prepared some time earlier, and with these he manages not to be noticed in the street, not even when the guy searching for him drives past in his car.
He will have to stay out of sight for a few days. He is not in the clear, but thanks to his Skill he has got away with it, for the moment.
Time passes, and Igor returns to the stage with his Band. He is convinced that the waters have calmed, but unfortunately this is not so, since his Band-mates have argued further with the guy and his mafia friends.
Once on stage he does not want to let these people ruin his show, and when he sees them appear among the audience he has an idea. He spends two Inspiration points and activates the Skill Rouse the Crowd.
Between one song and the next, underlining his words with notes from his bass, he begins a heated speech against those who bend the laws, use corruption and make crime their way of life. He chooses his words carefully, and soon the crowd is inflamed.
When he makes clear that some of the odious individuals he has described are right there in the crowd, one single pointing gesture is enough for them to be first surrounded, then beaten and driven out of the concert.
Perhaps this will not be the end of the problem with these people, but for the moment Not in my name can carry on playing peacefully.
Chapter 9: The Band
By myself but not alone
The Band is the whole within which the Characters find a purpose.
It is an entity whose true value lies well above the sum of its elements, and at the same time it gives value to all of them, providing a "family", a group within which one can be oneself.
The Band is one of the protagonists of Rockopolis, as much as the individual Characters are, because it is one of the most important parts (when not the most important of all) in the relationship between the Characters and the rest of the world.
Each member of the Band, indeed, in addition to dealing with those around them as a person, with all their own peculiarities and characteristics, does the same also through the thick filter of the Band.
Paragraph 8
You pass your guitar to Patrick, who looks at you perplexed.
"Hold it," then you add, "and handle it well. Not like last time."
Then you jump off the stage, starting to run towards the opening through which the man in black passed earlier.
You do not get more than two steps before you end up on the ground without realising how it happened.
"Oh no, boy. Now you're mine."
You feel an explosion of pain in your side, where the guy you cheated at the card table lands a powerful kick. You bend over and try to get away, but another one arrives. And many others.
It is the feeling you had when Adele persuaded you to drink her new drink of her own invention all evening. Only with a few more shoe prints, and many cocktail umbrellas covered in vomit fewer.
There is a moment's pause when someone tries to hold him back, but he shakes free and manages to kick you a couple more times before being stopped completely.
Dazed, you try to get up, but everything reels around you. Helping hands come to lift you.
"You were great, mate. Sure, you could have played another couple of songs, eh..."
You cannot make out the face of the young man speaking to you, but from his sleeve protrudes a wrist with the muzzle of a snarling beast tattooed on it, with long fangs, a sort of studded helmet and chains.
You smile, just barely.
A man is coming towards you like a cyclone. It is Mayer, and if he decided to kick you, nobody would stop him.
"Son of a bitch, I'll massacre you. You and those shit friends of yours, you're done. Done, got it?"
He shouts various other things at you, but you do not understand them. He is pissed off to death, and that makes you smile. The smile does not escape Mayer.
He is no longer a young man, but the straight punch that lands full in your face is still powerful enough to throw you backwards. You wait for the impact with the ground, but it does not come: two strong arms hold you up.
It is Patrick.
"Let's go, we're ready." You must have been under the "care" of the poker guy for quite a while, if they have already finished taking your things off the stage. You do not understand how they managed it, but a little later you find yourself loaded into your own car, squeezed onto the back seat together with Rebecca and a tangle of instruments.
After barely a couple of minutes of driving you have to ask him to pull over. You get out just in time to empty your stomach on the roadside.
Now it is EXACTLY like that time with Adele's cocktail.
When you recover you tell the others to go to Finch's. You arrive shortly afterwards and he welcomes you with open arms.
"Dear ones. I know about your concert and also about the... exchanges that followed it."
You are not surprised: Finch always knows everything.
"Of course... from what I hear, as concerts go it was not much of a thing, but you did me a favour, and I will keep my word. Can I offer you Metro 14 for this Friday, what do you say? I'll take care of organising it."
Metro 14 is an abandoned underground metro station, built before it ever entered service, in an area whose tracks have all been unused for years. It is enormous and perfect for you.
"Obviously, since my name will be tied to this event too, and since you have shown that you are no longer the musician I remembered, you will also have to get the Banana's Dream to play."
He sees your puzzled face, and his eyes widen.
"You don't know who they are? But how long have you been out of the loop, my dear... they are simply the best emerging band in the city. Their guitarist is a real phenomenon. Imagine, tonight they are playing at the Devil's Kiss, and you know how selective that venue is. But tell me, why did you interrupt your concert so early?"
You explain about the man in black, and he makes a strange face.
"You know, you're not the first to speak to me about him. The Banana's Dream mentioned him too. It galls me to admit such a thing, but I have no idea who he is."
These Banana's Dream could be a problem: if they really are that good, you risk not having the right chance to make the thief give back Wildcraft's guitar. But they might have information about the man in black.
What do you do?
Will you go to the Banana's Dream concert to have a chat with them?
Will you set about looking for other bands to take part in the event, given the short notice?
Since you have already been beaten up, perhaps it is worth understanding whether this is really worth the trouble: will you seek out your acquaintances in the underworld to check your suspicions about the thief?
Continue on page 98.
This is the meaning of having a public life: of being a "famous" person, or at least someone whom somebody would recognise in the street or on a poster.
Not everyone would go mad at being recognised as "the drummer of that Band" instead of by their own first and last name, but this is the destiny of heroes: their image and their deeds end up being worth, and remembered, far more than they themselves are.
Think, moreover, how many people know Spiderman, and how many know Peter Parker.
The Band, then, is that great hat beneath which the public images of the various Characters merge and are reworked into a single whole. It is not certain that they will love the image that results, nor that it will remain intact for long. The internal dynamics of a Band can often be very complicated.
On the facing page you will find the Band Sheet (you will find it again at the back of the book, together with a printer-friendly version). Let us analyse it in detail.
Band Name
Incredible as it may seem, here you must invent a name for your Band.
You need only know that the Band's Name is essential; there is no Band without one, simply because it is not possible to create an identity without a name by which to call it.
And do not be lazy with names like "No Name Band", "The Unnameables" or similar, also because we are told that practically all such combinations have already been taken in real life by someone else.
Cohesion
Cohesion is one of the main values of the Band.
It not only indicates how cohesive the Band is and how capable of acting in harmony, as if it were a single person, but it also represents explicit advantages in game terms. As described in chapters 10 and 11, indeed, the Band may spend Cohesion points to obtain additional Successes when it carries out coordinated group actions (Off Stage) or when it plays together (On Stage).
It is moreover the primary requirement for getting onto a stage: a Band with no Cohesion at all (value 0) will not even be able to begin the performance, unless it relies on the Inspiration of one or more of its members.
Fame
This is what every Band aspires to more than anything else. The value of a Band's Fame measures its success, its notoriety.
If success alone is not enough for you, just think how many doors a sufficiently high value of Fame might open.
Lineup
This represents the members of the Band and their role within it: that is, which instrument they play and/or whether they have abilities that let them be useful in other fields (such as being manager, sound engineer, PR, and so on).
Besides the Rocker's name and role, here we also indicate their value of Personal Fame.
Why do we write it here rather than on the Character's Sheet?
Because it is a value that concerns not only the Character to whom it is assigned, but all the other members of the Band as well.
All of them, indeed, are aware of the differences in notoriety between the various musicians, and it is important that they can easily keep an eye on them, in order to seek, if they wish and if it is possible, to reduce them.
Since a Character's Personal Fame can even break up a Band (the history of Rock is full of examples of this) and a Character without their Band has very little reason to exist, we have preferred to show it publicly on this Sheet.
Setlist for the Next Concert
List here the songs that the Band has rehearsed and is ready to play at its next Live show.
Once On Stage the Band may still change them, but it will lose every advantage gained from having rehearsed this specific set of songs, as well as incurring negative modifiers in the case of songs not known well enough.
Further information on how the setlist works during concerts can be found in chapter 11.
Known Songs
Here the Band will write all the songs it has had the chance to study and prepare, whether they are covers of already famous songs or original pieces of its own creation.
For each of them they must also indicate the Genre and, if they choose to use the optional rule of the Theme, also what the main theme of the song is.
Further information on these descriptors can be found in chapter 11.
We're an American band
As mentioned earlier, the Band is much more than the simple sum of its elements.
This "chimera" made up of the Rockers who are its members will immediately take on a life of its own, and what happens in the relationships among its members will be of as much importance as its successes on stage.
Within a Band there are roles, one of which is that of the Frontman. The Frontman of a Band is the one who most of all represents its image, both on stage and off it.
Although in many Bands this role is taken on by the singer, it is absolutely not compulsory that it be so for our Characters' Band.
A Frontman is needed, which is why the rules of chapter 11 on On Stage play make the role a central pivot of the dynamics on stage. One might think that the burden of representing the Band (though not always in an excessively showy way) is a weight that musicians tend to offload onto others, but often the opposite happens.
The world of Bands has recorded more than one victim due to "star" musicians who made coexistence within the group impossible, since they tended to take all the attention for themselves. If the Band is reduced to a single element, at least in the eyes of the public, this can only lead to trouble.
Personal Fame can greatly contribute to problems like the one described above.
Within a Band, moreover, some problems may arise over musical tastes. One member might prefer to put songs closer to Metal on the setlist, while another prefers songs closer to Punk. The influences of the various members, if not suitably balanced, can lead to shipwreck.
Even the personal goals of individual members can contribute to creating imbalances.
Why did each of them choose to become a musician? What drove them?
As a great doctor once said, the ideal mentor for all newcomers:
"I became a doctor for the same four reasons as everyone: women, money, power and women."
You cannot imagine what problems a motivation like this might cause within a Band?
Failing in this can lead to disaster, and a shattered Band can very much resemble a "game over".
The problems that arise can be endless: financial, emotional, sexual, technical.
As in any group of people forced to maintain a relationship, there can always be something that spoils the situation.
We invite the Players and the Narrator to consider carefully the interactions among the members of the Band, both when these refer to On Stage situations and to Off Stage ones.
This does not mean that they must force their way of playing or the nature of the Character they have chosen to portray: the stories told may still be amusing and interesting, even if in the end they conclude with the members going their separate ways, the name of the Band forgotten.
It will be up to the Players and their Characters to try to balance the relationships, mediating on the points of conflict and trying as far as possible to concentrate on common goals.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Characters are the members who make up a Band; by now this should be clear.
But what members does a Band "need" in order to function? The history of Rock offers an endless number of examples, of the most varied kinds.
We are used to thinking of Rock Bands as ensembles that must necessarily include at least a drum kit, a guitar, a bass and a voice.
While this "basic setting" is by far the most widespread, sometimes with small variations in number (usually additional guitarists), there really are a great many examples showing how Bands can be composed in other ways.
There are Bands without a bassist, such as The black keys, and the lack of a drummer can be made up for by a drum machine (the most daring might attempt projects without drum sounds, although it would really be hard to remain within Rock). Purely instrumental pieces, without voice, are uncountable, and there are even bands without a guitarist, such as Aardvark.
Other line-ups include different instruments: in Deep Purple the Hammond organ played by Jon Lord had a very important role, Pink Floyd made extensive use of the saxophone, and Jethro Tull made their fortune partly because their leader played the transverse flute.
These are only some of the most famous cases, but we guarantee that the possible combinations, both in number of members and in instruments, are very many.
Can a keyboardist/pianist in a Band that mostly plays Punk seem strange? Perhaps, but why not experiment?
Sometimes you have to dare in order to gain something more...
Chapter 10: Game Rules: The Off Stage
Play the game
Roll Over Beethoven
In Rockopolis game situations are divided into Off Stage and On Stage. This chapter describes the rules for handling all those situations that do not see the Band or the Character engaged in a performance, which are defined as Off Stage.
The following chapter describes instead those relating to the moments in which the Band or the Character will perform, defined as On Stage, including the part relating to the Band's rehearsals, since these have more affinity and importance with performances than with any other Off Stage situation.
During play, situations will certainly arise in which the Characters face challenges with uncertain outcomes, or conflicts. Some of these may seriously influence the fate of the individual Character or of the Band as a whole. In these cases Rolls may be used to resolve the situation.
Some of the rules contained in this chapter, for example those for Rolls, also apply to On Stage situations, and will not be repeated in the next chapter, which will instead refer back to what is contained here.
Our Characters will not tread a stage every moment of their days; indeed, they will have plenty to do even outside performances. On all these occasions they may find themselves needing to use rules to handle the situations they face as best they can.
Important: Rolls are made exclusively when the situation can genuinely have a decisive outcome. Rolls are not made for trivial things, nor for situations in which an ordinary person would manage without difficulty.
Rolls are dice throws made to decide whether the Character is able to succeed in one or more actions they undertake. The dice rolled are always normal six-sided dice (d6).
Each Roll has a Difficulty, established by the Players and the Narrator. The Difficulty indicates how many Successes must be obtained with the Roll for the outcome to be positive.
There may be situations in which the narration makes it important, or simply more interesting, to keep the Difficulty secret before the Roll; it is up to the Players and the Narrator to decide when it is right to keep quiet.
Sections listed on the page: The Rolls; Combined Rolls; Opposed Rolls; Combat (with initiative); Injuries and fatigue; Off Stage Fame.
Paragraph 9
Finch comes back to you smiling, and seeing your questioning look, says only, "We'll talk about it tomorrow."
You say goodbye to Finch, waiting a little while because Patrick has to "talk to him in private".
You each go back to your own homes, happy to be able to take off those horrible clothes, and you arrange to meet that evening at the Devil's Kiss.
At home you check the bruises and disinfect the wounds: you have nothing broken, but they have battered you rather badly.
Now you also have the problem of this new group. You have the feeling that things are slipping out of your hands, and it is something you have always hated.
Your confidence in your abilities does not waver for something so small, but you must certainly regain control. It has been quite a while since getting on stage made everything a blaze...
Fire?
Yes, there is always that option. And you also have Finch's "present", that canister which could always come in handy.
You smile again: who knows, perhaps the evening will end with a bit of fun.
That evening, finally back in your own clothes, you find yourselves at the venue. There is a selection at the door, but you get through easily: you know practically all the city's bouncers, although about half of them only because they beat you up years ago.
The venue is enormous. Tall, with balconies on two floors and an enormous stage. Years ago you played in places like this.
Ten minutes later the Banana's Dream take the stage. They look like a group of glittery sugar-almond favours: three boys and a girl who in their spare time could be models.
Two minutes after the first song begins you have realised two things:
- a whole song built on the rhyme "cuore-amore" ("heart-love") should be considered a form of torture;
- their guitarist is truly monstrous.
You endure a full hour of this stuff in the middle of a howling audience, mostly young people intent on shouting inarticulate sexual calls at the band's members.
You imagine that later, when they go upstairs for the interview awaiting them, the crowd will move en masse.
Rebecca is, if possible, even more impatient than you. Adele, on the other hand, has her eyes fixed on the singer, on his long fair curls and his tight trousers.
Your guitarist takes you aside and says: "Listen, these pretty boys have already done my head in. Why don't we sort them out properly?"
It is not a bad idea, in fact. You could manage to get rid of them before even Friday's event.
What do you do?
Will you wait for the end of the concert to give them a beating when they return to the dressing rooms?
Will you wait for the end of the concert to take advantage of their interview and set fire to their equipment?
Will you give up the action and wait until the end of the concert to talk to them?
Continue on page 109.
Some indications on how to set appropriate values of Difficulty can be found in chapter 13.
Before the Roll, the Narrator must state what will happen in the event of a positive or a negative outcome, so that the Players know what they risk with their Characters' actions.
In both cases, positive and negative, there may be various shades of success or failure, but it is obviously not necessary for the Narrator to list all the possible shades for each outcome.
Each Roll is made by choosing the Soul most suited to the type of situation and rolling as many d6 as the value of that Soul.
Example: Victoria has decided she does not want to pay for a new guitar, and decides to try to break down the door of the rival guitarist's dressing room to steal it. To determine the success or failure of her attempt, Victoria makes a Roll using her Metal Soul as the base.
Stephen, meanwhile, wants to try to keep the Band whose dressing room Victoria is trying to enter. If he succeeds, he will prevent his companion from being caught in the act, and decides to strike up a conversation so that they stay with him. He will have to call on all his charisma, so the Roll he makes will use his Glam Soul as its base.
For each result of 6 obtained, the Player records a Success and may also decide to roll an additional die. Further 6s entitle the Player to further additional d6, allowing chains of particularly lucky rolls.
The Successes thus obtained are to be compared with the Difficulty established before the Roll. If that value is reached or exceeded the outcome is positive (with various degrees, depending on how many Successes were obtained over the minimum); otherwise the outcome is negative (again with various degrees of failure).
To the d6 of the Soul may be added any other d6 deriving from Traits and Relationships, if they are available.
The use of these Traits and Relationships must be declared before making the Roll, and the additional d6 are then rolled together with those of the Soul.
It is important to remember that Traits and Relationships can provide additional d6 only if they are used in contexts in which that specific Trait or Relationship can be useful.
Read chapters 5 and 6 carefully for a detailed explanation of how they work.
Once the d6 have been rolled, their results must be read.
In addition to the additional dice, the Player making the Roll may decide to add extra Successes to the result by spending Inspiration points. For each point spent, add one automatic Success, regardless of the number of d6 rolled.
For each result of 1 or 2 there is a Failure. For each result of 3 or more there is a Success.
A Player may not spend, in a single Roll, more Inspiration points than the total value of the Character's Muses.
Example: Jonathan is trying to shake off a car that is chasing him and the Band. It is decided that he must make a Roll on his Punk Soul at Difficulty 4. This means that to succeed he must obtain a result of 3 or more on at least 4 dice. Not very simple, but not impossible.
His Punk Soul is at value 3, so he has 3 d6 to roll thanks to it. These, however, mathematically cannot be enough to obtain sufficient Successes.
He therefore decides to use the Trait Pilot, which he has at a value of 2, using it entirely (without however Burning it).
He has 5 d6 to roll in order to obtain 4 Successes.
He rolls the dice... 2-4-1-4-5.
Damn, only 3 Successes! The action would fail, but Jonathan still has one option available to make it succeed.
He therefore decides to spend one of his Inspiration points to gain one more Success. Adding it to the three obtained in the Roll, Jonathan is able to bring the action to a positive outcome and finally shake off the one who was chasing him.
The Number of the Beast
When a Roll obtains at least three results of 6, the gods of Rock smile upon the Character making the attempt.
In this case, the result may gain 2 additional Successes at no cost, and one may choose among the following options:
- a Relationship that has already been used and not yet recovered may be used again;
- a Trait that has already been used but not yet burned may be returned to its maximum value.
Be careful: for the purposes of the rule The Number of the Beast, any 6s obtained by rolling additional dice for the 6s already obtained in the first phase of the Roll do not count.
This rule may come into play only once for each single Roll: obtaining six or more results of 6 in one Roll does not activate it several times.
Aces High
Just as obtaining many 6s means the gods of Rock are favourable to us, when we obtain many 1s it means those same gods are against us.
When a Roll obtains at least three results of 1, the extent of the Character's failure begins to become important.
There is no fixed rule in this case: it is up to the Narrator and the Players to establish what the exact outcome of such a negative result will be.
Be careful: for the purposes of the rule The Number of the Beast, any 1s obtained by rolling additional dice for the 6s already obtained in the first phase of the Roll do not count.
Aces of the Beast (or The Number of the High)
In some rather rare cases (more frequent in the Rolls of the Frontman in On Stage situations) it may happen that BOTH at least three 6s AND at least three 1s are obtained among the results.
In this case both of the rules above apply: the Roll gains two additional free Successes, the Character may choose to "recharge" a Trait or a Relationship, and the whole play group decides which negative event will balance the lucky side of this Roll.
Example: Jonathan wants to steal the badge of a policeman in front of him without the policeman noticing. He has pinned it to his chest, and it is not exactly an easy action, and considering the whole situation the Difficulty is set at 6.
To the 3 d6 of his Punk Soul he decides to add the 2 d6 granted by his Trait Light-Fingered, trusting in his Inspiration for ...
(The printed sentence is incomplete at this point, and is reproduced as printed.)
He rolls his 5 d6... 6-6-2-1-6.
The Number of the Beast!
The dice have yielded only three Successes, but having obtained three 6s he can automatically add another 2 free Successes, reaching 5.
Now he must roll another three dice, one for each 6 obtained, and gets 4-2-3.
Another two Successes, which bring him to 7.
Action concluded with a positive outcome, and without needing to waste Inspiration!
He has also gained the possibility of restoring a Trait or a Relationship already used.
Well done, Jonathan!
On another occasion, Jonathan tries to hide from the view of a shopkeeper the instrument he would like to try to nick later.
What a fine fellow our Jonathan is, eh?
The shopkeeper is rather distracted, and the action is far from impossible. Difficulty 2.
Jonathan makes the Roll on his Punk Soul and... 1-1-1!
Aces High!
Damn, what bad luck...
Not only does he show himself blatantly while moving the instrument, but in doing so he gets it jammed in another one, and in tugging he damages both of them.
Now he will not be able to enjoy the fruit of his theft, and he will also have to pay for the damage.
Finally, Jonathan finds himself having to carry out a practically impossible action: during a flight over the rooftops, he decides to jump from one roof to another across a considerable distance.
It will take all his skill and luck to manage it...
Jonathan has available his Punk Soul at 3, his Trait Athlete at 1 (which he decides to Burn, obtaining 2 d6 in total), and his Skill Punk Energy.
In all, Jonathan has 9 dice available to roll.
He rolls them and... 1-5-6-6-1-2-6-4-1.
Incredible! Aces of the Beast (or The Number of the High)!
With the additional Successes provided by the triple 6, Jonathan obtains enough to succeed in the difficult feat.
Unfortunately, the triple 1 obtained means that he rolls and crashes violently back-first onto a chimney stack. The bass he was carrying on his back is now in a decidedly poor state.
Shake, Rattle and Roll
In some situations the Characters may find themselves facing challenges that require the use of more than one of their main characteristics.
For example, they might find themselves in a situation where strength AND speed are needed, or speed AND wit, and so on.
In these cases, if no single Soul can respond on its own to the needs of the situation, one may decide to make a Combined Roll, that is, a Roll that uses two or more Souls as a base at the same time.
In this case, the Narrator and the Players must agree a Difficulty for each Soul and add them together into a Combined Difficulty. The Player must therefore make the Roll using as many d6 as the sum of the Souls involved, and see whether they obtain enough Successes to pass the Roll with a positive outcome.
Example: Mark must persuade a fellow to grant his Band an evening at his prestigious venue. He has brought an audio demo and a sort of "curriculum" for the Band, which, however, he has considerably inflated with gigs at which they did not really play.
The manager of the venue is no fool, and begins to ask questions.
In this case it is decided that both Mark's Blues Soul and his Glam Soul are involved.
It is established that the Difficulty is 3 as regards Blues (the fellow is not easy to deceive) and 2 as regards Glam (he shows neither sympathy nor antipathy towards Mark).
Combined Difficulty of 5.
Mark will have available his Blues Soul at 2 and his Glam Soul at 2. These are rather few to manage it. He will have to use Traits, Skills, Relationships or Inspiration to achieve his aim, otherwise he will fail miserably and his lies will be uncovered.
The same applies when several Characters cooperate with their respective Souls to obtain a result: the values of the Souls involved are summed, the d6 equal to this value are rolled, and the result is compared with the Difficulty.
In the case of a single Soul summed by several Characters, however, there is no overall Difficulty.
Breaking down a door requires the same physical strength whether one person or several people try to do it. For this reason, when more than one Character cooperates in an action, it can often easily be considered automatically successful, without the need to make a Roll.
Example: The rusty shutter of the warehouse that holds the stolen Band van is really hard to lift. One Character alone cannot manage it, but if all four of them put their backs into it, they might succeed.
The overall Difficulty is set at 5.
The Characters add their Metal Souls and have available 7 d6 to roll.
If they manage it, the collective effort will have been enough to accomplish the feat; otherwise they will all have failed and will have to find another way into the warehouse.
The rules The Number of the Beast, Aces High and Aces of the Beast (or The Number of the High) also apply to Combined Rolls.
United Abominations
If the whole Band is involved in the action and one wishes to represent a collective action, closer to the union that binds the Band on stage, this optional rule may be used.
Important: this rule can be applied only if ALL members of the Band take part in the action. If even one is missing, the union of each one's abilities cannot be exploited, and that union is what makes a Band unique and functioning.
Group Rolls may be chosen when the action involves all the Characters towards a single objective. These group actions make it possible to divide, among the various members of the Band, the Difficulty of an action that a single person would never be able to accomplish alone.
A Difficulty must then be established for the whole Band to overcome with the final Roll. This Roll is made by one of the Characters, who is identified as the Leader, the one who guides and directs the action.
In an order chosen by the Players, each of them makes their Roll, choosing as usual the appropriate Soul on which to make it. Note that in this case there is no Difficulty against which to compare the results of the dice.
Traits, Relationships and Inspiration points may be used as usual to improve the result.
Every Success obtained in a Roll gives an advantage to the Leader when the Leader makes their own: for each Success obtained, the Leader may add one additional d6 to their Roll.
If the Leader's final Roll reaches or exceeds the established Difficulty, the action has a positive outcome; otherwise, a negative one.
The Players and the Narrator decide whether the Band is able to use in these situations also the Cohesion gained through rehearsals (see the next chapter). Usually this is a value applicable only to On Stage performances, but the group may decide that the chemistry created by playing has favourable repercussions also on occasions when the Band is not playing but still acts together as a whole.
Group Rolls work in a very similar way to On Stage situations, and we refer to the next chapter for examples that adequately describe group Rolls too.
Controlled Opposition
Standing in a Queue
In some situations it is not possible to establish a Difficulty, because the outcome of the Character's action derives from the outcome of someone else's action, or from factors that cannot be determined precisely. When this happens, the Difficulty of the Roll is determined by another Roll, generating what is called an Opposed Roll.
It may happen that one must decide who, among several Characters or other individuals involved in the action, acts first. How is it determined who proceeds first?
If the situation involves two Characters (even non-Player ones) in opposition, then both "contenders" make their Roll normally, and whoever has obtained the greater number of Successes has the upper hand.
In this case the Rolls are made simultaneously, but with the result hidden. Before revealing it, the person who has made the Roll decides whether and how much Inspiration they use, and announces it. After both have done so, the results of the Rolls can be revealed and compared.
In case of a tie, the situation remains at a stalemate, and it may be determined again later.
Example: Mark is holding a closed door shut to allow the rest of his Band to finish loading the van and escape from the venue, where after the concert a few troubles have occurred.
On the other side, the manager of the venue is pushing to open it.
Mark makes a Roll on his Metal Soul (value 2), and so does the manager (who also has Metal at 2).
Results: Mark obtains 2-2, the manager 1-5. The manager is getting the upper hand, with one Success against none for Mark, who is therefore forced to spend some of his Inspiration to go on resisting.
If he has none, the fellow gets through and there will be trouble for the Band.
First of all, unless the situation or the narration requires otherwise, the Characters always act before the others.
It may happen that this does not occur for particular reasons (for example, the Characters do not expect what someone else is about to do to them), but in general it is they who take the initiative.
They are the heroes of our story, or the closest thing to a hero that we have in Rockopolis, good grief!
Within the group of Characters, the order in which they act may be decided by agreement among the Players, or by using the following scheme:
- whoever has the highest Punk value acts first;
- in case of a tie, whoever has the highest Blues value acts first;
- in case of a further tie, whoever has the highest Metal value acts first;
- in case of a further tie, whoever has the highest Glam value acts first;
- in case of a further tie, whoever has the most Inspiration points remaining acts first;
- in case of a further tie, roll a d6: whoever throws it furthest acts first;
- if the previous point does not satisfy you, consider the action simultaneous.
If elements not belonging to the group of Characters are also involved, and who, according to the Players and the Narrator, have the same possibilities of acting first, roll 3 d6.
Every Success obtained will be equivalent to a Punk value of 1, to be compared with the Punk value of the Character.
Fight Fire with Fire
Even the most celebrated Rock stars sooner or later come across a brawl or a fight of some kind. You do not think your Characters can always get away with it, do you?
When tension becomes too high, someone likes to start throwing punches.
Here come the rules for combat in Rockopolis. What kind of role-playing game would it be without them?
Combats, in fact, take place through the Opposed Rolls already described, comparing the Successes obtained by the contenders and checking who has had the upper hand.
Depending on the result, one or more of the contenders may be assigned wounds, as described in the next chapter.
What happens, however, if my Rocker, armed with a knife, faces a fan armed with a two-handed sword?
Hold on, why on earth would that one be walking around with a two-handed sword?
Rockopolis is a game that aims to make you live the experiences of a Rock star and of their Band, not those of a gladiator in the arena.
If you feel the need to create detailed variants of combat, including different damage depending on the weapon, speed factors and so on, we leave the choice to you.
You may assume that a bigger weapon inflicts a greater amount of damage but gives a negative modifier to the Character's speed (making it harder for them to act first), or that, with weapons of different sizes, the longer one has an advantage when trying to hit the person holding the shorter one.
Really, the choice is yours. We will not be offended if you create your own variants for handling all the minutiae of a real fight. Rockopolis is designed to concentrate the playing experience on the narration rather than on Rolls and statistics, although we did want to include them in order to characterise some aspects better; but if you want to delve into the dynamics of action, by all means do.
Injury
Following a fight or other unpleasant situations, a Character may be wounded.
Other conditions, on the other hand, may cause such exhaustion in the Character that it becomes difficult for them to keep acting without resting.
What happens when a Character finds themselves in this situation?
For Characters, wounds and extreme fatigue translate into the temporary loss of Soul points.
The Soul from which to subtract the points lost is decided by the Player in question, unless there are particular conditions that obviously affect a specific Soul: a sprained ankle mainly limits movement, so a penalty to the Punk Soul is more appropriate.
In the case of particularly serious wounds or truly debilitating fatigue, more than one point may be subtracted from the Souls of the Character, possibly dividing them among more than one Soul.
How many points must be subtracted?
In this case we leave it to the Players and the Narrator to use common sense and establish the correct amount.
A full day of hard work may cost one point; fourteen hours of work in a mine may cost two or more.
Taking a volley of punches may cost one point, while a stab wound may cost much more.
If for any reason a Soul ends up at value 0, the Character becomes momentarily incapacitated. This may mean that they faint, are forced into complete rest (with no possibility of doing anything other than lying down), suffer a nervous breakdown that makes them unmanageable, or any other option the Players decide to apply.
Usually at least one night of complete rest is able to restore the minimum functionality that will allow the Character to return to action, though with great care to avoid becoming incapacitated again.
The more Souls of the Character reach 0, the more critical their situation becomes.
The Players and the Narrator have the option of deciding that the Character's condition is so serious as to turn the temporary incapacity into a permanent one.
This may mean that the Character's nervous breakdown has become chronic and they are no longer able to handle the stress of a musician's life, or that the injuries suffered have caused them a disability that prevents them from continuing their normal activities.
As always, the choice rests with the Players and the Narrator.
They might even decide that the Character is dead.
Rust in peace
Lazy
The well-deserved rest!
The Characters can finally lie down in complete peace beneath the warm blankets of their bed, in the half-wrecked, flea-infested caravan which has been their home since they left their parents' house.
In Rockopolis, Rest is the main method of recovering any Character characteristic that has been spent or lost previously.
In this case we distinguish two types of Rest:
- Short Rest
- Complete Rest
In the case of a Short Rest, the Character may recover only points spent from their Traits.
For every two hours of rest without fatigue or stress of any kind, the Character may recover one point in a Trait of their choice that still has at least one remaining point.
With a Short Rest, points cannot be recovered in Traits that have no remaining points or that have been Burned.
Burned Traits, on the other hand, can be recovered only after spending 1 Inspiration point. In doing so, the Trait ceases to be Burned and simply remains with no remaining points.
Such points may then be recovered through Rest.
With a Complete Rest, at least eight hours of sleep or in any case of resting without stress or fatigue, the Character recovers all the missing points in all Traits, including those with no remaining points, but still excluding Burned Traits.
Besides Traits, a Complete Rest allows the recovery of any Relationship that has been used previously.
A Complete Rest, moreover, allows the recovery of one point lost from a Soul.
Players and the Narrator may agree on valid alternatives to the eight hours of sleep for a Complete Rest. They also have the freedom to consider certain conditions as not normally recoverable, thus requiring other solutions from the Character. For example, a Character who has suffered a wound that keeps bleeding will not be able to recover their lost Soul points unless they go to have it stitched up in a hospital.
Paragraph 10
The opportunity is too tempting: the flames will repay you for the suffering endured by listening to this crap.
You give instructions to Rebecca on how to distract the bouncer while the Banana's Dream go to the interview, and you run to your car to fetch the canister, sniggering.
Oh, it really looks like it's going to be a fine evening!
A minute later, as planned, the entrance is quiet. You manage to get back in with the canister in hand without being noticed, and slip into the backstage. There you look for the band's equipment, but do not find it.
You know you cannot wander around for long before someone catches you, so you have to hurry. If the instruments are not here, they can only be on the stage. You arrive behind the first wing and find them there, in fact.
You have no time to move them, but you do not care. What matters is only the warmth of the fire!
You splash the petrol on the instruments, aware that the flames will spread to the rest of the stage and the structure.
Not even this matters.
You will make an anonymous phone call within five minutes at most.
You take out the Zippo, and with a distorted light in your eyes you light the flame.
The light in your eyes is immediately joined by the reflected light of the fire, which spreads quickly.
Yes!
It is so beautiful!
You could stand and watch all evening, but you must run. You have just come down the stairs and reached the corridor beside the stage, at the far end of which Rebecca waves her arm, signalling you to hurry, when... you glimpse a man in a black suit.
It is him, you are sure of it.
He is on the other side of the corridor, which runs behind the stage and reaches the control booths on the far side of the venue, his back turned to you. You do not know whether he has seen you, but he is walking in the opposite direction to yours.
You are tempted to go after him, but you begin to smell smoke... what do you do?
Will you follow the man in black?
Will you flee towards Rebecca?
Will you look for one of the alarm buttons and raise the alarm? (Struck through in the printed text; this choice is not available, since the Muse is still "burning" within you and wants to see the flames spread.)
Continue on page 114.
Chapter 11: Game Rules: The On Stage
Plug in Baby
Until now we have been joking.
Up to this chapter we have talked about a great many things, but only now do we explore what all Rock stars live for, what every Band struggles for.
The gigs.
The On Stage rules serve to manage everything that happens during a performance, and more generally during concerts.
Show everyone, and yourselves too, what you are made of.
The Great Gig in the Sky
The Characters have climbed onto the stage, whether this is inside a stadium or in the smallest pub in the area.
Now they have an audience in front of them, and it does not matter whether there is only one person or ten thousand: the Band must do its best.
Important: to be able to begin the performance, the Band must have a Cohesion value of at least the number of Band members +1.
Cohesion points and the way they are acquired are described in the paragraph Try, Try, Try in this same chapter.
If it does not have this, it will not be able to get onto the stage unless one of the Characters spends as many Inspiration points as the Cohesion points that are missing.
If even then the Band does not have enough points, it will not go on stage, and the gig is missed.
If for any reason the Band does not go on stage (for lack of Cohesion or for any other reason), its Fame will suffer.
The Band immediately loses the value of Fame that it would have gained at that gig had it obtained the maximum possible Applause, while each member of the Band loses 4 points of Personal Fame.
When the Characters perform, they must try to satisfy the Expectation of the audience in front of them.
The Expectation of a gig indicates how easy or difficult it is to please the audience, and constitutes the target to be reached with the performance and with the choice of songs to be played.
Songs in Rockopolis are divided by Difficulty. The Difficulty of a song determines the Threshold, that is, how many Successes in its Roll the Frontman must obtain in order to play it correctly.
The Frontman will be the last member of the Band to make their Roll, with an advantage or a disadvantage given by the Successes and Failures of the other members who have made their Rolls before them.
The Frontman is decided among the Characters who play in the Band. This choice may fall on any musician, not necessarily the singer or the guitarist, although this is generally the most frequent option.
Once identified, the Frontman keeps this role for the whole duration of the performance.
The Rolls are described in detail in chapter 10.
It is important to remember that all the rules of ordinary Rolls also apply to On Stage Rolls: for example, it is possible to obtain The Number of the Beast (triple 6) even while performing on stage.
In the case of Aces High (triple 1), some things may go wrong on stage. The guitarist might break a string, the bassist might make an amplifier crash, the drummer might tear the drumheads.
Unfortunately the misfortunes that can happen on stage are almost infinite!
The Difficulty of a song also establishes how much Applause the Band will receive in the case of a positive performance, and how many Boos in the case of a negative one.
An excess of Boos may lead to a premature end of the concert.
The difference between Applause and Boos is then weighed against the Expectation of the audience. If it is exceeded, the concert has had a positive outcome (there may be various degrees); otherwise it is negative.
Playing at a concert therefore requires a minimum of planning.
For a list of some example songs with their suggested Difficulties, Applause and Boos, consult the paragraph Let There Be Rock in this same chapter.
The Expectation of a venue usually depends on its size, its fame, the type of audience and the musical tastes it channels.
It is a value that usually ranges from a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 100.
A list of example venues with their respective Expectation can be found in chapter 14.
A setlist for a concert may vary from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 7 songs.
In reality Bands usually play many more songs, but in Rockopolis only the performances of the most significant ones are considered, in order to reduce the number of Rolls the Band makes.
Playing a song works as follows:
for a positive outcome of the song, the Frontman must obtain a total number of Successes equal to the Threshold, that is, the Difficulty value of the song multiplied by the number of Characters in the Band.
For example, Master of Puppets has a suggested Difficulty of 3, which means that the Frontman of a Band of 4 members must overcome a Threshold of 12 Successes.
To manage it, they must obtain the support of the other musicians.
Careful: playing songs that have not been tried or that were not previously entered in the setlist can be very risky!
Songs that have never been rehearsed may be played, but each of these will have its Difficulty increased by 2 (which in this case may also rise above 4).
If instead the song is already part of the Band's repertoire but has not been entered in the setlist, the Difficulty increases only by 1.
Further information on rehearsals and the setlist is in the paragraph Try, Try, Try in this same chapter.
Each member, excluding the Frontman, must make a Roll using the Soul appropriate to the song (the list of songs also indicates which Soul is most appropriate) against the Difficulty of the song.
If the Roll has a positive outcome, it provides 1 additional d6 for the Roll that the Frontman will have to make at the end.
For each Success above the Difficulty obtained by the individual members, the Frontman will have one further d6 available for their final Roll.
Traits, Relationships and Inspiration may be used in these Rolls.
The appropriate Skills may also be used in the case.
The Character making the Roll may also choose to use the Band's Cohesion.
For each Cohesion point spent, they obtain one automatic Success, as if they had spent one of their Inspiration points.
After all the other Characters have made their Rolls and calculated their Successes, the Frontman makes their own.
As indicated before, to the d6 provided by the appropriate Soul the Frontman adds 1 d6 for each positive outcome obtained by the other Characters. To these they also add any Traits they decide to use. After the Roll they may also use Inspiration to obtain further Successes.
If in this way they reach the number of Successes required (12 in the example above), the song has been performed well, and the corresponding number of Applause is gained (double if not even one Failure was obtained). Otherwise the song has failed and the corresponding number of Boos is taken.
Paragraph 11.
You run after him. This time he will not escape you!
You reach him as soon as you turn the corner. You find him turned towards you, as if he were expecting you.
He speaks before you can say anything.
"There it is, at last. I am glad you decided to come to me, sir. Here, hold it and make good use of it."
And he hands you a small business card. Without even giving you time to look at it, he carries on.
"Now I think it is time to leave, don't you agree?"
Indeed you begin to smell burning. Your skin still tingles with excitement, but you know the time available is not much.
"We'll see each other again soon, I hope. Until then, sir."
And he turns again, carrying on towards the control booths, while you can do nothing but nod as you slip the business card into your pocket.
You go back, hoping to reach Rebecca and the others before the area becomes too crowded, but you see that someone is already running towards the stairs leading to the stage.
You fear it is already too late to avoid being seen, but you try to climb the stairs anyway, towards the flames. The heat is already very intense, and the flames have spread much further than you thought.
You hurry to get past without being hurt by the fire, and emerge at the front of the stage.
Behind you a thick dark smoke comes out.
Below the stage, hundreds of people are looking at you. Or rather, they are looking at the...
smoke, but they cannot fail to notice you too. You jump down quickly, trying to mingle with the crowd, which is now starting to become agitated. The first screams are rising, and the mass of people is pushing violently towards the exit.
The crowd moves you and drags you towards the entrance. Not far off you see Patrick behind the box office, busy. You reach him and see that he has taken advantage of the chaos to stun the cashier, whose till he is emptying at speed. In his eyes you see a flame, in some ways similar to yours: you know that now he is prey to a crazed excitement. Stopping him will not be easy, and he will not stop until he has emptied everything.
Rebecca arrives straight after: "Isn't Adele with you? She came looking for you backstage, but she never reappeared." Then she looks at Patrick with a questioning air.
You must decide quickly: staying here too long may be dangerous.
From upstairs, the Banana's Dream watch the scene in shock. You meet their guitarist's gaze, and show him your middle finger.
Fuck it, you have nothing left to lose now. Even if they were in front of you, you would piss on their backcombed hair.
Will you leave Patrick and Adele here and escape with Rebecca?
Will you stop Patrick and escape with Rebecca and him?
Will you set about looking for Adele with Rebecca?
Will you stop Patrick, and go looking for Adele with him and Rebecca?
Continue on page 120.
Choosing the appropriate Soul: in some cases the songs chosen by the Players will be very clearly identifiable with a Soul, depending on the Rock genre to which they belong.
What happens, however, when songs are chosen with a genre that is not precisely defined by the four Souls of Rockopolis?
The Players and the Narrator may agree on the way in which the Character intends to play that specific song: the drummer, for example, might choose to use as much "nastiness" as possible, drawing on their Metal Soul, while the guitarist might choose to embellish the melodies with effects and other touches, making them catchy in keeping with their Glam Soul.
The choice of the Soul to be used thus becomes at the discretion of the Players and the Narrator.
Careful: combining too many different styles risks turning the performance into an unpleasant cacophony. For each different Soul that the Characters use, the song will have a penalty to its Applause value and an increase to its Boos value:
- -1 Applause for each different Soul;
- +1 Boo for each different Soul;
(the first Soul, obviously, does not count).
The Characters are asked to play Cinthy-Ruth by Black Merda, a funk rock song with psychedelic influences. It is not a song from their usual repertoire, but it is the favourite piece of the owner of the venue where they play, so they try to please him in order to wheedle another evening out of him later.
They must therefore decide how to tackle it: the bassist and the drummer opt for their Blues Soul, the highest they have. For the same reason the guitarist chooses his Metal Soul and the singer his Punk Soul. In this way each of them will have the greatest number of dice to roll.
The mixture of styles, however, makes the sound rather peculiar, so that it does not come out as well as if the song had been played entirely in one style.
Since the total number of Souls is 3, the Applause value of the song (which the Narrator and the Players will decide after assigning a Difficulty) will be reduced by 2 (the first Soul does not count). For the same reason the Boos value that the Band will take in case of a wrong performance rises by 2.
During the performance, the musicians' performances create Mutual Influence on one another.
Good performances spur the next musician to do better.
If a Band member obtains at least a number of Successes equal to the Difficulty of the song, the next member may roll one extra die in their own Roll.
If they too obtain the same result, the following member will have 2 additional dice, and so on: a chain of incredible performances grows stronger.
Unfortunately it also works in reverse.
If a Band member does not obtain enough Successes, the next member will have one die fewer available, and the Band takes 1 Boo.
If they too obtain the same result, the following member will have 2 dice fewer (and the Band will take another Boo), and so on.
If at any moment during the performance the Boos obtained exceed the Applause obtained by 10, the concert is interrupted.
The Band immediately loses the value of Fame that it would have gained at that gig had it obtained the maximum possible Applause, while each member of the Band loses 4 points of Personal Fame, exactly as if they had refused to go on stage.
The audience is disgusted by the performance and, depending on the situation, might even turn on the Band directly.
The extent of the failure varies according to how much Applause the Band had already obtained earlier, and how many Boos it has taken at the same time.
The exact narrative outcome of the failure is left to the decision of the Players and the Narrator.
If at the end of the performance the Band has gathered a number of Applause equal to or greater than the Expectation of the concert, then it has been a success!
Otherwise, unfortunately, it has been a disaster.
Warning: playing On Stage is no walk in the park. The setlist and the whole performance must be planned very carefully, being able to calculate all the resources available in order to obtain a positive result.
Players who are too carefree may soon discover, to their cost, that going on stage without adequate preparation can be tremendously harmful.
Summary Table of the On Stage Performance
Each member of the Band, except the Frontman, makes a Roll on the appropriate Soul.
Each positive outcome obtained = +1 d6 on the Frontman's final Roll.
Each Success above the Difficulty = +1 d6 on the Frontman's final Roll.
Each time a member obtains a positive outcome, +1 d6 on the Roll of the next member (even if that is the Frontman).
Each time a member obtains a negative outcome, -1 d6 on the Roll of the next member (even if that is the Frontman).
Moreover, the effects are cumulative:
- two positive outcomes in a row = +2 d6 on the Roll of the third musician, and so on;
- two negative outcomes in a row = -2 d6 on the Roll of the third musician, and so on;
- Threshold of the song = Difficulty of the song x number of Characters.
If the Frontman's final Roll obtains a number of Successes equal to or greater than the Threshold, the Band takes the number of Applause indicated. If it does not obtain enough Successes, the Band takes the number of Boos indicated.
The concert is interrupted if the Boos are greater than or equal to the Applause + 10.
At the end of the concert: if the Applause is equal to or higher than the Expectation, the concert has been a success; if the Applause is lower than the Expectation, the concert has been a failure.
On Stage Rolls work exactly like Off Stage Rolls.
Traits, Relationships, Inspiration, Skills and Cohesion may be used.
Example of a concert: the concert of the Band Vanilla Pigs is drawing to a close. The Characters have only one more song in the setlist, after which the evening will be over and they will know whether the audience was enthusiastic or not.
The Band is playing at a venue with an Expectation of 40. So far it has totalled 45 Applause and 12 Boos.
It does not risk being thrown off the stage for too many Boos, but it does risk concluding the evening with a poor showing and no Fame gained, or even lost.
The setlist must end with Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie. If performed correctly, it will earn the Band 15 Applause.
There are 4 members in all, so the Threshold of the concert is 12 (Difficulty 3 x 4 members of the Band).
Let us see how they get on.
Jerry, the guitarist, begins to play.
The song is played with the Glam Soul, which Jerry has at value 2. He must obtain at least 3 Successes (the Roll is made against the Difficulty of the song), so he needs some help.
He does not want to ruin the evening, so he decides to Burn his Trait Brilliant Guitarist. He had already used up this ability, so he obtains only 2 extra d6.
He therefore rolls 4 d6... 1-3-5-2.
Only two Successes, but Jerry does not give up. In the preceding days he has indulged his Muse Bacchus by drinking like a man possessed, and he has just 2 Inspiration points to use.
With his last energies, Jerry totals 4 Successes. A positive outcome for his Roll! The Frontman will have 1 additional d6 to help overcome the Difficulty of the song.
His decent performance inspires Marlene, the drummer, who adds 1 d6 for the positive influence of the guitarist to her 3 d6 provided by her Glam Soul.
Marlene too spends her Tireless Drummer Trait, obtaining another 2 d6.
She therefore rolls 6 d6... 4-6-2-5-1-5.
4 Successes! Moreover she has obtained a 6, which she re-rolls, and obtains... 4.
5 Successes in total.
The Frontman will therefore have 2 additional d6 for their final Roll.
Now it is Frank's turn, the bassist.
Frank has 2 additional d6, since his companions are doing very well. Unfortunately his Glam Soul is worth only 1, and he has already exhausted all the advantages he could use with Traits and Relationships. He has only one Inspiration point left.
He rolls 3 d6... 4-1-4.
2 Successes. He should reach 4, but even with his last Inspiration point he could not manage it. He can, however, use one of the last two Cohesion points that the Band has, and decides to do so.
By spending one Inspiration point and one Cohesion point he achieves the goal.
+1 additional d6 for the Frontman.
Now it is the turn of Zara, the singer, the Frontman (or Frontwoman) of the Band.
From the outcomes of her companions she has available +4 d6 (1 from Jerry, 2 from Marlene and 1 from Frank). Not only that: the chain of positive outcomes from her companions supports and galvanises her, giving her another 3 additional d6.
Her Glam Soul is worth 3, so for now she has a total of 10 d6 to use in her Roll.
These seem many, but the Threshold is 12 Successes, given the Difficulty of the song.
She too, unfortunately, has practically used up all her arrows in the earlier songs, and has been left with only two Inspiration points.
She must try her luck.
She rolls her 10 d6... 4-2-1-6-4-3-4-5-3-5.
8 Successes. There is a 6, which she re-rolls... 3.
9 Successes.
Not enough yet, she must find the resources elsewhere.
Luckily for the Vanilla Pigs, the 2 Inspiration points and the remaining Cohesion point are enough: with 3 additional Successes Zara's Roll reaches the 12 Successes needed to overcome the Threshold.
A positive outcome!
The Band therefore gains 15 Applause, reaching a total of 60.
The Expectation of the concert was 40, so the evening has concluded with an acceptable result.
How much Fame has the Band gained from this effort?
(Applause - Boos) - Expectation (60 - 12) - 40 = 48 - 40 = 8
The Band leaves the venue with 8 additional Fame points.
It was worth it!
Moreover, Zara gains 4 points of Personal Fame, since the audience concentrated more on her during the Band's performance. The other members of the Band each gain 2 points of Personal Fame.
Each member of the Band finally gains one point of Experience.
Better than nothing...
Blaze of Glory
Obviously, every action has a motivation, a final goal that drives one to carry it out.
As regards performances, what drives Bands is Fame (and sometimes debts, but for the moment let us leave that subject aside).
Fame is a value of the Band that is gained following On Stage performances.
Fame is calculated as follows:
(Applause - Boos) - Expectation
Important: the Band may even lose Fame, if the resulting value is negative. In this case, however, the Band loses only half (rounded up to the next whole number) of the negative Fame points so calculated.
In the example above with our Vanilla Pigs, it would have been enough for Zara to have one Inspiration point fewer for them not to make it.
In that case they would have taken 12 Boos, the evening would have been decidedly disappointing, and the Band would even have lost 10 Fame points (half of the result, -19).
Zara would also have lost 5 points of Personal Fame, and the other members 2 each.
Playing On Stage is no joke, and the Band should always plan the performance well and carefully calculate the resources at its disposal.
In case of a cancelled concert (because the Band does not go on stage for lack of Cohesion or for any other reason), or of a concert interrupted because the Band has taken too many Boos, the Band will immediately lose the value of Fame that it would have gained at that concert had it obtained the maximum possible Applause.
At the same time each member of the Band loses 4 points of Personal Fame.
Fame can never fall below 0.
Based on the Fame gained, the various members of the Band may gain points of Experience.
Paragraph 12.
For a moment you think about how to stop Patrick.
A headbutt, like yesterday, might do, but in his present condition he would probably give it back to you and carry on looting the till.
You signal to Rebecca and the two of you plunge into the crowd, looking for Adele. The crowd is pushing ALL in the opposite direction to yours, and the chaos is infernal. It resembles the parties you attended as a boy. The glitter of the flames on the stage makes the resemblance truly incredible, in fact.
You try to make your way through with Rebecca behind you, who however is not much help, busy as she is trying not to be knocked to the ground. You push with all your strength, looking around and trying to work out where your drummer may have got to.
Comparison table of Fame and Experience gained
- Fame below 0: no Experience point gained
- Fame 0 to 10: 1 Experience point gained
- Fame 11 to 20: 2 Experience points gained
- Fame 21 to 30: 3 Experience points gained
- Fame above 30: 3 Experience points gained, and the Band gains 2 Cohesion points
You start grunting with the effort, sweating like a madman. Then you start shouting at the top of your lungs.
The experience of youth parties helps you, because you manage to make your way through.
Then you reflect: you know Adele, and you know that when she is thwarted she immediately seeks an outlet in alcohol. You ignored her when she called you in the corridor, and she has probably gone off to drink something.
You are not wrong. You find her at the bar counter, drinking Scotch as if it were vodka.*
You have to shout yourself hoarse to apologise to her and get her to follow you outside. In the end she agrees, but insists that you help her carry away as many bottles as you can. You head for the exit loaded like mules, while That Lush passes from rage to witless happiness.
In the chaos of the exit, while smoke is now coming out of the main door too, it is easy to pass unnoticed and run to the car. You find Patrick waiting for you, already inside and with the engine running.
He is a madman, but you cannot deny he is a friend.
As soon as you are all inside, the car shoots forward and you flee the place. As if the screeching of the tyres had given a signal, a few seconds after setting off a phone call reaches you.
On the display you see that it is Finch. It could mean trouble. What do you do?
Will you answer, pretending nothing has happened and, if he accuses you, declaring yourself innocent?
Will you answer, boasting of the act you have committed and telling him that if it is spectacle he wants for his event, it is only you he must rely on?
Will you not answer, but contact your underworld connections and spread the word that it was you?
Will you not answer, and go and hide out of town, waiting for tomorrow, to avoid trouble?
* Quote from a TV series. If you recognise it, write to the publisher and you will receive our warmest compliments. (The publisher's contact address printed here is omitted from this transcription.)
Continue on page 128.
Each member of the Band will also acquire Personal Fame, according to the following criterion:
the Frontman gains Personal Fame equal to 50% of the Fame of the concert;
the remaining members of the Band gain Personal Fame equal to the remaining 50% of the Fame divided by their number (rounded up to the next whole number).
The genres indicated are also for reference: variations may be considered, including on the basis of any different versions that the Band decides to play.
The calculation above also applies in the case of negative Fame: the Frontman will lose more Personal Fame than their companions, in proportion to the negative Fame obtained by the Band.
The list provided serves only as inspiration for the creation of your own original playlists, and as a reference for the creation of original songs by the Band, described later.
The usefulness of Fame, and the complications that too wide a gap between group Fame and Personal Fame can bring, will be described in detail in chapters 12 and 13.
Let There Be Rock
Below is an indicative list of the possible Difficulties, Applause and Boos of some songs.
Difficulty ranges from 1 to 4 (the higher the value, the more difficult the song).
Applause is generally calculated by multiplying the Difficulty by 5.
Boos are generally calculated by multiplying the Difficulty by 4.
These values are only indicative: the Narrator and the Players may agree to modify them as they wish.
The Narrator and the Players, of course, are free to create their own list of songs with appropriate values; indeed, they are warmly invited to do so.
To all the musicians reading these lines: the list is illustrative. We have deliberately simplified the classification of the difficulty of the songs, as well as the approximation of genre.
Moreover, we know very well that difficulty has some subjective aspects.
We hope you will understand the need to keep everything as simple as possible for non-musician players.
You are in any case free to change everything as you wish, according to what your musical experience suggests.
Just do not break our balls...
Reference songs table
| Title - Band | Difficulty | Genre | Applause | Boos |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breaking the law - Judas Priest | 1 | Metal | 5 | 4 |
| Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden | 1 | Metal | 5 | 4 |
| Raw Power - Iggy Pop | 1 | Punk | 5 | 4 |
| Don't Call Me White - NOFX | 1 | Punk | 5 | 4 |
| Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones | 1 | Blues | 5 | 4 |
Note: table headers are translated; song and band titles are reproduced as printed in the book.
Nothing Else Matters
If the Narrator and the Players wish, they may deepen the characterisation of their songs with the Theme.
The Theme is the subject (or subjects) addressed by the song's lyrics. Through certain compositional refinements the Theme may also be conveyed through the music alone.
A Theme may be something that a concert audience particularly appreciates or despises. Depending on the place where one plays, some Themes may help capture the audience, earning more Applause and reducing the number of Boos in case of failure.
In the same way, a Theme that the audience does not appreciate may lower the Applause and increase the Boos.
The exact value of the increase or decrease is at the discretion of the Narrator and the Players.
Playing a song about the road and homesickness will be perfectly fine for a concert in a bikers' club.
On the other hand, a song about insulting the armed forces may not be ideal for a concert at a police party.
If one does not wish to reach this degree of detail, the same consideration may be made with the Genre of the song.
If the Genre of the song (or the main Soul used in its performance) is one that the audience simply does not like, there may be reductions in Applause and increases in Boos.
If the song meets the tastes of the audience, of course, the reverse may happen.
Usually Genres are set against one another in this way:
- Metal - Punk
- Blues - Glam
This is, however, only a general indication. The Narrator and the Players are free to agree on pairings of "opposite" Genres as they see fit.
Playing Girls, Girls, Girls by Mötley Crüe in a wine bar whose audience evidently has Blues tastes is certainly not the best choice.
Try, Try, Try
Rehearsals.
There is no Band that can get out of them. Or rather, there is no Band worth listening to that can get out of them.
Rehearsals are the moment in which the Band forms its setlist, tries to compose the new platinum album, or simply gets drunk while waiting for one of the late members to arrive. Often what arrives is only a message announcing absence that evening.
Above all, rehearsals are the moment in which the Band gains Cohesion, essential for its On Stage performances.
Cohesion is a sort of "common" Inspiration for the whole Band.
The Characters involved in an On Stage rehearsal, indeed, may choose to draw on the reserve of Cohesion points to obtain the same advantages they would obtain from using Inspiration: for each Cohesion point spent, that Character's Roll gains one additional automatic Success.
Cohesion is also one of the essential requirements for going on stage: the Band must have a Cohesion value equal to the number of its members +1 if it wants to begin the On Stage rehearsal; otherwise the inability to play together will prevent them from venturing in front of an audience.
The Characters may replace missing Cohesion points with an equal number of Inspiration points, but both are precious resources: it is a pity to waste them.
For each rehearsal carried out by the Band with all its members present, the Band gains 2 Cohesion points.
The members present must obviously be able to take an active part in the rehearsal: a member who turns up blind drunk will hardly be able to make a contribution, and their condition will end up penalising the whole Band.
The Cohesion gained may vary according to the quality of the rehearsal room. Further information on this can be found in chapter 14.
Rehearsal is also the moment in which the Band learns the songs to be entered in the setlist, whether these are covers (songs by other Bands, more or less famous) or original pieces.
In the rehearsal room the Band may learn 2 new songs for each Cohesion point it gains on that occasion. The Band may learn a maximum number of songs equal to the total of the Soul values of all the members of the Band.
The songs learned must be noted on the Band Sheet, so that they can then be selected for future concert setlists.
If the Band reaches the limit of songs learned and, nonetheless, wishes to introduce a new song, it may remove one of the songs previously learned from the list: it will no longer be rehearsed and will gradually be forgotten.
I'd Love to Write Another Song
Almost all emerging Bands form in order to offer their own interpretation of Rock to the world, to write their own songs so as to convey an original message.
During rehearsals the Band may decide to begin work on an original song. For this, a member of the Band, the one who had the first inspiration for the song, such as the lyrics or some chords, must choose the Soul appropriate to the Genre of the song to be invented (see the highlighted box on page 115 for the choice of the appropriate Soul).
The Character therefore declares that they wish to write an original song and spends two Inspiration points.
The Character also establishes what Difficulty value the song will have, from 1 to 4.
Finally, the Character makes a Roll on the chosen Soul against the Difficulty of the song +2.
For example, trying to compose a song of Difficulty 1 will require a Roll with Difficulty 3.
They may use Inspiration, Traits, Skills and Relationships in this Roll.
Every other Character in the Band may add 1 d6 to the Roll of the one composing if the value of their chosen Soul is not lower than the value of the composer's.
In addition, Characters may spend two Inspiration points to provide one automatic Success to the composer.
Finally, the composer may be helped by spending three Cohesion points to provide one further automatic Success.
Characters who are not composing may not use Traits or other aids beyond Inspiration and Cohesion.
If the Roll has a positive outcome, the song will be completed within one week for each point of Difficulty (the base Difficulty of the song, not the increased one against which the Roll was made).
For every two Successes beyond those needed, the writing takes one week less. The minimum is in any case one week: the composition time can never drop below that.
If the Roll has a negative outcome, the Character spends a week trying to make what they have written work, but comes to nothing usable.
Once a song has been composed, it must be given a title and, if desired, its Genre and its Theme must also be indicated.
The composed song must then be added to the list of known songs. If there is no room, one of the songs already learned must be automatically struck from the list.
Chapter 12: Character Growth
Working man
Characters, there is no denying it, are a bit like our children. We look after them, we try to give them the best, and above all, we try to keep them away from the problems they might cause for themselves.
Exactly like children, our Characters can grow.
Not that annoying kind of growth made of potties, primary school and the birthday parties of unpleasant classmates, thankfully.
The growth of Characters is measured by their Experience and by their Personal Fame.
By acquiring Experience, the Character can improve themselves, increasing the values on their Sheet and acquiring abilities they did not even imagine before.
By acquiring Fame, on the other hand, the Character improves their popularity and obtains all the narrative advantages (and also the potential disadvantages) of beginning to become famous.
Growing Up in Public
As seen in the previous chapter, Characters may gain Experience from their On Stage performances.
It may also happen that they gain Experience points in some Off Stage contexts, as indicated in chapter 13.
Whatever the source of the Experience points gained by the Character, they will have the opportunity to spend them to improve themselves, once they have gained enough.
Experience points may be spent as indicated in the following table, obtaining the benefits described.
Table of growth through Experience
| Experience points spent | Benefit |
|---|---|
| 5 | Acquire a new Trait at value 1 |
| 5 x the new value | Increase the value of a Trait by 1 |
| 10 x the new value | Increase the value of a Soul by 1 |
| 7 + (7 x the number of Skills possessed) | Acquire a new Skill |
Paragraph 13.
"Hello, Markus?" you answer, trying to simulate a puzzled voice.
"Hey," his voice is icy. "Where are you?"
"In the car, we're going to hear that band of yours. What are they called?"
On the other end there is silence.
As the seconds pass without an answer, you remember that Finch is the kind of person who could keep the body of a man who betrayed him in cold storage under graphite.
You suspect he would like to keep it as a house ornament, like a new Jabba the Hutt.
When he speaks, his tone is sweeter, and you do not know whether to fear him more in silence.
"You may as well turn back, then. The show is already over, and you should have seen it: a truly SPEC-TA-CU-LAR."
"You would have enjoyed it, you know? Flames, smoke, everything as you used to love doing it once."
A small pause.
"But moooore than the way you used to do it."
This bastard wants to make you jealous!
"You know," he goes on, "I am really happy that the Banana's Dream will take part in OUR event. With the publicity they have got for themselves tonight, I'd say the stars of the evening will be them. You don't mind, do you, if as well as the contest I organise an out-of-competition show just for them? After all, at least some of those who come to hear them might also take an interest in you."
Son of a bitch. He knows everything, and wants to get the greatest possible advantage from it. After all, this is how he reached his position: making the most of every opportunity, even those that might seem negative.
Finch turns situations upside down like a great shark overturning the boat whose occupants it wants to taste. With fewer teeth, perhaps, but whiter and more disquieting.
"Of course," you are forced to reply. "Only, I'd be sorry not to be able to measure ourselves against a group like that, since you speak of them so well."
You feel his smile even through the phone.
"Well, you would have to show me you are at their level, and I don't think you will manage it in such a short time. Not even as regards equipment are you their equals: their instruments are BRAND NEW. I don't think you are capable of something as extravagant as what they did tonight. We'll talk about it in the next few days, anyway. Now I'll say goodbye, I have some calls to make. EVERYONE must know about the Banana's Dream and their fiery evening."
You throw the phone to the bottom of the car, shouting.
He has put you in the shit. You can only hope that the story he tells may take some suspicion off you, but you doubt the venue managers will pay him any heed.
It is also clear that he will supply those bastards with the instruments. Your action has been a complete failure.
It is late now, and you decide to part ways. See you the next day; in the afternoon, says Patrick, smiling. He seems to have things to do in the morning.
You go to bed, tired and agitated. Before slipping into an uneasy sleep, you must decide what to do tomorrow.
Will you begin looking for other bands to take part in the contest?
Will you look for the Banana's Dream to "sort them out" once and for all, so that they cannot be a problem for your event?
Will you begin to investigate the suspected culprits of the theft?
Will you try to get to the bottom of the matter of the man in black and his cryptic message?
Continue on page 134.
Example: Debbie has accumulated 15 Experience points, and now wants to spend them.
She can spend 5 of them to acquire the Trait Persuasive, which would help her in social relationships.
Otherwise she could spend 10 to raise the Trait Brilliant Guitarist to value 2, since she already possesses it at value 1.
She would very much like to increase her Glam Soul by 1, currently at value 1, but this would cost her 20 Experience points, and for the moment she does not have enough.
She can instead spend 14 Experience points to acquire the Skill Metal Energy, since she already also possesses the Skill Defender.
The Narrator and the Players may also agree on variations to the limits imposed. If they want to make their Characters grow beyond what the others can afford, they may even bring Traits to 4 or Souls to 5.
It is advisable, however, to do this only for Characters who have already acquired and spent a great deal of Experience while respecting the limits imposed, so as to know the rules well and be able to manage the effects of such modifications.
Celebrity Skin
As already seen in the previous chapter, Fame is gained by playing in On Stage situations.
In some rare cases, described in the next chapter, it may be gained through particular Off Stage actions.
Fame is a very important indicator for the Band and for the individual Characters.
In game terms, the Band's Fame is the "entry ticket" that allows access to some prestigious venues in which to perform.
It is a necessary condition (sometimes, however, it will not be the only one) for managing to tread the stage of the most famous venues.
In narrative terms, a greater Fame may correspond to various things: a greater inflow of audience to the Band's concerts (which may perhaps wring out a better fee for the booking), receiving offers of record contracts or tours, and so on.
Personal Fame has similar effects, but limited to the Character who has a high value of it.
The more this value differs from the values of the other members of the Band, the more precarious the balance among the members may become.
For example: if the most famous member of the Band is offered a booking with a fee different from that of the others, their companions may not take it well.
Think, moreover, what might happen if the most famous Character were offered a record contract without the Band being involved. Accepting it could lead to the group's break-up, or would in any case be rather hard to manage.
Some suggestions on what can happen and how to handle such situations are given in the next chapter.
Chapter 13: The Narrator
Master of Puppets
The Narrator is the god of Rockopolis.
What the Narrator decides is law, and the other Players can do nothing but suffer their unquestionable will.
Moreover, they must periodically bring them gifts and offerings, wash their car, and so on.
The Narrator is one of the Players of Rockopolis.
Being one of the Players, the main purpose of the game should also be enjoyment for them.
This premise may seem silly to those who have never played a role-playing game, but those with a bit more experience may understand why it is important to remember it: since the role of the Narrator in the game is different from that of the other Players, it sometimes happens that they are not considered a recipient of the game's enjoyment.
This could lead the Narrator not to enjoy themselves or, worse, to be bored. It is a mistake to avoid.
Otherwise, it would at least be good manners to wash their car as a way of making amends.
Paragraph 14.
You fall asleep with a little smirk. Even if things do not go well, tomorrow you will have some chance to let off steam.
The next day you all meet at the agreed time. Patrick is radiant.
He shows a rather large wooden case, of a shape you do not recognise. When you have all arrived, he proudly shows you its contents.
It looks like a seven-stringed bowed instrument, apparently antique, or at least a reproduction of one.
It does not look like a bass, the instrument that Patrick plays in your band.
Sidebar: the role of the Narrator.
The role of the Narrator is very varied, but it can be reduced to a fairly broad definition: managing everything with which the Characters can come into contact, and creating the story to be told together with the Players, along with all the aspects on which the rules leave discretion, coordinating the discussion and any "negotiations" at the table.
The Characters meet a fellow who offers them a concert at a venue in exchange for a favour. Who plays him? The Narrator.*
The Characters enter an abandoned warehouse. Who describes it? The Narrator.*
A Character has obtained Aces High on a Roll. Who proposes the narrative outcome? The Narrator.*
- with the help of the Players.
The general rule that governs all these "tasks" is that of the enjoyment of the playing group.
Patrick plays in your band. It does not even look like an electric instrument...
Patrick anticipates your questions, euphoric.
"It's a viola da gamba. Nice, eh? It's a reproduction, obviously; I would never have been able to get hold of one of the originals in such a short time. Nor would I have the nerve to play one, of course. Can you imagine? The risk of ruining an instrument more than five hundred years old, and then..."
He talks very fast, and you have trouble understanding him.
"...so I've decided to learn to play it for the next gig, can you imagine, no band has ever brought an instrument like this on stage, and I'll do my solo, and everyone will be astounded, Finch said so too, and we'll have a huge success and we'll become famous and everyone will want to hear us..."
You have to shake him by the shoulders, so that he hears your shouts.
"Finch? What the fuck does Finch have to do with it? Have you been to see him?"
He seems a bit less enthusiastic.
"Yes, well, he offered to sell it to me himself. Of course, last night's money was not enough to buy this marvel, but as a deposit it was fine, and then we'll become famous and I'll be able to finish paying for it and maybe even buy one of those..."
You slap him. He stops talking and looks at you, puzzled. He does not react; he is too euphoric about his new purchase, and is about to start talking again when you ask him: "Did he ask you about last night?"
"No, but he told me that that group, those Banana-something, will play with us at the event, and that with my viola I could make a splash, maybe even better than them, although Finch says they are very good and that..."
You yank him to get him into the car, so as not to have to go on listening to him.
Rebecca, again today with Mr. Spice in her arms, passes you a note with an address. It is where the guitarist and the singer of the Banana's Dream live together.
She always knows where to find the information.
You arrive at the destination after a few minutes, just in time to see the two targets get into a sports car and drive off.
Following them may not be easy: if they notice you and decide to lose you, with that car they would certainly manage it. Unless you let Rebecca drive, whose eyes are already shining, but if until now you have forbidden it there is a good reason.
Rebecca presses the accelerator as if it were the most horrible spider in the world refusing to die under her sole. The last time you let her drive, your life flashed before your eyes like a film whose soundtrack has been replaced by a compilation of blasphemies.
Handing her the wheel again is as tempting as teasing a tiger with a straw. A very short straw.
Revenge seems to be slipping away... what do you do?
Will you make a raid on the house, damaging everything you find?
Will you chase them, letting Rebecca drive?
They will have to come back: will you wait for them here, hiding?
Will you give up and concentrate on the man in black?
Will you give up and devote yourselves to organising the event?
Continue on page 140.
Nothing is forbidden at the table if it serves to amuse or interest the whole group.
We advise avoiding crimes and offences, since the justification of enjoyment would not stand up in court, and we would never want to be cited as those who incited you to commit crimes; but beyond that there are no constraints.
Around the World
Among the roles of the Narrator is also that of "looking after" the world of Rockopolis, the one in which the Characters live and move.
Within the narration of the story that the Characters live, indeed, there will be other people with whom to interact, places to visit, events to react to, and an infinity of other possible things.
The Narrator, with the help and agreement of the Players, is the one who pulls the strings of these things.
Written like this it may seem a decidedly arduous task, requiring long, careful and tiring preparation.
It is not necessarily so.
Playing the people that our Rockers will meet along their path will be part of the game, just as it is for the Players to play their Characters.
The places in which the Characters move will often be inspired by real places, to which it is easy to refer to facilitate one's descriptions. Some of these places are also indicated in the next chapter, to give the Narrator some ideas that they can use as they are presented or modified as they wish.
The Narrator is also the one who will propose game events to the other Players (although nothing prevents them from making proposals to the Narrator and discussing them).
You can find an example of a story narrated during a session at the end of chapter 0.5.
This represents only one of the many ways of running the narration: the Players can interact much more with the creation of the story, proposing their own changes and elements.
It will also be the task of the Narrator to place along the Characters' path some of the temptations that can unleash their Muses. This may sometimes even be superfluous: very often it is the Characters themselves who seek out their own temptations on their own, constantly short of Inspiration.
The other Players are not simply passive spectators in this dynamic: not only do they play their own Characters and recount how these behave and the things they do, but they also take care to propose, within the world, everything that may be interesting to place "near" their Character.
The game dynamic works like this: the Narrator and the Players discuss the elements they want within the story, and introduce those on which they have agreed.
The narration must satisfy everyone, so it is important that neither the Narrator nor other Players prevail over the others during these "negotiations".
Tales
How is a story told?
Rockopolis does not ask the Players or the Narrator to be writers.
The story, which constitutes the true heart of Rockopolis games, is built one step at a time by the group, starting from an idea.
It may be an objective for the Characters: playing on a particular stage, recording an album, obtaining a record contract. Or, why not, smuggling stolen goods, distilling liquor in a garage, winning illegal bicycle races, or anything else that can be done with a very loud Rock soundtrack in your ears.
Sometimes not even a precise aim is needed: the starting situation will be enough.
The owner of a venue has sworn that he will never again let the Characters' Band play on his stage. How long do you think it will take the Players to get down to work devising and carrying out a plan to make that bastard eat his arrogant words?
Some may still feel at a loss; we understand that.
For this reason, chapter 15 presents some hooks for "adventures", guidelines for stories that the playing group may find interesting, and in which the Characters can have the right space to move and grow.
Some are described with a certain level of detail, providing some particulars that help in running the narration.
Others are only sketched, so as to accustom the Narrator and the Players to moving with their own autonomy.
If you still do not feel ready to create and live your own original stories, you need only look for anecdotes about the lives of Rock stars and the history of their Bands: you will discover that with a world as varied and eventful as that of Rock, your imagination will have an incredible help in creating its own adventures.
Of the stories that will be narrated, however, the Narrator is the only one who knows all the elements that are unknown to the Characters (and usually, as a consequence, to their Players).
Being the guardian of these "secrets" does not in any way mean playing "against" the others: it means above all having the responsibility of keeping some fragments of the story "safe" until they can manifest themselves and be narrated.
The Players may sometimes be surprised by these elements of which they were unaware, and the Characters might even be displeased by them.
What matters is that the story can work, without displeasing the playing group and without losing interest because it is totally explicit from the start.
The stories of Rockopolis should have some recurring elements:
presence of temptations for the Characters' Muses, concerts to play, difficulties to face, trials to undertake, people to meet.
Their arrangement within the story and their integration with other elements of your choice is entirely at your discretion.
Only one purpose must, however, be present in all stories and kept in mind around the game table in every session: the Players and the Narrator must have fun.
Communication Breakdown
The decisions of the Narrator and of the Players are therefore the pivot around which all the dynamics of Rockopolis games revolve.
What role does the Narrator have in these discussions?
Often the Narrator will be the one who proposes the elements of the story and who, therefore, starts the discussion every time a Player wishes to modify or integrate some of the story's elements.
Careful: when we speak of discussions we do not mean long philosophical disquisitions on how a fellow the Characters meet in the street is dressed.
The narration must be interrupted for a discussion only when that discussion has a genuine relevance to the economy of the story.
The meeting of the ideas of the Narrator and the Players also serves to determine certain specific aspects of play: the outcome of a Roll that obtained far more Successes than required, or what may happen when the Personal Fame of a Character creates a strong imbalance within the Band because it is much higher than that of the others.
In this case, events may be proposed for insertion into the story: for example, a very famous Band might make an offer to the Rocker with the greatest Personal Fame. Or an interviewer might concentrate exclusively on the "VIP" of the situation, ignoring and enraging all the other members of the Band.
Usually it will be the Narrator who proposes these situations and their respective narrations first.
It is usually they alone who know all the elements of the story in full, and thanks to this awareness they can provide a plausible and sensible interpretation of the events, the places and the people involved.
The contributions of the other Players, although in general without specific limitations, if accepted, should always keep this aspect in mind.
Discussion may also be used to propose changes to some aspects provided for by the rules.
If one wishes to modify how a Trait or a Skill works, or alter in any way the dynamics of the game in the interest of a more interesting and enjoyable narration, discussions between Players and Narrator are the place to propose it and, possibly, accept it.
We remind you that the rules are designed to work exactly as written, and that if the playing group wants to try making changes, it would be advisable to do so only after having tried the rules in all their aspects and understood as well as possible how the individual dynamics work and what narrative results they produce.
Example: The Band is inside a pub and is involved in a brawl against about twenty people, members of other Bands to whom our heroes played a nasty trick.
Samantha (whose stage name is Red Valkyrie), the Band's sturdy singer, has the Skill Defender.
In Off Stage situations this Skill usually grants an excellent advantage in similar situations, but only for a few seconds.
Given the number of opponents, normally the Skill Defender would not be able to be of great help.
Red Valkyrie and all her Sons of Jörmungandr seem destined for a beating that cannot be avoided.
The Player who plays Samantha, however, has a proposal to change what seems a foregone outcome.
Samantha has nursed a grudge against these guys for ages, and has never had the chance to vent it.
Moreover, the events of the day have frustrated her and she is now decidedly angry.
Finally, she knows that news of a defeat in a "fight" would be an extremely damaging rumour to face ahead of the next Viking Metal festival, at which the Sons of Jörmungandr had hoped to take part and win.
The Players discuss together with the Narrator. The Narrator points out that the situation seems to have few alternatives: if they wish, the Players may also simulate the physical clash by making Rolls, but the numerical imbalance is so overwhelming as to make it inadvisable to embark on a series of long and pointless Rolls with a foregone outcome.
The Players and the Narrator agree, however, that it would be much more epic and enjoyable to give this situation, for this time, a different ending from the one foreseen.
In consideration of what was said earlier about Samantha, it is agreed that if Red Valkyrie activates her Skill Defender, for this time it may last longer, long enough to give a significant advantage in a clash that seemed desperate.
Two Inspiration points are spent and the situation begins to change.
The Player who plays Samantha begins the narration.
Samantha lets out a beastly roar and hurls the first opponent in front of her away with a kick to the chest.
Another steps forward to face her, but she plants her feet and awaits him. When he comes within reach, she lowers herself and hits him in the stomach with a headbutt, knocking him to the ground.
He manages only to give her an elbow to the back before being thrown backwards, but the woman seems to ignore the pain.
Two others try to approach her, but she dodges their attacks. While all the others watch the scene as if hypnotised, she grabs the nearest one and hurls him at the other, sending both crashing violently into the wall.
Four opponents have already bitten the dust.
The fifth advances, armed with an iron bar. He tries to hit her several times, but she always evades him, passing between the stools and jumping behind the bar counter.
He also tries to do so, but she returns from the other side through the other entrance.
When he runs at her again he finds her standing still, waiting for him. He tries to strike her with his bar, but she is faster, smashing a stool that she has just grabbed over his head.
The wood shatters, leaving in the woman's hand only one of the long legs.
Samantha's hands are bleeding from several splinters, but she seems not to notice.
A man comes up alongside her, striking her in the side with a punch.
She bends over, and he persists, pelting her with punches and pushing her towards the wall.
As soon as she reaches it, however, she raises her leg in a knee strike that takes the breath out of the man.
She straightens up, letting out a cry that seems to drive away even the pain.
The man steps forward again, this time more warily. He attempts a new assault from the side where she struck him before, but finds waiting for him what remains of the wooden leg, which Samantha uses as a club. One blow to the head and he collapses to the floor.
Seeing that two others are approaching her, Samantha breaks the wooden leg in two over her knee and, with two threatening, broken, blood-stained clubs in her hands, snarls at them: "Come on then, you filthy bastards!"
It takes a couple of minutes, but in the end not one of the attackers is left standing.
Samantha is losing blood from several wounds, and has several bruises that are rapidly darkening on her face.
Her side and back, battered with punches, are probably in no better condition.
Her hands are bleeding, but in all that blood the impression is that most of it is not the woman's.
She stands tall above her now neutralised opponents. She looks at her hands, scratched and reddened.
With some of that blood she traces two lines across her cheekbones, after which she lets out one last bestial cry before leaving the pub with her Band following.
There is a reason they call her Red Valkyrie, and the Sons of Jörmungandr are more than proud of their leader.
Throughout this narration the other Players and the Narrator decide not to intervene, leaving Red Valkyrie free to vent her fury, and her Player free to describe the scene as they prefer.
Decidedly more entertaining than a laboured one-sided fight, no?
Paragraph 15.
You cannot let them slip away. Not now. You look at Rebecca and nod at her.
"Get them."
It takes only a moment to change driver, and you are speeding away. Adele had tried to venture a "Are you sure?" but she did not even manage to finish saying it, pressed against the seat by the acceleration.
Suddenly only one car separates you from the duo. This one, however, goes very slowly, occupying the exact centre of the carriageway on a road that offers little space.
At the wheel of the car is the nemesis of any driver who is not always well in advance: a short man, apparently elderly, wearing a hat with a floppy brim.
The two of the Banana's Dream ahead of you have a bit of an advantage, but with Rebecca at the wheel it does not take long to get them back within a few dozen metres of you.
Along the road the guitarist keeps running and overtaking, while you and the others hang onto the handles and curse more or less silently.
Rebecca, enraged because she is prevented from fully venting her feelings, begins to shout and hit the horn with her hand. The engine roars and revs, but with every leap forward there follows a screech of tyres as you are forced to brake to...
...avoid hitting the rear bumper of the other one.
Rebecca now leans out of the window, swaying the steering wheel dangerously and continuing to shriek and make the horn howl.
You have to wait for the road to widen further before you can finally pass the car, whose driver does not even notice Rebecca's gestures and screams as you pass alongside, completely absorbed by the difficulties of driving at 30 km/h.
But someone has not ignored your earlier scene: in front of you, in the car of the two young people, you see her turn round and seem to be speaking excitedly to her boyfriend.
Their car leaps forward, accelerating with the force of the sports engine it has.
Rebecca sniggers and shouts: "Now I'm having fun! Go on, run, your arse is mine!"
And she takes the motorway, behind the two musicians. Here, with wider lanes and more space, Rebecca's recklessness barely manages to keep up with the differences in the vehicles' performance.
Several times you think you have lost them, and only a series of heart-stopping overtakes keeps your target in sight. Adele is soaked in alcohol, since every time she tried to raise the bottle to drink, Rebecca's driving made her miss the target and spill it over herself.
Now on the back seat of the car there is the human female equivalent of an extremely angry Molotov cocktail, busy cursing under her breath.
In other circumstances you would suggest she take a little drink to calm her nerves.
You race like this for about ten minutes, with the engine screaming at the top of its revs, gaining a few centimetres at a time, when above the noise of the car you begin to hear an insistent, repetitive sound.
It does not take you long to realise that it is a siren.
You all turn round to look back (even Rebecca, who in doing so makes the car sway on the road, coming within a hair's breadth of the crash barrier).
A police car is racing in your own lane. You hope it is an emergency to which they are rushing in your same direction, but it seems unlikely to you.
Rebecca's face is contorted in a grimace. It is certainly not fear, nor regret.
It is excitement. Now she has a new reason to race. Keeping to the overtaking lane, she puts her foot all the way down.
She turns for a moment towards you and says: "When are you finally going to fit a fucking NOS to this car?"
Then she looks back at the road.
You look at your companions, who are beginning to be genuinely frightened by the situation.
You are no longer so sure you made the right choice...
Continue on page 146.
The example shown is only one of the cases in which the Players and the Narrator can alter the rules so that they better respect what they desire from their playing experience.
What else can they decide together?
For example, a Band that feels particularly daring might decide that it wants to tackle songs that it considers harder than those normal Bands of Rockopolis face, taking on songs of Difficulty 5 or even higher.
Or, if one wishes to underline the uniqueness of one's Characters and their epic quality, one might decide to increase the maximum value of Traits, Relationships or Souls.
If your Character is the best socialiser in the world (at least, in your world), they might even manage to earn a Glam Soul at value 4.
Who will be able to stop them, once they obtain such immeasurable power?
Bridge Over Troubled Water
One of the tasks of the Narrator is also to propose the Difficulty of the Rolls that the Players will face.
The following table suggests the Difficulty value for different levels of challenge.
Table of Difficulties for actions
- Simple
- Medium
- Challenging
- Hard
- Very Hard
- Extremely Hard
- Impossible
How should the descriptors in the table such as Easy, Challenging or Hard be interpreted?
Their interpretation is free, but should rest mainly on common sense.
Jumping from one roof to another across three metres of empty space may be considered a Hard action; climbing the metal structure of a stage may be Medium, but it really depends on how the Narrator and the Players understand it.
Train of Consequences
Proposing the outcome of actions, especially in case of a failed Roll, is another important task of the Narrator.
Both in case of a positive and of a negative outcome, it is essential to consider one thing:
it is better not to have the Players make Rolls when there are no important possible consequences for the narration.
What is the point of interrupting the narration to make a Roll when the action has no real impact on what is happening?
Unless you are dice fetishists, who love to see and hear them tumble (we really do know someone like that, and perhaps you know one too), there is no need to have the dice rolled every time the Character decides to tie their shoelaces with a double knot rather than a single one.
We reserve Rolls for what truly matters.
It is for the Narrator to propose them at the crucial moments, as well as to propose what the possible negative outcome might be.
The Players should know what they risk when they are about to make a Roll: whereas the Character directly experiences the situation and is able to consider the possible consequences of what they are doing, the Player does not, and this is where the Narrator "rescues" them.
In some situations one may wish to keep the possible outcomes hidden until after the Roll, but such cases must be approved by the Players.
Once the outcome of the Rolls has been determined, the Narrator is also the one who proposes particular explanations and descriptions in case of a high number of Successes or of Failures.
In the same way, the Narrator suggests possible interesting narrative outcomes for the rules The Number of the Beast, Aces High and Aces of the Beast (or The Number of the High).
Failing to catch the thief who has stolen your guitar is a simple failure, but tripping badly as soon as you set off and rolling over the amplifiers, smashing one and then having to face the wrath of its owner, seems much more appropriate in the case of Aces High.
Consequences, besides being narrative, may also enter the game mechanics.
Characters may suffer wounds or become very tired as a result of actions (and thus see their Soul values reduced), risk damaging or losing Items or Money, lose Fame or suffer other more or less unpleasant consequences.
One might even reach a "game over" for the Character (sometimes even only temporarily).
Player informed, Narrator reassured.
Finally, the Narrator also proposes what happens if a Character's Muse reaches value 6, agreeing with the Players on the outcome of the "uncontrolled" actions of the Character.
The Player will then interpret what has been decided in their own style.
Further information on this is given in chapter 16.
Almost Famous
What happens when the Band begins to become famous?
And what, instead, when only some of the Characters are?
The Narrator is the one who, taking into account the level of Fame (of the Band or personal), proposes how the audience's relationship with the Characters and the Band changes.
They will introduce fans, professionally interested people (record executives, advertisers, other musicians, sponsors, con artists) and anyone who may be drawn by the Characters' Fame.
This must be considered both when it is directed at the whole Band and when it is directed at a single Character.
In this latter case, things may become complicated.
What might happen to the Band if only one of its members received a record contract offer?
What would happen if the fans focused only on someone, ignoring the others?
Before the start of a concert, the Band decides that one of its members has too much Personal Fame.
After a heated discussion between the Characters, it is established that this time another Character will act as Frontman, to rebalance things.
The first song begins and someone in the audience notices that the most famous member keeps a lower profile, leaving more room for the current Frontman.
Can you guess whose voice will rise up asking for their favourite Character to step forward?
If you answered the Narrator, you were right.
Otherwise, reread this paragraph from the beginning, this time without distracting yourself.
The Narrator is also the one who proposes the possibility of gaining Fame from specific Off Stage actions.
A Band known for its violent and aggressive lyrics whose leader is seen destroying a venue in the grip of their Muse Jökulhlaup could even gain Fame, if this "performance" takes place in front of the right audience.
In the same way the Narrator handles Off Stage situations in which the Characters may gain Experience.
A Character who manages to bring all their knowledge and competences into play to obtain a gig at an extremely prestigious venue, the kind that a ragged Band like the Characters' would never in a million years have been accepted by, decidedly deserves some Experience points.
The Narrator's proposals may be discussed with the Players, if they wish to modify or integrate them; otherwise the narration flows on, with the Narrator "leading" it until the next interruption.
Who would have thought that someone called a "Narrator" would take care of the narration, eh?
Golden Liar
The internal relationships of the Band will always be happy, and the Characters will never quarrel among themselves.
If you believed the previous sentence to be true, we have shocking news for you.
Relationships among the Characters may easily become strained.
Whether because of the Muses, musical tastes, or different lifestyles, it is not always easy to keep harmony within a Band.
When success and Fame then come into play, things become even more complicated.
The Bands that have broken up because of "Stars", real or supposed, who made life impossible for the others with their arrogance, are beyond counting.
As long as all this is a source of entertainment at the table, good!
There is nothing wrong if members of a Band end up punching each other or if quarrels between Characters are the order of the day.
Enjoyment is the reason for which people gather to play, so all is well.
Sometimes, however, it happens that the disputes of the Characters make a "jump in level" and become disputes between the Players.
In this case, enjoyment may easily suffer, and it is the task of the Narrator, as well as of all the other Players, to try to bring the situation to as peaceful a conclusion as possible.
We are not suggesting that anyone interfere authoritatively in an argument, but rather try to mediate a solution that can reasonably satisfy the "contenders" and allow the game to continue in everyone's enjoyment.
Let it be clear: we decline all responsibility if you get a punch in the eye for having interfered in an argument.
Livin' on the Edge
The stories, or adventures, played in a role-playing game may be short or long.
"And thank God for that," you will say.
The reason why we want to point out this difference, clever clogs, is that, depending on the length of the story you want to set up, there are several different things to bear in mind.
In short stories, those usually played in a single session, the objective is generally simple, to be reached in a linear way, even if after overcoming some obstacles.
The people the Characters encounter along their path do not necessarily need any particular "depth", since they will presumably never be met again and will not form part of any future stories.
In the same way, the starting situation and the level of detail of the world in which the Characters move do not need to be particularly thorough: once the fundamental aspects and those useful for the purposes of the story have been outlined, the narration can focus on the Characters' actions until the goal is reached.
This does not mean that they are necessarily simpler to create: obtaining enjoyment in a short time means managing to condense situations that can provide interesting outcomes into a short space, while still respecting the natural pace of the story.
Characters should not be denied the possibility of making choices for the simple reason that they must concentrate on reaching the goal, and Players should never feel that they are being pushed along the path rather than accompanied through a story.
It will often be natural for the Players to behave in the most predictably way, pursuing the Characters' goal and the enjoyment at the table; but if this is not the case, the Narrator should not try to force the narration to impose predetermined routes.
If they did, they could very easily spoil the enjoyment.
On the other hand, a longer story involves some different considerations.
If the Characters must meet people several times, visit places or face situations of different kinds, it is essential that these are defined just enough to maintain interest and credibility for the whole duration of the story.
The people moving in the background of the story cannot be mere cardboard silhouettes that serve as wallpaper, but will need some extra particulars to characterise them and make them "alive".
Moreover, the story must be designed so that it is able to extend over the number of game sessions planned, trying to maintain some elements of great interest in all the game meetings.
If you have planned three sessions for an adventure, you cannot concentrate all the interesting events at the beginning and the end, leaving only a flat unfolding of unexciting events in the middle.
Be better than the directors who let their second film be the most boring of their trilogy.
Paragraph 16.
Rebecca, in the rush to press the accelerator, now braces herself completely, driving slightly raised from the seat in order to push harder.
The car rumbles like a bag of cans knocked together, a comparison that describes the movement of the car rather well.
The problem is that the cars behind you move aside to let the police through, while few of those in front of you grant you the same courtesy; within a short time you have them on your heels.
The two of the Banana's Dream are still a few dozen metres ahead of you, and they do not show any sign of slowing down either.
You know that, in these conditions, you have little hope of escaping the officers, still less of managing to catch your "prey".
You try to point this out to Rebecca, but she shouts something incomprehensible in your face. You can only make out the words "Fuck off – engine – idiot – jack".
She has completely lost it. You would be tempted to grab the wheel and force her to stop, but at this speed the outcome of such an action could be disastrous.
Sidebar: One thing should never be missing from the adventures of Rockopolis: concerts. Music and On Stage performances are the heart of this game, and events of this kind should be a constant, if not indeed the main aim of the story.
After all, every good story needs a soundtrack. Do not let yours be without one: a stage can almost always be found, and if it cannot, you invent something.
And do not forget the Muses! Just as the Characters are little without Inspiration and the inner demon that supplies it, adventures are much less fun without the temptation that lurks where the Characters least expect it.
In chapter 15 you will find some suggested adventures that you can use to cut your teeth in the world of Rockopolis. Among them you will find long and short ones, so that you can get a sense of the main characteristics of each.
You carry on like this for a couple of minutes; the patrol car is now right behind your car, but Rebecca has no intention of stopping. You are terrified of acting, but you know that waiting can only make the situation worse.
You exchange a couple of words with Patrick, seated behind Rebecca, and with Adele, and then you move.
You switch on the hazard lights. Rebecca looks at you murderously, and starts to scream when you reach for the handbrake.
She immediately takes one arm off the wheel to stop you, and at that moment Patrick's long arms grab her firmly from behind, while you, quickly, press the lever to push her seat back.
Now Rebecca is pushed right back, no longer able to reach the pedals or the wheel, and her screams and kicking are of no use.
Adele leans forward and begins to pull the handbrake slowly, while you do your best to hold the wheel.
It takes several hundred metres, but in the end you manage to stop. After running so fast for so long, the motionless landscape around you seems almost fake.
The police stop immediately behind you and order you to get out.
The stages of an arrest and of the procedures inside a police station will be rather long and boring.
How about a cut?
You leave the police station, staggering. You are dead tired; you have been questioned, made to wait, and questioned again. Somehow, something about the fire at the venue has also come to light, although for now you are only a suspect.
Adele is the only one who came out before you, but Rebecca will be held for a few more hours, as will Patrick, in whose viola da gamba case they found narcotics.
You know that there will be trials, and surely unpleasant consequences for some of you or even for all of you, but for the moment none of this matters.
Now you are wrecked, you have not slept for almost thirty-two hours and you must rest.
And, worse still, less than two days remain before the event. You must sleep now, but on waking, once you have recovered some lucidity, what will you do?
Will you call Finch and ask him to postpone the event?
Will you look for bands to take part and help you with publicising the event?
Will you still ignore the event and deal with the man in black and his message?
Even if it is the last thing you do, even alone, will you thrash the Banana's Dream?
Will you try to contact the collector, Mr. Wildcraft, and ask him for help, explaining your plan to him?
Continue on page 156.
For No One
Final advice.
One important thing to keep in mind: the Narrator is not an enemy of the Characters, exactly as they are not their friend.
They must not force difficulties upon them, but nor should they let the Characters' lives flow flat and without challenges.
A piece of advice that is always useful for a Narrator: know your Players, or at least their Characters.
The Characters are the protagonists of the story (or, at least, they will strive to become so), and the Players are the protagonists (together with the Narrator) of the game.
What sense is there in creating a story in which the Characters have no room and cannot express who they are?
Stories should be calibrated to integrate the most important characteristics of the Characters and what makes them unique, allowing them to carve out their own space and to turn their peculiarities into a tool with which to create an ever more interesting story.
Finally, the best advice that can be given to the Narrator is to use their own common sense and personal experience to understand how to run the narration.
If the Narrator has experience of Rock music, so much the better; otherwise, between this book and all the information available on the web, they should have no trouble answering all their doubts and drawing ideas for the game sessions.
Since, in Rockopolis, the things that can go wrong for the Characters are not few (think of the Muses alone), it is always necessary to bear in mind that the stories told do not necessarily have to have a "happy ending".
The Band might break up, the Characters might come to a bad end, or lose all the Fame laboriously gained in a single evening.
What matters is that all this can constitute a fun gaming experience for the whole playing group.
If the Characters have shone intensely like very bright stars only to go out shortly afterwards, what matters is that in the meantime their life has been interesting, and that the memory of their light can always stay with the Players.
Chapter 14: The World in Detail
Peaches en regalia
In this section we describe all those peculiar aspects of the world of Rock that may be useful to the Narrator and the Players in the creation of their stories.
Here too, no musical background is needed to understand the text; on the contrary, we will try to provide, to whoever wants it, a general grounding in those elements that can make the experience of Rockopolis more complete, without going too deeply into specifics.
If you want an essay on music, buy one.
Hell Has Room
Rehearsal rooms are the place where every respectable Rock Band spends most of its time.
It is here that the Band creates its synergy, refines its collective abilities and prepares to be in top form once it takes the stage.
Chapter 11 provides information on how rehearsal sessions work, but what is a rehearsal room really like?
What equipment can be found there, how much does it cost to use it, and what changes between a good rehearsal room and a poorly equipped one?
Let us take things in order:
a rehearsal room should contain at the very least an amplifier for guitar, one for bass, the essential pieces of a drum kit (at least bass drum, snare and hi-hat), a microphone stand for the voice, a mixer connected to at least one loudspeaker, and all the cables needed to connect all this equipment.
The room should have a minimum of soundproofing provided by insulating panels on the walls.
The equipment is described later in this chapter.
What is indicated above is really the bare minimum, which, fortunately, is not the only thing around. Many rooms are equipped with more: more than one guitar amplifier, a keyboard stand, two or three microphone stands for voices and choirs, a mixer with a reasonable number of channels and at least two loudspeakers.
A few chairs and stools lying about, perhaps even one or two guitar stands, and the drum kit provided usually has a few more pieces.
The soundproofing is generally decent, and there is almost always an air conditioner, otherwise in summer the Band would come out boiled from every rehearsal.
The quality of the equipment present, moreover, greatly increases the usefulness of the rehearsal for the Band.
Have you ever tried listening to music from a crackling speaker, fed by a half-broken source?
Well, with an experience of listening like that you cannot properly understand what is happening in the songs or enjoy their qualities fully. How can one think that musicians could work well in a condition like that?
Yet sometimes there are no alternatives, and the Band must make do with what it finds.
The quality of the rehearsal room can also affect the Cohesion of the Band that rehearses in it.
Usually the Band gains 2 Cohesion points for each rehearsal carried out with the line-up "complete".
With a particularly well-equipped room it can gain up to 3, since the experience of performing and of listening is much better, and the Band manages the adjustments better and, more generally, can hear what is wrong and correct it.
Since the number of songs learned in the rehearsal room depends on how many Cohesion points are gained in a session (up to two songs may be learned for each Cohesion point obtained), a
a good rehearsal room will also positively influence the pace at which the Band is able to build a sufficiently large repertoire.
The problem arises when there is no alternative, either because all the other rooms are already booked, or because there are no better ones nearby.
Unfortunately it also works the other way round. Playing in rehearsal rooms with poor equipment, bad or no soundproofing, or in general unfavourable conditions, can penalise the Band, even making it gain only 1 Cohesion point (and, consequently, learn fewer songs).
Microphone Fiend
How much does it cost?
One rehearsal slot, usually lasting two or two and a half hours, may cost from $15 for a decidedly poor room to more than $35 for a well-equipped one. Most, however, fall roughly midway in this range.
Given the small difference in price, it is therefore not very advisable to use poor rooms.
Our Band has tried and retried the songs it has composed, and now feels more ready than ever to record them.
Yes, but where?
The recording studio (or studio) is where the tracks of a record, or of a demo, are recorded. A demo is basically a very short record (usually up to 4 songs) used to make yourselves known around town before publishing a proper album.
How does recording an album work?
First of all, although it may seem obvious to say so, the songs to be recorded must be suitably prepared.
The rules for writing and composing original songs for our Band can be found in chapter 11.
Songs by other famous Bands may also be used (provided their authorisation is obtained and, usually, a certain sum is paid for the rights, as well as royalties), but an album of "covers" is usually less interesting, and the Band will not interest the public or any record label as much as it could with entirely original songs.
Then you must find a suitable recording studio. Not all cities have one, and it is easy for the smaller towns to have none at all. Some make do with "home" recording studios, set up and run on a semi-professional basis.
The resulting quality is decidedly lower, obviously.
Once a studio has been found, it must then be paid for.
The sum can vary enormously, from a few hundred $ for a demo in a small studio to several thousand $ for a single song in the most prestigious and competent studios.
They will probably not be the studios in which our Characters end up recording (or perhaps they will?), but know that there are studios where recording an album costs more than 100000$.
Once access to the studio has been obtained, the Band must pass an On Stage test in order to record the individual songs.
All the members will make their Rolls in the established order, with the Frontman closing the performance.
At the end of the recording, however, there will be no Fame to gain, but a value of the recording indicating the quality achieved by the production of our Characters.
It is calculated as follows:
(Applause - Boos) + Additional value of the studio for a song
The value obtained for the individual song is then added to that of all the other songs to obtain the Total value of the album.
The title of each song, any Themes and its Difficulty are then recorded on the album Sheet (reproduced on the following page), together with the title and the Total value of the album.
During recording, Traits and Skills may also be used, provided they can sensibly be used in this context: the Skill Acrobat, which could help at a concert, obviously will not be needed during recording.
The quality of the studio significantly affects the quality result of the album. The following table suggests some rates and shows how much it costs to record in a quality studio.
Table of costs and performance of a recording studio
| Cost of the recording studio | Additional value of the studio |
|---|---|
| 300$ per song recorded | 0 |
| 500$ per song recorded | Half the number of songs (rounded up) |
| 700$ per song recorded | 1 per song |
| 900$ per song recorded | 2 per song |
| 1.200$ per song recorded | 3 per song |
The album Sheet (printed on page 151) has the following labelled fields: Track title; TITLE; Theme; Genre; VALUE; Difficulty.
Recording a good record is not easy, and it costs money.
The quality obtained, moreover, is not automatically a sign of excellent sales for the album: if it is not properly marketed and publicised, no record, however good, will ever be bought by the general public.
In broad terms, an album whose total value is 70 or below is nothing exceptional. From 71 to 130 the work becomes more interesting, but still in need of something more to be truly good.
From 131 to 160 one is speaking of a very well-made work that could have some chance if suitably marketed and publicised, while above 161 one has an album that, with the right record label, can really take off.
How long does recording take?
It depends greatly on the quality of the studio and on the type of precision and detail that one wishes to obtain.
The greater the quality, the greater the time required (and the greater the time spent directly in the studio by the musicians).
This is because more consecutive recordings of the same song (or fragment of a song) will be made, after which the sound engineers must correct, add effects, mix and perform all the magic they know in order to turn a raw product into a finished record.
Roughly speaking, this ranges from two or three hours per song for the less complete studios to several days for each single instrument for each song in the more precise and professional studios.
Players and the Narrator may choose the times that seem to them most appropriate.
How can one afford to record, if these are the costs?
Bank robberies are usually the preferred method for scraping together money to put towards records.
Smuggling is an alternative that always keeps its charm.
Some might try to raise money by playing gigs and selling their Band's merchandise, but they are simply losers.
Or, if you want to get by without spending a penny (and so keep the well-deserved fruit of your robberies), you may try to approach a record label, which will also take care of marketing and publicising.
Killing Machine
So you have thought of putting yourselves in the hands of a record label, eh?
You think it is your lucky break, that it can take you to the heights of success with little effort and no expense?
Well, you might even be right: if you manage to avoid the swindles of real masters of deception, if you manage to find the record executive who knows (and wants) to work at their best on your albums, and if, when all is said and done, what you have produced has in it that something which will allow it to break through.
Despite all these "ifs", many want to try the record label route, which is why it is not always easy to get contacts and to propose your work to the best in this field.
In these cases it may be useful to record a Demo to play around (and recording it costs much less than a full album), or to get noticed by winning a contest, described in the following paragraph.
How much can a contract with a record label bring?
There is no precise rule, but it is extremely unlikely that an emerging Rock Band will obtain a particularly advantageous contract.
Often a minimum wage is offered, obliging the Band to a specific number of concerts on tour and, sometimes, also to the production of further albums.
Sometimes the terms are different, but rarely do newcomers earn enormous sums.
The longer they manage to remain within the mechanism, however, the greater the chances of obtaining advantageous conditions.
We leave it to the Players and the Narrator to establish the exact earnings for our Characters.
What matters is that the product of the Band's labour will be publicised and marketed.
Is satisfaction not enough for you?
Greedy...
Paragraph 17.
On waking you know what you must do: reluctantly you give up your revenge on the Banana's Dream.
"For the moment," you repeat to yourself several times.
You pick up the phone and begin to call a few members of bands you know. Some calls are very brief: they hang up on you almost at once. Not everyone has been positive towards you.
Other calls are very long: it has been ages since you got in touch, and there are many things to tell and remember.
The most frequent answer you receive, however, is that the notice is short, and not knowing who else is taking part, nobody feels like giving the go-ahead. You always stress that if nobody gives the go-ahead first there will never be a way to see others joining in, but despite this impeccable logic, by the end of the morning you close with no takers.
You would never have wanted to do it, but you must call Lars.
Lars is the most arrogant drummer you have ever had to deal with. He is such a slimy character that you are surprised he can hold the drumsticks without them slipping out of his hands.
He has never been a great musician; your own Adele is clearly more capable than he is, but his swagger, combined with having played in an excellent band, has brought him a certain notoriety.
For a time he "courted" you, hoping that you would join one of his early bands, but when you refused, telling him rather clearly what you thought of his abilities, he declared that you would come to regret it.
In the years that followed, he never failed to make you feel how right he had been.
Every time you have met, he has approached you with a slimy air and, between one joke and the next, has always ended up saying, "Eh, you could have been by my side today."
The description of your past events that followed each time there was some potential listener has always enraged you.
Now, however, you know that if his band came the others would join in.
It costs you a great deal, but you must do it.
The call lasts a long, very long time. He almost always does the talking.
When, after a while, you manage to explain the reason for the call, his arrogance seems to double. In the end, however, he consents, but on one condition.
He gives you two choices: to act as roadie for him and his band for the whole duration of the event, except at the moment of your performance, or to go with him this evening to a party for his band's twentieth anniversary, and make a speech about the old days at the microphone together with him.
In both cases, the aim is to humiliate you, you know that. You also know that, if he says no, you have few other weapons to convince the others at such short notice.
What do you do?
Will you accept to be his roadie?
[The roadie is the one who looks after the instruments, the travel arrangements and a lot of other things for a band.]
Will you accept to go to the party for his band?
Will you tell him to fuck off and call Finch to postpone?
Will you tell him to fuck off and call Mr. Wildcraft?
Continue on page 162.
Beelzeboss
The contest: the moment in which the Band shows off its muscles and matches itself against other Bands.
At stake: eternal glory, mountains of money and world tours.
Perhaps, but perhaps not.
Contests are "competitions" between Bands, whose outcome is usually decided by one or more juries. These may be formed by the audience, by people "in the trade", or by a mixed version of the two.
The Band that manages to get through all the elimination stages and win the final usually obtains some prizes. Among the prizes dedicated to emerging artists there may be musical instruments, time good for hours in rehearsal rooms or recording studios, or a few concerts to be played on other stages (not always paid).
For more important contests, of course, the prizes may be more substantial.
One of the things that contests can achieve, and which more or less all Bands hope for, is catching the attention of some record executive.
In game terms there may be Fame and/or Experience points.
The running of contests should be similar to that of On Stage performances, pairing the Band's performance with that of at least one other Band in competition.
One could establish that whoever obtains more Applause wins, but juries can be influenced by an infinity of other factors.
We leave it to the Narrator and the Players to decide how to set up the contest and what its criteria for victory will be.
For this reason, as well as for the pure taste of challenge, contests are elements that can have an important and entertaining narrative impact on the stories of Rockopolis.
What might go wrong in a prolonged confrontation between the Characters' Band and other Bands, each ready to do anything to win and the slim visibility it will grant?
Everything.
Is that not wonderful?
The Rejected Mexican Pope Leaves the Stage
The Band is finally on stage.
What and who is there on the stage with you?
It depends on how famous the Band is and on how important and well organised the event is inside which the stage has been raised.
On the less important stages there will be the minimum equipment (see the paragraph on the rehearsal room) and, if the Characters are lucky, a sound engineer to run the mixer (when not busy getting drunk).
In these cases the musicians can usually bring their own amplifier (one for guitar and one for bass) and cymbals and snare for the drums, so as to maintain the "own" sound they are used to playing with.
It is not always the case, however, that this minimum equipment is there. It may happen that it is the Characters who have to carry it and set it up.
At the worst events there may not even be a stage...
At the more important events, on the other hand, the equipment will be much more extensive and of better quality; the sound engineers will probably be sober and capable (probably), and all the material on the stage will be looked after by what is usually called the service, that is one or more people who take care of setting up the stage and providing everything the Band needs to make the evening great, both musically and as visual spectacle.
On some of these occasions the Characters may also make the acquaintance of one of the most emblematic figures of the Rock world: the roadie.
The roadie is the one who takes care of setting up the equipment on the stage, placing the microphones, tuning the instruments, organising travel and the dressing rooms for the artists, and in general is the factotum who assists the band.
In the most important Bands the roadie (or roadies) is so important as to be practically a member of the Band in turn. Who knows whether our Characters will ever reach a point where they have one or more roadies all for themselves?
The stage is also the place where the Band must try to satisfy the Expectation of the audience (as described in chapter 11).
The Expectation depends enormously on the kind of audience that turns up to applaud (or boo) those who perform.
The Players and the Narrator may agree the Expectation of the stages on which they will play, bearing in mind the context in which the stage is set.
Rock of Ages
Some stages are outdoors, others are well enclosed inside venues more or less famous, more or less disreputable.
Based on the type of audience and the Expectation of the venue, we suggest the following numbers of songs in the setlist for an appropriate performance.
Table of the number of songs in the setlist
| Expectation of the venue | Recommended number of songs in the setlist |
|---|---|
| From 10 to 30 | 3 or 4 |
| From 31 to 50 | 5 |
| From 51 to 80 | 6 |
| From 81 to 100 and above | 7 |
Below is a list of venues, inspired by real venues, with their respective audience Expectation (although the Narrator and the Players may vary it as they wish) and some information about them.
An indication of the Rock genre the venue's audience prefers is also given. Here too the playing group may modify it as they please.
Big Festival
Expectation: 95. Preferred genre: Blues.
Do you really want the description of the Big Festival?
The Big Festival is not really a venue, but is simply THE most important EVENT in the area.
Fearsome equipment, sound engineers up to the task with defined schedules and sound checks carried out with precision.
Only the best play here, and some rare lucky ones who manage to open their concerts.
Of course, if you are not among the great ones, your fee will probably be just the fact of having played here, but being able to tread such a big stage in front of such a vast and important audience is often the best that many newcomers can ask for.
Careful: boos will not be long in coming in case of failure, and considering that the press (even the non-music press) is very attentive to what happens at this event, it would always be well to go up on that stage only if very well prepared.
Social Centre "La Guerra"
Expectation: 16. Preferred genre: Punk.
"La Guerra is always here, it will never cease to exist."
This may seem a sentence hiding a philosophical reflection on the human condition, but it is above all what is said of the Social Centre "La Guerra".
It is probably even true: the Centre is always open, in that ramshackle warehouse among the derelict, abandoned houses not far from the old town centre.
Often you even have to wait a good while before managing to get into an open space full of people.
Here the topics of discussion are the most varied, and often music is little more than a backdrop to the evenings.
The stage is small and rather bare, but if the Band takes care of what is missing, a chance to play is never denied to anyone.
You only need not to ask for a fee and not to take it badly if the audience ignores any attempt to catch its attention.
Der Keller
Expectation: 20. Preferred genre: Metal.
Where there is beer, there are Rockers; everybody knows that.
If you add good cooking to the beer, a very large hall and a stage on which several important names have passed, it is easy to see how this venue has conquered a special place in the hearts of the public.
An excellent springboard thanks to the large audience it manages to gather, playing here is not so difficult.
What is really difficult is getting paid.
Many arrive at Der Keller through its contest, which each year gathers almost all the emerging bands in the neighbourhood.
It is practically an obligatory stop for anyone who wants to begin their career in the world of Rock.
The audience is always present and rather mixed, although Metal is the predominant taste.
Making a good showing here can at least get the word around about the Band.
Der Zirkus
Expectation: 40. Preferred genre: Metal.
The industrial zone offers a desolate scene: rows and rows of warehouses sleeping through the night.
Among all the warehouses, however, there is one that does not sleep: it is Der Zirkus, a true mine of full-power metallic sound in the heart of the mists and desolation.
Dark atmospheres, smoke and a few well-placed lights: here being noticed is hard, more because of the poor lighting than because of any real difficulty with the audience.
The venue's manager is a veteran of metal venues, known in all the circles that count in the area. He seems to know everyone, even the promoters, and this is a resource that Bands never fail to covet.
Here the evenings almost always begin with one or two opening groups, and then it is Dave, the manager, who gets up at the mixing desk and sets the audience off with the fiercest mix of Rock in circulation.
He and his audience know their music, and satisfying them may not be easy, but it always pays off.
Fallout Bar
Expectation: 52. Preferred genre: Punk.
This is the "contaminated" zone of the city's live music, and it never fails to make its effect on those who look in for the first time.
Green neon lights, 1950s vintage tat mixed with science fiction of the same years, gas masks hung on the walls, drinks themed around nuclear apocalypse.
It is all so realistic that the alarm siren that sounds periodically to signal half-price drinks at the bar sometimes has a terrifying effect.
The Fallout Bar is a mixture of a disco, a pub and a venue for live music.
As the name may suggest, here contamination is required, above all of styles. The audience may not know exactly what it wants, but it knows what it likes: music played well.
The owner of the venue is a woman who calls herself Psychara, who always has hair in different colours and white contact lenses.
The only thing more disquieting than her appearance is the Band in which she plays guitar, the "Fallout".
Gothica
Expectation: 100. Preferred genre: Metal.
Here Rock and classical music mix, explosive rage with the most languid decadence.
At the Gothica there is much more than meets the eye, although even the eye here receives strong stimuli of every kind.
The audience is refined, with a palate educated by years of heterogeneous performances with one single, essential thread: quality taken to the extreme.
Musicians of every genre play here, although everything is often traced back to metal, with its unique sounds even when contaminated with instruments and atmospheres from different environments.
To play here, well... whoever plays here must be good. The fee is good, and although the niche audience is numerous, it is so specific that few promoters and record executives are drawn into it, but a good reaction from the audience can only bring favourable fates for the Band.
But for those who are unable to satisfy the audience, the cold and haughty snobbery of the crowd will bury even the memory of whoever has so miserably failed.
Highway 66
Expectation: 80. Preferred genre: Blues.
In the area many say, "If you make it to the end of a concert at the Highway 66, you can call yourself a real musician."
The stage equipment is not exceptional, and the owner is as ignorant of music as he is expert at filling the venue and making money.
At the Highway 66 the customer has to elbow their way to get a drink, and to get a table they have to slip money to the right people.
The musician, on the other hand, above all must have stage presence.
At the Highway 66 the audience is demanding, and if they turn their backs on you at the second song you may as well withdraw quietly, ignored practically by everyone.
But if you manage to win their attention, you may discover among the bystanders some good contact and, why not, even a contract.
Il Pirata Rosso (The Red Pirate)
Expectation: 18. Preferred genre: Glam.
Shortly after the harbour basin there is a venue which by day is a dive crammed full of layabouts, but at night... it is the same dive, with different layabouts.
Night owls, however, like Rock.
Ohhhh, how they like it.
The Red Pirate is run by a woman who tells of having had passionate affairs with various Rock stars. Although she changes the partner in the story of the relationship every day, what is certain is that she knows what Rock is.
She also knows what thrift is, and she manages it so well that for the Bands the money is scarce and the beer is of the cheap kind.
The stage is almost non-existent, just an assemblage of ill-matched pallets that tend to shift a bit when whoever is on them gets too excited.
Here, however, one has a rollicking good time, between the red walls and the fake fishing nets and anchors that decorate the place.
Let's make this crew dance!
La Nonna Rock (Granny Rock)
Expectation: 45. Preferred genre: Glam.
Just outside the motorway it waits for you: three metres tall, the silhouette towers over the road.
Hair gathered in a bun, slippers, a house dressing gown and, where you would expect a rolling pin or a carpet beater, a glittery pink guitar.
La Nonna Rock is always busy with the most intense solo of her life.
The venue is run by a co-operative of willing and carefree young people.
Almost every evening they book two Bands and tell them to "put on a show", in the true sense of the term. Halfway between a musical contest and public mockery, here one fights to be the best, and excesses are the order of the day.
The audience is here for the show, and will not be satisfied unless it gets one.
Locanda della Musica (The Music Inn)
Expectation: 20. Preferred genre: Blues.
It is also called the Rock Farm: nothing could be more apt.
It is practically just a large wooden barn, full of benches and country-style American knick-knacks on the walls. The owner seems to be there for the sole purpose of milking money from the customers. The fee for the Bands is minimal.
The problem is not that the Bands want to play there, but that they practically MUST do so in order to make their name.
Everyone who has made their way has passed through the Locanda della Musica, or almost everyone.
A lot of famous Bands have, much against their will, played among tables of bored teenagers, amid pizza, mobile phones and poor-quality drinks, for a miserable fee and with old and unreliable equipment.
However, some people from the trade do pass through, and getting heard by the right ones is a chance that few want to give up.
Paragraph 18.
The toad you have to swallow risks going down the wrong way.
"Alright, I'll be your roadie."
The torrent of words that follows from the other end of the phone only increases your anger, but you hold yourself back as long as you can. When you think you are about to explode and tell him to shove his arrogance up his backside, Lars ends the call, to your enormous relief.
You also let Finch know that the organisation has gone well, and he assures you that there will be an audience, with the publicity he will do.
At last something is beginning to go the right way. After all, this too is a bit of a gamble, the way you like it.
You immediately resume calling the other groups, and with Lars's Band breaking the ice it is much easier for you to win consensus. One of the musicians with whom you have the best relations agrees to call the two alleged thieves around whom your whole plan revolves.
A few minutes later a message reaches you saying that they have accepted...
You have the phone in your hand, and the feeling of satisfaction makes you do something you have not done for more than a week.
You scroll down the contacts to a name. You stare at it for a while.
Janis.
A troubled story, never finished.
THE story, for you.
The last time you spoke, the only sound before the click of the phone was her sobbing. Now, however, you feel hopeful.
You compose a message. And delete it.
You think about it a while longer, then write it again.
You change the words, delete, rewrite, add and remove sentences continually.
No poker game has ever required such bluffing, especially against yourself.
You feel like a worse writer than the one who wrote "Attention: it is dangerous to lean out" under the windows of trains.
The result of this inner struggle is a simple "Hi. Tomorrow evening I'm playing at Metro 14. Come along, if you fancy it."
You do not dare do more, and press "send" before the second thoughts become too strong.
It is done now.
Now you glance at the messages you received while you were busy, and discover that Rebecca too is now home. In the coming weeks there will be some legal consequences, but for now you can not think about them, in your usual reckless way.
Tomorrow evening there is the show, and rehearsing the setlist could be a good way to prepare.
But you have other thoughts too. The Banana's Dream, or that strange card of the man in black, for example.
What do you do?
Will you arrange with the Band for a rehearsal?
Will you try to understand more about the man in black and his enigmatic card?
Will you seek out the Banana's Dream one last time before the concert?
Continue on page 172.
Nocops
Expectation: 42. Preferred genre: Punk.
Nocops is a venue born, literally, from the ashes of a social centre.
The owners of the venue, razed to the ground by fire, decided to roll up their sleeves and form a co-operative to set up a pub with live music.
The name became a sort of anthem during the period when the venue faced the greatest number of problems with the law.
Now the place has become moderately fashionable, losing much of that raw and accursed charm which was once a catalyst for the most interesting and nonconformist characters of all time.
Furnished simply, with straw chairs mixed with small sofas, recycled furnishings used to make other furnishings, a few records hung on the walls and a fine garden on one side, the venue welcomes an audience that loves to let go.
Perhaps it is the tension that needs a release valve; perhaps, for many, it is being banished from society or from their families; but when the music starts, bodies let loose.
The manager, the only one left from the original co-operative, is a calm guy who loves to read the classics of American literature.
Rock Rainbow
Expectation: 95. Preferred genre: Glam.
Pyrotechnic.
This is the most fitting word to describe the event that involves only the best and most spectacular Bands.
It is not enough to be good to climb onto this stage: one must be a predator, a ferocious beast that captures the attention of the audience and holds it until the moment comes to release it with a moan of pleasure.
Lights everywhere, the strangest audience ever, the best gigs in the area.
Even the scenery here is capable of taking over if the stage presence of a Band is not up to the mark.
To make a good impression on this stage means only one thing: glory.
Rockout
Expectation: 70. Preferred genre: Metal.
The owner of the Rockout considers it a serious business. So serious that he is not at all happy if a Band underestimates the quality needed to play in a place of this kind.
Here, moreover, people mosh.
The audience likes it, the manager likes it, and usually the Bands that play here like it too.
If the audience is not moshing, then something is going wrong.
The Rockout is bare: metal scaffolding, metal beams, a metal stage.
Behind the drum kit two large exhaust pipes literally throw out sparks: if the Band deserves it, the sound engineer can set off flames that will make the stage look like a Roadster ready to flee.
The beer is good and the pay is not bad, but if the flames do not ignite the evening is a flop.
Syndicate
Expectation: 93. Preferred genre: Punk.
The Syndicate is not a venue, it is a whole neighbourhood.
People go there to use the skate ramps, to rollerblade, to ride BMX and on any other means of transport, however eccentric and dangerous, that one can think of.
The auditorium is enormous and is equipped to allow those who play to let go completely.
Togetherness is everything here.
The Band may play wonderfully, but if it cannot connect with the audience, make them "feel" that everyone can be considered one single family, it is hard to capture their attention.
And that is a pity, because through the Syndicate pass those who have made their own career in music, and who could help the Characters do the same.
The pay is good, but without a streak of creativity and the ability to fit in with the audience it will be hard to make a good impression.
Twister
Expectation: 75. Preferred genre: Glam.
The Twister is a den of perdition, a place where temptation can be felt from the very first step through the door.
Beauty, especially in its most excessive and sensual forms, is everywhere.
The lights are designed to be reflected in the eyes of the audience and on the pole-dance poles.
Even playing on the stage becomes difficult because of the many distractions.
And the audience here wants to writhe, to let itself go.
The music must take them to paradise, and it must be of quality.
The manager was once a well-known drummer, the leader of a Rock Band some years ago, and he has never lost his edge.
If the Band can stand out, it is certain that the audience will remember it, but nothing stays more impressed in the mind than a terrible wrong note played at the very moment when the entertainment is most engaging the audience.
Taverna del Blues
Expectation: 40. Preferred genre: Blues.
Do not be fooled by the place located just after the provincial exit: certainly it looks perhaps a little bare, but here things are taken seriously.
At the Taverna del Blues you can find everyone from the beginner up to the great bluesman who once passed by to greet the owner, a sociable lad, attentive to the needs of the bands, but above all a well-known musician in the area.
The stage is small, and the space in the venue too, but here one plays blues, and one must play it well.
There will be pats on the back and good advice for newcomers, but also an audience with a certain competence to judge even the most experienced.
Freedom lika shopping cart
The Characters may be destined for eternal glory, but without their instruments they are of little account.
To acquire them, unless they receive them as an inheritance or trade their collection of stickers for them, they will sooner or later have to enter a musical instrument shop.
Here one can find everything a Band needs to make its way, if the shop is large enough and well stocked.
Guitars, basses, drum kits, keyboards and microphones are usually present in every shop of the sector, in various models and various qualities.
Moreover, a shop of this kind usually sells (or is able to source) also lights, smoke machines, monitor speakers to hear the sound better on stage, mixers and all the accessories that make a band work better.
What cannot be found, however, can always be searched for online.
The best instrumentation, however, may not be found everywhere.
Top-quality instruments can provide no small advantages to our Rockers, and are described in the following paragraph.
Right tool for the job
What instruments could a Band want to buy, and how much do they cost?
Below is a selection of instruments with average prices. The minimum prices are much lower, but they are rarely objects that could give acceptable results in front of an audience with a minimum of competence.
Table of suggested prices for instruments
| Instrument | Suggested price |
|---|---|
| Electric guitar | $400 |
| Electric bass | $300 |
| Drum kit* | $800* |
| Keyboard | $500 |
| Vocal microphone | $150 |
| Instrument microphone | $100 |
| Mixer | $200 |
| Guitar amplifier | $200 |
| Bass amplifier | $200 |
| Speakers (each) | $150 |
| Effects pedal | $100 |
| Lights (each) | $200 |
* The drum kit, being made up of several pieces, each of which can be of different quality, is probably the instrument with the widest price range of all those presented.
Here are some famous Bands that use these instruments (in some cases only occasionally) on their albums.
- Guitar/Bass/Drums/Microphone: no kidding...
- Keyboard/Organ: Deep Purple, Genesis, The Doors, Uriah Heep and thousands of others
- Harmonica: Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Muddy Waters
- Violin: Dave Matthews Band, Dixie Dregs, Turisas
- Double bass: HorrorPops, Mumford & Sons, The Living End
- Trumpet/Trombone: Ska-P, The Sex Police, Kayo Dot
- Sax: Pink Floyd, Gerry Rafferty, Bob Seger
- Clarinet: The Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, They Might Be Giants
- Banjo: Steve 'n' Seagulls, Fleetwood Mac, Camper Van Beethoven
Effects are modifications made to the sounds emitted by one or more instruments, often activated through small pedals placed on the stage. Effects such as echo, reverb, wah-wah, flanger and an infinity of others can be found in the sound of practically every Rock Band in the world.
Some instruments have a particular quality that makes them exceptionally good for letting go on stage.
These instruments have an additional value called Resistance.
Each time a Character wants to let go, making the fullest use of their instrument, they consume the Resistance of the object, but they also gain benefits in their performance.
An instrument can have up to a maximum of 3 Resistance points, and every use (or abuse) made of it to gain advantages on stage reduces this value by 1.
When the score has been brought down to 0, or in any case below its original value, the object can be repaired, recovering the maximum Resistance points available for it.
An instrument costs at least double its suggested price if it has 1 Resistance point, triple if it has 2 and quadruple if it has 3.
Repair costs at least half of the suggested price of the base instrument for each Resistance point to be recovered.
What advantages does abusing an object bring?
Simply put, during an On Stage test the Character may spend one Resistance point (and only one) on a Roll for a song, obtaining one additional d6 to roll.
No more than one d6 can be obtained per Roll, but the instrument may be abused over several consecutive songs, if desired.
Points spent are not recoverable until the instrument is repaired.
Beyond instruments, the Band may also need stage costumes and anything else that can make unique the look and the type of show the Band puts on.
It is possible to have clothing or other items that make On Stage tests favourable, in the form of additional dice on the tests, but this often depends greatly on the tastes of the audience one happens to meet.
Particularly well-chosen choices may be rewarded, at the discretion of the Narrator and the Players.
Cult of personality
If the Band manages to achieve a little success, it may perhaps also earn some lasting fans.
Someone who turns up at almost every concert, who knows their original songs and sings them along with the Band.
Someone willing to defend the Band's good name in the face of criticism and to proselytise to find new "followers".
In the end, the Band may find itself with a crowd of acclaiming and adoring people, ready to do anything for their idols.
Ready even to follow the Characters home, taking photos of them and appearing in unsettling ways in private moments, when least expected.
Thought only the Characters could be "strange"?
The fans may be no less so.
Fans of the Band and its music are an important narrative resource.
They can be people with whom to establish Relationships, who help or hinder the Band in various situations and, in general, are someone to whom the Band must, in some way, "answer for its actions".
Especially with the web amplifying news and rumours, knowing how to relate to the audience is often a fundamental feature of success.
On the other side of the barricade are the haters.
While the first are usually moved by passion for the Band (whether for its music or for its members), the second may be moved by an infinity of the most varied motivations.
Contempt for the musical production, dislike of some member, envy, a passion for rival Bands, or personal interests in conflict with those of the Band: whatever the spur, haters tend to make their voice heard as loudly as possible, often launching venomous attacks against the Band and its fans.
Here too, these dynamics can very easily be used to create interesting elements within a story and to weave Relationships that will change not only the narrative arcs, but even the more "mechanical" dynamics of the game.
Know your enemy
Music is not only harmony; on the contrary, it often arises from opposition and contrast.
Rock, moreover, has so many souls within it that it is inevitable that some of these clash strongly with one another.
Metal and Punk, Glam and Blues are only a minimal sketch of the disputes arising from musical tastes or from the ideas behind a specific genre.
What happens when these contrasts arise inside the Band?
Bands whose members cannot agree because of their musical tastes have a hard time: beyond the typical quarrels in the rehearsal room, these disputes may recur on stage and even show through in the way they play and in the sounds produced.
Each member's influence contributes to creating the "musical imprint", that typical sound that allows that group to be recognised among hundreds of others.
If the personal influences are not well integrated, however, the imbalance is heard and can lead even to quite serious rifts.
The Players and the Narrator, should the Characters in the Band have serious divergences of musical opinion, may decide to apply modifiers to performances for as long as the major disagreements are not smoothed over.
In On Stage tests this may mean fewer d6, increased Difficulty for the songs, and fewer Applause or more Boos if the audience itself notices the internal imbalances.
This should not suggest that the Band is forced to have members in complete agreement about music: the contamination between genres can be very interesting, when the major clashes can be kept under control.
Differences in taste can also cause problems when they are not internal to the Band: some outsiders, both those close to the Rockers and those far from their lives, may place themselves as obstacles on the group's path because of their contempt for the type of music the Band plays.
All these difficulties are nothing more than potential challenges for the Band.
Such challenges can make the stories played much more interesting and form very important elements of the narrative.
Players and Narrator will choose how and whether to include them in their adventures, and will determine whether and when they have specific effects on the game dynamics.
Chapter 15: The Adventures
Miss adventure
Below are some ready-made adventures that you can use to start playing Rockopolis without great preparation.
The only requirement is that the Narrator reads through the adventure they intend to propose to the group before doing so.
The first four are divided according to the Band's inclination towards a specific Rock Genre in relation to the Souls (the first is an adventure more in the Metal style, the second more Blues, the third Punk and the fourth Glam), but Players and Narrators may easily go beyond these distinctions and venture into whatever musical Genre they wish.
Rock is also this freedom.
The adventure Kickapoo (and the Warriors of Asgard) also presents ready-made characters, so that one can start playing straight away; others require requirements in the creation of the Characters.
The following adventures are of various kinds. They can be taken as they are, joined with others to create wider narrative arcs, or simply taken as a starting point for creating one's own.
In this way, we hope, Narrators and Players will easily acquire familiarity with the stories that can be told in Rockopolis.
Kickapoo (and the Warriors of Asgard)
Let Ragnarok begin in this city!!!
This mass of houses inhabited by bigots is a flat town, which marks time with hypocrisy between one dull, conformist social event and the next.
Nothing shakes it, and the only thing that rings is the hateful Sunday bells. No venue, no musical instrument shop and no rehearsal room.
One must travel to the nearby city to find these things, and the group is fed up.
Fed up as only a Metal group to the bone can be.
Contempt is at its height, the time has come to shake these consciences, to make even the foundations of this weak, flat population, accustomed to normality, tremble.
Hooks for the Narrator:
The Band's task will be to find a suitable place in town where it can organise a successful concert within 7 days. The Band must be spurred to take action against the hypocrisy of the population; the feeling spread among the Characters must be one of inadequacy towards their fellow citizens and of awareness of the uselessness of their lives.
The difficulties encountered will almost always be connected to the bigoted custom of this town, which will try in every way to frustrate the initiative of the Characters with its passivity. Sometimes, some may even decide to actively oppose it.
The Characters may have unsuspected allies among the population, but finding them will not be easy.
Characters the Players may use for the adventure:
Rollo – drums Souls: Metal 3; Punk 1; Blues 2; Glam 1 Relationships: Love for Lagertha 2 – Hatred of priests 1 Traits: Tireless drummer 3 – Athlete 2 Muse: Kamasutra 3
Ragnar – vocals Souls: Metal 2; Punk 1; Blues 2; Glam 2 Relationships: Love for Lagertha 1 – Hatred of racists 2 Traits: Born leader 3 – Diplomat 2 Muse: Bacchus 3
Lagertha – guitar Souls: Metal 2; Punk 2; Blues 1; Glam 2 Relationships: Love for Ragnar 2 – Hatred of trendsetters 1 Traits: Fashion master 2 – Lockpick 2 – Solo 1 Muse: Ifrit 3
Floki – bass Souls: Metal 3; Punk 1; Blues 1; Glam 2 Relationships: Love for Ragnar 1 – Hatred of the Christian Church 2 Traits: Perfect team player 3 – Handyman 2 Muse: Crowley (Norse Myths) 3
One bourbon, one scotch, one beer
The city is known for its great Blues school.
The Band of the Characters is just starting out, but wants to show what it is made of to those professionals of the notes in town who feel so good that they can look down on them.
There are many venues, but Blues is at home here and finding a gig is very complicated.
The members of the band are aware that they should find some famous guest to be able to have the doors of some venue opened to them.
The right idea is to manage to persuade Jack Daniels, a local bluesman who in the past achieved a certain notoriety even beyond the national borders, to play with the Band in a concert that will take place shortly (about 7 days).
Unfortunately, the famous bluesman is a decadent drunkard who wants nothing to do with playing with novices. Even if he wanted to, for years now he has held the bottle more than the guitar. He is not very rusty, but when you are constantly tipsy even what you know how to do very well can become a problem.
The manager of the venue "Sweet home" has sworn to the Band that if they manage to detach that old drunkard from the bottle and clean him up enough to make him play as he once did, the evening will be assured.
Hooks for the Narrator:
One of the Band's biggest gambles will be finding Jack, which will take time while the days pass. Once this is done, they should manage to persuade him and hope he does not fall prey to Bacchus again. The group, however, will soon realise that Jack is a true Blues genius; he could hold a concert alone for 4 hours... if only he were sober.
Paragraph 19.
Gather your mates for a rehearsal. You are still a bit shaken by yesterday, but the others seem less worn out. Even Rebecca, who was at the police station longer than anyone, seems rather calm.
Patrick even seems to be smiling, with his new antique instrument.
Draft a setlist and rehearse it. You have no time for songwriting sessions, so you must devote yourselves to covers. In one of them, Patrick even manages to find room for a solo on his viola.
He has not had time to learn to play it, of course, but by playing it like a very strange bass he manages to bring out something interesting.
In three hours you give the best of yourself, including all the anger you have been storing, and in the end you are wrecked and satisfied.
You spend about another three hours chatting over a beer (taking care to avoid Adele's excesses), and go to bed with a certain expectation. Tomorrow is the big day.
The next day you are particularly early to rise. At 11 you are already on your feet, and you start calling the others to wake them. They complain about the early start, but you feel that they too are excited. You are all ready in a moment and on site even before 3 p.m.
The location is fabulous.
Before getting to know Metro 14 you would never have imagined that underground there could be a place so large. The natural cavity that was found during the excavations for the metro station is so wide and high that you wonder how the city built on top of it manages to stay up.
Technically it would be a place declared dangerous; there are also support structures, some only partly assembled. Over time, however, the usual budget cuts and the usual bribes have meant that this place was almost forgotten.
Now it is probably the largest clandestine concert hall in the country.
Tonight, that enormous space will be completely full of people, if you know Finch well. Time passes, and the bands arrive. As soon as he arrives, Lars insists that you do your part as promised, so you are forced to leave your people and start working for him.
You have nothing against the work of the roadie; you know it is essential, but doing it for that bastard (and being seen by the others while you do it) makes you pretty angry. At least, however, it gives you the chance to roam a good deal among the stages and the backstages.
The bands warm up, and among them are all those you hoped would be there. The Banana's Dream are there too; those bastards have not yet seen you.
While you prepare everything and the place fills up, you see Janis arrive too. You would like to run and talk to her, thanking her for coming, but Lars calls you again.
When everything is ready, the audience is already crowded under the stage. The Metro 14 is overflowing with people, a mass that only someone like Finch can gather in so short a time.
Markus Finch, a man whose manners could be compared to treacle, if only treacle were excessively gaudy and laced with drugs.
As the seasoned showman he is, he makes a spectacular entrance onto the stage.
Lights off. The amplifiers, which until a moment before were humming their low hum, fall silent.
A deep rumble begins to spread, and it seems to come from all around. At first the people think it is sound coming from the woofers, but when they begin to hear it coming from above their heads too, fear begins to spread.
Before this becomes panic, however, the lights come on, dazzling everyone, and all the speakers emit a shrill and extremely powerful sound.
When the volume and the light drop in intensity, it is possible to make out Finch on the stage, which until then was deserted. The sound seems to be his shout into the microphone (although you are certain he has used something to distort it). Now that he has everyone's attention, the host begins to introduce the event.
"The Battle for Rock has begun, and it will go on until morning to decide the best Band."
Finch, in love with his own voice, holds the floor for a while. In this time, you have the chance to take a look around.
Besides Janis, you see two guys you think you have already seen. You rack your memory, then remember one of them: he was the croupier at the reception for Mayer's son's wedding. The other was certainly at the party too. They have earpieces through which they talk while looking around. Following their gazes, you spot at least five other people who move almost in unison with them.
Could they be some kind of Finch security service?
Or has Mayer put two and two together and come to pay back the favour?
Soon it will be the turn of Lars's Band, and right after that the Banana's Dream, and you would like at least one of these two "problems" to be sorted out. With your access to the backstage you could do it, but now you are undecided on how to act.
What do you do?
Do you keep monitoring the movements of the guys with the earpieces and warn Finch, even at the cost of interrupting him?
Do you go and try to damage the Banana's Dream's equipment, so as not to have them under your feet?
Do you go and play some little prank on Lars's instruments, so as to avenge the humiliation?
Or do you ignore all this and run to speak to Janis for a few minutes, before returning to prepare your performance?
Continue on page 176.
The Rock show
Making music costs money!
The Characters' group is full of debts, and unfortunately the city pawnshops now hold all of the Band's instruments.
The time to redeem them is running out: 7 days to earn enough money, otherwise everything will be lost and they will have to start their careers again from scratch, without their indispensable equipment.
Luckily, a group from the Punk scene has heard of the difficulties and is willing to give up one of its own concerts and its equipment, so that it can have the money available to redeem the pawned instruments. The solidarity of the Punk "pueblo unido" is legendary!
The problem is, unfortunately, that the manager of the venue where the concert is to be held is the father of the partner of the Band's Frontman.
Need it be said? The manager hates the Band and, in particular, the Frontman, and will do everything possible to make sure the concert is postponed or goes badly.
Even if the Band manages to play properly, he will look for every possible excuse not to pay them. It will not be easy to get the money out of him!
Hooks for the Narrator:
Not a few venue managers look for excuses not to pay musicians. The local bands know this, and they may try to help our Characters.
Having the manager of a venue against you, on the other hand, can have far from positive repercussions on the Band's reputation.
Shake me
In the city a well-known designer is looking for the right, fashionable Band for the party after the fashion show he has organised. At the poolside will be everyone who counts in the glamour scene, and for the Band this is a very tempting opportunity.
The designer has created a special contest for emerging bands: the Band that wins will play at the grand event.
Hooks for the Narrator:
In this adventure it is important to identify a minimum of 3 On Stage tests, set up as direct elimination between rival bands. The Band must manage to get through these selections.
On Stage tests will be short (about 3 songs, a few more for the Final); the Band with the greater number of Applause wins the challenge. With such a prize at stake, obvious foul play is to be expected.
The call of Ktulu
The Band is in trouble.
Of course, it may not be news, but it is never pleasant to have the police on your heels.
This time, moreover, the Muses have demanded so much that the only alternative is to cross the border.
On the escape route, however, the Band lost its vehicle and was forced to "borrow" a camper van it found in a car park, loading in great haste the instruments they had with them.
The camper van, unfortunately, was lived in, but the Characters had no time to be fussy.
A family made up of a father in his fifties, a twenty-year-old daughter and a fifteen-year-old son will be the involuntary (or even reluctant) companions of the Characters on their journey.
Getting caught is out of the question: if the kidnapping is added to the crimes committed earlier, it is easy that the key to the cell in which ours will be locked up will be melted down to make some amusing commemorative pendants.
Luckily the little family is not too recalcitrant. This is thanks to the weapons they have seen in the Band's bags, and which they hope will never be used.
One of the most likely objectives of the Characters in this situation is to cross the border without clashes or arrests.
If there were clashes they would have weapons with which to defend themselves and counterattack, but the situation would become decidedly dangerous.
Even in case of a trouble-free border crossing, the escape should in any case be fairly fast, since communications travel quickly.
Stopping on the main road would be madness, and the first country lanes that are found lead to a rather small and singular village.
By day it seems almost uninhabited, with only closed houses and shops. Very few people wander among the buildings, and they are so shy that they will never let themselves be approached.
They seem very distrustful of outsiders.
The Characters might also do well to be distrustful of them, because as soon as there is an opportunity some of these individuals will try to damage the camper van, puncturing its tyres, breaking its engine or in any case preventing it from working.
In the evening a few cars arrive with people in them, and the village comes alive a little.
The shops remain closed (indeed, they must have been closed for months), and only a sort of large restaurant opens to receive all the people who have arrived.
If they venture into the venue, they will see that there is a stage with some equipment, but nobody playing.
They might be recognised by someone among the bystanders, or they might enter with their instruments and be asked to play, or again they might offer on their own to put on a small concert in exchange for dinner and, perhaps, a modest pay.
Of course, it will not be easy to keep the family under control during the performance without alerting the audience too much.
If the Characters stay here until midnight, they will notice that at the stroke of twelve the people seem to "change".
The audience will give free rein to the most sinister instincts, as if it were giving vent to all the Muses together. Among the crowd one may also see those evasive individuals who wandered the village by day.
The volume of the crowd will rise, and chants will begin.
If the Band is playing on the stage, the chants will merge with those of their songs.
Listening to what the people are shouting, one will hear vague calls to ancient deities.
If the Band is performing, only a wonderful performance (Expectation of no less than 60 over a setlist of 5 songs) will be able to focus the audience on the music, preventing the situation from degenerating for the members of the group and for the kidnapped family.
Is the audience perhaps intending to make a sacrifice to these ancient gods?
Are the Characters and the kidnapped family in danger?
How is it possible that the first village where you decide to stop is immediately filled with madmen of this kind?
Hooks for the Narrator:
This adventure can provide many ideas to the Players and the Narrator.
The kidnapped family can be characterised in various ways, either as people intimidated by the group or as true antagonists.
They could also be a sort of "link with reality" for those members of the Band most alienated from their own Muses.
A bond could form with them, perhaps because they have cooperated for a peaceful crossing of the border (which may also have been the family's goal), or because some of the Characters have personal family problems that they relive with sorrow while watching a family that, all in all, is united.
The description of the village and of the venue can also be highly personalised, giving the possibility of inserting elements at will to integrate this adventure with stories already created.
Paragraph 20.
Keep an eye on the odd types. Very soon it is clear that they are not part of the security.
They are pushing their way through the crowd, while Finch continues to speak into the microphone. Apparently they are approaching the sides of the main stage, right in the direction of the rows of speakers from which the voice of the tireless presenter explodes.
You try to attract the attention of the security, but from where you are you cannot.
You do not have much time.
You jump onto the stage and head towards Finch.
He does not see you until you are beside him, and he seems decidedly surprised and not at all happy about the interruption.
The people who were listening, under the spell of Markus's voice, slowly "wake up" and notice your presence with curiosity.
"Did you see those guys? They must be…"
"Get out of the way, idiot. Even if the idea was yours, this is MY event."
"No, you don't understand, we must…"
"Don't understand? I understand perfectly: you are a failure now, and you are trying every way to get back to the…"
Your blood boils, but unfortunately you cannot resolve the situation the way you would with Patrick.
Finch, however, knows that he cannot squabble for long on stage, or the crowd will wake from the "magic" of his voice. He is therefore forced to include you in the presentation.
"Here is a person who has been of great help in organising this event. Many of you know him, and…"
Without waiting, you snatch the microphone from his hand.
"Thank you all. You know, it has been years that… hey, did you see?" and you point at a group of guys with earpieces who are climbing over the barriers.
Now Finch has seen them too, and he takes back the microphone.
"SECURITY!" he thunders.
He points out the various groups, on your suggestion, and a brawl begins. Among the audience, many were only waiting for the moment to mosh, and they are tempted to throw themselves into the scuffle. Finch knows how to handle the situation.
"Hurry up!" he shouts at Lars and his people, who are therefore forced to arrive and start playing without introductions.
When the music comes on stage, those who were waiting for the mosh pit can hold back no longer.
The guys with the earpieces, caught up with Finch's security, are dragged into a whirl of shoves and jumps, and are soon separated and scattered. The threat is resolved within a few minutes.
"Never dare take the microphone from me again, you bastard," Markus says as he passes by you.
He knows that you have probably saved his arse, but he does not accept having the show taken from his hands.
Now that the situation is under control and the event has come to life with Lars's group, you have a little time to decide what to do.
Will you go and search the backstage to see if you can find the famous guitar?
Will you improvise something to the detriment of the Banana's Dream?
Will you go to Janis to see if she is all right, and whether she saw how you prevented the disaster?
Continue on page 180.
Video killed the radio star
Nathan Jones is an old friend of at least one of the members of the Band.
He has a past as a Rocker, now retired because his Muses were completely destroying him.
For years he has worked at a small radio station, but one that broadcasts across the whole national territory and has a large group of faithful listeners who are passionate about Rock. Unfortunately some of his old troubles have resurfaced once more, and at the end of a rather stormy period he has been fired.
This is what he tells the Characters over a beer.
He says he is sorry, because he would have liked to broadcast at least a few times the recording that our Characters had given him, but now he no longer has the chance.
But…
It may be the alcohol talking, but Nathan proposes a plan.
There is a time of day when there are only three people in the studio: Joe, the DJ, the manager Dorothy Logan and the secretary Bud.
To get in during that window of time, forcing them to broadcast the chosen tracks, would not be very difficult. Moreover, what is sent on air is not recorded, and by keeping the three people away from the equipment they would not even know what you did.
Of course, some of the listeners could tell them, but since there are no recordings the Band would hardly run into real trouble, if they come in masked and do not let themselves be recognised.
And then, given how things have been going during this period of little success, anything would seem fine, as long as the Band's name circulates.
For Nathan, this would be the best revenge.
If the Band decides to try to sneak into the radio's premises, it must do so on its own: Nathan is too easily recognisable to those who have worked with him for a long time, despite disguises.
He also knows the position of the security cameras, but unless he is asked he will not say, since he assumes the Characters will go in masked.
Once inside, finding the three people will not be difficult.
They work in adjacent rooms, and the only one who "sees" the others is the director, who will also be the person most hostile to the Band. She will try to get in touch with the outside in every way, if she has the opportunity. A former flame of the DJ, there is no good blood between them, and if he tries to collaborate with the Band she will try to obstruct him in every way, even promising to fire him.
She is a cold, calculating woman who aims only at profit and will not hesitate to do anything if she thinks her business may lose out. She knows practically nothing about Rock, moreover.
Joe, the DJ, could almost be convinced to collaborate, if the Characters decide to negotiate with him. Certainly, the audio quality will be what he has most to say about, since what the Characters have recorded is of rather low standard.
In secret, however, he might even appreciate this extremely reckless action by the Characters: it has a very Rock flavour.
Bud, the secretary, is instead the most dangerous person in there, despite his mild appearance. He has a past as a failed Rock singer, and the only legacy of his experience as a Rocker is an impressive collection of Muses: Berserk, Ifrit and Bacchus, all at level 5.
He is practically a time bomb ready to explode.
Both Joe and Dorothy are aware of this and know how to handle him to prevent him from exploding, but if he finds himself alone facing the "threat" of the Characters…
Nathan will also give the Band some small toy machine guns. He does not want anyone to get hurt, and the Characters too must know that the aim is only to be broadcast, not to hurt anyone.
If the police were alerted to the raid, things could turn bad, so it would be better to try to avoid this at all costs.
If, however, a lot of outside attention were concentrated around the radio's premises, Dorothy might even think of profiting from it, exploiting the chance to broadcast "live" what is happening over the radio.
Who knows, she might even decide to have the Band play directly in the studio (some instruments can be found), not caring if in the end the trouble falls on them anyway.
Hooks for the Narrator:
The situation lends itself to many forks in the story. What must always be kept well in mind, however, is the psychology of the three non-player characters:
DJ Joe is an old rocker and loves improvisation. He also knows the show business, though, and knows that the Characters could burn out like a straw fire. For this reason, even if they manage to convince him to collaborate, he will always be critical and harsh towards the Band and their music.
Dorothy is a rogue, as ignorant of music as she is greedy for money. If she can exploit the situation and the Band to make some extra money, good for her; otherwise she will try to sweep away from her path whoever has put her in difficulty. She could easily become an opponent in future situations too.
Bud is in a constant precarious balance, and some signs should serve to make the Characters notice them. He has several small silver plastic discs, similar to coins, with writing on them. Characters who have had problems with Bacchus, or who read them, will understand that they are tokens for 24 hours of sobriety. He has none for longer periods.
In the drawer of the desk where he works he has a knuckleduster. In Dorothy's desk, meanwhile, there is a small portable blowtorch that she confiscated from Bud.
He knows where it is, and the idea of taking it back would certainly not displease him.
Revolution riot
The scenes take place in the suburbs of a metropolis, whose neighbourhoods are all the same: greyness everywhere, people leading wretched lives that simply drag themselves from day to day.
Only one peculiarity: there is a street here that is not just a strip of asphalt with grey houses on either side. This street is the border between two zones at open war with each other, a war fought to the sound of Rock.
It is said that everything began when two Rock Bands emerged from the neighbourhood, one from one side and one from the other, each approaching music in a completely different way.
Shortly before one of the two Bands was able to release its first album, on which it had worked tirelessly for several months, the other Band released its own, which contained more than half of the tracks of the first, suitably modified to fit their style.
Lyrics, chord progressions and much more had been completely plagiarised.
No one knows exactly which of the two Bands had plagiarised the other, but those who live on one side are quite certain that "their" Band was the one that suffered the wrong.
Not even searching online turns up information about this affair, but the "legend" has it that the two halves of this suburb, at the time, took sides each with the Band to which it had given birth, giving rise to a feud that over the years has become ever more heated and senseless.
Only the new inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who settled here years after the fateful event (assuming it ever happened), do not seem involved in this feud; on the contrary, they are decidedly annoyed by it. Complaints to the police are ever more numerous, and more than one committee for "decorum", "decency" and a host of aims that would be achieved only by removing the noisy contenders has been formed.
This is because this "war" consists of almost daily brawls by day and concerts at deafening volume by night.
Needless to say, there are Bands and venues everywhere in this area. The purpose of the concerts, however, almost never seems to be to please an audience, but rather to incite it and to "destroy" metaphorically imaginary adversaries.
The disturbances to public peace are continuous, and the news of an upcoming visit to the area by an important international political figure is the ideal excuse for the administration to "clean up" the troublemakers.
Will the war be fought to the last breath between the hooligans of Rock, or will the opposing factions unite to fight the system that wants to silence them?
Hooks for the Narrator:
In all this premise, what does the Band have to do with it?
One or more of the members may come from this area, or they may have connections among the venues and have been "hired" to reinforce one of the two factions.
The Narrator and the Players are free to choose whether the feud is fought also through specific opposing Rock genres, as well as to define the ages of the people involved: is it something that mainly concerns students, or workers, or everyone?
What matters is that the concerts must not be missing, and the whole situation should gradually proceed ever more inexorably towards a conclusion, hardly a peaceful one.
Whether one must fight against the local population of the other half, or against those who want to restore silence in this boundless greyness, it will be difficult to reach the end of the story without the situation degenerating.
This story lends itself to adventures lasting more than one session, in which the Band plunges into the starting situation, gets to know people, makes enemies and finally has to choose how to conclude everything.
Paragraph 21.
You must make the most of the time you have available.
With everyone's eyes fixed on the stage, you prepare to start wandering around the backstage. As soon as you take your first steps, Rebecca, Adele and Patrick are at your side.
Before you can raise any objection, Adele dismisses any discussion with "We are a Band." She is drinking something that smells of unrefined petroleum, but you know it is sober and sincere.
You make your way behind the stage in search of the dressing room in which the suspect who owns the guitar is. You do not know which of the two it is, but you know that if it is not one it is certainly the other.
The dressing rooms are a series of tunnels dug into a fairly extensive and complex tangle, which luckily you know fairly well.
You cross several "bivouacs" of bands waiting for their moment to play, and a few minutes pass before you see one of the people you are looking for.
You stop at a distance far enough not to be seen, and you notice with enormous astonishment that the other suspect is together with the first.
Dave and James together… it seems absolutely impossible to you.
The hatred that built up in the days when your band fell apart and you parted shooting at each other cannot have disappeared for any reason, in your view. Unless…
Perhaps the famous guitar could be a valid reason to smooth over the differences?
You keep watching them, and you notice that besides them there is only one other person. From the drumsticks tucked into his jeans you gather that he is the drummer. Probably their line-up stops there: they are certainly not particularly friendly types, and it does not surprise you that they have a group made up of only three musicians.
Looking closely, you see that they are holding between them a guitar case on which both of them keep a hand. You move a little closer, covered by the passage of another band, and you notice that Dave is holding a pistol.
The situation is dangerous.
You are absolutely certain that the Wildcraft guitar is in the case, but taking it could involve a considerable risk.
You consult your companions, and these are the ideas that come out:
- Patrick, always the most handy with his fists among you, proposes to attack them during a moment of distraction. You are four against three, and he says he is sure he can knock out a couple before they think of reacting.
- Your proposal is to skirt their "dressing room" by taking another tunnel and then run into the middle of them, quickly grab the guitar and flee. You know you are much faster than them, and the sharp bend just a couple of metres from where they are should be cover enough. If the others then position themselves right behind and slow them down as they chase you, you should be able to lose them quickly.
- Rebecca, the most cunning, proposes to separate them and attack only the one who will be left with the guitar. It will be enough to say that each of them has to do a "double interview" with a member of the band they will face in the contest, so as to take them away one at a time.
- Adele, more inclined to social relations, proposes to exploit their inner resentment. She intends to present herself as a manager looking for talented musicians and to ask them to point out the best of the band. She says she is sure she can get them to quarrel so much that it will be very easy to seize the guitar.
Which proposal will you choose?
Continue on page 184.
Civil war
A civil war has been raging for years in this area; the buildings are rubble, and music is a memory.
The Band is confined to an extremely dangerous part of the city, the so-called red zone, which not even the patrols of the international armies pass through. Occasionally there is some "ceasefire" that is respected, but infiltrations by enemy units on murderous missions are the order of the day.
Even so confined, the Band has nonetheless managed to get an old radio set working, which allows its voice, and sometimes even its music, to be heard in the tormented city.
If the Band was here before the start of the civil war, it probably no longer has decent musical instruments, but it has built some makeshift ones from whatever it has been able to recover around.
For civilians crushed by a life always immersed in danger, even such battered equipment is able to lift a morale that has been underground.
When the radio broadcasts begin, the news of a Rock Band playing on the city's airwaves begins to circulate, until it reaches some of the international forces that are trying to intervene without success.
They will even try to get the Band better instruments, both for broadcasting and for playing, transferring them together with food in containers dropped from the air.
Unfortunately the news also reaches the ears of the local warlords, each of whom absolutely intends to prevent the population from lifting its head: low morale and fear are what allow them to continue their activities, and a spark of hope like the one the Band offers can only be a thorn in their side.
For this reason, the Band will have to try to survive: keeping a low profile so as not to let it be understood that they are the ones broadcasting, finding food and basic necessities, and resisting attempts at capture and sabotage are all difficulties the Band may have to face.
Music is what most lifts morale, so at least once a week the Band may want to broadcast something played specifically for the purpose.
Holding out long enough would mean giving the population enough strength to start a resistance movement. A popular uprising begins to become a plausible hypothesis, and if the Band finds a way to perform live, this could be the push needed to set off the reaction.
Hooks for the Narrator:
This story lends itself to adventures lasting more than one session.
The ruined city may be described and "built" by the Narrator together with the Players during the first session, if they wish. Assuming the city is 70% destroyed, it will be necessary to decide which structures border the "red zone", preferably limiting the choice to two important structures with various private houses bordering them.
The important structures may be: hospital, shopping centre, army offices (where ammunition or weapons can be found), radio and television, railway/underground station, government office or offices.
The group will constantly have to face problems linked to the temptations of unreleased Muses, the lack of food (the international forces will try to get something through, but it will not be easy to obtain it), medical and hygiene conditions, and so on.
The Band must also pay attention to the risks posed by other people, be they soldiers, scavengers or other people in difficulty.
Hand-to-hand weapons, firearms, explosive devices, mines… all dangers the Band may run into.
For the "concerts" performed by the Band there will be no Expectation value; it will be enough to obtain more Applause than Boos (over a setlist of at least 3 songs) in order to gain Experience and give courage to the people.
An Expectation may be set for the final concert, if it comes to that.
The Band may find itself in the area before the start of the war (because it comes from these places or because it was on tour there), or go there after it has begun, perhaps precisely with the idea of helping the local population.
The death of one of the members of the group may mean the failure of the adventure, or mean that a replacement must be found among the population.
If you wish to give special attention to the dangers of weapons, you may use the following reference (all values are suggestions; Narrator and Players may modify them if they think fit):
| Weapon | Roll | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Unarmed combat | Roll on Metal Soul | 1 damage |
| Armed melee combat | Roll on Metal Soul | 2 damage |
| Firearm | Roll on Punk | 3 or 4 damage |
| Hand grenade | Roll on Punk | 3 or 4 damage in a 3x3 metre area |
| Mine | Roll on Punk to avoid detonation; roll on Blues to defuse it | 4 damage |
Cretin family
Requirement: all Characters must have the Blues Soul at at least 2.
The Characters are all members of a (very extended) family that has always been devoted to folk-blues.
The family Band is very well known in the area and is often called to perform at village fairs to entertain the public.
The Characters' Band was born acoustic, with guitars, percussion and wind instruments; the unity and the particular close-knit feel of the band (which has a private rehearsal room right in its large house) has given it no small notoriety, to the point of winning a booking with a local television broadcaster.
The television broadcast (which will be played as a true On Stage concert) will have several episodes and will be structured in a similar way to some famous television shows: the guests will be interviewed by the presenter, and there will be interludes of the Band performing its classic songs.
During one of these episodes, the guest will be a certain Charlie Monsoon, regarded as a poet of Blues Rock, a sort of new Bob Dylan.
Charlie is a poet, a guitarist of modest ability and an orator with a fascinating way of talking. The themes of his poems and songs are the themes of the last, of the outcasts.
Charlie is fascinated by the Band and will do everything to persuade it to leave the television show to follow him on the international tour that is about to begin. He promises to have friends and excellent contacts to break through into the music world, and soon it will also be easy to see that this is absolutely true: he knows and mixes with many people and personalities of the musical jet set.
The Band will have to decide whether to follow him or to provide an outside collaboration (for example, continuing to work on the television show but supplying recordings for an album to be recorded with Charlie), but Charlie will be very insistent about wanting the Characters on tour with him. Though in a courteous way, he will keep asking often, perhaps sending invitations to evenings with celebrities, or to football or baseball matches in the area, and so on.
Charlie is so influential that he can mitigate the effects of the group's abuse of the Muses: thanks to his acquaintances he can almost always find a good way to make the authorities refrain from taking legal action against Characters who lose control too badly.
Why does Charlie do all this?
It is as simple as it is cruel: Charlie is a good man only on the surface. He knows that this mask is his main source of income, so he takes great care not to behave differently in public, but he loves to hire Bands of novices, inexperienced in the hard world of Rock, and to make them "dirty themselves" with the filthiest part of that environment. Once their innocence and naivety have been ruined for good, he will also make sure that their dreams of glory fail as soon as they have embarked on them, dropping the Band into the mud as soon as it thinks it has control of the situation.
Charlie truly enjoys appearing as the demiurge, the creator of a Band nobody knew, only to make it fall from the heights to which he, and he alone, has managed to raise it.
Paragraph 22.
You all agree that your proposal is the one with the best chance of working.
You set off to reach the other side of the tunnel where Dave and James are, while your companions begin to stage an argument at the edge of the other entrance. It will serve to distract them when you run past.
When you hear Rebecca's shrill voice rise to the maximum, you take a look. They are all turned to look the other way. It is time to act!
You dash forward.
Your target is a few metres away and its "owners" are distracted.
You manage to reach the case without any of them having noticed you, and you grab the guitar, pulling hard.
The time it takes to give a push and make a metre, then they realise what is happening.
Another metre, and they are ready to react.
As you go round the bend, Dave raises the pistol, but by the time he gets it into position you have vanished.
You pass through your companions, who continue the fake argument (although it seems to you that Adele has become particularly heated). As soon as you pass, Patrick, the sturdiest of the group, steps into the middle of the corridor, blocking the way.
You are almost at the end when your pursuers turn the corner, crashing into your friends. Rebecca feigns a panic reaction at the sight of the pistol and starts running down the corridor, in your same direction.
In this way she slows them down even further, and when they reach the point where you were you have by now vanished into the tunnels.
They run after you, and you know that Dave and James know these galleries as well as you do, but you are losing them. It seems easier than expected, unexpectedly easy.
You and the others have arranged to meet behind the wall of amplifiers to the left of the stage, and you reach them after making sure they are not following you.
Exultant and out of breath, you show off the loot.
You hold your breath as you open the case.
The guitar is there.
It shows clear signs of burning and chipping, with various cracks running along the neck and the body.
Yet, incredibly, it is intact.
Holding it in your hand, you are sure it sounds wonderful.
You have always doubted the existence of gods, but surely some god of Rock has laid his hands on this marvel.
You did it!
Rebecca, however, puts the brakes on your enthusiasm.
"Those guys are still looking for you. If they find you, it's a mess. What do we do?"
Do you flee with the guitar, giving up playing on this stage?
Do you set an ambush for them, to render them harmless once and for all?
Do you hide the guitar and ask for help from the security (trusting that they cannot report the theft of something they have stolen)?
Do you pretend to leave, to throw them off the scent, but stay to play at your turn?
Continue on page 188.
Hooks for the Narrator:
This story lends itself to adventures lasting more than one session.
The Narrator's task in this adventure is to shape and play the personality of Charlie Monsoon so as to make him appear affable but with some small glimmer of strangeness.
Charlie will weave his usual "plan" in relation to the Band, in order to raise the group only to make it sink because of Muse abuse or emblematic failures in concerts that are too difficult for our inexperienced Characters.
Charlie Monsoon is in any case driven by many factors that keep his enormous ego high: some are base and tied to his many Muses (which, however, he manages to keep in check often), others are tied to a spirit of revenge against his father, one Roberto Monsoon, a former orchestra conductor and music teacher who never appreciated Charlie's "trade", considering him a troublemaker and a freak-show act.
Various character traits of Charlie may therefore show themselves gradually, which may give a preview of part of his dangerousness, or allow the Band to find elements through which to get in touch with his less wicked side.
The Narrator, besides dwelling on the relationship between the Band and Charlie, should ensure that the group has the prospect of a large number of gigs, which will become almost unsustainable (but extremely lucrative) with Charlie nearby.
Charlie Monsoon (the manual prints this name as "Moonson" in the stat heading; corrected here to match the text)
Souls: Metal 2 Punk 3 Blues 4 Glam 4 Inspiration: 16 Fame: 150
Relationships: Loves Charlie Monsoon 3 Hates his father Robert Monsoon 2 Hates any other musician 2
Muses: Kama Sutra 3 Las Vegas 2 Malaphar 1 Stormbringer 1
Traits: Diplomat 3 Killer voice 3 Virtuoso guitarist 3 Born leader 3
Skills: Blues energy, Poet, Intuition, Rousing the crowd, Try to catch me
Rock is dead
The Band is contacted by a medium who says she has spoken with the spirits of several Rock stars now deceased, and that all of them have named the Characters and their group to her.
In support of what she says, she will provide details about the Band that no one else could have known, and she will address the Characters with direct messages sent to them by the dead musicians they most love.
She declares in advance that she wants to gain nothing from what she does; she only asks to be heard and, if the Characters wish, to take part with them in one of her rituals so that they can personally see for themselves whether what she says is true.
The Rock stars of the past want the Band to dedicate to them the greatest concert of all time, in which the glory these stars had in life will be transferred, like a handover, to the Characters on stage.
This, at least, is what the woman says.
The truth is that she is completely at the mercy of her Muse Ilùvatar, which has now taken complete control of her (it has reached the value of 6 once again).
Add to this some hallucinogens and the fact that she happened to see a performance by the Band, and all the threads connect.
The details unknown to the public she has sought herself, by more or less lawful means, in the grip of "religious" frenzy. It matters little whether her subconscious knows that these are not information supplied by spirits: what counts is believing, both for her and for the Characters.
The woman will push the Characters as hard as she can, insistently, continuing to intrude into their lives by the most underhand means if they decide to ignore her.
Moments from the lives of the deceased Rock stars will be presented to the Characters, whether they want them or not (even if they decide to collaborate), taken from their biographies and re-presented in an updated key.
The concert to be organised, according to the woman's plans, should be the greatest magic rite ever performed, which she wants to use to make the spirits with whom she is convinced she speaks come to earth, taking possession of all the spectators.
And she really does hear many voices, so the audience must be as large as possible.
Hooks for the Narrator:
The setting for this adventure can easily be inserted into any other setting in which the Characters are already moving.
The Narrator should let a sort of "mysterious" veil hang over the story, even letting some of the Characters' possible enquiries find nothing but sinister confirmations of what the woman has said.
The possibility that she is thought to be a charlatan is high, but it may soon appear clear that she is far better informed and more convinced of what she does than any swindler who exploits the beliefs of fools to make money.
The woman, Johanna, will even be able to utter prophecies in dark and cryptic tones, mostly phrases whose interpretation can be bent to cover several different meanings and events.
The more impressionable Characters may even become frightened and be upset by this situation: they could even suffer a temporary "damage" to their mental health, momentarily reducing their Blues Soul while they are in the grip of fear or senseless euphoria.
Any other Characters with the Muse Ilùvatar may find references to their creed in the woman's words, whatever myth or religion they follow, and the same may apply to the others: it is easy to read references to what we like into every phrase, when one wants to.
The final concert, if it is reached, may be a jumble of music and spiritualism. The more the Band and the audience let themselves be deceived by the mysticism born of the woman's deviance, the more dangerous the possible outcomes may become.
The Band's music may, in this case, be both a poison and an antidote: will they use it to lead the audience into their collective psychosis, or to "wake up" those who have fallen too deep into the tunnel of Ilùvatar?
Paragraph 23.
You must rid yourselves of them, but you do not want to give up playing.
A "clash" here, even if helped by security, could be dangerous, so you must at the very least throw them off the scent. You need someone to help you, but it is a rather risky action.
An idea comes to you. You go to Finch, who is already wearing a different outfit from the one he had at the start of the event. This man is as vain as a peacock that has learned to take selfies.
"Markus, I need a favour."
"After stealing the spotlight on stage? Don't you think you're asking too much?"
"I saved your arse too, I'd say, those guys certainly wouldn't have come up on stage to pay you compliments."
He thinks it over for a moment, then nods, reluctantly.
"Ok, but then you'll owe me a favour. Remember that."
The prospect of being able to exploit you to his advantage makes him smile. The shark has begun to move beneath the boat.
"What do you need?"
"I need you to announce that there has been a theft in a dressing room, taking up a bit of time. You must say that a guitar has been stolen, and I need someone from the staff to pretend to be me and run off with an empty case. It has to be someone able to get away from Dave and James."
"Dave and James, eh? It's not a small thing… you'll owe me three favours."
Finch says, smiling with his eyes too. He knows your former mates and imagines what lies behind your request.
You have little choice. The shark has overturned the boat.
"Ok, I'm in. But we have to hurry."
Finch calls one of the security men more or less your size and with your same hair colour. You swap T-shirts, and you take his cap and earpiece, while he takes the empty case and begins to move away through the crowd, while you and the others hide behind Finch's huge wardrobe.
A few seconds after the song by the Banana's Dream, which at the moment are infesting the stage with their presence, ends, and Finch interrupts the show for a moment.
He knows he must buy time, and he dwells on his speeches, just as he likes.
"You know, dear friends, something most unfortunate has happened today…"
With his voice coming out of all the loudspeakers, you are certain that your pursuers will not be long in understanding that he is referring to what has happened to them. Of course, they might wonder who told Finch, but it is well known that he always knows everything, and there were people in the tunnels who could have seen. In any case, you hope the commotion will stop them from thinking about it.
As you expected, after about a minute Dave, James and the other one appear at the edge of the stage. Finch notices them and decides to bring his speech to its conclusion.
"… and so, dearest friends, if any of you have seen suspicious types wandering about with a valuable guitar, come and tell us. And be careful not to intervene: they may be dangerous people, and I care for you as if you were my family."
While the audience murmurs, he leaves the microphone and heads towards the side of the stage. He pretends to notice Dave and James only now, and goes directly to them, seeing them impatient. From your position you can only see that they are talking and gesticulating.
The Banana's Dream have started playing again, visibly annoyed by the interruption, and while the racket rises to its peak you see Finch point to a spot in the crowd, near the exit.
The guy pretending to be you must be about to leave, and you see your pursuers rush down and push their way through the crowd to reach him.
You hope, for you and for him, that he has understood he must run…
A few seconds later Finch comes to you.
"Done. It was almost fun. You know, Mike, it will soon be your turn. You play after the Banana's, and the group that is your rival in this contest is pretty tough.
Are you ready?"
Yes, are you ready?
Continue on page 218.
Stop the rock
For some time now there has not been a concert that does not end with at least one strange "accident" having occurred.
Breakdowns, interruptions: anything that can go wrong during a performance has a high chance of doing so.
This does not happen only to the Band, but also during the performances of anyone else in the area, and lately the thing seems to be intensifying.
Given how the situation is evolving, it is easy to think that someone will soon end up getting hurt.
Suspicion often falls on a group of bigots, very active in the town, who make the most extreme respectability their banner and who have always fought to have that "immoral music" banished from their sparkling little town.
Some even suppose they now also have a sort of "armed wing" that takes charge of the accidents plaguing the recent period.
The city teems with musical activity, but these problems are holding back Bands more and more, especially emerging ones, leaving only those who can afford small setbacks and the efforts to limit the greater damage.
Bands like the Characters' seem destined not to find even one evening to play, if the situation does not improve. The few that remain belong only to the biggest groups, to the displeasure of those who struggle so hard to carve out a small space in the heart of the audience.
If you are unable to perform, unfortunately, it will be hard to find anyone who appreciates your music.
Who knows, perhaps by investigating one may discover something that could solve the problem…
Hooks for the Narrator:
The setting for this adventure can easily be inserted into any other setting in which the Characters are already moving.
The Narrator knows that the group of bigots does indeed have a role in this situation, but it is not the only one: the two most famous Bands in the area have joined these people, as they were beginning to be displaced from too many stages by the growing number of smaller Bands.
The two Bands, Faster than Lifelines and Soldiers of the A.I. - both devoted to Progressive Rock, got in touch with these people some time ago, after having themselves for several months suffered the constant attacks of those who wanted them to stop playing.
They struck a pact: they would remain the only Bands in town able to perform, and once they had won enough success (much easier, without competition) they would both leave the area, leaving the city to the silence the bigots desire.
They therefore turned to some figures of the local underworld for "practical assistance": a loosened screw here, a lit flame there, a targeted little theft up there… and the situation began to degenerate.
Investigating will not be easy. Certainly, it appears evident that some concerts are hit much more lightly than others, but this can easily be attributed to the greater attention paid to security, arising from the larger audiences that go to hear the more famous Bands.
Bands that, moreover, display an impressive technical skill and have never made a secret of snubbing those who play other Rock genres, considering them inferior and unworthy of treading their own stages.
The Band may therefore try to investigate, or strengthen security at its concerts and see whether it manages to catch in the act someone who physically carries out the sabotage.
It could also ally with other Bands in the same situation (but beware of jealousies, which abound in that context) to get together against the problem and act better.
It will not be easy, in any case: the united forces of those who row against them seem greater than what they can muster. If they manage to unmask the "plot", however, they can bring the situation back to its origin and even gain a little notoriety from it (as well as getting rid of two very tough rival Bands).
To their advantage, the Muses may come in useful: the members of the two Bands, not to mention the criminals who lend them a hand, also have their Muses to manage, and understanding where to strike could be decidedly useful.
Even someone in the group of bigots may have to deal with these inner demons.
Chapter 16: Playing the Muses
Bacchus
Bacchus is the Muse who provides inspiration in exchange for alcohol.
Whoever has her as a drinking companion will often fall prey to an insatiable and uncontrollable desire to consume alcoholic substances.
Bacchus holds the Characters prisoner with liquid chains, creating a very strong dependence, both physical and psychological, so strong that trying to free oneself will cause pain.
Bacchus, moreover, grows every time she is fed, and her hunger increases every time she grows.
A Player who plays a Character with Bacchus must know that resisting the call may trigger physical and psychological reactions of a certain kind: nausea, sweating, restlessness, irritability, tremors, hallucinations and convulsions.
The quality and intensity of these consequences depend on the value reached by the Muse.
The greater the value, the stronger these assaults that the Character's body and mind will have to face.
The consequences soon also become social, since Bacchus influences the Character's temperament very much, both when she is satisfied and when she is ignored.
Nervousness and irritability can easily wear down the Character's relationships with other people and, when in public, make them a person from whom people try to keep away.
The higher Bacchus's value rises, the more time the Character will spend trying to procure alcohol, drinking it and recovering from its effects.
Drowsiness increases, with the body trying to repair the damage inflicted on it by the poison, but making sleep less and less restful, disturbed by the effects of the hangover.
The body's tolerance to alcohol also increases, as does the Character's conviction that their tolerance is even higher than it really is. No matter how much their physique can really withstand, the Character will always be convinced of still being on this side of the line that separates sobriety from drunkenness.
Finally, the time needed to recover is prolonged, both in case of yielding to temptation and in case of resistance. Resisting will be what causes the greatest suffering, and it will therefore be the hardest thing to do.
Those nearby may try to intervene if they notice the situation, but it is not always obvious: whoever has Bacchus as a companion rarely speaks of it to others.
When they do speak of it, moreover, the discussion often degenerates: Bacchus is very careful not to let her protégés be helped by anyone other than herself.
With Bacchus at value 6, commitments no longer count, the lives of others no longer count, the Character's own life no longer counts. Only alcohol counts.
Whatever must be done to obtain drinks becomes acceptable, to be achieved by any means, even with violence.
The body will deteriorate more with each completely unrestrained excess, wearing down its resistance little by little while the physical and psychological need for the poison increases.
At the end of the long tunnel of drinks and re-drinks there may be a coma or even death.
Berserk
Whoever has Berserk as an adviser sees their control of impulses and their emotional regulation increasingly compromised.
Outbursts of anger, however, are not senseless: they must find a target.
There will always be someone to vent on, since it is only in this way that the thirst for violence is quenched.
Aggression, threats and shouting are only the antechamber to actual assault, which can also happen out of nothing.
It is not enough for those who live with Berserk to avoid provoking them in order to stay safe. If the Character becomes convinced that a provocation has taken place, or would have taken place if nothing were stopping it, the violent reaction is ready to spring anyway.
There is not even any proportion to the events that trigger the episode: what any other person might handle with ease can be the reason for an outburst of unheard-of violence, if in front of the Character there is someone who might absorb with their body all the most wrathful outpourings.
The Character, aware that control of aggressive impulses is essential for life in society, may try to control themselves, to calm down.
Unfortunately it is never simple, and even when they succeed the Character's mind continues to be hammered by violent impulses, by irrational orders that would force them into action.
Opposing all this is extremely tiring, sometimes even physically. Finding thoughts that help to manage the anger could be very useful, but even these do not always keep their effectiveness in the face of the strongest episodes.
The higher Berserk's value rises, the more the people around will rightly feel intimidated by the Character. Personal relationships suffer ever more irreparable damage, up to the point of rupture.
Unfortunately these situations too can easily become triggers for violent episodes, dragging the Character into a senseless spiral at the end of which there is only loneliness and pain.
Not to mention the legal consequences.
Serotonin might help, but the more the force and frequency of the episodes increase, the less likely it is that this substance will have a calming effect sufficient.
When Berserk reaches the value of 6, there is no longer any brake to restrain the Character's strength.
No concern for safety, their own and, above all, that of others, is able to hold them back, and the physical harm they cause will become ever greater. In the same way, the number of people on whom their anger is vented will increase.
Work, affections, even simple life in public become difficult when the extreme excess is reached, and each time the damage tends to accumulate.
Moreover, the people around will not always tolerate the violence without reacting: beyond the foreseeable physical reactions in defence, which could leave the Character getting the worst of it, whoever keeps company with Berserk may have to face legal trouble (often criminal) and it is not certain that they will be able to keep their personal freedom for long.
Ifrit
Ifrit has a devastating and purifying power.
This power exerts an incredible attraction on the Character, which makes it impossible for them to control themselves.
They must act on those impulses, even if it harms others and themselves. The effects of their acts matter little: the Character will find it extremely hard to understand the long- or medium-term outcomes of what they do, and this means that normal inhibitions do not work properly.
When they do not give in to their impulses, the symptoms and consequences are decidedly unpleasant: a growing state of physical and mental tension, often psychosomatic, which becomes intolerable until the impulse is satisfied.
Fire is the only thing that brings relief and pleasure in this case, although it is often followed by a feeling of shame or remorse.
This does not mean that the Character is not conscious and not able to decide for their own actions when they give in to Ifrit.
For this reason, in case of legal problems, there will hardly be any mitigating circumstances.
It is the pleasure derived from the acts, however, that can addict, and the Character will hardly want to reflect adequately on the risks they run.
In a certain way, to the Character who lives with Ifrit it will seem that fire is the only way to communicate, to express what they hold inside, although inevitably the final recipient of the message will be nothing but a heap of ashes.
The greater Ifrit's value, the greater the disturbances that will strike the Character who tries to resist. The physical and mental symptoms become stronger, in some cases making the Character suffer physically.
The duration of the pleasure derived from the act decreases, and the episodes become more frequent, revealing the chronic nature of Ifrit.
Recovering control after giving in takes ever more time, while the sense of shame increases and the desire to keep their actions secret grows ever stronger.
The social stigma linked to these acts means that the Character usually tries to keep the secret, or at least tries to greatly diminish its extent. This also has the effect of reinforcing, in their own eyes, the lie that covers the Character's need for help.
When Ifrit reaches the value of 6, control of impulses is completely lost. It matters little whether the fire set is able to harm the Character themselves or the people dear to them: only the flames are important.
The need to hide their behaviour is also lost, which can lead not only to criminal problems, but also to the social isolation that awareness of Ifrit's influence can cause others to inflict on the Character.
Those who resist and remain beside the Character during this period may want to force them to accept help to learn control, but it will be hard to convince them. Much easier to force them, even against their will.
Ilùvatar
Ilùvatar fills with faith, and rewards those who believe.
Whatever the object of the cult, its principles and its rules demand total respect, free of any yielding.
Its influence can enter every sphere of life, and there is no element that can be said to be excluded.
What is commonly called "rationality" does not count: it is only an obstacle, something that non-believers try to use as a weapon to divert the faithful from their path.
But whether it is a political, sporting, professional or religious faith, nothing can really succeed in this. This above all because whoever has Ilùvatar to enlighten them adheres unconditionally to a reality that is mostly ideal.
The passion with which all this must be defended cannot but be blind, and no one may question it.
The Character will be called a "fanatic", they will be referred to as someone who believes nonsense, who "exaggerates". Others will not understand the sacredness of what they do in the name of their creed.
Their everyday life will follow precise patterns and rules, rituals that bring them close to true faith. Even their feelings will follow rather tight routines, showing what others will mistake for rigidity.
For the Character, that is called purity. Nothing is worthy of what they believe in, not even themselves, and only constant commitment will manage to purify them.
For others, unfortunately, there is rarely hope, although trying to redeem them is often one of the highest tasks for the believer.
Resisting Ilùvatar is hard. Whoever tries feels the call grow in their head, in their soul.
The heart grows heavy, the spirit dark and sad.
One is giving up a part of oneself so important that every minute spent in breach of one's own dogmas is like feeling a shred of soul being torn away, a fragment of one's own identity.
Resisting means living in shame, in self-pity, in the awareness of having erred.
And when, in the end, one gives in, the sense of bliss sweeps away every desire to try to resist again.
The higher Ilùvatar's value rises, the more the Character's personality itself merges with their creed. Behaviours become more extreme, and the justifications for them grow ever stronger.
The comments of others, which at first leave the Character unmoved, become ever more easily taken as direct attacks on the doctrines, on the creed. Were they aimed at the Character themselves they would not be taken so seriously, but if the object of the cult is touched, one cannot let it go.
To let it go would mean allowing oneself to be annihilated.
When Ilùvatar's value reaches 6, the Character will feel a true saint, an enlightened one, the one who walks in full truth.
If opposed by the outside world, which will call them every insulting name, they will be a martyr, ready to suffer for the cause.
If it is the cause itself that is under attack, however, then no action will be excessive, and no indulgence will be accepted towards those who mock what, for the Character, is by now the most intimate fibre of their essence.
Jökulhlaup
(The heading is printed as "JÖKULHAULP" in the Italian manual; it is spelled as in the body text here.)
Jökulhlaup is what allows the whole world to be reduced to fragments, easier to understand than the chaotic whole that so often presents itself to us.
It is what gives energy, making it possible to sweep away every obstacle on the Character's path.
"Uncontrolled explosions", others will call it. Others who, however, will never be able to understand what relief from the tensions, from the anger that builds up every day, the destructive process can be.
Moreover, it is the process that completes the divine one, that of construction.
There cannot be one without the other. It is no accident that the Hindu deity Shiva can represent both.
The Character who hears the cries of Jökulhlaup will feel a growing need to reduce what surrounds them to pieces. It is not other people on whom they will vent their anger and aggression, but objects.
Objects do not answer back, objects do not force you into a dialogue you do not want, or do not know how to face.
Turning violence on people would in any case create a relationship with them, and this is the least desirable thing there can be.
Better to be surrounded by rubble and destruction. If others move away, frightened by a violence they are not even able to fully understand, no great harm is done.
Trying to resist Jökulhlaup means feeling an incredible flow of energy that cannot be discharged, and which therefore keeps circulating painfully in body and mind.
Like a very violent electric current that needs a point at which to vent, the violence of Jökulhlaup can do nothing but damage its container until it receives the chance to find an outlet.
Merely seeing the objects one would like to destroy still intact becomes a cause of suffering, and it does not matter that with each destruction the people around become fewer.
The only relief comes from shattering, from the energy flowing out so ferociously that it shatters everything and then dissipates in an instant.
The higher Jökulhlaup's value rises, the more extensive the devastation becomes.
What was once enough to vent the repressed energy begins to be ever less adequate. The greater the energy to discharge, the greater the damage that will be created.
As the scene of devastation grows, the desolation surrounding the Character will also increase. Legal problems will increase too, since the objects that have fallen under their fury probably had owners who will demand compensation.
When Jökulhlaup reaches the value of 6, the fury becomes blind, incapable of being satisfied. Simple destruction is no longer able to satisfy the craving, and what was once an uncontrolled outburst may turn into an elaborate plan of destruction, carried out with incredible determination.
The law, as usual, will try to get in the way, as will those around. They do not understand that everything will sooner or later be reduced to dust. Better to make the process an outlet for the most powerful energy in the world.
Kama Sutra
In bed, in minds and wherever sexual acts are carried out, Kama Sutra thrives and grows.
Sex, the constant origin of life, is the only purpose for which the human being exists.
The pleasure derived from it is the most important reason for living, that which is able to provide relief from a monotonous and repetitive life.
The idea is always there, fixed, growing larger day after day. It develops and gradually comes to grip every smallest part of thought, creeping pleasantly wherever there is the slightest crack.
What for others is "perversion", for the Character inspired by Kama Sutra becomes a form of expression, a way of managing all the problems that the meaningless life places before us.
The state of mind does not matter: no depression, sadness or stress counts, nothing can stop sex and the idea of it.
On the contrary, the sexual act leads to those discharges that have the power to drive out every negative thought, every anxiety, every ugliness of life.
For this reason the Character never has enough, although they might be tempted to hide this craving from others for fear of judgement.
Trying to resist causes a sense of emptiness, equal in intensity to the pleasure that would have been felt with the sexual act.
The longer one tries to prolong the resistance to Kama Sutra, the more this sensation will turn into a progressive dejection that will lead the Character ever further down, only to make them rise again suddenly in outbursts that even reach aggressiveness.
When at last the Character gives in, pleasure envelops everything and strips all else of meaning.
A slight feeling of powerlessness will finally remain, as if change were impossible, but it will soon be realised that there is only one purpose in life, and Kama Sutra fully captures its essence.
The higher Kama Sutra's value rises, the more the Character will be captivated by the idea of sex and by carrying out whatever is necessary to reach its acts.
The ideas will keep multiplying, each time becoming different and ever more complex.
Masturbation helps to reduce the need, and pornography becomes a constant refuge, but even so the call grows ever stronger. Virtual sex begins to be no longer sufficient, and the thought of sex gains an ever more complete control over the Character.
The active search for sexual activity becomes ever more intense, and it cannot be hidden from others.
When Kama Sutra's value reaches 6, the worm in the Character's mind becomes unstoppable.
It no longer matters what the object of sex is: sex itself will be the main thing, while everything that comes around it in the act will be the mere substance needed to carry it out.
No fantasy will be too excessive or dangerous.
Others will probably not tolerate this condition, especially if it leads the Character to try to force them into sex. The troubles that follow, social and, in extreme cases, legal too, remain however clouded by pleasure.
Las Vegas
The goal of Las Vegas is not victory.
The only purpose is to play, simply to bet whatever can be bet in order to reach the highest degree of excitement.
The thrill is all that is needed: money, work, affections or anything else do not count when one manages to have that wild adrenaline that sustains us more than any other energy is able to.
For others it will be a "sick obsession", something to shun, but the wait for the card to be turned, for the slot reels to line up, for the outcome of any bet to be revealed is ever more attractive.
It becomes everything that occupies the Character's mind, especially when some difficulty comes along.
Gambling is a refuge, the only place where even a good-for-nothing has the same chances of success as someone with a successful life. It is fair, and this is more than can be said of life in general.
Whoever sits at the gaming table with Las Vegas will always seek new lies to mask what others see as a weakness.
The Character who tries to resist Las Vegas will keep rethinking the game, reliving past experiences in their mind, continually planning new ones, and becoming ever more restless and irritable.
Their thoughts run to all the bets lost and to the need to rebalance with new wins.
How is it possible to win without playing?
And how is it possible to live without the thrill of the game?
As Las Vegas's value rises, the Character must raise the target ever more.
The "simple" game, the one that until now satisfied them, will become ever less interesting, and the pressure of desire will become ever higher and more demanding. New challenges, new peaks to reach, new bursts of adrenaline that will electrify the Character until the outcome of the bet.
Relationships with those nearby will deteriorate, dragged away in a whirl of lies and difficult situations, often economic ones.
A minimal difficulty in life will be enough to make gambling seem a solution, at least a temporary one. And every defeat will do nothing but encourage a return to the same bet, in the expectation of that revenge which, as statistics tell us, must sooner or later arrive.
When Las Vegas reaches the value of 6, the Character is prepared to bet everything, on everything.
The game will become ever more demanding, as will those still waiting to see the debt of the lost bets honoured.
Their life, that of others, even ideals no longer have any meaning. Their value becomes only that which can be converted into a bet.
The people around will be only potential sources of resources for one's bets, or will turn into annoying obstacles trying to prevent the thrill of the game.
Those around the Character become powerless in the face of the pressing drive of gambling, and may end up abandoning them.
The Character may go to any lengths to procure the resources for gambling, easily entering a mechanism that will soon bring them considerable trouble with the law.
Mach
Mach is what pushes you for the simple pleasure of doing it. Fast, faster, fastest.
To feel at the limit and to exceed it: this alone brings joy.
It is not a performance, nor a challenge in the true sense of the word: it is a mechanism more akin to curiosity. A curiosity willing to push itself beyond the boundaries of what a normal person can (and is willing to) do.
The whisper of Mach is the roar of engines, the whistle of the air, the hammering of blood pressure in the temples and ears, while the Character goes further than they have ever gone before.
There will always be someone who attributes the behaviour of a Character who travels with Mach to a self-destructive instinct, but they could not be more mistaken.
Life is worth living precisely for the sake of this adrenaline, and there is no desire to see it cut short before its time.
Whoever is with the Character during their outbursts of Mach simply reacts in the grip of fear, without understanding that fear is precisely the objective.
Whoever tries to resist Mach has the growing sensation that everything is becoming paralysed. Everything slows down, almost to a standstill.
The desire to push further becomes so strong that it causes dizziness, anger and frustration.
Only the explosion of Mach's thrill will be able to calm the Character's mind and body again.
As Mach's value increases, the conditions to which the Character aspires become ever more extreme.
Speed and the consequent thrill become ever purer, ever more ends in themselves.
Those around the Character will find their attitudes ever more suicidal, although he knows perfectly well that he can keep control even in such incredible circumstances.
The possible dire consequences will constitute an ever stronger call: the adrenaline rush they bring is what the Character craves.
The consequences for anyone who happens to be on the path that the Character has decided to follow will also frighten them ever less. Confidence in one's own abilities is very high, although others may strongly disagree.
When Mach's value reaches 6, the Character decides to stake everything to reach the "true" extreme.
There are no more inhibitions, and fear mingles with pleasure so tightly, so intertwined, as to make one indistinguishable from the other.
The greatest risk, however, is never considered: the risk of overestimating oneself, of rating one's abilities far higher than they are, greatly increasing the chances of incurring terrible consequences.
This risk will become very high also for anyone within the Character's range of action: contempt for danger and carelessness about one's own safety transfer almost entirely also onto anyone who unfortunately finds themselves on the course along which the Character has decided to speed beyond the limits.
The police would certainly not stand passive in the face of people being exposed to similar risks, and in case of intervention the Character risks trouble also from the legal point of view.
Malaphar
Every time an object changes hands without the previous owner knowing, Malaphar smiles.
Control of emotions and behaviour is not the strong point of the Character who is accompanied by Malaphar.
He is advisor, friend and source of pleasure.
The object in question is not important, on the contrary: its usefulness in everyday life is the last of the elements to be weighed when deciding whether to take it.
The tension before and after the theft, that is what is worth considering.
The people who live around the Character with Malaphar soon become distrustful. They are attached to their things, and do not understand how the intoxication of that moment in which the object, whatever it is, vanishes to reappear elsewhere is the only thing that gives any emotion.
There is no anger, there is no revenge behind the theft.
The theft needs no particular motivation: the theft is enough in itself. And to the Character too, the theft is enough just as it is.
The law has always tried to hinder it, and this only increases the pleasure.
Without the thrill, a theft is merely a meaningless displacement, but there is always also a form of shame in the satisfaction, enough to make the Character try to hide their acts.
Trying to resist Malaphar is hard.
The body trembles, sweats and is racked by spasms, while the mind fixes on objects and on the constant assessment of the risks that would be run if one tried to venture into theft.
Life begins to seem empty, depressing, as if nailed to an anxious immobility.
The world seems to close in on the Character, taking away their air.
They consider anything in order to stop stealing, even the extreme remedy.
Because Malaphar always remains there, waiting in silence.
He knows that sooner or later the Character will come back for their satisfaction.
As Malaphar's value rises, the Character will feel the call ever more present and ever stronger. The object, or objects, will continue to have no particular importance, but the essentiality of the risk factor will become ever greater.
The more there is a possibility of losing, the more exciting and satisfying the experience will be in Malaphar's name.
Work too becomes meaningless: nothing, whether daily or special commitments, can keep the Character from finding time for their thefts.
When Malaphar reaches the value of 6, the Character's search for the thrill reaches its peak.
They will seek out the most dangerous situations in which to carry out thefts, almost favouring the factors that can lead to a negative outcome of the action.
Being caught not only ceases to be a problem, on the contrary: the sensation of danger and thrill is even amplified once someone notices the theft.
The law obviously becomes a very dangerous obstacle, especially because, having lost every inhibition, the Character will keep trying to carry out ever bolder thefts.
Masoch
Pain is only a more intimate, more private and powerful form of pleasure, with Masoch.
The nerve endings carry out their task admirably, whether they must transmit the information of pleasure or that of pain.
There is no limit to what can be felt, to what the body is able to bear.
Pain of body or mind also becomes the only way to drive out other pains, which are harder to identify and practically impossible to uproot.
Certainly, others will not look kindly on this desire of the Character, so much so that they will probably want to keep hidden what to others will seem a perversion.
They do not understand that pain not only purifies, but is also the only thing able to perfectly fuse body and mind, piercing both sharply like a razor-sharp blade.
The Character will therefore try, as far as possible, to hide their actions. They know it is useless to waste breath on explanations that no one else is able to understand.
Others will try to humiliate the Character, to confront them with a "normality" they do not recognise. Humiliation, moreover, can even be a source of pleasure.
Whoever tries to resist Masoch suffers physical and psychological pain. The feeling of powerlessness that assails the Character who cannot or does not want to give vent to Masoch is quite different from the "negative" sensations that can cause excitement.
It is quite the opposite: the absence of stimulus, the deprivation of pleasure turning into a craving, into an ever stronger desire.
Without Masoch, the pains the Character cannot manage, those they cannot control, will return to torment their soul.
The Character's body craves pain, and will try at all costs to inflict it on themselves.
As Masoch's value increases, the intensity of the pain and humiliation sought grows greater. The abuse, physical and psychological, must become ever more complete and prolonged to guarantee its intoxicating effect.
Acts dedicated to Masoch tend to take on the appearance and organisation of true rituals, carried out with constancy and sought throughout the whole waking period.
Damage to the body will begin to become ever more evident, ever harder to hide, and the people around the Character may actively try to stop them when they attempt to inflict further harm on themselves.
When Masoch reaches the value of 6, the Character's own safety becomes absolutely irrelevant.
Pleasure becomes the only way to adequately counter a pain that there is no way to drive out or defeat completely.
Even the judgement of others no longer matters: even the humiliation of the public's judgement can be taken as a source of catharsis, of purification. Every pain becomes a source of joy, and the Character wants to amplify it as far as they are able to bear.
Sometimes even beyond, trusting in a resistance they have never been able to calculate clearly.
Spartacus
For Spartacus there is only one source of problems, one source of anger and pain: authority.
Faced with it, one can only bare one's teeth, while the rest of the world bows its head and lets it lord it over them.
Polemic, defiance, provocation, up to assault. Everything is permitted if it serves to fight whoever abuses their power to oppress the very people they claim to defend.
Spartacus knows which phrases to whisper to you so that your anger grows incessantly, until it explodes.
The people around the Character who trusts in Spartacus will struggle to understand their reasons. What drives them in their open and constant rebellion seems incomprehensible to others, who would like them to contain their angry excesses.
When, in an outburst, the Character tries to make their reasons understood, many come to call them paranoid, as if what drives them were more an irrational, festering conviction than an objective observation of reality.
For this reason the Character will often be touchy, of a choleric temper and easily irritated: their principles, what drives them, are reduced to the product of their imagination by people who are not able to notice their own prostrate position.
Trying to resist Spartacus is not easy: the push comes from within, and it has the same strength as the Character.
Thoughts grow ever hotter, the mind boils with ideas and intentions of action, of "revenge" against the regime perceived. The body itself may begin to tremble in spasms, with an ever more quivering desire to break loose.
When at last one gives in, the satisfaction turns into shivers that run through the body.
As Spartacus's value rises, there will be a corresponding increase in the need to vent the desire for rebellion, finding suitable targets for that outlet.
Directing simple invectives begins to be no longer sufficient, and the need for actions that bring about important consequences becomes ever more pressing. It does not matter whether the oppression is only perceived or real.
The people surrounding the Character will find it ever harder to calm them, and often their attitude will become so exaggerated that it leads others to reject their company.
When Spartacus's value reaches 6, the Character becomes completely incapable of keeping control in the face of any representative of authority.
It counts for nothing whether they face an armed soldier or a bureaucrat: anyone who serves that established order in order to oppress, at any level, deserves the Character's angry outburst.
The people close to them are swept up in the wave of rebellion, which increases the perception of oppression, even when it is not present, and risks serious restrictions on personal freedom when the outbursts come to the attention of the forces of order.
Such restrictions, obviously, only increase the perception of oppression and, consequently, the intensity of Spartacus's actions.
Stormbringer
Stormbringer flows under the skin, in the veins, mixing with the blood and reaching every fragment of the body to bring it its intoxicating inspiration.
When it penetrates the brain and soul of the Character, Stormbringer seizes them and drags them with it into worlds that no one else has ever been able to perceive.
Control, one is convinced, is in our hands, and thanks to this certainty one can keep asking more and more of one's Muse.
It does not matter what it will ask in return, as long as one can decide how and when to be satisfied; nor does it really matter what substances underlie the desire.
It is not the drug that is the subject, but the Character and their sensations.
The people who live alongside someone who abuses Stormbringer may not even be aware of its presence.
They may obviously see some signs of it, both in the physique and in the Character's behaviour and mood, but the Character will often be reluctant to talk about it with others.
Others, moreover, cannot understand. They are not able to grasp either why the thrill of Stormbringer is so desirable, or how the Character is able to keep its effects under control.
Trying to resist Stormbringer makes the Character pass through several stages in which physical and psychological pain combine, generating a sort of cruel and constant torture.
Control of one's body and mind becomes ever more difficult, while every fibre is torn open by an unceasing desire.
When in the end the Character gives in again, Stormbringer allows them to recover control, but does not make the memory fade: it wants it to be known what happens when one tries to oppose it.
As Stormbringer's value increases, the Character will tend to devote ever more time to it. The substances will seem ever scarcer, and procuring them will become a pressing need.
The people around will notice the changes ever more, and even those who had remained in ignorance will easily understand the origin of the Character's behaviour.
Behaviour that will continue to become ever more erratic, leaving the Character fossilised in a state of disappointment and continuous need that will create ever more problematic situations.
Taking the substances will lead to an incremental failure in the main tasks, reinforcing the state of need.
When Stormbringer reaches the value of 6, the Character's condition can no longer be concealed.
The demand for substances reaches the extreme, and there is no longer any dose that can suffice for long.
The body begins an inexorable decline, reaching critical conditions that may even lead to coma or death.
The surrounding world, society, affections: everything loses importance. Life becomes only a waiting, a painful struggle between one intake and the next, and any obstacle that tries to prevent this must be brutally swept away.
The people closest will be brought to suffering, while those who have no existing relationship with the Character will give up any social approach towards them.
Paragraph 24.
As Finch walks away, you say in a low voice:
"Ready? We'll show you if we're ready. We'll show it to everyone."
You confer for a few seconds with yours and then signal them to follow you. Your primary objective has been achieved, having recovered the guitar, but now that you are on the stage of Metro 14 this is no longer enough for you. You must show everyone who the Disciples of Lightning are.
You take your people behind the amplifiers in front of which the Banana's Dream are playing, and at once one of the sound engineers comes to meet you.
"You play after, right? Come to the mixer, we'll wait there. As soon as they finish this song we'll change the stage."
You nod and follow him. You have seen what you wanted to see; now it is time to act.
When you reach the desk, where another sound engineer is bored in front of the mixer, you signal to your companions. In a few seconds the two sound technicians are unconscious, lying under the mixing desk.
You prepare your instruments, and Adele takes a stool. You return behind the amplifiers and wait a moment.
For what you have in mind you must wait for the climax of the song. A few seconds, and it arrives.
You unplug the Banana's Dream's cables from the amplifiers and plug in your own. The electric crackle is the only sound left, along with the drummer's thumping, which takes a couple of seconds for him to realise what is happening.
Before the audience has time to murmur, you burst in.
Adele knocks the drummer down with the stool, while you and the others savagely attack the remaining members.
They absolutely did not expect such an assault, and you manage to frighten them with a few shoves and slaps.
Someone in the audience whistles, someone else applauds. As soon as Adele has taken her seat, you start playing.
You launch into it at full speed, first Patrick, then Adele, then everyone together.
"IF YOU LIKE TO GAMBLE, I TELL YOU I'M YOUR MAN"
Starting like this, with a song you feel is especially yours, galvanises you as never before, and excites the audience enormously too. You shout and play with all your energy, and although you are only performing a cover, the audience is in delirium.
You carry on, whirling. Finch has rushed to the side of the stage, called by the Banana's, but he knows a show when he sees one and takes good care not to interrupt you.
Do not stop.
You cannot even remember which songs you played when, a few minutes later, you raise your head, stopping your headbanging.
These days have been devastating, and playing with this guitar even seems to intimidate you.
It puts you in awe, and from awe to anger for you the step is very short.
Unfortunately, once again something is not going as it should.
The audience has largely stopped shouting and applauding. Some jump to the rhythm of your music, but most people listen without moving.
You even think you hear someone cheering for the Banana's Dream.
You begin to think that perhaps Finch was right, that you are no longer the Mike King of old.
If only you could feel that emotion again, that push that set you apart.
What has happened? Have you played the wrong songs? You have not even noticed…
What could have been a show is turning into a failure, and you have no intention of giving up. You are prepared to do anything.
Anything.
You have one song left, otherwise at this rate you will be out. One last chance.
You know you will have to give everything. The whole Band will have to do it. Will it be enough?
An idea comes to you.
You signal to the others to start the next song without you and run towards the new case in which you have placed Wildcraft's guitar. A concert with this guitar is what anyone would dream of.
If you must try to reach the summit, you want to do it with this one.
You return to the others and join them. You are tired, though.
But… what if…
An absurd idea has come to you. Rebecca, who knows you better than anyone else, understands everything the moment she sees you fix your gaze on one of the flame machines at the sides of the stage.
She knows what you have in mind, she knows that in this condition you may not be able to resist the temptation.
Damn it, you probably will not even try.
What do you do?
Do you sacrifice all the effort made so far by giving in to Ifrit and setting fire to the legendary guitar?
Do you try to resist the temptation, trying to manage with your own strength alone?
Continue on page 220.
Paragraph 25.
You no longer care about anything. Nothing about the future, nothing about the contest, not even your friends.
This could be your last concert, and you intend to make it historic. And if to do so you must sacrifice everything, you are willing to do it.
While your friends keep playing, you head towards the flame machine on the right of the stage. Rebecca steps forward, as if to stop you, but you block her with a gesture. She freezes, having recognised the glint in your eyes.
This time, however, besides the fire reflected in them each time the flames begin to burn inside you, there is something more: a resignation she had never seen in you.
Perhaps, this time, the flame will burn all the way through.
Finch is still on the other side of the stage, and he watches you closely; perhaps he has understood too. That son of a bitch knows very well how to peer into the soul of people like you. Usually he uses this ability to exploit them.
He watches you arrive at the device and begin to fiddle with it. He even holds back the security staff who were about to intervene. The only thing he allows them is to grab a fire extinguisher and stand ready.
Now all eyes are on you. Finch, your companions, those bastards of the Banana's Dream, the security, the audience.
The audience.
Those bastards down there, ready to applaud anyone who climbs onto that bloody stage, completely ignoring everything that lies behind a performance: what life one leads, what it means to be consumed by drives that would destroy anyone else.
Fine, they are about to see something that will stay with them. They will see it burn, and among the flames they will see a star shine.
It matters little if it will burn out with them; it will have shone more intensely than anything else.
You soon work out how to operate the machine.
FWOOOOSHHH!
You fire off a test burst, and begin to smile, ecstatic. The blood is rushing to your head, but it is no longer even blood. In your veins there is only adrenaline, and it flows so hot that it burns you inside.
Your mouth is wide open in a grin when you fire the flame again, this time with the guitar exposed above it.
FWOOOOSHHH!
As if the fire that had burned it half a century ago had never quite died down, the guitar catches fire at once. The tongues of flame are far higher and wider than the flame machine should have caused.
You smile, thinking it is a farewell gift the gods of Rock want to give you.
The speakers whistle and crackle, producing a deafening cacophony.
You let it be your song.
Cries rise from the crowd. Very close to the stage, you see that Janis too is shouting, but you do not care about her at all.
The whole road you have travelled to get here runs before you against the glittering background of the flames: Finch, the poker, the gigs, the brawls, the fires, the chases, the rehearsals, the risk of death and the quick escape.
All of it turns to ash in your mind, unable to resist the very high temperature that destroys everything inside you.
"FUCK YOU ALL!!!"
It is the liberating cry you utter before raising the instrument and smashing it violently to the ground.
You slam it once, twice, three times, cracking it more and more. The chips fifty years old open again, deforming the body and the fretboard.
The strings snap, the flames keep dancing.
In your fervour you have come close to the curtain that serves as a backdrop. The flames, as if animated, reach it and at once set it alight.
You do not see it, but Finch immediately orders intervention.
You are instantly tackled by two men, while another of them operates the extinguisher he holds.
You struggle free: you want to finish what you have started, the massacre of a sacred relic of Rock, of your career and perhaps of your life, which is at its climax. You do not want to allow even one moment to be stolen from you, not even one of your last, brilliant sparks.
A scuffle breaks out, while other members of the security intervene.
Another extinguisher is emptied for safety, and on you there are now five men struggling to restrain your fury.
In the end they gain the upper hand and manage to push you off the stage, under the bewildered eyes of everyone.
Patrick, Rebecca and Adele watch you go, aware that what you have done will have repercussions for all of them too. From Rebecca's look, one might perhaps say that she expected it.
An instant before you are completely off the stage you manage to turn for one last fleeting glance back; the guitar is no longer there. A security man beside an empty extinguisher seems to be searching for it without finding it.
You smile. The gods of Rock are mocking, you know.
Whatever happens to Mike King and the Disciples of Lightning from now on, it will have been worth it.
(The closing thank-you note printed after this story, addressed to the people who contributed to it, is an acknowledgement and is not transcribed.)
Character sheets
The manual's final pages (pages 221 to 227) are blank record sheets with no rules text. They are summarised here rather than reproduced line by line.
Character sheet (two sheets, the second using the labels "Characteristics" and "Bonds" in place of "Traits" and "Relationships"). Fields: Name; Stage name; Experience; Souls (Metal, Punk, Blues, Glam, each with spaces for values 1 to 4); Inspiration; Traits (or Characteristics); Relationships (or Bonds); Muses; Skills; Money (a vertical panel); Equipment.
Band sheet (two sheets). Fields: Band name; Lineup (member, role, Cohesion); Genre; Fame; Theme; Known songs (numbered slots 1 to 6, each with a song title); Setlist for the next concert; Personal fame.
Track sheet (two sheets). Fields: Track title; Theme; Genre; Difficulty; Value.
"For those about to Rock (we salute you)" (AC/DC)