What Skill Covers Entertaining? (singing or playing musical instruments)

Conan: Adventures In an Age Undreamed Of
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What skill or skills in this game cover playing musical instruments or singing like a minstrel?

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Roleplaying :smiley::smiley::smiley:

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There has been a discussion that is related to dancing (Dancing as a skill or talent?) and following the same principle playing on musical instrument will be Coordination + Perform (non-existent skill) and Singing probably Personality + Perform

The problem is that the spirit of the system does not allow multiple attributes to be linked to sine skill, therefore you might have to “invent” separate skills for the different art-related things. But for me it is too much overhead.

You can check the bard (skald it was?) talent tree in the Barbarian book.

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Thanks for responding to my question. It’s unfortunate. I was hoping I hadn’t just missed some applications of existing skills.

The barbarian book talent tree doesn’t help because it has no connection to a skill so it doesn’t suggest a skill. They’re also not that kind of bard. That talent seems to represent something more authentic than a D&D fantasy-stew bard.

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As mentioned, check out the Barbarian source book, which includes Bards as a character archetype. Some great fun things like the fact its considered bad luck to kill a bard.

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I don’t find it funny. I asked a question about the game mechanics. The part of the game that determines how good a character is at things the player has different capability at doing. Things like persuading nobles, singing or playing instruments, as well as things nobody ever says “but roleplaying” about such as stabbing bandits, picking locks, or surviving in the desert with a stick and the clothes on their body.

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Thanks but that tree doesn’t represent what I’m looking for and doesn’t suggest a skill to use when it comes time to determine how good my character does doing it.

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Currently there is gap related to perform/art and other skills that exist in other systems. The pulp-action theme of the game probably made the designers to focus on that. Maybe something will be in another book, but even if there is not, the system is simple and provides excellent framework to come up with something like the one I suggested. The challenge are the talents that you will have to come up with and associate with the respective skill (perform for example).

For example you might have talents for songs and way of singing for the different geographical regions and same for musical instruments. :slight_smile:

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Conan the Barbarian includes musical instruments as items. It does not mention a particular skill for it, but I would use Acrobatics for dancing, Persuade for singing.

The Bard Talent tree in Conan the Barbarian mostly uses Persuade.

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The way it is intended performance can be covered by society, persuade, acrobatics or even athletics. It depends entirely on what you are trying to attempt. That being said I created a Dancer talent tree that you could use. In it I also added a performance skill that could be used. (though I will admit that isn’t really necessary)

You can find it and a few other things here: https://www.starshipsandsteel.com/p/quick-reference-for-conan-2d20.html

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OK. That makes sense based on other things I’ve seen.

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Using persuade to sing is interesting take on the skill… I find it hard to relate to singing but yeah, why not. Diplomats and other speaks take classes on how to modulate their tone of voice and etc.
:slight_smile:

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It’s worth noting that if you’re just singing, dancing, playing an instrument, etc., the odds of it requiring a skill test are minimal, which is why there’s no specific skill for it. So, really, what matters is why you’re singing, and if you intend it to have any meaningful effect. Persuade is a solid option there, if you’re intending for your performance to charm or influence others. I’d also allow music to potentially adjust the difficulty of command tests (in the vein of drumbeats and work songs to help a group of people work together better, march in formation, and so on)

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I did not see anyone mention it, but Conan the Brigand has the entertainer archetype. Some clues may be found in there.

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The couple of times it’s come up while GMing (during a one-shot at a convention), I had the player make a Counsel test. The Counsel skill covers making people feel better and recovering from resolve and trauma. Based on that, I feel like it’s the right skill to use when performing; making people “feel” a certain way emotionally.

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Oooo Counsel. I’m embarrassed that I missed that one.