My friends and I are meeting up for a week and wanted to do two or three stand-alone SWRPG sessions. I planned some awesome fights and escapes until.... they decided they just wanted to be a band.

Does anyone have any ideas for band campaigns? How do you think skill checks should work for performing in a concert? Any random suggestuions that would make it fun?

Are they a brand new and unheard band?

They could enter a battle of the bands for prize money and/or the chance to impress an agent. Rival bands attempt to sabotage their performance by stealing their gear. Crazy obsessive groupies attempt to kidnap one of the and members. Maybe the first venue they perform at is in a dive bar and a fight breaks out between rival swoop gangs. Or maybe they perform music that the empire finds subversive and wants to stop. A hutt likes their performance so much he wants to hire them permanently - or else.

Any of these ideas help get your creative juices flowing?

Hahaha! That sounds potentially awesome. Definitely go with Edge over the other systems. Make sure at least one of them has an Obligation to some sort of manager or holo exec who has purchased their instruments and touring ship for them. Make this individual very shady, and use him or her to get them into trouble. Addiction seems like another good choice for an Obligation.

Mechanically, you might create a home-brew skills, "Performance" to cover musical gigs and see how well they did and, thus, how much extra they get paid. But I'd be inclined to simply say that performing a musical number can be done with any social skill. Charm would be if they want to get the crowd to just enjoy themselves and have fun (maybe bonuses to their tips if they do well or get advantage). Coercion would be for an angry number that tries to rile the crowd up, get them to mosh, whatever. Leadership could be for a song that tries to get the crowd to do something specific, to take some specific action afterward. Deception could even come into play if the song is trying to fool the crowd into believing something or acting in some way that isn't normal to them.

Not sure how I'd have the players roll. Maybe one check per number, done as a combined check? Or have one person roll, and the others all a boost die apiece?

Of course, the real fun stuff would occur between sets, when they get swept up into really shady stuff, fall in over their heads, etc. You could try to run this as an entirely social campaign, but if you have a player or two who want to fight, have one of them play a burly roadie, or a bodyguard. There are lots of cool things you could do in this scenario.

Those are great ideas! I like the battle of the bands a lot, and the use of different social skills to inspire the audience is genius. I may have to add a "shady record company exec" character as well.

One of them is playing as Max Reebo, and all of them have an obligation of Dutybound: "Gotta get to da gig man!" (From SW Robot Chicken), and the manager has alcoholism as well.

Thanks very much for the help! I'll come back with a run-down of our adventures once we are done.

(Insert Name) the Hutt 'offers' them a record deal ... and by 'offers' I mean signs them without their knowledge by using some obscure Hutt legalise that means they are his/her band/property by default.. 85% of all royalties, merchandise profit (tshirts, posters, branded credsticks etc) go toHutt Manager and if they renege on the deal s/he'll hit them so hard '.. that their ancestors hurt...' (I'm paraphrasing Gene Simmons of KISS for the last quote)

Someone uses the gig bags, PA equipment etc for drug smuggling by stuffing drugs all in the nooks and crannies ... no I'm not speaking from personal experience..

1 hour ago, lukestrain said:

One of them is playing as Max Reebo, and all of them have an obligation of Dutybound: "Gotta get to da gig man!" (From SW Robot Chicken), and the manager has alcoholism as well.

That can work, but you're also letting them shortchange you on plot hooks by all taking that Obligation. I mean, presumably, the focus of most adventures will be getting gigs, so it's kind of a copout. I'd urge them to take a variety of Obligations: Family (that second cousin shows up begging for a piece of the pie), Addiction (gotta get a gig so I can buy my Death Sticks), Betrayal (gotta get sweet revenge on Sy Snootles for going solo and throwing us under the repulsor-bus), etc. In short, the more varied their Obligations, the easier your job will be as GM. The "getting a gig" thing sounds more like a Motivation, anyway.

Have fun, and do report back!

RUN WITH IT!

Create a perform Skill for Raw Talent, use whatever stat is appropriate; Agility for Instruments, Presence for Singing. One of the books has rules for Reputation and for Building a Business (Colonists book I think?). Use that.

Plenty of shenanigans available; approached by rebels looking to use the band as a cover, and/or Imperial Agents looking for the same or to spread propaganda, a Government official that develop an unhealthy interest in a certain band member, someone steals the latest master recording to sell on the black market, unscrupulous band / record management, drug / drink issues, over-friendly groupies, jealous love-interests of said groupies, stolen equipment, Stolen transport, religious zealots, ticket scalpers, gambling problems/debts etc etc etc...

You don't really need a new skill. Check out the Far Horizon's sourcebook, there is both an Entrepreneur and Performer class in there, sounds like it would fit really well. There are also rules for a "homestead", which can easily be adapted to any kind of business venture, including a musical one.

Just to avoid duplication and uniformity among the group, you might grant the Performer spec for free to everyone in the group *after* they've chosen their main career. This way they get access to talents that make for better performances, plus they can still branch out into whatever other classes/specs they want.

Great choice of setting: the music industry is rife with shady characters and prima donnas, and has always had ties to the darker underbelly of society.

Hm, a few band adventures I had in the days when that paid my bills...kinda:

1. where's my money, promoter?

2. where's my money, venue?

3. where's my money, A&R rep?

4. Dude, who stole our spacevan? (this didn't happen to us, fortunately, but is common)

5. We have to make it halfway across the galaxy in 2 days?

6. These fawning groupies are keeping me away from my intoxicants!

7. Oh kriff no, I'm not using your backline! I brought my own amps!

8. 2 beds, 5 people. Work it out.

9. Annoying Singer's near-trip through the windshield glass.

I could probably go on....

3 hours ago, themensch said:

Hm, a few band adventures I had in the days when that paid my bills...kinda:

1. where's my money, promoter?

2. where's my money, venue?

3. where's my money, A&R rep?

4. Dude, who stole our spacevan? (this didn't happen to us, fortunately, but is common)

5. We have to make it halfway across the galaxy in 2 days?

6. These fawning groupies are keeping me away from my intoxicants!

7. Oh kriff no, I'm not using your backline! I brought my own amps!

8. 2 beds, 5 people. Work it out.

9. Annoying Singer's near-trip through the windshield glass.

I could probably go on....

The first season of Atlanta is a good place to get some dramatic inspiration. In the show, the main characters are a rapper and his manager, and they go through a lot of these "adventures."

24 minutes ago, SavageBob said:

The first season of Atlanta is a good place to get some dramatic inspiration. In the show, the main characters are a rapper and his manager, and they go through a lot of these "adventures."

A band story line is a brilliant use of the Edge system, it fits in so very well. There's countless inspirational sources out there and it's just rife with conflict. It's a great stage for roleplaying interpersonal conflicts, too. There's more invested in a band, usually, than say a band of mercenaries. Unless it was a literal band of mercenaries, that'd be a fun story too.

Just a band, you say? Just a band?

There aint no thing as Just a band. . . .

And just 'cause I mentioned it: Atlanta , "Where's my money?" (NSFW)

I think the Hutt employer provides great opportunities, especially if there's a conflict between said Hutt and a rival crime boss. The band could find itself offered more money to break a contract, or in the middle of an attack, etc. Alternately, the Hutt could try to use them to spy on a rival.

-Nate

Thanks Desslok, now I have to watch Blues Brothers again!

...and this is Bad? 8D

So much good stuff here..."Streets of Fire"? daaaaam, someone is showing their age...8D (Me too for knowing it!)

3 minutes ago, GandofGand said:

...and this is Bad? 8D

No it's not bad. I just wanted some ideas because We were starting soon and I planned for upstart pirates. Not musicians XD

Musical Pirates maybe? They could be the Pirates of Penzance!

1 hour ago, whafrog said:

Thanks Desslok, now I have to watch Blues Brothers again!

Check out the flavor text under the card name

The band could also be a cover for spying or smuggling. The band gives them cover for other "activities" best of both worlds

14 hours ago, whafrog said:

Thanks Desslok, now I have to watch Blues Brothers again!

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Create a new skilled called 'Performance' based on presence OR agility. Have your PCs pick their band position first then assign based off position. EG Your singer should be presence based, your guitarist should be agility, could have a drummer be brawn. This sounds like fun.

The band needs to negotiate for contracts. They need to get paid. A bar owner may hire them, not be able to pay, and tell them that some thug owes him money for his tab, collect it from him. They are nobodies playing in scummy dive bars for barely enough to cover their own expenses.

Set up scenarios where people are hiring them to do illegal stuff on the side, but make them so broke it seems like a good deal. Then the cops chase them.

Have their ship getting mistaken for another ship and combat/chase happens.

Have fights break out in the bars they play at and they are forced to defend themselves.

Various skill checks would be used to impress the crowd, gain a following, and get more lucrative contracts.

Set up scenarios that are too good to pass up. A hutt hires them to play a gig at a museum. The museum is filled with priceless artifacts. Someone hires them to steal something due to their access to the facility. Chaos ensues.

1 hour ago, ASCI Blue said:

[...] could have a drummer be brawn.

No offense, but drummer is the perfect example for coordination, so it's at least agility, maybe even intelligence (or willpower for keeping the time?)

1 hour ago, ASCI Blue said:

Create a new skilled called 'Performance' based on presence OR agility. Have your PCs pick their band position first then assign based off position. EG Your singer should be presence based, your guitarist should be agility, could have a drummer be brawn. This sounds like fun.

That's one way to do it. You could just let Performance count as a career skill for all of them, regardless of specs chosen.

But if the band is just an excuse for other adventures, I'd still err on the side of using existing skills for performances. I like your idea of tying the performances to oddball attributes, though. Maybe Charm (Brawn) for an operatic solo, or Leadership (Intellect) for some beat poetry recitation. You could even call on Knowledge (Education), but tie it to Agility for someone who's conservatory-trained in the classical Alderaanian harpsichord.