On 3/18/2018 at 7:21 PM, whafrog said:

You would need a limit on number of dice rolls because it's not as if you can just play longer and get more successes.

Okay, completely shooting from the hip here, I was listening to Order 66, the gunslinger episode - and they mentioned during rules talk about how they would handle timed encounters, which is (kinda sorta) what this is. The mechanic was "Get X uncanceled successes before you get X failed rolls" - they used 15 successes and 3 failed rolls, so obviously the numbers are just pulled out of the air. But at first glance, that seems to be a solid way of simulating a gig.

How will you handle narrative results?

The only concern I have about this approach and the "slay the gig-monster" approach is that the rolls don't have some kind of inherent narrative consequence.

( btw, your OP presented an interesting problem and I've been thinking about it way too much. So, uh, thanks... )

How often will the band be having gigs, and how much of the session do you want the resolution to take up? If it's a 15 minute "you did a gig, here's your 200 credits, now lets go blow up the Imperial base", then a single roll is enough. But if you want a full on encounter, then there needs to be some kind of narrative thread through the gig, like a social encounter. Maybe the gig has stages, eg:

1. After the warmup band: the warmup band killed it, and you have to do better, here's a couple setback.
2. First set ending: can you ratchet up the tension and make the crowd eager for the next set, texting their friends to come see? Or is the venue going to be half-full when you return?
3. Second set start: can you get the crowd going?
4. Finale: bring the crowd to a fever pitch
5. Encore (may not happen if 4 doesn't succeed): as the crowd spills out into the street, they are all "shalala-ing" to your last song

You could use the same basic framework for each gig, but introduce different goals at each stage depending on other narrative elements.

35 minutes ago, whafrog said:

How often will the band be having gigs, and how much of the session do you want the resolution to take up?

As an aside, this underscores the importance of an Episode Zero, even for experienced groups like ours. We kind of came up with this awesome concept on the fly, everyone fell together and we really need to answer some questions like what sort of ratio of gig vs non-gig, did we want to adapt the Duty track into "fame", do we like the home brewed Rock Star tree and so on.

So a direct answer to your question? I have no idea.

If it were all 100% on me, I might do it a bit like the A-Team (or any other eighties TV shows like Knight Rider, The Hulk, The Master and so on), where they roll into a new Adventuretown every episode for a show. In the process of getting ready for that show, there's a problem or some other opportunity to do something cool, something non-band related (like a swoop race for our Racer character and the like). So most of the time I'd probably do just one roll resolution.

It's only very occasionally that I would bring out the Gig Social Encounters encounter, the big Battle of the Bands or the plot where the Blues Brothers have to save the orphanage with a benefit concert.

I even do kind of have an End Game in mind (Spoilering so Split doesn't accidentally see):

5 hours ago, Desslok said:

Okay, completely shooting from the hip here, I was listening to Order 66, the gunslinger episode - and they mentioned during rules talk about how they would handle timed encounters, which is (kinda sorta) what this is. The mechanic was "Get X uncanceled successes before you get X failed rolls" - they used 15 successes and 3 failed rolls, so obviously the numbers are just pulled out of the air. But at first glance, that seems to be a solid way of simulating a gig.

FWIW, that's the skill challenge mechanic, from D&D 4e (albeit with the number of successes increased, since in D&D you could only get one success per roll, IIRC). In my experience, you have to lean in on the narrative descriptions & such to keep them from being kind of boring. Or have something else going on at the same time.

Another idea for the "PCs are a band" setup - one that lets you also do some more traditional Star Wars adventures - is that one, some, or all of the band members are spies for the Rebel Alliance.

And don't forget about shady promoters and club owners with ties to the Hutts, Black Sun, Crymorah, etc.