The Magic of Music
Nicknames: Beatfreaks, Earwigs, noiseboys
In Their Own Words:
It’s all about the rhythm of life. The primal beat that keeps us all moving, and that we all make with every action we take. Each of us knows a little of it, some more than others. Those with talent, with a gift, try to mimic that rhythm, this is what we call “music”. Each song is different, imperfect, but carries a part of that perfect rhythm of all things.
By listening to these imperfect parts we can learn more about the True Music, and in so become more perfect ourselves.
Charging:
Minor Charges: Spend an hour listening to music you haven’t heard before.
Significant Charge: Spend an hour listening to music written by someone who you haven’t listened to before.
Major Charge: Hear a completely new type of music. This could be a new genre of music, or a new instrument or something else totally new.
Taboo: Every moment you can’t hear the rhythm of life you fall further out of beat. Every five minutes a Beatfreak goes without hearing music they lose a minor charge. If they have no minor charges, a significant charge is broken down and one of the ten minors is lost.
A Earwig can avoid this by producing music as simple as tapping out a beat or clapping a rhythm, and charges are not lost while unconscious or sleeping.
Paradox: The principle of Musicology is being in tune with the world around you, but they must be constantly distracted from the real world by the music they hear.
Random Magic Domain: Rhythms and harmonies. The arrangements and timing of events.
Blast Style: An intense burst of noise directly to the targets ears. This in not just a loud noise, but a horrible collection of pitches and rapid fire rhythm.
Formula:
Beat Box
3minor
This is the Musicology minor blast. In addition to the normal damage the target must make a body check with a minimum role equal to the magic roll or be deafened for a number of combat rounds equal to the sum of the magic roll.
Moody Blues
2 minor
Everyone, including the caster, who can hear the song the caster is currently listening to has their mood change to match the song. This last until the song ends, whether or not a person can hear it for the whole duration. Looping won’t extend the spell.
(ie Johnny Cash will make you sad, the Flaming Lips with make you happy)
Crescendo
1 minor
The background noise within 100 yards the caster immediately increases for a number of minutes equal to the sum of the roll. All notice check related to hearing suffer a -10 shift for the durations. Each 2 extra minor charges used extends the radius 100 yards.
Pianissimo
4 minor
The audiomancer makes a person incapable of making a sound above a whisper. Even banging a gong will make only the tiniest noise. This effect last for 5 minutes if not in combat or 5 rounds of combat.
Shout Out
1 minor
The caster can shout a short message loud enough so that everyone within 1 mile can hear him. In noising area, such as a city, background noise will make the message hard to understand outside a much smaller area, but his/her voice will still be heard.
Significant Formula:
Sonic BOOM
3 significant
This is the Audiomancy major blast. It’s powerful enough to cause structural damage to material sensitive to vibration. If the target fails a body check (minimum roll equal to the magic roll) they are disoriented, losing their next action, and are deafened for 2 hours.
Mute Button
2 sig
The caster makes a person unable to speak for 1 minute. This has no affect on other forms of noise making
In The Grove
1 significant
Like “God Looks Out for the Drunks” and similar spells, this lets the caster use their audiomancy skill instead of any other skill roll. However if used for an extended skill check, the action cannot last longer than the current song the caster is listening to, and this cannot be cast while the caster is not listening to music.
Cosmic Dissonance
3sig
The audiomancer destroys a group’s cohesion and unity for 24 hours. All members of the group suffer a -30 shift to all checks that involve working together. Moreover if one member of the group is the proxy of another, they cannot use proxy abilities for the duration, and any group tilts are unusable for the duration.
This spell can affect a maximum number of people equal to the tens place of the casters magic skill
Take It To 11
2 sig
The audiomancer increases the noise produced by a nonliving object to extreme levels for 1 hour.
Communication is impossible near this object (notice checks related to hearing suffer a –(100-number of yards from the object) shift).
Anyone within 20 feet of the object must first make a mind check to perform any action involving concentration, including any magic, and a body check or be deafened for 1 hour(minimum roll of 20 for both checks).
Also any check within 50 feet is automatically a major check.
Earplugs provide a +10 shift to both checks, and reduce the minimum check to significant. Complete noise canceling headphones (very hard to find) negate all these effects.
Stopping the natural noise produced by the object stops the effect, but if the noise resumes within the hour so does the effect.
Half Time
1 sig
For the next 6 hour every action within the immediate vicinity of the caster (including those of the caster) take twice as long to perform. Nothing is physically slowed down, but every action is delayed by some ‘coincidence”.
Major Effects:
Have the entire world hear and be moved by a song, permanently silence a group of people,
What you hear: Some audiomancers know the reverse of some of these formula (fortessitessimo, decrescendo, universal harmony, Take it to 0) but very few know both.
OH MY GOD, I LOVE YOU FOREVER.
I’d been mulling around how to best create a school like this for a long time, even since a friend told me that when I DJ parties, “you’re like an audiomancer or somehting.” So, major kudos. More coherent feedback later.
I’d say that it is too easy to get Majors on the current version. You are virtually guaranteed to get a major at some point in your life with this (after all hearing a new instrument… that isn’t all that difficult really) and I think that Majors should either be really very difficult (Cliomany to the moon anyone?), or really very costly (lose an eye for Epideromancy).
I also think “Take it to the 11” is way too powerful. Mind check minimum 20 to perform any action involving concentration? Including magick (does this include avatar stuff?)? I mean for someone with average intelligence that is a flat 70% chance of failing before you even start the action. I realise that there are other limits on it like being able to stop the noise etc., but still I think too powerful.
Finally, one the one hand the taboo is harsh, losing charges after 5 mins etc., but on the other hand, being able to get around it by humming, or tapping fingers etc. will annoy people around you, but not much else. Also, it is much less of a taboo given the ubiquity of the ipod and things. I dunno, I would suggest something which requires an odder set of restirctions.
I dunno, “the earwig can never stop the beat, meaning they can never turn a device playing music off (except to change disks etc.) and they can never interrupt live music” and then add something else tabooish too, cos that is still a little weak…
Nonetheless I think this is a very cool school. I’ve thought for a while that there ought to be music based magick, especially one to do with getting into the music and feeling its flow and things. I really like the feel, the vibe of this school.
I agree with the above post. Overall, a cool idea for school, but it seems a little unbalanced.
The only criticism I would add deals with “Shout Out.” Everyone within a MILE hears you for only one minor charge? That is way too inexpensive. It doesn’t seem like a powerful ability, but from the standpoint of how much change it affects on the physical world it is quite a lot.
Just to clarify, to get a major charge the instument/genre has to be new to EVERYBODY, not just the audiomancer. And any resonable GM (i hope) would not count trival instruments/variations on a old one.
Also I wasn’t really sure what the numbers should be for “take it to 11”. I mainly wanted to show that it’s so loud you can’t even think, but the auto major check probably does that well enough.
And if the taboo seems to weak, try going a whole day without violating it, or just having a normal coversation in a place without backgroud music.
Still, buy a ticket to the first show of the year by the Blue Man Group and you’ve got a Major. Mojo that big should cost more than a plane-trip to Vegas and ticket to a show. Hell, given how many things can be used to produce music, the mancer can just make a bunch of odd instruments himself. Heck, some of the charges seem too easy to self-make, like forming new bands with different individuals in your friend group or writing new songs yourself.
Taboo IS weak, if all you need to do is essentially just tap your feet or whistle. Hell, I barely go five minutes without music. Even Target and Walmart play muzac.
Second, the effects just… aren’t that interesting. I mean, there are a couple that tinker with deeper rhythms, like Cosmic Dissonance, but the rest… well, they’re either so subtle that you barely need mojo or they could be achieved with a decent set of speakers and an air horn.
You can get a sig every hour or major charge every day or week. Way, way too easy. The Audiomancer need get a casual job sorting shelves at a local warehouse (Virgin, HMV, Musica, Look&Listen, etc.) and he’d be a godlike archmage.
By the way, have you checked out some of the older music magick schools?
Also, since it’s about rhythm, it seems a bit odd that so many effects are really just… noise. Not even in the paradoxical sense of too many patterns overlapped make chaos, just pretty basic alterations of sound. Loud, soft. Heard, etc.
I did a rant against something similar… it’s here
http://www.unknown-armies.com/content_comments.php?id=729_0_3_0_C17
Charging is way to easy.
Maybe take a tip from Dipsomancy and Oneiromancy. They place penalties on all checks (except magic) due to inebriation or sleep-deprivation. The shift for this school would be based on the distraction of the music. The more you listen, the more “in tune” with the beat, the greater the distraction. Also, you may want to consider the difference between live music and recorded. Is one worth more than another? Another possibility is to change the charging system entirely and go with something similary to the Videomancy route, choosing a particular genre of music to follow and charging from that. I’m not sure what the exact nature of charging would be but those are some places I’d start.
I would be more comfortable with the crazy-easy charging if the taboo didn’t have a break for sleeping. Why should the Cosmic Rhythm let you off easy just because you want a nap?
Revised this and took a lot of what you said into consideration.