Sorry it's taken a day or two Eric. Just wasn't in the mood yesterday.
Music Wars
By John "A1nut" Cross and Eric R. Ashley
The chief creators of consensus in the post-apocalyptic rubble of a half-blasted society once called the Republic of Columbia are the radio stations which are licensed by the Federal Communications Council or Comcoo (with a long ‘o’). The FCC is the only major governmental force that survived the Big Blast somewhat intact since most of its leadership was skiing down the slopes at Vail singing little happy tunes to themselves when Washington got evaporated. The “Ninth Annual Leadership Conference for Telecom Executives at Vail†was very fortuitous for the FCC execs and managers.
Columbia is half-blasted because the Star Wars defense program actually kind of worked. The Rooskies and the Han got blasted back to the Stone Age as the reward for their treacherous sneak attack. Europe except for Berlin which is the capital of a Music Society got taken over by Rooskie invasion forces which then got cut off because their home society got wasted. Now Europe is ruled by Tank Commander This and Captain of Infantry That in a thousand little fiefdoms who all ignore each other except when the locals rebel against the new Rooskie ruling class.
Nowadays no one has the ability to conduct large scale war. Its not like the old days where a few nations could reach out and swat another nation. Its not even to the point where a nation can maintain internal coherence. Large governments have collapsed. This includes the Republic of Columbia which is gone. The Interstates are toast, but Rt. 66 and its brethren survived the Big Blast as the Nuke war is called.
Due to all the nukes that got blown up high in the atmosphere by Reagan's Rockets, there are really, really beautiful sunsets.
Its a much more broken apart society with the only major governmental force that at all held together in the US being the FCC, the Federal Comm Council as its now called, or more colloquially, the CommCoo although FCC shock troopers consider that rude, and usually engage in a little amateur dentistry if they hear it.
The FCC restricts itself to controlling radio stations because they lack the power to really put things back together again. As a strategy, they would rather focus on being utterly dominant in the single most important area of power, and ignore the rest.
The rest of the world is worse...completely fallen apart at best, and gone back to Stone Age tech and cannibalism at worst. Any ambition to go and save the world is long gone. Saving one's own life and property is more important, and if you're really ambitious, you might think about saving your neighborhood, or joining one of the Music Societies which is where the socially active who want to move, and the idealists who want to fix society go.
Nowadays technology is stuck below the computer age: the technology bias is 11@2. The Magic Bias is 3@2. The Psionic Bias is 3@2. The Body bias is 12@9 and dropping as some of the odd creatures like butterflies that supported the high Bod bias by their unusual Body skills are now dead, extinct, kaput.
The primary Music Societies are as follows:
1. Sixties Rock and Roll:
A. Rivals: Extreme. The Sixties feel disappointed in Extreme which branched off from them some time ago. They try to win them back to the fold by charm and by cannon. Such conflicts are as if a father had a son who opened a competing business in the same field. Usually contacts between these two groups start out amicably, but escalate to violence as opposing expectations of how the other should behave collide.
B. Weapons: Psionic powers, defense bonus for being on drugs, 32 caliber revolvers Defensive style of combat. ERIC, WHAT PSIONIC POWERS???
C. Special Skills:
1. Defensive Tactics: This is a Psi-based skill used by small combat units termed ‘bands’ which helps them choose the best way to defend an area. RS/10 Defensive Sit-Mod.
2. Strategic Defensive Generalship: This is a skill used by several of the best ‘superstar managers’ aka generals in the Rock High Command. The RHC is known for its brilliant defensive stands. Any time you hear about a fight with fifty casualties on one side, and a thousand on the other, its almost certain that someone was fooled into attacking the Rockers. RS/5 Defensive Sit-mod. It requires 10 + 2d20 hours of preparation, and at least fifty helpers to lay the barricades, establish fire zones, and lay out ruses and traps.
3. Military Engineering is a Psi-based skill used in building bridges, and in this case mostly forts and redoubts, and channeling structures to control the flow of battle to the advantage of the defender. Most of the old Corp of Engineers went to Rock, and those that didn’t found their skills not properly appreciated by their groups. The end result is that Rock has the best ‘groupies corp’ in the world.
D. Capital: Memphis is the Divided City shared by Jazz and by Rock. Graceland is the Capital Building and center point of Rock’s control. From here, the current King of Rock and Roll reigns.
E. Mindset: They have a large territory stretching deep into the South, and the Midwest, and over the Rockies and into Arizona with a small pod up in the Northeast around New York City. In total land territory, they are the second largest of the Music Societies behind Country, and in listeners they are the second largest behind Praise and Worship which helps confirm them in their basic defensive stance.
They try to avoid picking fights except with the Extreme.
They are very good about Standing their Ground. Once dug in, they are very hard to get out.
2. Extreme:
A. Rivals: Rock is their disappointed and over-controlling father who in addition is extremely boring. They have had many bitter fights. Extremists divide between wanting to 1) Make them leave us alone like they do everyone else. 2) Destroy them, and their precious Graceland with fire. 3) Take them over, and redirect that wasted energy.
B. Weapons:High-Yield explosives, martial arts, they are more terroristic than most of the others. Instead of a direct assault, they use more terror attacks. funded by fast cars, fast boats, sports gambling
C. Special Skills:
1. Rappelling--This is a Bod based skill.
2. Stunt Driving--This is a Bod based or a Tech based skill depending on the driver’s mental orientation.
3. HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) Skydiving--This is a Bod based skill.
4. Stealth--This is a Bod based skill.
D. Capital: Vail Colorado used to be the city of Vail in the state of Colorado, but states are done with in these new Music days. A cry ‘Vail!’ which is always delivered with verve and enthusiasm and challenge is the greeting call between Extremists.
E. Mindset: The Extremists is seeking to create a new, better human who is faster, stronger, and braver. They do not seek this through bionics (although they don’t discriminate against those who need this, but they discriminate against those who use this without need), or through drugs. And they need a soundtrack for the glorious bravery and insane skill that is meant to be their life.
They tend to elevate those of their ilk who achieve greatness to saint status.
Thus ‘Saint Vin Diesel’, and ‘Saint Evil Knievel’ are in their pantheon of heroes as early proto-Extremists.
Most of the Special Forces wound up in the Extremists although a fair number made it to Country and Praise/Worship.
3. One-Hit Wonders:
A. Rivals: They try to have no rivals.
B. Weapons:
They are extremely eccletic being able to use the weapons and magic skills of any group. In addition, they have some psionic skills of their own.
C. Special Skills:
1. Mediation--Some of the best mediators in the world work for the 1H or the Wonders as they are often called. They are very good at finding common ground between people, and helping to reach productive agreements.
One of their techniques is to charge a vast sum of money from both sides. If both sides agree that it is a good agreement, then both sides get ninety percent of their money back. If not, then the Mediators keep it.
2. Stage Dressing--Again, some very good stage dressers who can turn a stage from a Country Hoe-down to a dirty alley suited for Rappers in a minute flat work for the Wonders.
3. Empathy--The 1H tend to be able to read the real emotions of people. One common saying is “Never, ever gamble in Los Angeles because a bunch of angels did, and that’s how the place became Lost Angeles.â€
D. Capital: Los Angeles. People come from all over the world seeking to become great. Many pay any price for just a touch of greatness, receive it, and find its not worth the price. Others have only one good song in them, but it’s a very good song, indeed. Some keep trying, and others go on to other things. But all of them are One-Hit Wonders.
E. Mindset: If people will put aside their hatreds and fears, a way can be found to work things out. Just a little trust, a little honesty, and things will get better which will lay the groundwork for a little more trust.
Sometimes they are too naïve for words, and sometimes that is an act. They are well aware that some people ‘need killing’, and they have people who can do that very well. But they think most people can be rescued, and that a little lie about how naïve they are is in a good cause. And they don’t mind lying in a good cause.
They work closely with Praise and Worship which is trying to reach out to everyone in a similar way. One issue they have with Praise and Worship is how the P&W folks treat the Death Metalists. They want the P&W folks to hold themselves defenseless to the Death Metalists in hope that this show of defenselessness and love will move the hearts of the Death Metalists.
Another reason why they don’t work closer with them is that both sides are infiltrated by secret agents bent on causing trouble between the groups.
4. Classical
A. Rivals: They divide their time between hating everyone in a quiet refined way.
B. Weapons: High intellect, defense and attacks are well-planned, high psionic powers, hire Death Metal as mercenaries on occasion.
C. Special Skills: High intellect, careful planning.
D. Capital: New York City.
E. Mindset: "We're better than you and we know it. Deep down inside, you know it too."
5. The House of Jazz which is ruled by the legendary Bluesman although some say he is merely a figurehead for the Jazz and Blues Council.
A. Rivals: Classical and Rap are both rivals. The first for the technical virtuosity shown which pleases some people who think that a turn to a Technocracy would save the world, and the second group competes to be the Genuine Voice of the People’s Pain
B. Weapons: 45 automatic pistols, Thompson machine guns.
C. Special Skills:
1. Spell of Confusion is cast on one opponent.
2. Eerie Synchronicity allows a group of Jazzmen to attack their opponents as if they were one man. This is a Body skill.
3. The Ole Black Magic inspires strong lust in a target. This is a Body skill.
4. Open a Door into the Nevernever allows the opening of a pre-existing magic gate into the Nevernever where magic creatures live. These creatures cannot stand the touch of sunlight, or too much materialist based or spiritual based logic. They thrive on irrationality and whimsy.
D. Capital: Jazz shares Memphis with Rock, but it shares Beale Street with no one. It is here, in one or the other of the fabulous night clubs that line this street that the Jazz and Blues Council meets. Jazz is not Blues, but Jazz owns the Blues as a subset of its power (although some Bluesmen dislike this, and the current leader of the Jazz is actually a Bluesman which bespeaks complicated, back room politics at its finest).
E. Mindset: Jazz started as the music of poor people, and of the Blacks, and of New Orleans. Indeed there is a substantial segment of its supporters who would like to move the capital to New Orleans, and ‘turn back the tide to the old days’. But it became the music of contemplative musicians of uncanny skill, and odd turns of thought that led them places that the common man had difficulty following them too. And thus it became the music of white music professors. It still has its roots, but they are thinner and weaker than they were.
It claims to be the music for all. It provides for the poor, and for the wise it claims.
6. Praise and Worship
A. Rivals: Death Metal is their rival. They honestly don’t want to fight them, but at the same time, they see the Dmers as determined to destroy everything they can lay their hands on. Plus the Dmer tendency to wear shirts proclaiming that “I worship the Prince of Darkness†or “Murder is my Hobby. Genocide is my sport. My job is Skateboarding.†does tend to be off-putting.
B. Weapons:
1. Longsword.
2. Pump Shotgun. WHY PUMP SHOTGUNS??????
C. Special Skills:
1. The Sword of the Spirit has a more mundane metaphor for this group. This group has the best hand-to-hand combatants of any group. Such Swordsmen are also trained in singing, and witnessing to make them swordsmen of the heart as well.
2. Sword of the Spirit: It is rumored that some miracles have been observed where Swordsmen chopped through solid steel with a blade that was undamaged. This is a Magical skill.
3. Laying on of oil: This is a healing technique to help the almost dying to recover mildly. It is a Magical bias technique.
D. Capital: The Dual Capitals of Salt Lake City and Atlanta hold the affection of this group. In one year SLC holds the capital, and in the next Atlanta. The smoothness and equanimity of the transference of power is one of the great propaganda points of the Praise and Worship crowd. They can point out that they run a vast group with smoothness, and polite deference which does not break out into fistfights, and should they not be able to run the nation that way?
E. Mindset: “The closer everyone gets to God, the closer they get to each other.â€
People are naturally scum, or sinners. But God and his agent, human government, and one’s peers can help the person who receives His grace to be closer to their original state before the Fall of Humanity into wretchedness.
Life is pretty good. The world is beautiful. Everyone ought to be grateful for every day.
The strategy of making a PW that goes with each group (that is a PW Country, a PW Classics, a PW Jazz) is based on the idea that if certain fundamentals of reality are accepted, then the rest can be negotiated. They hold this was the nature of the nation before the Big Blast.
7. Death Metal:
A. Rivals: They hate Praise and Worship considering them a bunch of sanctimonious hypocrites who should be hated because they seem to enjoy life when everyone knows life is terrible. They also have the nerve to claim they have answers which infuriates the Dmer, but they don’t have all the answers which also infuriated the Dmers as well.
B. Weapons:
1. They are trying to build a nuclear weapon, but haven’t yet succeeded.
2. They do own nerve gas (sarin) in artillery shells, and mustard gas that they have made.
3. They have a fleet of old B-52 bombers armed JDAMs and MOABS to drop on their enemies. These bombers are also equipped with very loud loudspeakers which play Death Metal at high volume.
C. Special Skills:
1. Rig High Explosives--Tech skill 1@5
2. Spot Weakness in Tech Structure--Tech skill 1@3. This allows the user to find the weak point in some complicated technical system like a car motor or an oil refinery in order to sabotage it.
D. Capital:
They have no capital being a set of underground cells. They do have various abandoned ghost towns they take over for a while to use as bases for their fleet. They prefer one’s with morbid names like “Tombstoneâ€.
E. Mindset: Some of the Dmers actively worship the Powers of Darkness. Others worship the Norse gods as incarnations of strength. Still others, and that the vast majority, do not worship anything or anyone despite saying otherwise on their t-shirts as they are skeptical materialists.
The glass is not only half-empty, the water is an illusion, and we’re all so messed up that screaming and burning everything down is a normal reaction. Classics have got money and so they’re useful for now, and the Rappers have the pain but they want to fix things (losers!), and the Country are a bunch of bucktoothed morons dipping snuff, and the Praise people are purely evil. Praise worships a God who is not there, and if he was, He would be evil, and I hate Him is the rant of the Death Metalist. Logic is not a Dmers strong suit. The Extremists are a bunch of arrogant jerks with their washboard abs, and perfect tans--we hate them too.
8. Country
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A. Rivals: Rap.
B. Weapons:
==Weapon: .45 Colt Revolver with six bullets. It does Dangerous damage. Point Blank is 5 ft.; Short is 10 ft.; Middle is 20 ft.; Long is 40 ft.; Extreme is 60 ft.. Maximum rate of fire is one shot per two seconds.
==Weapon: .30-30 Lever Action Rifle can hold up to four bullets before requiring reloading. Point Blank is N/A; Short is 25 ft; Middle is 50 ft.; Long is 100 ft.; Extreme is 200 ft. Damage is Lethal. Maximum rate of fire is one per four seconds.
==Weapon: Double Barrel Shotgun loaded with Buckshot can fire once per two seconds maximum speed with two shots available before needing reloading. Point Blank is 5 ft.; Short is 10 ft.; Medium is 15 ft.; Long is 20 ft.; Extreme is 30 ft.. It gets a +15 sit-mod to hit due to the wideness of its spread pattern. Damage is Fatal, but any armor reduces that to Damaging.
C. Special Skills:
====Survival: Temperate Zone. This is a Tech 0@1 skill. They know how to camp, to fish, to hunt, and to trap. They are also good at finding water, and starting a campfire. The typical Country "Bumpkin" if you're being rude, or "Rifleman" if you're being polite has this skill at 1@10.
====Aiming and Sighting: This is a Bod 7@3 skill of Intensified Damage. Not to be rude, but many of the other groups seem to think of guns as magic items. You pull something, and someone dies. Country are taught how to shoot. And they are taught that if they have time, an aimed shot is far better than a haphazzard shot. This takes thirty seconds, and full body involvement as the shooter kneels to one knee, or lays on his belly to steady the rifle. At that point, he may fire with a +10 Sit-mod. Extra damage is a Damage Point Bonus.
====Aimed Intimidation: There are few things scarier than seeing a crack shot aiming his rifle at you in complete calm and focus. The reputation of the Country shooters has gotten around, and been exzaggerated in the process. Now, if the Country shooter does the Aim and Sight, he may choose instead of shooting to Intimidate. This is a Reduce Morale Mag skill of 1@1.
D. Capital: Nashville is the capital. The Grand Ol’ Opryhouse is the capital building.
E. Mindset: They are the most populist of the song types. At one time Jazz might have laid claim to that distinction, but its gone upmarket. The concerns of ordinary people with ordinary emotions which are sometimes incoherent, and sometimes bittersweet are mildly idealized unlike the other musics which are about people aspiring to be something they are not, or so the country guy sees it. Rock claims to be the people’s music, but its really the young, college guy’s music, and Jazz is for intellectuals and druggies, and Rap is for self-aggrandizing wannabees, and Classic is for snobs who never worked hard a day in their life, and Praise is for plaster saints.
Country is for ordinary people, and ordinary people are what will save the world because they always are even though other folk claim the credit.
9. Rap
A. Rivals: Country is their chief rival. Country keeps trying to go north through the Midwest, and it meets Rap going south. But they don’t much like Classics either which they tend to identify with The Man.
B. Weapons: 9mm pistols, AK-47 assault rifle. Pump shotguns
C. Special Skills:
1. Overawe--The rapper is able to by a recitation of his talents and achievements cause his opponents to need to make a simple difficulty check any time they act against him for the next RS/5 minutes.
2. Identify Fellow: A rapper is able to ask another rapper who he is, and receive a recitation, and then determine if the new guy is ‘authentic’ or a traitor or a spy. This is a psi skill.
3. URBAN SURVIVAL
D. Capital: Detroit, Michigan is the capital. The Murder Capital of the World its called. Its more dangerous than some gulags.
E. Mindset: Rap is about giving a voice to the voiceless, about finding a way for the helpless to organize, about style in the STYLE sense. Its about being big, and brave, and letting it all hang out in a world gone cold and cautious what with the near brush with total disaster. Its about fighting the forces of The Man who want to put you in line, use you, abuse you, and then spit you out, and blame you for their abuse. Rap is about hitting the LOUD button.
Classics is about deifying the oppressors, and Country is about whiny boys, and Death Metal are just freaks, and the Praise guys mean well but its easy to be happy when you got everything handed to you, and Jazz has sold out with its focus on technical virtuosity instead of speaking to the People’s pain.
ALL Music Societies have this skill:
==Skill: Loud Music Bonus Morale: If your sides music is louder than the other side's music, then you receive a morale bonus until the next major setback at which time another morale skill check can be rolled (Typically, the DJ puts on a new 'really, kicking song' to make the check). This encourages more of the side to actually attack with enthusiasm and full skill instead of hanging back a bit, or tentatively attacking. This is a Mag Skill 1@1 Bonus Morale.
NOTE: It is possible for both sides to receive this bonus, because the sound level is relative to them at their position. Also, the typical "DJ" or "Song Leader" has this Mag Skill at 2@5 level.
Thus it is customary for Music Societies to roll into battle with bandwagons loudly blaring their favorite songs. Its always interesting when "We are the Champions" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" are blaring out as the Sixties and the Praise & Worship forces duke it out, and windows a quarter-mile away are vibrating.
Eric, as I am still not accustomed to the new coding, I tried to PUT IN CAPS things that you need to see. I'm not exactly certain what it is you wanted from me, so perhaps we can work on it a bit more. This is just a rough draft.
