Cover Band

[Matt Gwinn]

I wrote this game on my way home from work a couple weeks ago.  It's still a little rough around the edges, in fact this is the first time I have put the rules in print.  I'm hoping to get some input on ways to flesh it out and make it a little more like a roleplaying game rather than a party game.  Here it is:


Concept
The players play members of a teenage garage/cover band.  The band you idolize the most has come to town and you have been unsuccessful getting tickets to the show.  Object: get in to see your band whatever it takes.

Character Creation
Write a short background for your character (name, age, etc.)
Pick a real life band that you like and know well.

Mechanics
Whenever a character tries to do something that seems skill oriented the player must sing the lyrics of a song performed by the band he chose during character creation.  The length of his performance is dependent on the difficulty of the task.

Simple:  10 seconds
Easy: 15 seconds
Average: 30 seconds
Hard: 45 seconds
Really Hard: 1 minute
Really Damn Hard: 2 minutes
Impossible: 3 minutes

Other players can help you reduce the difficulty by 5 seconds by singing backup for you and/or doing instrumental sound effects.

If you manage to sing for the entire duration you succeed.

If you mess up the lyrics you may choose to accept a failure, or succeed and add one negative aspect to the outcome for each screw-up.  Negative aspects are things that add adversity to the scene.  For example, you might succeed at trying to steel a guitar, but leave your fingerprints all over for the police to find.


Well, that's about it.  Don't know if anyone would play it, but it seems like anyone that lkikes karaoke would have fun.

Anyone have any suggestions?
Does it need more rules?
I'm also wondering if the title is really appopriate and if not what would be better?

,Matt Gwinn

P.S.  Yes, I'm still working on my Purgatory (to be renamed) game.  We are playtesting Monday.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

It needs more. What do you do, except sing songs? It seems a bit much to possibly have a three-minute handling time for a task.

If you're going to actually make the players perform the song, you should do something like that old Mtv show where people sang along with hits songs and were rated on sassy and accuracy or something. This way you can basically go "la la la" but make for it in the sassy.

Or something similar. I mean if resolution is based on singing the song, rewared those who sing the SONG anmd reward those who SING the song.