Draw Steel skill
Music
Music is a skill in Draw Steel: Playing instruments, singing, and composing well enough to move a room or carry a message.
Last reviewed
Key facts
- Characteristic
- Presence
Overview
Music covers performance and composition: holding a hall with a ballad, keeping rowers in time, recognizing a tune as an old funeral rite, hiding a signal inside a song the guards will not think twice about. It is a Presence skill because its effect on people runs through delivery. It comes up at courts and taverns, at funerals and festivals, on long marches, and whenever the party needs a reason to be in a room where they do not belong.
How it works
Characteristic: Presence. Skill group: Presence skills. Test: 2d10 + Presence; 11 or lower is tier 1, 12 to 16 tier 2, 17 or higher tier 3. Training grants a benefit and unlocks attempts untrained heroes cannot make. How it is used: Tier 3 wins the room and the reward or reaction that goes with it. Tier 2 is competent and passes without note. Tier 1 is a poor showing, drawing mockery or unwanted attention. Edges and banes: A good instrument, a familiar piece, or a receptive audience grants an edge (+2). Unfamiliar traditions, a hostile crowd, damaged instruments, or playing while injured imposes a bane (-2).
Tips and playstyle
Best for: Troubadours and Magesingers, and any hero whose cover story needs a reason to travel. Character concepts: Entertainer career minstrel, creative upbringing, an elf raised on the Wode's old songs. Synergies: Perform for staging and acting, Dance when the music has to move bodies, Culture to know which songs a given audience wants.
Frequently asked questions
Does Music power my class abilities?
No. Troubadour and Magesinger abilities work from your characteristics. The skill covers what your music does in the fiction.
Can I earn money performing?
Yes. A respite spent playing in a settlement can bring in coin or lodging, with the amount tied to your result.