Chapter 04 · MusicianFM 93-07
Musician
Bars, weddings, a wedding in a bar. Four sets a night for people who mostly wanted to talk over you. It was never a living, exactly, but it was the only thing you were ever any good at.
| Spec | Issued |
|---|---|
| Creation cost | −4 |
| Effective start | Performance 5 · Maintenance 1 · Showman |
| Granted trait | Showman (purchasable 6) — cleaner under an audience; people give more; Performance XP much faster. |
| XP source | Playing (verses), plus a small Performance crafting tab. Skill books multiply; they do not grant the first point. |
| Money | Busking pays inside a settlement, per verse, with a daily cap (default 3 per verse, cap 120). No claim means you play to an empty street: morale, not coin. |
Who this is for
The room that still has a pulse. You lift boredom, unhappiness and stress for everyone in earshot. You get paid when you do it on claimed dirt. You also ring a dinner bell for things that do not clap. If you wanted Nimble and a fast exit, that is the Street Performer. You wanted the room.
// FROM THE FILES — LAST CALL
Last call at the Ruckersville bars was always later than the sign said. The signs are down. The rooms still need a set. Play under a roof. The highway is a lure.
How to play it
- Find an instrument that is not a joke. Both hands will be full. Acoustic, electric, bass, banjo, trumpet, violin — whatever the world gave you. A cigar-box guitar is craftable at Performance 3; you spawn at 5, so you can build your own if loot is cruel.
- Play inside walls, on purpose. Morale is the product. Sound is the cost. A claim with a closed door is a venue. A highway is a lure. Showman pays better with an audience; anyone still breathing in earshot is the audience. The dead are the rest of it.
- Busk where the till can hear you. Payment is a settlement feature. Default a few coins per clean verse, daily cap so you cannot print the treasury. Play a set, empty the hat, stop. The cap is a workday, not a dare.
- Craft the support, not a second economy. Picks (ungated, bonus on stringed clean rolls), strings from broken necks at 1, sheet music at 2, busker’s hat at 2, songbook at 4, practice mute at 5. The mute exists because this occupation is loud. Use it when the overlay shows a horde or a cordon.
- Maintenance 1 is the case. Instruments break. Walls matter. You live where you play. A Musician who never founds or joins is a moodle with feet.
- Stop before the verse goes bad. Tin Ear is not you. You can still fumble. A fumble carries. Showman helps under watchful eyes; it does not delete a panic-strum in a parking lot.
First week
Live without playing in the street. Loot an instrument. Join a claim. One indoor set for morale, not for the daily cap. Craft picks. Repair the thing. Week two you are evening entertainment and a reason to visit. That is more stall traffic than a neon sign.
Pair with a Shopkeeper (your set is their foot traffic) and never with Stage Fright. Read Workshops for the rest of the skill, and Airwaves before you encore next to a crate breach.