The other opposing pair is hippie magic vs The Man. Hippie magic is about sharing, communing with nature, and lots and lots of drugs. A hippie might coat all your weapons in flowers so thick you can't use them, ask a passing squirrel to run an errand for him, or send a foe on trips to horrifying alternate planes of existence. Anyone can learn hippie magic - you don't need an inherent gift like the musics, you just need to come to a guru with an open mind. The Man is the personification of the establishment, and its powers can only be accessed through contract. The granted powers are mysterious: agents are always where they need to be, when they need to be there, with the equipment they need, and often with backup ready at a moment's notice. The actual overtly obvious parts of The Man's magic - most notably telekinesis and ESP - are minor in comparison to their organizational powers. Unlike the musics, which are a natural struggle created by a power vacuum, nobody knows exactly why hippies and The Man are opposing forces.

Nonmagical characters are usually either martial artists or halfway to Rambo. Military and law enforcement establishments have way less personnel than makes sense, as one good guy with a gun or a black belt can clear out way more crime than makes sense.

There are monsters, aliens, and Soviets taking over office buildings, which need adventurers to clear out. There are draconic, alien, Soviet, and government plots that need exploring and thwarting (and just because one of you works for The Man doesn't mean you won't run up against plots by other agents - The Man is too mysterious for that). There are crimes to stop, and crimes to commit.

I have no idea what this is but I fucking love it.

Please, add whatever you like to the setting.

The one thing I'll caution against is making more styles of music and cultural movements into magical forces. Four is enough, we don't need to add jazz as more than an old magic that's lost most of its power as its secrets have been lost over time.

>>15431258
Even so, I think instruments should be some sorta subculture of magic. Brass, woodwinds, string instruments, and everything else have their own unique flavor.

>any ornamentation into huge skulls

Well I know what I'm using then.

Also it would amuse me if you could play as a Soviet infiltrator tasked with destabilizing/taking over the USA

>and though they're capable of and often forced into working together, both shun anyone who attempts to practice both.

so, you technically practice both, but everyone will hate you? what music would fall into the category of "Disco-Metal"?

>>15431278
Oh, certainly. Different implement, different effect. But, same as the difference between using a pistol and an automatic rifle - it's just a change in style based on the tool at hand. (Of course those two guns are equal in power.)

Ooo, idea!

Street musicians are a sort of "hobo mage;" disconnected from other groups and generally weak in power, street musicians perform tiny tricks for your spare change.

Except, of course, for those only pretending to be unaffiliated with any particular organization...

Did you guys hear about Black Sabbath coming into town? I heard the lead singer is some sort of Half-Demon child spawn....>_>

*By the way, are you associating Demons and Devils with a particular force of music or is it catch-all?*

>>15431302
I think you'd have trouble hiding the fact you know one while attempting to get people to teach you the other.

I have no clue what would happen if you succeeded. Probably cause some sort of cataclysmic event that blows up the world and results in the modern genres emerging.

>>15431315
It's weird, because The Man takes up the entire pact magic side of demon and devil tropes, so they really can't do that sort of thing or it'd get cluttered. But the demons in metal music don't seem like the pact-making type so we're probably safe. Hippies need technicolor eldritch horrors if they're summoning much of anything. Disco would probably be more fey, but being able to summon a few really powerful disco demons and lording it over the metalheads is entirely within their character.

>>15431282
Yeah, I can't see how that'd be a bad idea. Martial arts, guns, or metal all could be the guy's shtick. Doesn't need special soviet powers, just an especially soviet plan to backstab people.

I'd play it.

Ritual/group magic:

Metal - it's called a jam session, and it's pretty easy to do. You just get a bunch of metalheads together and they go all out, and God knows what'll happen but it'll be awesome.

Disco - it's called a dance off, and it has a formal structure. Each participant must outmagic (and outdance) the last, and they get to use their normal effects, boosted by how many turns went before them. When someone fails to outperform the last person, the ritual fizzles, and you'll need a new dance off

Hippie - they've got a dozen of these, it involves circles and drums and singing. You know what hippie magic looks like. It's very powerful in a very straightforward way, but getting a bunch of hippies to try to do the same thing is like herding cats

The Man - their entire system of magic is a shared ritual in the first place

ALL OF IT!

Also, I can't post this picture enough. Seriously.

ok, what about Classical music?

>>15431390

>>15431392
Is a medieval fantasy world often predated by a bronze age fantasy world?

I don't know if this world is predated by something recognizably similar to our history, or if this is just the way things have been for thousands of years. Might be a good thing for people to discuss.

>>15431401
>>15431390
See pic.

perhaps classical music can be seen as some long-lost golden age, and archaeologists occasionally dig up super powerful artifacts that no one understands.

>>15431425
>>15431401
>>15431390

>>15431425

OK, folks. lets not derail this thing

>>15431441

This. Classical is that long-lost art people have forgotten. An imitation of it can be performed in the modern age, but it lacks a crucial component that makes it powerful.

As-is, Classical magic is subtle. It influences events without anyone knowing. A Classical mage could make sure he's gets somewhere on time, cause others to get caught up in traffic, make sure he's got just enough change to pay a taxi, subtle stuff.

But the real Classical magic, the ancient stuff, could cause empires to collapse, kings to fall ill, and once-inseperable lovers to quarrel... and kill each other, as well as quite the opposite.

SOVIET MUSIC
POWER SUPREME
Soviet Music is very bombastic, and it's able to summon huge things in the name of the motherland. It's highly illegal in the USA.
Most of its rites and summonings require large amounts of followers, though; making up for it with its enormous power.

>>15431495
(wrong picture, shit)
The Soviets are also masters of experimental, crazy-ass technology.

>>15431236
This is fucking awesome!

Quest suggestion 1:
The party is in a van on their way to someones aunt when they blow a tire driving through an old spookey town. They have to wait 4 days until a new wheel arrives for their van. While waiting, a ghost pirate (or pirate ghost if you prefer) arrives to scare off everyone. Upon investigation it was the gas station owner in a disguise using METAL MAGIC to make spookey shit happen so he could scare off everyone and have the gold vein he discovered under the town for himself.

Its basically scooby doo meets call of cthulhu!

>>15431236
Thats The Man music. They just have different types of rituals over there but its basically the same effect except that instead of projected inwards to buff the agents, its projected outwards for mind controle

>>15431441
>super powerful artifacts
You mean sheet music?

>>15431502
Part 2
Their wheel arrives and they continue their trip. Upon reaching the aunt they discover she just passed away but she left a note saying that she was murdered and that the PCs must find the guilty ones. (If you read this then I am dead etc etc etc). Noone saw anything but the next day, the PCs wake up to a ton of noise - turns out hippies took over her lawn. They did so before but she scared them away. Now that she is dead there is noone to tell them to fuck off. The PCs must investigate and they realise that there are 2 groupings in the hippie camp - one scared and trood under foot and a small leader group who decided to summon the Spirit of Peace to get rid of her so that peace could return and the hippies could stay. The first group knows that "something" happened because they helped in a ritual and they saw a display of flowers, light and inscence but they didnt know what it was - just that "something" had happened.

>>15431483
Indeed, if a handful of talented musicians can summon demons, imagine what an entire symphony could achieve. For better or for worse though, those magics have been lost for centuries.

>>15431529
Part 3
Just when the PCs are about to kick some hippie ass, The Disco Devils arrive and demand to take over the house. The Aunt was part of their group and according to a document in the hands of the leader of the Disco Devils (called Bob), she left her estate to the Disco Devils. The Aunt, however, never mentioned any of this to the PCs while she was alive and it would be massively out of character for her to do so because she was part of The Man and hated Disco jocks as much as she hated hippies. The PCs must buy time, investigate and figure out what to deal with first - the disco guys or the hippies. Upon further investigation, it turns out that the Aunt was being blackmailed - her daughter was a disco slut and part of the Devils and unless she did what she was told, the Devils would tell the Aunts bosses (who were also of The Man) about it and the Aunts career and legacy would be destroyed.
The PCs must now choose if they want to kick both hippie and disco ass or try and ally with the hippies to kick the Devils out - either way, it will be costly and hard.

so, once in a while, the metalheads would gather in one spot, and the bravest among them would battle to the death. this super version of a jam session is called "The Battle of the Bands". all fucking hell breaks loose, and all the other types of magic users have to hide/GTFO before they get toasted by the sheer amount of METAL.

good?

>>15431555

Guitar battle.
Literally.
>all my money

>>15431534

I dunno. What about Wagner and stuff? I'm pretty sure classical magic has become part of The Man's portfolio though.

In an unrelated note, I think a good system to run this with would be FATE.

The dungeons in my next campaign just became gigantic sprawling office buildings. Each floor will work on a different theme to go along with business departments.

>>15431551
Part 4
When the conflicts have been resolved and everything has settled down, a letter arrives from The Man. They are taking the house and want the PCs out - yesterday. They claim that they have the legal rights for the house because the aunt had sold her soul and thus her essense and through that her will to the company which means that the company should legally be the ones who decide what she did and would have done. The PCs must scour the house and the surroundings for evidence that the aunt had other plans but there is no will so they have to find other measures. Eventually they will find a hidden complex underneath the house which leads to an open gold vein in a natural tunnel! Following the tunnel leads back to the small village in Part 1 and when the return to the aunts house, the small town is scared shitless because of some "ghost pirate" who demanded that everyone flee the town. Oh yes, the guy from part 1 is back and he found out about more gold - he didnt know the PCs were going there though so he tried the same trick again. Cue a little investigation, battle against his undead minions, possibly ally with disco devils and/or the hippies to kick his ass. He will overpower them though and force the PCs to flee into the house. When he attacks the house, the house will go in massive self-defence-mode spawning instruments and a classical orchestra for the PCs to guide while the evil forces try and destroy it. Cue some awesome personal battle with the now-BBEG in the sky on a ghostly pirate ship. After the battle, the massive fighting has opened a secret room behind a cabinet or somehting with the aunts real will.

>>15431587
or just Simple d6
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Simple_D6

>>15431502
>>15431529
>>15431551
>>15431602
Oh god... The scooby gang is on a roll!

>We're in America
Stopped reading there

>>15431667
Do your self a favour and continue because this is fucking awesome

allright, i think we have about 95% of the magic stuff down, lets talk about those without magic. what is the most common weapon on the streets?

This has merit.

The magic stuff is great, but I feel like this setting needs some Scifi. Wild contraptions that look like they would belong on the set of Startrek or Dr. Who, or like something Jack Kirby would draw for his space opera comics.

>>15431711
giant robots with speakers. used for when disco and metal fight each other.

oh god, the metal robo-speakers would look like some sort of sound marine put in a dreadnaught...

Perhaps adding the Power of SCIENCE! to your setting, OP ?
but I must say, you have already a marvelous campaign concept.

>Vsaiss d'Otranto
Captcha suggests a name for a NPC.

Let's not get started on that start-up religion "The Blue Oyster Cult". They've been setting cities on fire with rock n roll, and most of their members are veterans of the psychic wars.

>>15432031
Not to mention how much of a force they are on the battlefield. Their members courageously rush their enemies en masse, after all, they don't fear the reaper.

There is a mysteriously ghostly train that roams throughout the hot and dry deserts of the American southwest. You can sometimes hear the psychotic howls and disturbed cries of the damned as it passes, their wailing taking the place of the train's horn. Legends are abound about what it on the train, but the "Crazy Train" remains a popular folk myth.

>>15432052
There is another train of course, but it is somehow worse than the Crazy Train, in part because the Crazy Train will only appear on the sabbath. Those wandering the desert may find themselves involuntarily holding hands and starting a "Love Train". They are often left confused and empty afterwards..

In most cities there is the festival of Earth Wind and Fire, a celebration held every September.

>>15431689
You mentioned that martial artists and pseudo-Rambos exist, right?

Well, martial artists wouldn't really use weapons (except one or two in every Chinatown who uses EVERYTHING). As for others, probably high-powered handguns, like the Colt .44 Magnum.

>>15432039
>>15432031
Man, those fucking flaming telepaths!

>>15432095

>>15432095
I know right, I just wish someone would take them away.

>>15432031
Really, the cult's main goal is to start a 'golden age' of leather.

>>15432095
They aren't that bad... they're burnin for you, after all

>>15432110
Which they will do by summoning Godzilla.

YOU WON'T DIE ON ME

>>15432203
THEN COME UP WITH MORE SONG PUNS

>>15432226
But I'm still burning!

For agents of the governments, I could see some pulpy pre-modern sci-fi. Buck Rogers style trips to the Moon with blaster-gun wielding scientists fighting soviet Moon Raptors.

We could also have agents sometimes being bound into cars for use by other agents. With the idea that the servitude is a kind of punishment.

Oh? What should we do with the dead anyhow? How is that going to work? Perhaps providing energy a la the battle of the bands example or spycar example.

>>15431994
OP here - I considered putting some Science! into my initial writeup but the most entertaining period-flavor-Science! is from the 50s, so it's a slight stretch out of the main time period. It's probably still worth it. Here's what I'm talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdHTlUGN1zw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8aH-M3PzM0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8glYx2qQx4

I don't know exactly how you'd do it, but you have to take that tone and apply it to all of scientific endeavor. Maybe the principle is that you can make any high-tech gadget you want so long as you can talk your way through its construction from basic principles using the above tone.

>>15431611
>>15431587
I think a modified FATE, particularly SotC-era FATE is probably the best existing system. You'd replace Science/Mysteries/Engineering with Science!/Hippie Magic/Metal/Disco/Working For The Man. Science! would have declaration and engineering stunts, and be useful as the science skill. The magics would have stunts for their various signature categories of spells, and could borrow limited chunks of the DFRPG system specific to their use.

As skills, the four magics would perhaps cost more to buy, and overlap in full or partially with multiple normal skills:
Hippie Magic - nature/empathy/chemistry
Working For The Man - organization/tactical/leadership/logistics
Disco - sleight of hand/deception/athletics
Metal - might/weapons/intimidation

Using the standard FATE rules for skill distribution, you could make the above skills cost more to buy by making it take up two of your choices. So you can't have Superb rating in any magic, and if you want Great that takes up both of your Great selections.

OP again - I think the biggest thing the setting needs fleshing out on is the types of adventures player characters go on.

>>15433731
Might be more interesting to set them up as opposing magics. The Man sounds kinda lackluster, might fit in more with an omnipresent surveillance type of thing with powers of coercion (Picture related). Disco isn't so much deception as it is showmanship - making things flashy and impressive. Then Hippie Magic has a "freedom from restraints" aspect, Metal might bring out latent hostility, etc.

>>15434256
I think just not being allowed to take two of the opposing magics during character creation is enough for that aspect. You're right about refinements to the ideas of what the skills do, but remember that this is just the skill side. The pizazz would be in having magical stunts, not in what the skill does on its own.

>>15433586
I think the Science! part should refer to some of the neighborhoods. Y'know how in big American cities you have Chinatown and Little Italy? Well, Scienceopolis. Some retro-future/dieselpunk stuff would be awesome.

Pic very much related!

Should we stop and elves and dwarves, or do we need hobbits and orcs?

If there were formerly-potent musical magics, they should probably also be in pairs like the current ones.

Jazz's roots were deep in Africa. Rhythm, motion, soul. But competing styles bit off large chunks of Jazz; Elvis' gyrating hips, rap's beat, country's lost wife/dog/truck. It was also difficult to play jazz instruments, and much of the talent has been lost or diverted.

Classical was always comparatively complex. Lots of players, very coordinated, needing the infrastructure of a concert hall, and wealthy sponsors. Clearly The Man absorbed the money and logistics. The last composers now work in film scores, but movie industry's mandated reliance on synth and the recorded nature of the music leaves it as a pale shadow of its former glory. If the Man still employs it in the old ways, it must be either out of sight, or of a nature that blocks the memories of witnesses. Beware a sudden crowd of MiB with instruments...

>>15435094
I think we should go by Shadowrun's style; there are the five big races but pockets of subspecies around the country.

i love it op.

>>15435912
It works.

We also have to stretch out the time frame a lot. Just because we're looking at thirty to forty years worth of real time, doesn't mean this setting can only last that long. On the contrary, it should last at least a few hundred to fit with the type of timescales employed in fantasy. World War 2 was probably 20 years long, and barely within living memory.

What this means is that all this old magic and music is really, really old. And when it was around, the whole baroque/classical/big band/jazz era, as muddled together as the current era, is even longer.

And then several thousand years ago in the middle ages, musical magic was the minority, not the majority.

>>15431483

Classical music is the ancient music. That of bloodlines, inborn talent, tempered by -true- skill and dedication.
Anyone can pick up a guitar and strum it, or bang on some drums.

But when a Composer - not a poseur - puts their hand to instrument, the world stops for just a moment as the most vibrant sound fills the air, cutting conversation and turning the head.
And thats when they're not even trying, just playing for the sake of it.
Classical magic's power comes from Passion and Emotion - quite literally driven by strength of character. Beware losing your Muse.

I almost want to say its opposite is Faith based magic (another ancient, lost art), that involves giving UP your own emotions and feelings in pursuit of a higher power, and their way and laws about doing things (whether its christianity, or the kaballah).
Though a number mage could be quite good, it doesn't fit the setting.

Also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAFXayH1bpY

HOLY SHIT ROBOT VIKING ROCKOFF BATTLE. Watch for inspiration

rolled 11 = 11

The Warforged.

The warforged were originally created as creatures of burden and assistance, but the magical effects of sound infected them as well. What they produces spans a many genres, from Core Industrial, to the the smooth House and Electronica. At first, the community was in a sweeping distaste, that this "Music" created by artificial beings, by artifical means, could hold up to the "True" forms of music, created with natural instruments.

(Take it or leave it, it came to me while cutting the grass)

>>15436780
Would they look like this?

I like fantastic modern settings.

I would have sex with so many men.

>>15433731
Wouldn't the dresden files rpg magic system also work? Simply make all of the different types of magic a sort of sponsored magic (it can do things that are directly related towards the theme of the sponsor, in this case the music, in question).

>>15437353
I feel like it's too open-ended in a lot of ways. It's okay when you want a single kind of magic like Dresden Files, but starting from something more specific is better for a setting that wants four types of magic.

Legends speak of a cabal of mages, drawing energy from each of the four main magics, who managed to combine all of their energies together to beat back a legion of demons that threatened to consume the earth, but the four of them mysteriously disappeared after the supposed final battle. The true story has long been forgotten, with each different faction claiming a different ending, and some mage cabals even going as far to worship the four mages, but they all agree that the four young lads originated somewhere in Liverpool, England...

>>15438687

Some say the four boys gave their lives to defeat their enemy, others say they ascended to godhood and now watch over us. Still, some persist that one or more of the four mages are still alive, preparing in the shadows for another great war...

There should be another opposing pair: SCIENCE! vs. techno-sorcery.

SCIENCE! is all about innovation... with ray guns and giant robots at the extreme end.
Techno-sorcery is about progress, and its power manipulates reality through the mystical "WEB".

SCIENCE! has long dominated throughout history, but a new contract between Archmagos Bill Gates and The Man has turned the balance of power on its head, leaving SCIENCE! scrambling to maintain its influence.

>>15438870
That would bring the setting too close to the current times. I think the intention was to make it more retro. Though I agree that we should probably add some SCIENCE!, but more in a dieselpunk, 50's sci-fi kind of way.

>>15439167
People were still all jazzed up about the atomic age during the target time period, we could perhaps get away with ray guns and atomic powered supermutants.

So, would anybody be interested in a dedicated system for something like this?

Meh, d20 would probably be the least intimidating for newcomers.

Although, the only other style I know is the piles and piles o' d6s.

>blah blah blah blah Elvis, The Archwizard of Rock

WOAH, WHAT

>>15441554
Well, you can't really be the King of a type of magic, now can you?

>>15441455
I like the simple D6 route - the focus (here, at least) is on the setting. Using such a rules-light system helps keep it that way.

Instead of having magic divide up by music types with arbitrary limitations (why rock vs disco? Where's blues and jazz, funk and soul, folk etc?), how about this:

The main divide in magic traditions is Tradition/Conformity vs Renewal/Revolution. The magic that's based on conservative, stabilizing powers uses old and tried music and supports the status quo. The magic that rejects tradition and creates entropy must always find new paths. A Rebellious mage can't rely on the methods of her ancestors, she has to make a new path, invent a new genre, innovate somehow in order to be effective. The school of Renewal is a fractured and divided school, with minor traditions like rock and disco battling each other, but they all reject The Man.

Archived for, well, archival purposes. Vote up, if anyone wishes.

Bump'd.

>>15441682
I like this.

I like this a lot.

>>15439586
>>15439167
I agree, have Science! be all atompunky.

>>15431375
>>15431483
what about the Blues or Jazz?

>>15445371
While I think they have potential, how many systems of magic do we want in here? Too many will just cheapen them.

>>15436353
>World War 2 was probably 20 years long

All because the German Chancellor delved into the ancient tomes of the Lord Maestro Wagner.

>>15441682
>>15445306
But it's missing the point. The point isn't to try to make some metaphysically coherent philosophy that justifies music magic and struggles against The Man. The point is to take the flashiest parts of the target eras and build something that can serve as a modern(ish) replacement for your standard medieval fantasy setting. If you tell someone you're running a game in a fantasy mishmash of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the first things they're going to ask about are hippies, hair metal, and disco.

>>15445431
>I can dig it.

OP here

I'll be happy to flesh out details if anyone wants something in specific.

Otherwise, the thread's not going to really get anywhere unless you folks post actual new material.

What kinda magic does a sax player get? I want seduction.

how about a group made of people that would hate each other to the point of murder outside of a single binding cause.

The Boy Scouts.
elfy merit badges for doin elfy things like makin shit like gardens grow, campan innawoods, and other nature things.

DWARFS
stereotypical dwarf things like minan an a smeltan an a forgin, well guess what. thats racist sir, but it is part of our heritage that the humans have looked down on us for years. but we are a proud people and we will show our great history and skills to the younglings.

ummmmm orcs?
insert native american/much more MLK black civil rights joke here?