When a character attempts to play a tune on an instrument, he/she should make a dice roll using his/her Music (including relevant playing instrument specialisms) + CO. The character gets a +3 bonus on the dice roll if he/she already knows the tune, and a further +2 bonus if he/she has rehearsed the tune beforehand. There is also a modifier for the complexity and difficulty of the song of between +3 (for a very simple tune) to -3 (for a very demanding tune), and a modifier of between -4 and +2 for how appealing the composer made the piece of music to the audience.
The dice roll result determines how good the character's playing performance sounds to listeners, as follows:
Dice roll result | Meaning |
3 or lower | Abysmal performance - character fails to remember the tune and has to stop part way through |
3 1/2 - 6 | Poor performance - character makes it through the tune but makes quite a few mistakes or is out of time |
6 1/2 - 10 | Competent performance - character plays in tune and in time |
10 1/2 - 15 | Good performance - character delivers a professional quality performance |
15 1/2 or more | Excellent performance - character delivers an inspired performance that enthralls the audience |