Writing and Performing - Entertaining for fun and profit

[Napoleon Solo]

Has anyone put anything together to determine money making by writing or performance arts?

I've got a campaign with a character who is a singer/song writer. She would like to further pursue a musical career, gigs, concerts, recordings, etc. Has anyone put anything together, or seen anything that could provide some structure to these sort of activities?

In another campaign, I'm running a adventurer/writer. He writes articles and novels based on what he experiences, and people he interviews. Same question here. any thoughts on monetizing writing efforts. Advances, book deals, distribution, holovid rights or adaptations, etc.

I have some ideas, but am looking unbiased opinions on how this could/should be handled.

 

[Adam Dray]

Building a platform is vital for these kinds of careers. This means reaching the widest number of people.

In Traveller, you have a couple ways to do this:

1. Stick to one world and really work on reach there.
2. Travel to a bunch of worlds and try to gain a hold on each one.
3. Market to other travellers and count on word-of-mouth among that following.
4. Get corporate sponsorship.
5. Secure noble patronage.

My feeling is that this kind of work is very competitive. Lots of people would love to make a living off writing or art or music, but only a small portion can, unless the people of the future have much deeper art appreciation and consumption habits.

Art has a fairly low barrier to entry compared to other professions, too. That just makes it even more competitive.

With increased competition, that means skill is more important. Art 1 is nothing. Art 2 is starting to become interesting. Art 3 is probably required to have a good chance of making it. You also should invest in social skills like Persuade and marketing skills like Broker. You have hearts to win, people to convince, and you must market yourself as a product (this takes as much time as the art).

Luck plays a huge role though. You have to have the right thing in the right place at the right time, and even then, it's a roll of the dice.

Once you establish a platform, you can probably keep that platform going with intense effort. There's always a chance that something random will happen and everything will change (for the good or for the bad). Interest in your particular genre could dry up. Or you might get featured in the news and suddenly be the next big thing.

 

[kilemall]

I think a major mechanism to use here is the good ol Reaction Table.

Get a 'they attack you' result, career is likely stillborn or going to require some amazing success to restart.

Get a 'they love you', it's a hit.

Subsequent works might be a hit again, or reaction to new works may be tepid, dooming the artist to the nostalgia circuit for replaying their one big hit.

Most of the time should take years and multiple works to break through, but the entertainer might get lucky.

You could use the primary skill to mod the reaction, or average the Broker + Persuade + Art skills to cover the PR/agent efforts. If there is an interstellar trade skill for assessing/predicting 'markets' for your entertainment product, use that too for going multi-system.

Don't forget those achievement knighthoods for the truly classic!

 

[robject]

I think a major mechanism to use here is the good ol Reaction Table.

This.

T5 built out that mechanism into an Interpersonals system, but at the end of the day it's simply using the Task System with non-typical die modifiers to gauge reaction.

Non-typical includes one's Fame, rank, terms served in a particular career, noble standing, and so on, depending on the venue and artistic medium.

 

[Timerover51]

One thing to remember about writing, and that is for a book or a song, the author might be receiving income on a monthly or quarterly basis in the form of royalties. Large up-front advances would only go to established authors, and would depend on what is being written about.