Performance Mini-Game

What is the ingredient to a good performance? Is it music? Or is it spectacle?
Nay... it is emotions. The build-up and release of emotions guarantees a satisfying performance no matter how mundane or fantastical your performance is.

The goal of this mini game is to add some mechanical gameplay to performance without burdening the players with a completely new system. In this mini-game, it is about building up Hype and using Hype to generate Applause from the audience. Decision making is important but the players must still rely on their creativity and showmanship to supplement the show.

This gives a GM clear metric for them to judge their performance and so that they do not feel too bad failing the party on their Performance. Howeever, if the GM still feels generous, they have levers that they can use to tilt the numbers for or against the party.

Before the Performance

At the start of the Performance, the GM must prepare:

• The DC for the performance [Secret]. The DC that the player must roll towards to succeed on any check. 10 is a good DC for a tavern performance while 15 might be good for a show for nobles. 20 and above should be reserved for performance amongst professionals or nobles with exquisite tastes.
• Maximum number of turns. The number of Spotlight passes the player have. A suitable number would be 1 turn per minute of performance. And to avoid long checks, limit it to 1.5 x number of party members.
• Number of Applause needed. This is the player's progression tracker. An impomtu performance would only need 1 performance to be considered successful but 3 would suit a side performance while a main act may need 5 or more. Make sure the number of Applause needed is less than half the maximum number of turns.

Then the GM will declare a keyword for the performance.
The players may use the keyword in the description of their performances.
If it was well used, the GM may give a bonus +1, +2 or an Advantage on the check depending on how well the keyword is used.

The Performance starts with 0 Hype and Applause
Then, the first player will take their turn.

Player Turns / Spotlight

When a player takes their turn, they will be considered to have the Spotlight.
While having the spotlight, a player must perform one of the following actions then pass the Spotlight to another player.
Note that each check performed represents a summary of multiple actions the player is doing while holding the Spotlight.

The description of the player's action must also include how they are passing the Spotlight to another player.
The player cannot pass the Spotlight to the player that they received the Spotlight from.
In addition, if they perform the same skill check as the previous player, they must perform it with disadvantage since the audience will be bored seeing similar acts in a row.

Ending the Performance

Once turn limit is reached, the performance ends. If you have reached the required Applause threshold, it was a success.

Using Abilities

Players can use abilities at any time during the performance to assist another player's performance or improve their own performance.
To use an ability, they must describe how the ability is used and how it supplements the act BEFORE the person with the spotlight performs their check.
The ability used must take less than 1 minute to activate and can only provide bonuses once for the duration of the performance
Depending on the abilities used, they will provide different bonuses

• Spells grant bonus equal to the spell level
• Abilities that recover on a Long Rest grants +3 to the check
• Abilities that recover on a Short Rest or has multiple charges grants +1 to the check
• Abilities with long duration may only provide benefits once for the duration of the performance
• Abilities with long casting times can be used before the performance but can only grant benefit once

Bonuses from different abilities do not stack. If multiple players use abilities to grant bonuses, only the largest one will take effect (too many cooks spoil the broth)

Change logs:

• 20 Aug 2028
  • Added introduction
  • Added descriptions for GM Prep
  • Added clarifications for different types of abilities
• 15 Aug 2028
  • Mention that bonuses dont stack
  • Change Saves to increase the DC by 1

Testers:

• PharydKobra
• deadshot_dan