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Trouble Tunes is a hack of “Tunnel Goons”, by Nate Treme, and was made as part of the 2019 “Goon
Jam.” It is produced under the Creative Commons 4.0 International License and created by Misha
Handman.

Interested in seeing more of my work? Check me out at http://www.patreon.com/frivyeti for RPG

hacks, campaigns, mini-RPGs and systemless settings. All material is available to both patrons and
watchers!

Interior Cover Image by Sebastian Ervi, and reproduced under Pexels license.
Find Sebastian at https://www.pexels.com/@sebastian-ervi-866902
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Introduction

You are a small, up-and-coming band! Your goal is to become famous and amazing,
and you’re going to do it by winning the upcoming Battle of the Bands, thereby getting the
attention of record producers and fans worldwide!
You have a few small issues between you and success, though. The first one is that there
are, like, a hundred bands competing in this challenge. Some of them are even going to be
doing head-to-head challenges, and those are hard!
Also, you have about three songs and none of you have had time to practice.
Also at any given moment you’re about five seconds away from having a meltdown and
storming off to your dressing room.
But aside from that, you’re ready to go! You’ve got your sweet instruments, some fancy
costume changes, and you’re going to show the world what a cool set of musicians you are.

Character Creation

At the start of the game, you need to create your character! This is fairly easy. First,
decide what instrument you play and what your part in the band is. If two people choose
the same thing, you could just have a lopsided band! Next, choose a name and give yourself
a quick description.
Finally, assign your stats. You start the game with a Cool of 8. You also get three points
to divide between your three roles:
Dreamy: Helps you to win audience approval, and to persuade or charm people.
Focused: Helps you to keep the song going, and to know things and do research.
Rebel: Helps you to throw off other bands, and to do fancy stunts or cause trouble.

Finally, choose one starting Gear from each of the two categories below, and then a third
from either category. One of your three starting Gear can be Awesome. The other two are
only Good.

Performance Gear: Pyrotechnics, Amps, Quick-Change Costumes, secondary

instrument, T-Shirt cannon, stage makeup, multi-tool, dry ice machine, etc.

General Gear: Fake backstage pass, extra snacks, car, extra phone charger, lockpicks,
baseball bat, stack of magazines, folding chair, etc.
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Game Structure

The structure of Trouble Tunes is fairly simple. The game is played by one Referee and
several players. The Judge controls and describes the world, and responds to the players’
actions. Each player creates one member of a band, and describes how their characters act
and strive for success.
Gameplay is divided between free play, and Band Battles. In free play, the players
meet other band members, mingle with fans, and basically do whatever they want. During
a Band Battle, players try to keep the audience interested and overwhelm their opposition,
without running out of chill and melting down onstage. The better the players do at various
Band Battles, the more likely they are to ultimately be named successful musicians!

Free Play

During Free Play, it’s up to the Referee to keep track of time and create appropriate
situations. When the players want to try something, the Referee should decide whether it’s
a thing that they could easily do, and whether the action is Low Risk or High Risk. If the
action is risky or unlikely, the player can either abandon it or make an Action Roll.
To make an Action Roll, the player rolls 2d6 (two six-sided dice) and adds the rating in
the appropriate Band Role. If they have appropriate Gear, they can add a +1, and if they
have Awesome Gear, they can add +2. This is compared to the difficulty of the task, as
follows:

Easy: Difficulty 8 Moderate: Difficulty 10 Hard: Difficulty 12

If an action is low-risk, the only cost of failure is that you can’t keep trying this
approach. Something went wrong, and you’ll need to try something else (possibly something
high-risk.) If an action is high-risk, though, you lose some of your Cool. Your Cool
measures how far you are from melting down. On a failed high-risk roll, you lose Cool equal
to the result showing on the lower of the two dice you rolled. If that takes your Cool down to
zero, you suffer a Meltdown. Whenever you meltdown, something bad happens that takes
you out of the scene, which will also have negative consequences for you or the band. You’ll
be gone for the rest of the scene, and then return next scene with half your Cool back.

Example: Alex is trying to sneak into another band’s backstage area between sets to
sabotage their drum kit, making their plan easier. The Referee rules that this is a high-risk
situation, but it’s only Moderately difficult because the band in question is drunk and
security is busy dealing with a small riot. Alex has Rebel 3, so they roll 2d6+3. They get a 4
and a 2, for a total of 9! Not only do they fail, they lose two points of Cool.
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Free Play actions can have an effect on the starting positions or available gear for a band
battle, or they can just help expand the setting and give the players a chance to meet and
chat with some NPCs (characters played by the Referee.) The Referee should also feel free
to introduce major complications that have to be addressed, and which will cause problems
during upcoming Band Battles.
Usually, there is a period between the end of Free Play and the start of a Band Battle for
players to rest and relax. If so, they will recover half of the Cool they lost during the Free
Play section, rounding up. If, for whatever reason, the players need to rush straight on
stage from a complicated situation, they won’t have time to recover their Cool.

Band Battles

When a Band Battle starts, the players take the stage opposite one or two rival bands,
and try to outplay them while also keeping their cool and possibly causing trouble. Each
Band Battle lasts for four rounds, and each player can take a single action each round –
they can try to Win Audience Approval, work to Keep Their Focus, or attempt to Mess Up A
Rival. After the players act, any NPCs who haven’t Lost It take their actions.
Then, each player loses one Cool from the stress of being on stage, one rival NPC from
each band loses one Tier for the same reason, and the round ends. If a player or NPC ever
drops to Cool 0 or lower during a round, they Lose It and storm off the stage. The rest of the
band will have to finish the set without them!
At the end of the fifth round, the audience applauds, and the band that had the highest
total Approval wins the battle.
Players can bring in their Performance Gear, and take advantage of anything they were
able to set up during free play. It’s up to the Referee to decide exactly how various actions
affect the battle. They could have the band start with free Approval (or alternately, make it
harder to gain Approval early on,) give them bonuses to certain actions, and so on.

Win Audience Approval: To Win Audience Approval, describe the cool things that your
character is doing, and then roll with Dreamy. If you score an 8-9, you add 1 Approval to
your total. If you score a 10-11, you add 2 Approval, and if you score a 12+, you add 3
Approval. If you score a 7 or less, the audience is unimpressed, and you lose Cool as usual
for a high-stakes situation.

Keep Your Focus: To Keep Your Focus, describe how the music makes you feel, what
the song is doing, and how you’re keeping the band on track, and then roll with Focus. If
you score an 8-9, you gain 1 Cool. If you score a 10-11, you and one other player gain 1 Cool.
If you score a 12+, you and one other player gain 2 Cool. If you fail, there is no cost aside
from losing an action.
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Mess Up A Rival: You can try to throw a rival’s rhythm off, turn the crowd against
them, or sabotage their playing. Describe how you mess them up, and then roll with Rebel,
adding +1 for each finished round. Tier 1 rivals are Easy, Tier 2 rivals are Moderate, and
Tier 3 rivals are Hard. If you beat them, they’re thrown off! Their Tier drops by 1 for the
rest of the battle. If that takes them to 0, they Lose It and stop contributing. If they beat
you, you lose Cool as usual for a high-stakes situation.

NPC Actions

There are three types of NPCs in a rival band – Showboats, Saboteurs, and Pace-Setters.
Most rival bands have an equal number of band members to the players, but the Referee
might decide to give them one more or one less. There are guidelines in the campaign
section for band construction. Band rivals also range from Tier 1 to Tier 3.
Showboats help their band gain Approval. Each round, a Showboat adds Approval equal
to their current Tier to their band.
Saboteurs mess with the players. Each Saboteur targets a player, and that player needs
to roll Focus. This is Easy against Tier 1, Moderate against Tier 2, and Hard against Tier 3.
If they fail, they lose Cool as usual.
Pace-Setters keep their band on track. If there’s a Pace-Setter around, they add +2 to the
difficulty of any attempt to Mess Up A Rival. If they’re Tier 2, they can also target a rival
who’s lost Tier, and spend two rounds to restore it (even if they Lost It!) If they’re Tier 3,
they can restore a Tier every round. Pace-Setters can’t restore themselves.

Example Round: It’s the third round of a head-to-head Band Battle, and Alex, Heidi,
Kabir and Wendell are in serious trouble. They’re up against three Showboats and a Tier 2
Saboteur, they’ve been focusing on Approval and failing, their rivals are already up to 6
Approval to their 3, and Heidi is down to 2 Cool.
Heidi asks to go first, and tries to get the Cool situation back under control. She only has
Focus 1, but she can’t risk losing any more! She rolls a 4 and a 5, which nets her a 10; she
gives one Cool to herself, and one to Alex, just in case.
Alex, meanwhile, has decided to trigger their dry ice machine and the band’s fans at the
same time, blowing smoke into the eyes of the rival band’s bass player. They roll with Rebel,
adding +2 for the two rounds that have finished. With a +5, it’s easy for them to get the 8
that they need! The rival Showboater chokes on a lungful of smoke and falls off the stage!
Wendell is working on getting the band’s Approval up. He has Dreamy 2, and he’s firing
T-shirts into the crowd with his T-Shirt cannon, so he gets to roll 2d6+3. He rolls a 6, which
isn’t ideal, but it’s alright. The band’s Approval ticks up to 4.
Kabir was trying to decide between joining in the sabotage or focusing on Approval, and
decides that Approval is more important. He does an amazing drum solo and builds up
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audience energy! He’s also got a Dreamy of 2, so he rolls 2d6+2 – and he rolls two 5s, getting
a total of 12! The crowd goes wild, and the band’s Approval goes up to 7.
But now it’s the NPCs turns. Their lead singer is down, but the bass and flute Showboats
cover for him by putting together an extended instrumental solo. Each one automatically
adds one to their band’s Approval, bringing it up to 8. Then the saboteur goes. Heidi is the
weak link here, so the drummer tries to throw off her rhythm, tricking her into making a
mistake. She needs to roll her Focus against a difficulty of 10, and she only gets a 6! Her dice
showed a 4 and a 2, so she loses 2 Cool, leaving her at 1.
Finally, everyone in the band loses 1 Cool from the strain of performing. This isn’t so bad
for most of the band, but it does it for Heidi, who stumbles over her lines and then loses track
of the song entirely. She’s out, and won’t be able to take part in the fourth round! The band is
still behind by 1 Approval, and they’ve only got one round to turn things around…

Campaign Structure

A typical Battle of the Bands will run for about 7-9 chapters, with one or two chapters
per session of play. Each chapter covers one period of free play, and one Band Battle. As the
game goes on, and the weaker bands filter out, rival bands with get stronger.
The first stage goes until the players have won five Band Battles, or lost three. If they
lose three battles, they’ve lost the Battle of the Bands. Terribly sorry. If they win five,
they’re on to the finale! The finale always covers two Band Battles, and will help determine
how wildly successful the players’ band gets to become.

Recovery and Advancement

After each Band Battle, there’s a chance for players to rest, recover, and figure out what
went right and what went wrong. When this happens, players recover all of their lost Cool,
and get an Advance. When players Advance, they can raise one of their Roles by 1, to a
maximum of 5. They can also either increase their Cool by 1, pick up a new piece of Gear, or
advance one of their Gear from Good to Awesome.

The Finale

At the end of the Battle of the Bands, the six to eight bands that did the best will
compete with each other to be named Ultimate Band, and showcase their skill to the world.
This is done through a pair of special Band Battle Free-For-Alls!
In the first Free-For-All, three or four bands compete at once to win. During a free-for-
all, the players can sabotage any of the bands they’re up against. During the NPC actions
round, the GM rolls for each Saboteur (unless they’ve got a clear target already.) On a 1,
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they target the PCs. On a 2-3, they target the band with the lowest Approval. On a 4-6, they
target the band with the highest Approval. If the players get first or second place, they can
move on to the Championships.
The Championship is a four-band free for all, with the players against every other band.
The band with the highest score is Band Champion, and will definitely move on to
greatness. The other three bands can still potentially get contracts or success, and the
players might approach other fellow bands for collaborations.
There is a free play period before each Band Battle in the final rounds, as usual. The
players might use this time to try and make alliances with other bands, perform behind-
the-scenes sabotage, or just focus on their own people. Other bands will do the same!

Rival Band Construction

The Referee is always free to construct rival bands however they want, but if they want
some guidelines, or just want to randomize it, they can do so with two simple steps. First,
roll 2d6 and compare the result to the chart below to determine the size of the band and its
members. Any band members who are not a pace-setter or saboteur are Showboats.

Result Band Size Pace-Setter? Saboteurs

2 One fewer rival than players No Zero
3 One fewer rival than players Yes Zero
4 One fewer rival than players No One
5 One fewer rival than players Yes One
6 One rival per player Yes One
7 One rival per player No One
8 One rival per player Yes Two
9 One more rival than players Yes One
10 One more rival than players No One
11 One more rival than players Yes Two
12 One more rival than players No Two

Next, roll 1d6 for each rival band member, and add 1 for every Band Battle the players
have completed successfully.

 A result of 1-5 indicates a Tier 1 rival.

 A result of 6-8 indicates a Tier 2 rival.
 A result of 9+ indicates a Tier 3 rival.
 During the Finale, roll 1d6 per band member; a result of 1-2 gives a Tier 2, and a
result of 3-6 gives a Tier 3.