Question about Doug's powers

[robkelk]

Quoting from the FAQ:

Q: What, exactly, does Doug need to get a power from a musical work? (music + lyrics, music + some words, words + a beat, etc.)
A: He needs, at the very minimum, a single instrument playing a recognizable melody, and a single voice singing to that melody in a language he understands. Oddly enough, different/more complex orchestrations do not reliably map to stronger powers — just different expressions of the same core concept behind the powers he already receives.

What if only some of the lyrics are in a language he understands?

For example, let's look at Dean Martin's cover of "Volare". (Lyrics here) What happens when Doug plays it?

• Because some of the lyrics are in Italian, nothing happens.
  
• Because some of the lyrics are in English, he and somebody who loves him (so, Maggie or Makoto) can fly together.
  
• Because some of the lyrics are in Italian and some of the lyrics are in English, he gets a weakened power - possibly he gets an ornamental pair of wings.
  
• Something else.
  

[nemonowan]

The more interesting edge case would be if the lyrics are in a language that Doug doesn't understand, but are simple enough that he actually knows what every word of it says.

Under that assumption I admit that I have toyed with the idea that a brass band version of "Hevenu Shalom Aleichem" (whose lyrics are just those three words repeated over and over and which are a hebrew greeting meaning "we come to greet you in peace) would summon a wall-breaking bodybuilder in a speedo and a bunch of black-gi-clad kung-fu fighters (if you know what I'm referring to )

[Bob Schroeck]

(if you know what I'm referring to )

I have absolutely no clue.

As to the original question, well... I don't think that's one we ever considered back when creating the character, nor have I (to the best of my recollection) ever chosen to us a song structured like that. I guess the answer really depends on the context in which I'm answering it:

If it were in a game context, I'd be pushing for everything I could get. <grin>

If it were for The Walk specifically, I'd probably go with whatever made the most dramatic sense.

Thanks to everyone in the campaign scattering up and down the East Coast over the years, I'm at a point where I've been writing Doug for considerably longer than I ever played him, and consequently I've tended to think in terms of story needs rather than rules-lawyering for more than a decade.

But boiling down the original intent of the character, from the night I created him long long ago when Lisa was still Warriors GM and the other members of the campaign were still Rutgers and Stevens Tech students, the key was understanding the lyrics. I know we wrote it down as "a language he understands", but really it's knowing what the lyrics mean. As a GM, I'm sure that the other Warriors members would agree that simply memorizing a translation wouldn't do it -- because there is rarely a one-to-one correspondence between words in one language to another, especially the farther from each other the languages are. Doug needs enough knowledge to understand individual word meanings and something of the grammar connecting of them.

In the case of "Volare", well, "volare" and "cantare" in isolation are easily enough understood (without thought) as something to do with flying and singing respectively, but the big block of Italian in the middle of the song is impenetrable -- I can't, and Doug probably couldn't, find enough cognates to French or English to even make a guess at what it means even with the rest of the song providing context -- which in his case he has to do on the fly while his attention is likely on something else (like not dying in a fight).

I guess it boils down to, the easier it is for him to glark the meaning of a song without having to put thought into it, the more likely it is to be a candidate for a power. (And yes, the implied corollary that a song ostensibly in English but which is sung so poorly that it is incomprehensible -- I'm lookin' at you, "Louie Louie" -- would do nothing for him is valid.)

Is that a satisfying answer, or does it just piss people off?

[robkelk]

(if you know what I'm referring to )

I have absolutely no clue.

Big Jim Slade!

As to the original question, well... I don't think that's one we ever considered back when creating the character, nor have I (to the best of my recollection) ever chosen to us a song structured like that.  I guess the answer really depends on the context in which I'm answering it:

If it were in a game context, I'd be pushing for everything I could get.  <grin>

If it were for The Walk specifically, I'd probably go with whatever made the most dramatic sense. 

Thanks to everyone in the campaign scattering up and down the East Coast over the years, I'm at a point where I've been writing Doug for considerably longer than I ever played him, and consequently I've tended to think in terms of story needs rather than rules-lawyering for more than a decade.

But boiling down the original intent of the character, from the night I created him long long ago when Lisa was still Warriors GM and the other members of the campaign were still Rutgers and Stevens Tech students, the key was understanding the lyrics.  I know we wrote it down as "a language he understands", but really it's knowing what the lyrics mean.  As a GM, I'm sure that the other Warriors members would agree that simply memorizing a translation wouldn't do it -- because there is rarely a one-to-one correspondence between words in one language to another, especially the farther from each other the languages are.  Doug needs enough knowledge to understand individual word meanings and something of the grammar connecting of them. 

In the case of "Volare", well, "volare" and "cantare" in isolation are easily enough understood (without thought) as something to do with flying and singing respectively, but the big block of Italian in the middle of the song is impenetrable -- I can't, and Doug probably couldn't, find enough cognates to French or English to even make a guess at what it means even with the rest of the song providing context -- which in his case he has to do on the fly while his attention is likely on something else (like not dying in a fight).

I guess it boils down to, the easier it is for him to glark the meaning of a song without having to put thought into it, the more likely it is to be a candidate for a power.  (And yes, the implied corollary that a song ostensibly in English but which is sung so poorly that it is incomprehensible -- I'm lookin' at you, "Louie Louie" -- would do nothing for him is valid.)

Is that a satisfying answer, or does it just piss people off?

Sounds good to me.

So, there's probably not enough in "Volare" to give him a power. It isn't as if Doug doesn't have other songs that let him fly.

[Bob Schroeck]

Big Jim Slade!

Dear god, it's been at least 30 years since the last time I saw that movie, maybe more.

So, there's probably not enough in "Volare" to give him a power.

Yeah, I'd say that's the case.