So, it looks like I have a pretty firm version of the 7 intervals/notes (based, as you will note, on the seven deadly sins). The positive versions are much rougher but they are starting to come in as well:

• Line 1: Money (greed) / Soft Spot

• Line 2: Sex (lust) / Love

• Line 3: Violence (wrath) / Cool

• Line 4: Secrets (envy) / Innocence

• Line 5: Corruption (sloth) / Loyalty

• Line 6 Power (pride) / Law

• Line 7: Addiction (gluttony) / Hope

You’ll note that they are pretty much the same as the last version (dropping one and with some tweaks here are there) but I am generally happy with it.

Of course, I am note sure exactly what purpose these things serve on the character sheet… yet. I am kind of looking at a token system where depending on your raiting in each note, you recieve a number of tokens to do some modifications to the rules. I like that because I can allow attacks or temptations on one of those subject areas to result in the victim recieving more tokens.

 Other than that, I could do a whole note/half note/ fourth note/ sixteenth note system to indicate the character’s proficiency in that area and add that to any attempt to narrate results. Specifically if we are rolling with some sort of dice pool system, that very nicely seques into how many dice a character gets to roll 4/3/2/1.

Now to start thinking about those virtues…

Part of the problem, of course, is that the dark and bitter world of Noir provides so few positive virtues (especially in the male characters); so, things like “not being a criminal” end up practically making people saints *shrug*

 So, everything in this world (locations, characters, actions, the plot, everything) is going to be made up of a series of ‘positions/notes’ from those categories above. To broaden things a bit, each ‘note’ has a positive and a negative side (sharps and flats, respectively). Although I want to constrain the use of sharps… otherwise that should nicely constrain things within a Noir frame of mind.

Some other mechanical notes: I think I have hammered out the core of the music system… it is pretty wordy, so stay with me. So, the basic sheet has seven lines (we are counting the black lines as seperate white spaces) and they are labeled from A to G. On the left side is a colum where a counter can be placed indicated which note is the ‘key’ note.

Basically, the closer you are to the key note, the easier it is to play that particular note (whatever that note represents). However, part of the conflict (seperate from harmony and discord) will be the ability to change the key note… which in practice will change the availability of certain options. When changing the key, you will also have the ability to introduce sharps and flats by going into a ‘major’ or ‘minor’ version of the key (you can play those notes at any time, anyway… it is just easier to do so if they are placed on the scale).

I have eliminated the importance of positions on harmony and discord and have let the person who plays the bass note determine whether an element is contributive or destructive (and base the conflict on that). Otherwise, the rules concerning harmonious cords remains… ie. you are required to contain at least one note from the previous cord in the next one to remain harmonious. Otherwise you introduce discord (exactly as if you had played a discordant note in your original chord). Discord must always resolve into a harmonious cord.