I make a poll last week asking what feature of Rock of Ages you guys wanted to know more about and many of you answered Core Mechanics and/or Battle of the Band. If you answered this, you're in for a treat as I will feature BOTH this week:

Core Mechanics

The game's core mechanics are the same as Lester Burton's GROK?! and is used with permission. This is how it works:

(This is a copy/paste from GROK?! rulebook with a few modifications to fit Rock of Ages)
Actions are your Rockstar’s (Player's Character) way of affecting change in the world. When you want something to happen, follow this order: 

•  Describe the Intention: What do you want to happen?
•  Narrate the Action: What is your Rockstar doing to make it happen?
•  Determine the Outcome: What happens?

If an Action’s Outcome is immediately obvious, The Tour Manager (Gamemaster) can simply dictate the Outcome. If the Outcome isn’t obvious, roll the die for the most appropriate Attribute (Ranging between d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12) and compare the result to the table below. If your intended Outcome isn’t possible, but your Rockstar wouldn’t know that, the Tour Manager might ask you to make an Action roll and determine an alternative Outcome in the case of success.

Outcome

Roll the Attribute die and consult the table below:

1-4: No, and...  “No, it’s not as you intended, and something unfortunate happens.”
5-9: Yes...  “Yes, it’s as you intended.”
10+: Yes, and...  “Yes, it’s as you intended, and something fortunate happens.”

The entire game revolves around this basic mechanic.

Battle of the Bands

This part of the game mechanics is unique to Rock of Ages and will allow two Bands to face each other for the honor (and the fans)!

Here is how it will work (currently):

When facing a Battle of the Band, two Bands face off to see who's the best. The way it works is that both Bands have an Applaud-O-Meter that they have to fill before the other. Each round, the band attempts to fill one or more tiers by making the appropriate Attribute checks (usually Physical) and scoring successes on the Outcome table. As per any other Action checks, a Rockstar can use Advantages, Disadvantages, and Efforts to make the check.

1-4: Your performance sucked hard! (-1)
5-9: You did a regular performance (0)
10+: You did a great performance (+1)

When all the Rockstars have played their parts, add all the results together and apply the result to the Band's Applaud-O-Meter. Furthermore, if the Band mostly performed badly (more -1 than any other result), roll on the Battle of the Bands Complication table. On the plus side, if most of the Band performed greatly (more +1 than any other result), roll on the Battle of the Bands Breakthrough table.

The Battle of the Bands are still a WIP but this here is the base mechanics that should be used. Additional split decisions will further affect performances (Advantages, Disadvantages, Efforts) and powers will come into play as well for Scott Pilgrim-ish battles!

The first band to fill its Applaud-O-Meter wins. If both Bands fill their Applaud-O-Meter in the same round, there is a Sudden Death round.

More on Battle of the Bands soon!