Performance

Performance represents your overall artistic ability, covering the gamut of endeavors that involve putting creative works before an audience (painting, dance, music, writing, and some elements of acting). This includes knowledge of composition as well as the performance itself. Characters with a high Performance are incredibly creative individuals, able to create poetry extemporaneously, dance well enough to make one’s heart soar, or put on an acting performance that will bring a crowd to standing ovation. They include actors, artists, and those with faerie blood.

### ***Art Appreciation***

*As a knowledge skill, Performance is identical to **Scholarship** , though the fields it applies to are more limited and more focused. Thanks to this narrowed focus on the fields of art and performance, a few shifts of success on a Performance roll may pay out more information when compared to the same number of shifts from a Scholarship roll.*

### ***Composition***

*As a composition skill, Performance is fairly straightforward—you can make art of virtually any type, so long as you are familiar with and practiced in the medium, producing works of a quality equal to your skill. Without stunts, it’s probable that none of them will be masterpieces, but any art that’s **Average**  or better can be displayed without any real embarrassment.*

#### ***All Art Is Not the Same***

*Normally, common sense should dictate whether or not a character is practiced in a particular medium—if the character is a journalist, he probably doesn’t do ballet. Some groups may want to nail this down more specifically, for this skill and for others (like Scholarship). A good guideline is to allow the player to choose areas of specialty equal to the rating of the skill. So, a character with Good (+3) Performance is practiced in three mediums of art. If you’re going to do this, keep in mind that some characters might be locked out of using the Play to an Audience or Composition trappings, depending on context.*

### ***Creative Communication***

*While Scholarship covers the technical building blocks of communication—language, grammar, and the like—Performance covers the creative expression of ideas and, as such, covers most means of broad communication like writing. These are not “pure” performances, however, and your other skills play a role in their application, so your writing is usually modified by your Scholarship. There are exceptions, such as dry, academic documents (which use pure Scholarship) and poetry (which uses just Performance).Public speaking is a similar creature, but it is more beholden to the charisma and presence of the speaker. In those cases, Performance modifies  whatever skill (**Rapport, Intimidation, Presence**, or **Deceit**) you are using, so long as the communication has a creative component.*

### ***Playing to an Audience***

*First and foremost, Performance is the skill of playing to an audience—producing a reaction in a crowd with creative expression, whether that’s acting or another art form. As such, you can use Performance to declare aspects on a scene when those aspects might arise from a moving performance, affecting everyone in a room at once. Usually, aspects declared by this method must be broad, indicating the mood of the crowd, rather than specific and targeted at individuals present.*

*For example, if Malcolm Dresden is at a children’s party pulling rabbits out of hats and doing other assorted tricks, he might put the aspect Giggles and Delight on the scene, reflecting the general, joyous mood.*