<font size='+8'>Getting Started</font>
In ROCK TOUR TYCOON, it's your job to take charge of managing a small-time rock band and turning them into national rock icons. It's a big job, but I'm sure you'll do great.
First things first. The band you chose to start with already has a small set of songs they've already written and practiced, some basic starter instruments, and a small fan club in their home city. They've got everything you need to start playing some small shows.
<font size='+5'>Playing Shows</font>
On the map, you should see a van (that's you) and a star icon or two. <i>Stars on the map are venues that want to book you.</i> Click on one to learn more about that venue.
You'll see a flyer with the venue's name and location, your percent cut of the ticket sales, the date of the show, a list of possible promotions to buy, and the list of songs to play. You can mess around with that stuff a little later, all you'll need to do for now is click 'Book Concert.'
At this point the van will automatically move to the next show. The band is smart enough to go to shows in order on their own, you just need to tell them where to go. At this point you can book some other shows and the best route between them will be automatically chosen for you.
<font size='+5'>Show Results</font>
When the date and time of a show comes around, the band will play and you'll get to read the review afterwards. Hopefully you drew a small crowd of paying fans, and you made some money. With a little luck, you'll have also earned some new fans too. Fans are very important, more fans means bigger venues and bigger turnouts, invitations to venues beyond your hometown, and (a while down the road) CD sales. What's a band without fans?
You'll also see a review of your performance, detailing the quality of your show. Your band members' skills and moods, the quality of your songs and how well your band knew them, the quality of your equipment...all of these factors play a part in that final review score. As you continue to play Rock Tour Tycoon you'll learn how to improve those scores.
<font size='+5'>Nagging Your Members</font>
On the left side of the map screen you should see several photos of your band members. If you hold the mouse over them you'll notice that you can Read Bio or Nag Em. Clicking Read Bio will show you details about that person, from their skills at things like writing songs to their ego and personality.
Clicking Nag Em will allow you to boss your members around. You can tell them to practice their instrument skills, practice songs, write new ones, or just chill out. Practicing instrument skill will boost their rating, which means better concert reviews. Writing songs will give you more songs to perform in concert (and eventually release on CDs.) You can also tell them to spend time practicing their songs. 
If a member isn't resting between shows, their stress level will go up as indicated by the colored bar on their photo. Don't worry, if their stress level gets too high then they'll take a break until they feel better.
<font size='+5'>Songs</font>
The songs that you started with will do for now, but you'll want some better ones if you plan to make a dent in the rock scene. As I stated above, you can tell your members to write songs by clicking Nag Em. It's also important to have members practice new ones...if they don't know them well enough then they won't perform them well.
You can learn all about the songs you've already got by clicking on the 'Songs Tab', usually at the bottom of the screen. Your songs are listed there, and clicking on their titles will show you more details about them. This is the place to go for information about songs.
After you've got a big enough fanbase, you'll be invited to record your songs. Record enough songs for a CD and you'll be able to release an album to your adoring public...which means good money for you.
<font size='+5'>Skills and Ratings</font>
Your band's overall quality is it's ROCK rating. Your ROCK rating is on a scale of 5 stars...the more stars the better. Several factors affect it, but your band members' individual star ratings make the biggest difference.
A better ROCK rating means more fans and more venue opportunities to choose from. More fans mean better turnouts, and better turnouts mean more money. Improving your band's ROCK rating is a key to success in the game.
Your members' star ratings are determinded by their stats, which can be viewed from their profiles. These stats are affected by what you tell your band members to do, as well as what happens in the game. For example, telling a band member to practice their instrument will improve their instrument skill rating but increase their stress over time. Telling them to write songs will get your band newer songs and increase the writers' songwriting skills (which results in better song ratings in the future.)
<font size='+5'>Have Fun</font>
That should get you started. If you have any other questions after playing the game a little more, then stop by the <a href="event:generaltopics"><u>General Topics</u></a> section, where I'll talk about things in more detail. Feel your way around, experiment, and don't forget to have a little fun while you're at it. That's why you're here, right?
