Hey all! Today I'm super excited to give you a whole bunch of goodies from my friends over at Mage Hand Press. They're currently running an awesome Kickstarter for their new book Valda's Spire of Secrets, a truly massive compendium of brand new homebrew 5e mechanics for players. This is exactly 2021-09-11 17:00:35 +0000 UTC View Post
I went a bit buck-wild making minis the past few days. Ended up making a nice stash, so once everything is edited, I'll be able to drop 8 minis total this month. I invited some requests from the Discord which thankfully helped me stay a bit on task. Per usual, big variety here!
I really hope you liked the newest sneak peek of my RPG project Borough Bound! It's been months in the making, and now that Meddenfirth is fully realize, I couldn't be prouder. That first track we released ("City on a Bridge") is also—if I dare say so—a real banger. Really has some great cheery moods that I'm stoked about.
HOWEVER, I know that when exploring a complicated city, it's often better to have a piece of music that's a little less distracting. For that, here's "City ...
2021-09-04 13:28:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Edit: Totally forgot to actually include the mp3 when I first uploaded this. It is now attached below!
Hello patrons!
I've mentioned it before, but today I would like to more formally announce my newest RPG project! In collaboration with old pals Cze and Peku as well as the stellar artist James Nathani...
2021-09-04 13:24:52 +0000 UTC View PostNew month, new track request poll!
Welcome to fall, y'all! Hope this summer wasn't too catastrophically hot for you. If it was, whelp, it's only getting worse! This month sees very few of the typical requests. Now that "Combat Jazz" has finally been enshrined in the Music d20 catalog, we can comfortably walk into the future knowing that I, Will Savino, will never make jazz again.
lol, yeah right
Anyway, we got very few track requests this month! I'm not totall...
2021-09-01 11:18:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe Merry-Go-Round music from the OG Roller Coaster Tycoon still haunts my dreams. I played the hell out of those games, and every little organ lick is permanently burned into my brain. It's honestly great stuff, made even by better by the terrible file compression that makes it constantly hiss with digital fuzz. It is eerie largely because of how bad it sounds.
Anyway, that was my prim...
2021-08-28 17:01:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Note: September is almost upon us! Please get your track requests in for our September track request poll! Limit one per patron. Thank you, dear patrons!
Circus of the Damned is a Fifth Edition adventure intended for three to five characters of 4th to 6th level and optimized for four characters with an average party level (APL) of 5. A traveling circus is cursed wi...
2021-08-28 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
While you can score most forests / plains / mountains / valleys / rivers / etc with DnD Voyage, DnD Calm, or DnD Campfire depending on the context, deserts as a setting for tabletop campaigns require their own music to set the scene. While no two deserts are the same (e.g. Arabian dunes vs. post-apolcalyptic wastes), there are certain musical tropes that immediately call to mind the arid expanses that make for such great adventure settings. My newest Spotify playlist 2021-08-22 14:44:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey all!
I did one of these polls in August 2020 as well, but I also had half as many patrons this time last year. So I ask you again: how the heck did you find out about me?
This info is incredibly helpful for me to identify which forms of outreach have actually worked. I know lots of folks discover my work via collaborations, which is one of many reasons why I do so many! I also know that my social media reach is comically limited... I really ought to work on that. Sinc...
2021-08-20 11:54:36 +0000 UTC View PostI love some arrhythmic harmonic washes of sound. That's probably why I've tackled so many moody ambiences lately; there's just something really satisfying about painting a scene with just textures, and largely ignoring through line melodies. It doesn't always make sense to have something so abstract though!
For this variant of "These Walls Tell Tales," a solo flute takes center stage, performing a faux improvisation over the same textures and harmonies of the original. I think you...
2021-08-18 11:47:47 +0000 UTC View PostI run story-heavy campaigns. Combat, strategy, and dungeoneering are important, but my players particularly like engaging with far-reaching plots and historically-informed intrigue. That creates a bit of a dilemma for gameplay pacing! For my players to properly engage with a setting, they need to be familiar with heaps of lore. While it's sometimes okay to shoot them a document with a history lesson or whatever, it's often preferable to weave that storytelling directly into the campa...
2021-08-18 11:39:53 +0000 UTC View PostSlightly bigger stack of minis for this post! I couldn't help myself and made a fifth tune after completing the first four. Here's what you'll find inside:
I took all the intensity out of "Spike!" and it turns out it's still a good jazz tune!
Look... I have no idea when you'd use this in an RPG sesh, but I guess if your players hit up a 1960s cocktail lounge or something this'll be appropriate? Modern cities, Star Wars cantina analogues, or detective dramas. That's all that comes to mind for me!
Regardless, looping versions of both are provided below. Thanks y'all!
2021-08-09 12:35:16 +0000 UTC View PostOkay fine! You finally asked for it!
Combat Jazz
It's been requested month after month by Discord power user brettod, and somehow he finally wore you all down. Combat Jazz won the track request poll handily this month. To be honest, I've been kind of dreading the inevitable day that it would win. In my head there's FANTASY and then there's JAZZ and never the twain shall meet. I think it took rewatching a few Cowboy Bebop fight scenes to realize that maybe there's a ...
2021-08-09 12:30:35 +0000 UTC View PostI don't really do melodrama too often. Maybe I just prefer subtler emotion in my music, or perhaps there's some deep-rooted insecurity with bearing my soul in an audio context. I mean, it took me over a year of running Music d20 before I released "Sad Song that is Sad." In certain RPG campaigns, however, there are plenty of extremely heightened emotional moments! I know that my own campaigns feature...
2021-08-02 13:05:37 +0000 UTC View PostI think one of the fundamental strengths of a good RPG party is the way in which the individual adventurers may not be have teamed up together under normal circumstances. A smarmy bard, an idealistic holy knight, the edgy rogue, the practical barbarian. This hearkens back to the Fellowship of the Ring, of course (the OG D&D party, as far as I'm concerned). In times of great need, once antagonistic forces may put aside old differences and ally with each other for the greater good (see: Wat...
2021-08-02 12:57:22 +0000 UTC View PostWe made it another month! From what I can tell, summer is a time where lots of folks end up with scheduling conflicts for their weekly sessions. Let me send out a prayer to all y'all who are trying to make your campaigns work despite busy calendars.
Next up, I want to mention a new project I've just launched with my friends Cze and Peku and 2021-08-01 13:09:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Note: Please send in track requests for the August track request poll! Limit one per patron. If you submit more than one, I'm just going to take whichever you write first. Drop it in the comments or the Discord. Thanks!
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Hey, what's this? Minis: Vol: 4? If you're a patron at the Enthusiast Tier, that means you've missed out on two additions sets of Minis since I 2021-07-26 13:46:47 +0000 UTC View Post
I really love it when a track of mine so neatly fits into two halves. This week I've split "Helgisiðir" into a percussion stem, and a "most of the other stuff" stem.
"Helgisiðir (Just Percussion)" is perfect for combat, especially something that might last a while. Your players aren't going to get bored of this, but I think it actually sets the scene quite well. Throw this on right before a lengthy battle where you're going to want them paying attention. It's got a few different inten...
2021-07-22 00:33:56 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm so happy to finally get a chance to collaborate with Eddie of MapGuffin. Unlike many of the cartographers you might already know from the RPG space or my other collaborations, MapGuffin is all about beautifully rendered 3D maps. He offers multiple perspectives, incredible animate maps that are VTT ready, and a range of variants for all of your diverse RPG needs. If you couldn't guess by the dope image above, MapGuffin a...
2021-07-22 00:27:44 +0000 UTC View PostI love making music that people listen to. I spent years making tune after tune and playing gig after gig to tiny tiny audiences. It was fun, and I learned a lot, but I'm much happier now that (thanks to you!), I have a decent audience for my work. That said, during one of my bouts of having 0 fans, I decided "screw it, let's get a Masters" and proceeded to spend 2 years studying graduate music composition. Suffice it to say, the music I made there (while good, IMO!) was quite a bit ...
2021-07-16 13:47:00 +0000 UTC View PostBut nothing I could say could even adumbrate the loathsome, unholy, non-human, extra-galactic horror and hatefulness and unutterable evil of that forbidden spawn of black chaos and illimitable night.
-H.P. Lovecraft "Out of the Aeons
This month's winner of the track request poll was discord user Phratzz with their request of "The Realm of an Outer God, of the...
2021-07-16 13:36:27 +0000 UTC View Post
One of my favorite tropes in tabletop RPGs is throwing players into a magical scenario that is ambiguously dangerous. Some illusory terrain and spells of charming can lead to dire consequences, but just as often there are mysterious forces that, while powerful, don't wish immediate harm on the players. My newest Spotify playlists DnD Enchanted is all about those liminal arcane ...
2021-07-15 18:08:32 +0000 UTC View PostThat goofy '80s synthwave is great for campy horror, but sometimes you just need big rock drums and guitars. I usually don't use too much rock music in my own campaigns, but man... whipping it out every once in a while can really set a fire under your party's asses.
"The Camp Clearwater Massacre (Rock)" is ideal for the ultimate climax in a horror adventure, especially if the tides finally turn and the party is laying some smackdown on the villain. Smacking a demogorgon with a bas...
2021-07-10 17:54:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Got a cool collab for all of you today! Here's a brand new adventure from my collaborator DMDave, one of the premier adventure writers for D&D 5e. He and his crew teamed up with Roll20 to release The Camp Clearwater Massacre, a throwback thriller adventure that shows off Roll20's dynamic lighting engine. Dave asked me to make some John Carpenter-esque music for the adventure, and I was more than happy to...
2021-07-10 17:49:13 +0000 UTC View PostMore minis today! Let me tell ya: these are really quite a bit of fun to make. Normal tracks take me so long to write, record, mix, and master, but these minis I can really just plow through. It's a nice change of pace to be able to just focus on one idea, get that to working condition, and call it done. Hopefully you're enjoying these too!
Okay, today's bundle:
Sometimes it's good to throw challenges at your players that are simply beyond their combat abilities. Discovering a horrific creature or a giant battalion at low levels and just KNOWING that they'll TPK you if you try to fight it can cause a ton of great tension. In those moments, it's best to slink away into the shadows and attempt to complete your mission without alerting their watchful gaze.
"The Fiend Approaches (Shadow)" is great for all of those stealthy approaches. Though the na...
2021-07-02 13:22:12 +0000 UTC View PostMy players will often attempt to go the noncombat route whenever possible. Especially against humanoid enemies, it rarely seems like the best move to literally murder people when anyone has "Good" written down for their alleged alignment. That's why it's occasionally very satisfying to throw true embodiments of evil at them so that they get a total moral pass when it comes to engaging with D&D's combat mechanics. No one is going to say "actually, let's just trying talking to this de...
2021-07-02 13:14:00 +0000 UTC View Post2021 is halfway done! I certainly hope this year is turning out better for all of you than 2020. I know that my year is going quite well, and I'm excited to keep sharing awesome music that I'm working on.
But of course, it's the first of the month which means it's time for another track request poll. This month I had to limit requests to ONE per patron to avoid overflowing Patreon's polling tool. I think we're going to continue with that for fear of having some folks get 2 request...
2021-07-01 13:20:23 +0000 UTC View PostIt's very satisfying for me to strip an arrangement waaay back to its barest skeleton. It's even better when I can be smart about building a track intentionally to be peeled apart. For "Aldyn's Gone Dark," I started with the piano basically every step of the way, which left a really nice piano-shaped track to reveal itself from the embers of the original's epicness.
"Aldyn's Gone Dark (Piano)" is moody. Throw it on after a character death, or right when the party is getti...
2021-06-24 12:43:26 +0000 UTC View Post