Will Savino

Subtle Fluid | Collaboration with Stillfleet

Rad Music d20 logo art by Erich Lazar

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If you're in my Discord, you know I'm a massive fan of a new tabletop system called Stillfleet. I've been helping its creators Wythe (who contributed a whole bunch of weird lore and mechanics to Arkus: Epiphytic Ephemera) pl...

Sparser Ethereal Music

I know you guys love those less active variants, so here's a less dramatic version of "Be Whole Again." Realistically, I imagine this version is going to get more use than the original. Short of some truly satisfying conclusions, the other piece may simple be too impactful for use in the average game session. This more low-key version is far more appropriate for a variety of non-threatening situations: peaceful cities, places of worship, and divine planes far from fear. 

I think th...

Cloud Temple | Collaboration with Domille's Wondrous Works

So many tabletop RPG canonically dictate that some version of heaven and hell are demonstrably real. That's an insane detail that I think most campaigns do not pay enough attention to! If I knew without a doubt that there is a real heaven, and that it's a big mountain with angels and frolicking wildlife, I would probably spend more time in church. As such every fantasy campaign needs more church maps, and boy do I have the ultimate church map for yo...

Harp Musings

I imagine music is used non-diegetically in most campaigns. That is: when the GM plays a track, the characters aren't LITERALLY hearing that music in-game. Of course, if you're playing a Michaël Ghelfi ambience, that might not be the case (i.e. the characters are actually hearing the sounds of a bustling city or drippy cave or whatever), but most of my music is like a cinematic underscore: just something to establi...

Quiet Crossroads

When I'm DMing, I often like to use small towns as sort of "social dungeons": areas where the players have a clear goal, a variety of potential routes and leads, and in which the NPCs they meet represent potential aids and potential obstacles. I'm currently running a little murder mystery that spans an entire village, and thinking of that adventure as a dungeon really helps to clarify how the city should function in game terms. 

Every quaint city has the potential for intr...

Track Requests: April 2021

Note: My next Foundry module will be coming out in a couple days. This will only be available at the Virtuoso Tier and up, so if Foundry modules are something you're looking for, please double check your pledge amount. Also please note that Foundry modules will never feature exclusive music. They will always consist of tracks I've already released on the main feed.

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Whelp, after winning 3 track request polls in a row, Dice Will R...

Underwater Sparseness

It has been reconfirmed yet again that y'all love the ambient and sparse mixes of my tracks. That's great, because they're very satisfying to make! I have a tendency to... let's say "overcomplicate" my tracks (yes, I know that you already know that), so it's extra fun to strip away all the fat and find that there's still some great music underneath. 

I took away everything superfluous from "Leukothea" to find the purest version of the track: just ostinato and melody with no extra d...

The Last Rest | Collaboration with J.Dungeonmaster

Note: Please submit track requests for the April poll! Limit 2 per patron, and please submit them in a way that makes it easy for me to post. Drop them in the comments here or in the Discord.

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Greetings from the bottom of the ocean. 

This week I bring you a beautiful collaboration with J.Dungeonmaster, a tabletop cartographer I have been a fa...

Lovecraftian Ambience

As a rule, it is unwise to engage an Old One in direct combat. They exist outside our understanding and can end worlds with a thought. THEREFORE, it's usually best if you explore their realms with no intention of entering into a fight. If you're exploring cultist lairs, or the farthest reaches of the known cosmology, you probably shouldn't need big bombastic exciting music. Just keep your head down and try not to go mad.

That's when you ought to put on "Phth'uub-Phthyn (Ambient)," a tra...

Lovecraftian Horror Breaking Through Dimensional Walls

Every couple of months, I can reliably count on you all to vote for the track request that is unambiguously the most difficult to score. "Lovecraftian Horror Breaking Through Dimensional Walls" is right up there with "God Being Freed From an Extraplanar Prison" in terms of "how can I possible do this justice?" It was not an easy sound to achieve, but I think I've got it!

"Phth'uub-Phthyn" has cult vibes, distorted moans, and the charging pulses of some betentacled monster shatt...

2021: What do we need more of?

Hey y'all! Vol. 5 is rapidly approaching completion, and I'm currently planning how I'll round out the track list. I conducted one of these polls last year, and it was quite illuminating. What do YOU consider my library to lacking? I typically like to think of my tracks as each falling into one of the five general categories below, and I try to cater the balance of those categories to the needs of my patrons. 

So what do you think? What should I focus on as I fini...

Synthetic Tension

In general, I try to avoid using too many synthesizers in my RPG music. I use sooo many synths in my video game work, and since the majority of you are playing in fantasy settings, I find the sounds of lutes and strings and war drums and whatnot are usually more appropriate. 

THAT SAID, I think if you want to build true cinematic edgy tension, you gotta whip out those crunchy, distorted synth sounds. This variant of "Not Easily Forgotten" does exactly that. Of course, this...

You're Gonna Carry That Weight

Presenting players with meaningful choices and then showing them the consequences is one of the most satisfying parts of tabletop gaming for both players and GMs. There's nothing I love more than giving my players a moral quandary and seeing them waffle on what to do. Sure you want to save all the innocent prisoners, but that means 1) fighting the guards, 2) becoming wanted men, and 3) going on the run. Is that worth it? 

Sometimes, satisfying play involves making imperfec...

Announcing: Music d20 Foundry Playlists

Hello everyone! Today, I'm bringing Music d20 into 2021 by finally releasing my most requested feature: Foundry integration! For those of you who use Foundry VTT for your online RPG sessions, this will help you to seamlessly include my music in your games without futzing about with file management or configuring your own playlist modules.

Here's how it works:

• Each month, I will ...
  2021-03-10 13:00:45 +0000 UTC View Post

Sparse Fortress

Exploring long-abandoned castles, cathedrals, and catacombs is such a staple of fantasy RPGs. Those moments before combat starts or traps are sprung can be incredibly moody and tense. For music, you want something that evokes 1) space, 2) mood, and 3) flavor. I believe "Saga of Stone (Ambient)" does just that. You hear a track like this, and you know that 1) this place is big and reverberant, 2) there's a Dark Soulsian sadness in these crumbling ruins, and 3) we are indeed in a far-o...

Fortress | Collaboration with The Goblin Explorer

A gust of wind howls across the vertical walls of the bottomless abyss that opens on both sides. The bridge you're walking on bears the signs of some past battles, the unfortunate assaulters were fended off and now they lie here abandoned. A massive wooden gate bars the way, but with a simple push, the portal opens, squicking on the hinges. The place is abandoned, whoever inhabited it is now gone for a long time, whatever inhabits it now is a nameless horror. You feel abandoned as this ol...