Gaming Music 2: group culture

Full audio gaming

I decided to revisit the topic after seeing a comment on http://www.roleplayingtips.com. To recap the previous gaming music post, our BESM game typically had continuous music. I attributed this largely to the group's openness to technology. That's an incomplete answer. I realized that the greater enabler was the openness to new ideas, the sense of group responsibility and the willingness to delegate.

For starters, there was a tradition of participative GMing. Much of the setting and the flavor was determined in consensus - it's inherent in setting up a BESM game. It was similar with the music. For each story arc we chose our soundtrack. We had an opening song and an ending song. There was a menu for combat and mood pieces. Whatever we failed to cover in advance was left to the discretion of our Audio Tech volunteer.

The Audio Tech/ Music GM/ Sound guy had unusual duties. Part of the skill set was that he'd have to think like a GM - sometimes to the point of second guessing. When the group confronted an enemy, the sound tech would start looking for the combat music. Or he'd switch from background to comedy when people started goofing. It didn't earn any particular reward save that feeling of participating in a well run game. I sometimes think of this duty as Music GM.