Greetings to our amazing community, and welcome to the eighteenth edition of our Stars of the VTT Galaxy interview series. In this series, we illuminate the already bright stars that make up our community of Bazaar Creators.
In this edition, we have the pleasure of talking with a fantasy music composer who frequently releases content on The Bazaar, with albums and themes befitting every possible situation in your RPG campaign.
We are happy to present our interview with Sean, the mastermind behind McRoMusic, a skilled creator who has contributed countless songs that are ready for use for the discerning Foundry VTT GM.
Our sky consists of many stars. Each of them illuminating our planet. As you can guess, the stars are you. Yes, it's you, the great content creators who, in your own unique way, shine on our worlds. Thank you for being part of our heavenly sky and weaving the fabric of our Community.
Let's meet today's star.
Introduce yourself, for those who don’t know what you do, what would you describe yourself as doing for a living?
Sean: I'm Sean, a.k.a. McRoMusic, a self-employed TTRPG creator based in Indiana. I write and release new music weekly through Patreon and compile collections of those songs into themed Foundry module playlists. In addition to music, I do a lot of other work in the TTRPG space including writing, social media, and VTT conversion services.
What’s one random fact about you?
Sean: I'm a very boring person, it's tough coming up with a random fact on the spot.🤣
I almost quit music altogether back in maybe 2014, and the pandemic is actually what brought me back around to trying to make it as a musician, and now here we are.
Can you tell us about your music background? We see that you’ve been making music for nearly 20 years, but how did you get started creating TTRPG-focused music?
Sean: I started playing saxophone in the middle school band and just fell in love with music in that classroom. Not long after that, I got into some different punk and metal bands and was like: "I have to learn how to play the guitar now". So I talked my grandparents into buying me a crappy guitar and amp at a flea market (fast forward to me spending entirely too much money regularly on new guitar gear).
This was also about the time that I got way into Nobuo Uematsu's music from the Final Fantasy series and even attempted to fumble my way through making a game in RPG Maker (unsuccessfully).
Throughout high school, I played in some local bands that never really went anywhere in addition to high school band, music history, and music theory classes, and tried for a short period to break into composing music for indie video games (again unsuccessfully).
For a short period, I also did some church worship music, before taking a big step back from music for a few years.
I got started specifically with TTRPG music after some friends had started doing Patreon for maps and that sort of thing. I thought that it would be cool doing music in that space, and that it probably wouldn't be too different from trying to score fantasy video games.
In addition to composing TTRPG music, you are also a writer and designer for Brave New Worlds. How do you balance your time and creativity between composing music and doing work for Brave New Worlds, i.e. what challenges do you face in balancing both workloads, and how do you overcome them?
Sean: The good thing about Brave New Worlds is that there's usually a pretty big chunk of time between big projects that would require a lot of writing or designing, but when we are working on a larger project I rely heavily on my trusty weekly planner Trello board to organize everything I need to do into daily to-do lists. It holds me accountable and the feeling of ticking a check box or moving an item into a "Done" column is nice sometimes.
Where does the inspiration come from in the work you do? Or perhaps, your “muse”?
Sean: I try to find inspiration everywhere! For both McRoMusic and Brave New Worlds or any other project I'm working on: movies, TV shows, video games, books, anime, even going on a walk or gardening or doing housework. It's fun to try to find something fantastic in the mundane.
You create epic fantasy, sci-fi, and modern music for TTRPGs. What elements do you think are essential in creating music that enhances a fantasy tabletop experience?
Sean: Most of the time, "less is more" when it comes to writing music for tabletop. The music in that setting needs to enhance the story that's unfolding, and not distract from it.
For fantasy, I typically lean heavily into a simple orchestra of just strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Sometimes, if that doesn't feel quite right, I'll experiment with adding different synth sounds, or adding in some live instruments like guitar or mandolin on top of the sample libraries I use.
In regards to style, I feel you can rarely go wrong by trying to emulate Celtic instrumental Music or Howard Shore's soundtracks for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Can you walk us through your creative process when composing a new piece of fantasy music? How do you decide on the themes and moods for your compositions?
Sean: The process varies from piece to piece, but I almost always start trying to plunk out a melody or a chord progression on a piano. If I feel stuck, I might just open up TikTok and type in something like "epic chord progression", or get up and do something else until inspiration strikes. I'll try to come up with the whole piece on just piano first, and then chop it up and move things around when I start transferring that piano piece into a full orchestra.
I rarely decide on a theme or mood at the beginning, and just let the music go where it goes and try to figure out the theme later. Knowing that I need to make a themed playlist out of what I'm writing also forces me a bit to try to stick with one particular theme for a while. For instance, right now, I've decided to do a nautical-themed playlist next, so a lot of inspiration is being pulled from Pirates of the Caribbean, Our Flag Means Death, Black Sails, etc.
How has the support of your patrons impacted your ability to create music? How did the feedback influence your approach to future projects?
Sean: I definitely don't have a lot of patrons, but the feeling that you get from someone who's not a friend or family member, giving you money to support your art, is indescribable. Definitely a huge motivator. I don't really get a ton of feedback, but what little I've received has been mostly positive, which again is a huge motivator.
Patreon has definitely been an important part of the process, but it's hard to really grow that without having a built-in audience already, and I feel like music is an even harder sell because there's not a visual component to it unless I take the time to throw together some stock footage set to my music, or something like that. The uncertainty of how Patreon will perform led me to expand and offer my music on as many platforms as possible. That's how I ended up at The Forge!
What are your goals and aspirations for your Patreon page? Are there any exciting plans or upcoming projects you'd like to share with your patrons?
Sean: Really the only goal I have currently is simply that patrons get access to new music first before it's out on streaming services or up on storefronts.
There are a few upcoming projects I'm excited about, that will have some bonus content for patrons!
I'm writing a Wild West Mörk Borg book with my wife Lenora and will be working on a dark western soundtrack to go along with it.
Brave New Worlds is working toward launching a crowdfunding campaign for a spiral-bound book of battlemaps that will include ambient and combat music for different biomes.
And my friend Zach Moeller and I are working on a 5e mega-dungeon adventure Kickstarter that will include a dungeon synth soundtrack.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a fantasy music composer?
Sean: AI, low streaming royalties, and market saturation are probably the biggest. To a lesser extent, accidentally writing a melody from a popular song or piece of music into one of my pieces, realizing it later, and having to come up with something new.
Speaking of AI, are there any specific ethical considerations you think TTRPG creators should keep in mind when using AI or incorporating AI-generated content into their games? How do you navigate those ethical dilemmas?
Sean: Honestly, I'm hoping that AI-generated content is viewed as critically as things like NFTs and cryptocurrencies and goes away, or at least gets made fun of to the point that people feel shame for using it. It's heartening to hear the younger generations refer to AI art as "boomer art."
Creators that are using AI in their products have no place in the community. When I'm sourcing graphics, I either use artists that I know or I am very diligently looking at stock graphics.
With that said, I don't have particularly strong feelings in regards to people using AI content in their home games if that is what is available to them, and they aren't trying to monetize their game.
We know you have worked with several other creators in the TTRPG space and released tons of collaborations! What was your favorite (if you feel comfortable saying)?
Sean: I don't know that I could pick one! If I had to pick, maybe this collaboration album for Dragonlance.
What are some of your favorite pieces of content?
Sean: Maybe a bit of recency bias, but I'm really proud of the soundtrack I created for the Brave New Worlds adventure, TOMB. It's a mix of orchestral fantasy music with heavy metal guitars and drums.
Who are your biggest musical influences, and how have they shaped your style? Are there any specific soundtracks or composers in the fantasy genre that you particularly admire?
Sean: Most recently, Eric W. Brown and Yasunori Mitsuda's work on Sea of Stars and Bear McCreary's Rings of Power soundtrack have been big ones. Bear's work on the God of War games is pretty stellar as well. As I mentioned earlier, huge fan of Nobuo Uematsu's work, specifically Final Fantasy 6, 7, 8, and 9. Joe Hisaishi's work with Studio Ghibli is also a constant.
Also, when it comes to inspiration for big epic boss battle-type music, you can't go wrong with any of the FromSoftware games.
Do you have the opportunity/time to play games by yourself? If so, what game systems do you play? What VTT do you use?
Sean: Sometimes! I've played fewer games than I would like, but I've had the opportunity to play 5e, the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG, Crash Pandas, Cyberpunk RED, Fallout, Tales from the Loop, Forbidden Lands, and Mörk Borg. I have The One Ring, Alien, and Blades in the Dark on my shelf, but haven't had the chance to give them a spin yet.
If our group is using a VTT, it's almost always Foundry.
What kind of improvements do you want to see in it?
Sean: On the creator side of things, I would love it if there was just more time between major releases. It's not a fun time updating a backlog of content to newer versions, but that's part of the job!
On the user side, just continuing to make changes to make the program more user-friendly. It's come a long way, but Foundry is definitely not the easiest VTT to get acquainted with. The customization options really outweigh those minor negatives though.
Do you have anything you want to say to the greater TTRPG/VTT community?
Sean: This is probably true for every community, but try not to get sucked into social media drama. It's not worth your time, and it's so easy to go down a rabbit hole and waste an afternoon.
What advice do you have for composers wanting to get into the VTT space? What do you think is the most important skill or quality for success in this field?
Sean: Figure out what sets you apart from your peers. Don't be afraid to ask people who are more successful than you for advice. They'll almost always certainly be happy to share tips and tricks and tell you things to avoid.
Define what getting better looks like for you, and figure out ways to focus on those things. Don't be afraid of failure. Don't be a perfectionist. The most important quality to have for any creative endeavor has got to be perseverance.
Looking ahead, what are your plans for the future as an RPG creator?
Sean: Desiccated Earth by Lenora's Tiny Hut, Worlds of Wonder by Brave New Worlds, and Beneath Titan's Cairn by Zach Moeller are all on the horizon.
I'll also continue to release new music on streaming services, The Forge's Bazaar and other storefronts, and Patreon.
Further down the road, I have two other projects with Lenora's Tiny Hut that are in the early stages of development.
The End of the World is Small will be an all-ages RPG for fans of The Borrowers, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Grounded, and Fallout.
Balbina's Guide to Gourmet Monsters is going to be a system-agnostic monster cookbook inspired by Delicious in Dungeon.
Thank you Sean once again for your time and willingness for this nice conversation!
Sean: Thanks so much for this opportunity! Really great questions and really made me think about a lot of these things for the first time in quite some time.🙂
You can follow the image links below to learn more about McRoMusic, and follow them on various social media:
