Welcome the the P.C.A.G. music vault. I've collected all the stuff you've heard from the years of online game reporting and dumped it here, along with titles and a brief description of each. Except where noted, all pieces are original compositions by yours truly, created and rendered with the help of Passport's "Music Time Deluxe" version 3.0.
One quick note (yes, I know), all the following passages were composed and posted with Netscape's MIDI equipment in mind. If you're using Internet Explorer (poor fool), don't mind iffen the tunes herein seem a little odd. The two MIDI thingamagiggers don't quite jibe.
This is the first complete tune I put together, and although it looks a little sloppy on paper, I enjoyed myself composing it. I think it has a nice, breezy relaxed feel, sort of an afternoon off, with nothing but a cold beer to occupy your time.
Since the first theme was kind of relaxed for our group, I thought the next should be more intense, focusing on the beloved holy grail of the rolemaster player; a roll of 96 or higher. This happy occasion lets the player roll again and add the totals together. (rolemaster revolves around two ten-sided dice, players roll both. One represents a "tens" column, the other the "ones". Thus you can have a roll of anything from 01 to 00, which represents 100). If you're a rolemaster player who wants to really do some damage, you sweat for this. I think the drum solos nicely duplicate the different rolling styles. Who needs Vegas?
I put this one together when the club first decided to try Spacemaster, and although it was more than a year before we actually played the game, the tune is strongly influenced by the endless beat and pulse of machinery, lightly overlaid by the humanity which created it.
Okay, okay. It's weird, and the master himself is probably revolving at this moment. Oh well, I like it. Anyway, if he had access to Taiko drums and a trap set, who's to say what he would have done with them?
I put this little number together when Chuck Fusner's (aka the Cleric) character Darcosi was singlehandedly trying to rescue the party from the clutches of a race which specializes in cyborg implants. Don't think Star Trek here, kids. This is a very sophisticated method of insuring the absolute loyalty of your servants, just suck out their brains and implant a microcomputer CPU to operate the living corpse. Anyway, Cleric and I worked out all the nastiness with a series of decision point e-mails, which inspired the suspenseful beat and rhythm.
Inspired by Cleric's Pauk-Chik, the little fuzzy creatures that can be so maddeningly cute (if only they didn't have the ability to control time like that!) I put this bouncy little tune together. Just like the critters, the tune wraps up suddenly, leaving you hanging (or in our case stumbling about), wondering what happened.
Okay, well. This one is directly adapted from the movie "Wind". But they couldn't be bothered to release the sound track (which has some of the best movie music I've heard), so I had to resort to the ol' Musictime program. The result is, I think, a nice lighthearted theme for the fun times before and after the actual gaming.
I thought this little tune nicely captured the exotic sounds, sights and smells one would encounter when entering a marketplace, particularly one in a foreign land with different customs and traditions.
The last watch of the evening, the Dawn Watch is almost as popular as the first watch. I can imagine the guard standing a short way off of the party, watching as the sky slowly brightens over the fields and forests and the day returns.
What would any collection of music be without a Christmas tune or four tossed in?
The soul of the adventurer is called by the open road. The chance for adventure, action, all forms of challenge lay just beyond the next turn or over the next rise. If the party can harmonize their strengths they can become invincible.
Here's a little (well, I guess not so little) tune I've been fooling with since the Spacemaster days. It's got a great backbeat and rhythm, but it was hell to fit the durn' thing together and make it work. I think it's a great theme for all those action moments, when the gamemaster has to just shake his head and go along with the party's insane, stupid, over-the-top maneuver which just might work.
Magic in the Anduian Chronicle story is far more powerful than the original Rolemaster rules define. It's relatively easy to generate a character with enormous power, even at the lower levels. The fun part is that although the magic itself is powerful and easy to use, it is also wildly unpredictable. It's like giving a sixteen year old a formula one racer; sure he can go fast, but with what level of control? It takes a lot of nerve to try the powerful stuff, and this theme is a tribute to the risk-takers.
In either Rolemaster or Spacemaster campaigns, the one thing my little group of adventurers rarely enjoy is the calm journey from place to place. When it does happen, and they can relax, let their guard down, maybe even sleep in a real bed, the luxury must be overwhelming.
One of my favorite parts of the game is when the party encounters the remnants of an ancient civilization or forgotten world. It's fun to create and watch the expressions of mingled suspicion and wonder as they explore places long forgotten.
His mighty Strength we will wield;
Our foes will Fall on the Field,
We shall never Yield!
Sometimes the party is forced by circumstance to enter a passage or room which all but screams stay out!. The dark way is menacing, but is the party's strength and wit enough to overcome the hidden dangers?
Night has fallen, the wandering party is at rest around a small fire. A few have brought their instruments along, perhaps a lute or a dulcimer lulls the party into a companionable silence with the soft strains of a simple folk tune.
All pieces are the property of the P.C.A.G. and may not be reproduced in any form without express written permission. 1998 - Charles Smith 111.