The Music of Orbital Blues
Scoring the Rock ‘n Roll Future that Never Was (and No One Wanted…)
Howdy to all the miserable interstellar miscreants, BE/HOLD here.
You’ve probably noticed the rip roaring music in the background of My First Dungeon Presents: Orbital Blues. That music was written by your friendly-local-cloud-of-cosmic-dust BE/HOLD (aka me).
As soon as I learned about Orbital Blues, I was hooked. As a musician, I found all of the musical references within the game to be very evocative. They painted a crystal clear picture of what this world was supposed to be, and I quickly got sucked into the galaxy within those pages.
Once the season was confirmed and we were discussing the music for the show, I kept picturing a cover band playing songs at a dive bar on the edges of the universe; some shitty trucker joint full of cigarette smoke, cheap beer, and a singer that couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. I imagined the crew of The 21st Night of September rolling into some intergalactic pub with a group playing covers from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. There would be many of the same instruments and sounds that those songs had back in the 1900s, but there would be some retro-futuristic element, like synthesizers and samples, or an android lead singer. This image became my guiding light while writing the score for this game.
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Before I started writing the score, I asked for musical influences from each of the cast members, and got some really incredible–and really diverse–song selections, many of which you can find on Brian’s Orbital Blues playlist. I also got a list of traits for each character. Things like “really sad”, “really really sad”, “whiny sad”, “really normal”, etc. and some commentary on each character’s personality, which included some specific musical notes for each of the characters. The most genius of these notes was from Abby who said that Kumari’s theme should have some motif from Happy Birthday in it, which you can hear in the last section of ‘The Boss’.
About 2/3rds of the way into our production process we had gone through a couple of rounds of revisions on the songs and most were coming along quite nicely. This meant I would easily meet my deadline. Then I received a text from Brian. The message went something like, “There may be a reason for the songs from the soundtrack to play as if it were coming out of a radio, would it be possible to add lyrics?” I replied “Great idea but no, there is definitely not enough time.” Lyric writing, while something I enjoy, isn’t exactly my strong suit, and the added complication of having to record vocals for each of the songs only added to my work load and put stress on an already tight deadline.
There was just one issue: That text haunted me. It haunted me mostly because it was such a good idea. So I slept on it. I listened to some of the stuff I had written. And slowly, but surely, lyrics started coming out. First in a trickle and then all at once. A day came where I had written lyrics for 3 of the 5 character themes and all I had left was Kumari and [blank]. I was hanging out with Elliot that evening and I told him how I had gotten stuck, and he reminded me that [blank] is mute and thus, thematically, it would make sense for his song to not have any lyrics. I was again struck by an absolutely incredible idea from the Many Sided Media team. This is the moment when the score felt really cemented in the world and in the characters and I knew we had the workings of something really special.
The end of the project was a familiar tune. After some back and forth on lyrics and composition, one or two more rounds of edits, some mixing and mastering, the score was done. Looking back on it, I can’t believe it was completed in time (I ended up having 21 days between receiving the character briefs and the deadline), but it was so much fun to do and I hope it comes across in the recordings.
You can listen to (and purchase) the full OST on Bandcamp.
Members of the My First Dungeon Patreon at the Dice Pool tier and above have access to the full Deluxe OST TODAY!
Additionally, songs from the OST will be coming out weekly on your streaming service of choice.
You can follow BE/HOLD on Twitter and Instagram where I post my book and TTRPG hot takes, as well as really bad memes, and I am very regularly active on the Many Sided Media Discord.
The Page That Got Me: Orbital Blues
It’s All About The Crew
There is a certain kind of game that always manages to grab me—the one where I am immediately struck by 5, 10, 20 different character ideas that are all competing to be brought to the table. Orbital Blues does this with just one spread.
A Galaxy of Potential Identities
Writing by Sam Sleney & Zach Cox, Editing by Jared Sinclair
When you start playing Orbital Blues, the heart of your character will live in their Gambit (a choice of special skill/talent) and especially in their Trouble (a struggle with their past that will follow them throughout the adventure). Their soul, on the other hand, lives in their title.
In the pages that follow, Zach and Sam have crafted a variety of evocative and compelling Troubles and Gambits with not a wrong choice among them. For that reason, it could be a source of rather hard-to-overcome choice paralysis.
BUT, the team here has done something brilliant by first presenting you with this spread and your choice of title. Each option narrows in your vision on a potential character that smallest bit to turn that choice of Gambit and Trouble into an exciting corroboration of this decision rather than a decision all its own. Your character’s soul has taken shape and you need only to flesh them out.
A Cluttered Delight
Layout by Lone Archivist
There are over 50 different fonts on this page. A nightmare if you were to simply describe it to a graphic designer. Lone Archivist manages to create absolute cohesion, firmly within the world of Orbital Blues, through every chosen font and design. Each font design feels like the absolute best choice for the title it depicts. This is not the first time that Lone Archivist has been behind the layout of a Page That Got Me and for good reason—they’ve shown to be a true master of the craft.
A Visual Dialect of a Visual Language
Art by Josh Clark
While Josh Clark’s incredible illustrations are not in this spread, it fits beautifully within the visual language he has created throughout the Orbital Blues book. As you approach and move away from pages 15-16, you’ll find images that evoke many of these titles through snapshots of sad space cowboy action, tension, or ponderance.
Orbital Blues is, at its core, about the crew and their journey together through the reckoning of their Troubles. As you brainstorm and imagine the crew of sad space cowboys with these titles, a near infinite combination of possible crews will emerge before you, ready to climb aboard and lift off.
GM Cheat Codes
Start On The Action! (From Orbital Blues: Session 1)
This is the first in a new series called GM Cheat Codes. Each entry will contain a valuable lesson for GMs I learned from an episode of My First Dungeon, broken down so you can employ it at your own table. First up: The benefits of immediate combat.
One of the best decisions I made with our Orbital Blues season was to kick things off with a foot chase.
Starting in the middle of the action–in medias res, as the film student in me is dying to tell you–is a boon to both the players and the GM. The opening few minutes of our Orbital Blues season are some of my favorites from any of our seasons because the players were able to learn about their characters through their actions, they were able to use the mechanics as guide rails to get started, and it allowed them to immediately play with all the shiny toys on their character sheets.
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Whenever I play a new character, I don’t really know who they are until they make their first real move and I have to roll the dice. This process is dramatically sped up when you are thrown into initiative and are presented with the clear goals of an encounter. Does my character try to sneak up on the bandit camp or do they charge in before they can grab their swords? Do they try to intimidate or persuade? Do they take the safe path or the exciting one? The limitations of an encounter force the player to make active choices, and it is those choices that best illuminate a character. And the faster a player understands their character, the faster they will find themselves comfortable at the table and immersed in the story.
Learn By Doing (And By Doing Immediately)
Writers often lament the terror of a blank page. For TTRPG players, that fear and indecision comes from the choice paralysis that accompanies narration like, “You’re in a tavern. What do you do?” That’s an extreme example, but the point stands: Without some guidance, anyone will have a difficult time deciding what to do.
By giving the players a gift like “You’re chasing someone. How do you try to catch them?” you limit the things they can do and give them guide rails to help them to get out of their own heads and make that first exciting move. And while they’re looking for that first move, they can lean on the mechanics of the game.
Let Them Play With Their Toys!
Character creation is often one of the most enjoyable parts of playing a TTRPG. For new games you figure out the mechanics and try to express your character’s personality through your choices, and for games you’ve played many times before you might try a new, weird combination or min-max your way to an epic combo. After doing all that work, the last thing any player wants to do is wait multiple hours–or even multiple sessions–to do the thing their character was built to do.
Put another way: They did their homework, now let them have dessert!
By jumping headfirst into an encounter, you give your players the chance to try out all the cool abilities and moves right away. The faster they have that first “Hell yeah!” moment, the faster they are able to buy into the game.
Upcoming Schedule
Godspeed, Space Cowboys
10/24 - Episode 2 (Talkback on Patreon)
10/31 - Episode 3 (Talkback on Patreon)
11/7 - Episode 4 (Talkback on Patreon)
11/14 - Episode 5 (Talkback on Patreon)
11/21 - Full Cast Talkback
The beginning of EP 1 was an INCREDIBLE start and I will definitely be itemizing that cheat code