November 30, 2024: Make Your Own Mysterious Song

I recently told you all about how the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet had been found. That news continues to delight me, so my mind has drifted to it again for inspiration. Namely, I realize how easy it would be to make one's own mysterious song for a tabletop RPG.

Of the countless ways to do it, one is to find a song that fits the game's themes and that doesn't have too many views or likes online. Record it with a phone's "memo" function (audio fidelity is not important and is probably a detriment!), and then run it through whatever filters in the free audio-editing software Audacity make it sound suitably grungy, mysterious, or tantalizing. If need be, chop it to just a clip – maybe one without enough discernable lyrics to be searched online. Now let the players be intrigued.

What might the song mean? That's up to you! It could be a distorted clue left by an imperiled ally, evidence of a shifted Mandela Effect universe, or an arcane threat disguised as music in a horror campaign. Or maybe it's just something weird but (probably) harmless.

-- Steven Marsh