Tabletop Symphony
A living score for every adventure.
I’m exploring how music can follow the emotional shape of live tabletop play—without asking the Game Master to manage another thing.
The product idea
Music should follow the room.
The emotional timing of a tabletop session changes constantly. Most music tools still ask the GM to search, switch, and anticipate while they are already performing the hardest role at the table.
Tabletop Symphony is my attempt to make the score feel present and responsive while keeping authorship in the music and agency with the GM.
- Story first
- The music serves the scene instead of competing with it.
- Composer built
- Authored musical worlds, shaped to adapt with intention.
- GM controlled
- The storyteller keeps the final say without babysitting audio.
Creating it
From an attention problem to a working companion.
I shaped the product thesis, interaction model, visual language, and working alpha as one connected system. Each iteration had to answer two questions: does the score feel emotionally aware, and does the GM still feel in control?
- 01
Start with attention
Running a world, reading the table, and pacing a story already demand a GM’s full attention. I began with a simple product constraint: the score should support that work without becoming another instrument panel to operate.
- 02
Make emotion legible
I reduced the experience to a small, readable emotional language. Calm, Dramatic, and Intense give the score enough range to feel responsive while staying understandable at a glance.
- 03
Prototype the room, not the demo
Early iterations used replayable scenes and live tabletop conversation to test pacing, trust, and the moments when a GM needs to guide the experience directly.
- 04
Let the system recede
The working alpha became a tap-first companion: clear readiness, visible score state, and direct control when it matters. The complexity stays behind the experience.
The working alpha
Built for the edge of the table.
The current GM-facing surface runs across phone, tablet, and browser. The mechanics behind it remain private; the experience principle is visible: readiness is clear, the score state is readable, and guidance is always close at hand.
The emotional language
Three states. One continuous story.
I kept the visible vocabulary intentionally small. That makes the experience easy to read while the artwork, score, and pacing carry the nuance.
Calm
Exploration and discovery
Dramatic
Tension and consequence
Intense
Danger and climax
Concept to product
A north star, not a specification.
The first concept established atmosphere, hierarchy, and the idea of a single ritual-like activation moment. I used it to set direction, then simplified the working interface around what a GM actually needs during play.
Kept
A clear center of gravity, cinematic restraint, and a compact emotional preview.
Changed
Less ornament, more operational clarity, and controls that remain understandable in the middle of a session.
Design system
Craft documented as a system.
I documented the visual language early so the product surface, scene art, and storytelling all speak in the same voice. The system combines candlelit warmth, orchestral references, and restrained dark-mode utility.
The public boundary
Enough to show the work. Not the playbook.
This page intentionally shares the product premise, experience principles, visual evolution, and current alpha surface.
The mechanics, tuning decisions, evaluation data, music structure, and launch strategy stay private while the product is in development.