VGM Lounge - VGM Quest

Embark on a Musical Journey in VGM Quest - Legends of the Lounge!

VGM Quest is a simple and fun roleplaying style adventure that invites you to join the quest by composing your own video game music! Adopt an NPC encounter, help write their backstory, create a custom music theme and take on the role of that character in the imagined game to influence the outcome of the story of our party of heroes.

In this music-driven campaign, you'll meet fellow composers, forge new friendships, and experience an evolving story where your music and your choices influence the narrative. The journey begins when our band of heroes receive a call to action from the Kingdom of Melodia. Heed the call and bring your creative spirit!

VGM Quest offers a one-of-a-kind RPG style music making experience grounded in your musical imagination. Your compositions will sound the note of destiny for our heroes as the party braves dark forests, ancient ruins, sprawling cities, and realms beyond our imagination. Together, we will weave an unforgettable tapestry of music, myth, and adventure.

Don your adventuring boots, ready your instruments, and join us for the quest of a lifetime! VGM Quest awaits...your music could tip the scales between order and chaos.

Answer the call today - bring your creative spark to VGM Quest and be the bardic hero this world needs! Let your compositions guide the fate of realms.

VGM Quest - Legends of the Lounge, is a new challenge on VGM Lounge. It builds upon the Theme the World Music Quest we held earlier this year, but this time instead of just composing music for a world location, we are building a story that you can all participate in! Think of it as a combination of create-your-own-adventure and a D&D style RPG campaign or video game, where you can influence the outcome of the story by a simple decision by your own character in the game - do you support the party of heroes, or do you support the forces they are battling?!? ⚔️

How do I play? 🎲

The organisers will provide an overarching story arc that plots out the travels of our party of heroes as they move through the locations created in "Theme the World" on a quest to overcome a great threat. The journey will involve a number of encounters with game characters, and you take the role of one of those characters. While the focus is on making music for each of the approved encounters in the story, its not limited to just that! You get to help build the fantasy world and live within it!
You will be:

Creating a character to fit a particular encounter provided by the organisers, designing their background story and artwork (Self-made, commissioned or AI art are all acceptable. Make the artwork a full body, standalone character image with a transparent background that can be overlaid into a video.)
Writing a short story (~500 words) for the encounter telling how you imagine the encounter will unfold. This might be adjusted by the admin team to ensure consistency for the story, but we will retain as much of your input as we can.
Create an environment for the encounter. This can include creating background artwork (16:9 format) for the location. Use the location description and the Region descriptions below to guide your style. Each region is very different, so read before starting!
Most importantly, create a piece of music that tells the story of your character and this encounter. The music should be no more than 3 minutes long for the challenge.

Choose your encounter! ⚔️

Before creating your character you will need to choose one encounter from our provided list of encounters for the chapter. The encounter will outline the type of character, the location of the encounter, and the expected outcome from the encounter. We may provide an NPC name but you can change it to anything you like. There will be as many encounters as there are participants in the round, and many more options. Here are some example encounters to get you thinking.

The party meets a wise old sage in the forest who provides a critical piece of information for their quest. (Help)
The party is ambushed in the mountains by a henchmen sent by the enemy to block their path. (Hinder)
The party finds a traveling merchant in the city who happens to be selling an enchanted item they need for the journey. (Help or Hinder)
The party is challenged to a duel by a mysterious swordsman who wants to test their skills. (Neutral)
The party stumbles upon ancient ruins holding clues about the enemies origins and meets a strange character within. (Help or Hinder)
The party is attacked by a ferocious beast in the wilderness guarding its territory. (Neutral)
and lots, lots more
or.... come up with your own encounter scenario and run it past the organizing team.

To claim an encounter:

All encounters are numbered with a code, so to claim an encounter DM dGecko with the code of the encounter. Once approved you can start work. First in best dressed. Claimed encounters will be crossed off on the website. There are around 100 sample encounters to choose from, or suggest your own. Keep the scope of the encounter small for Chapter one, and get creative. (Read more on the Chapter page.)

Choose your side! ⚖️

Everyone will need to make a choice... do you help the heroes on their quest, or are you working for the bad guys and trying to stop them? Or, will you stay neutral?

Aiding the party of heroes on their quest: If so pick an encounter that has an outcome of "Help", and write the story so the outcome helps the party.
Hinder the party and support their foe instead: If so pick an encounter that has an outcome of "Hinder" and your story should match.
Don't take sides: This encounter won't affect the outcome of the story chapter. If so pick an encounter that has an outcome of "Neutral" and be creative.

If you wish your choice can be keep secret until the end of the round so its a surprise for all (recommended), though there will be plenty of speculation as the round unfolds as to who is supporting who!! ☠️

If an encounter is listed as "Help or Hinder", it means you can decided which way you want to go with your encounter.

You may want to convert a Help encounter into a Hinder encounter, or vice versa to keep everyone guessing. If so, talk to dGecko about that idea.

If you have a great original idea for an encounter, run it past dGecko and we might be able to include it. Keep the scope small.

Your choices will have a direct impact on the outcome of this story chapter! And yes, this is just chapter one of many we hope, and future parties may have a different makeup or server members! (Party members participate in creating the story arc for their chapter.)

Write your story into lore! 🧾

The world is laid out before you (see below), the route the adventurers will take for this chapter has been ordained (see chapter page), and the pieces have been set in motion... so now it is your turn to help write the story.

We will provide the overall story arc, the grand narrative for this game of power, the guide to the story. But each encounter is your story to write. Once you choose your encounter, you can craft that story, the character, the environment, and the music into your page in the greater story arc. There are a couple of rules to follow:

You can't kill off the party or a member of the party. 😋 All characters must end the encounter alive and be able to function to move on to the next encounter in the story, otherwise its a bit of a short game. After we have done a few chapters things might change, as the stakes get higher!!
The party will always follow the defined route for the chapter (as per the region map and story encounter list), so don't write them going somewhere other than preparing them for the next encounter indicated on the chapter page map. In future chapters we will expand their route to include other more perilous regions, and it may open up to use The Underground to slip between regions.
Try to craft an encounter story that will merge into the overarching story arc - the whole chapter story is provided at the start of the round, so please read that first. If your story is not a good fit we may need to rework it, so start with writing a brief of the story and an outcome, and submit that to dGecko for review before going too deep.

Keep your challenge entry to a page (not too long, so up to 500 words), but if you feel motivated to take your story and your character further, there is a forum on the Discord for sharing your vision ("Tell your Own Story"). Some of what you write may be included into the greater lore of VGM Quest and even help drive the future stories. And who knows, if we ever create a real RPG, your characters and stories could feature as well.

Need help with art, or a story idea or character traits, or music...? Get help on the server and collaborate with another member if you wish to. Just remember each person can only provide one encounter submission (but you can source elements from others if you get stuck). That means our artists and non-composers can join in as well, and team up with a composer to provide their music track.

The most important thing is stay true to the story arc and the region descriptions and you will do great!

Make a part of the world yours!

Chapter 1 - Demons Rising

Read the instructions for Chapter 1 - Demons Rising

Timeline - Chapter 1

This challenge will be a special round - Round 7 of the current season. It will start early September and run till the end of October (31/10/2023), so you have a bit more time to work on this one. It is critical that you submit on time as the next stage is to make up a video that will present the entire story from start to end! The aim is to premiere the video as close as possible to the 17th November 2023, the 5th Birthday of the VGM Lounge Discord Server!!

Start: 11-Sept-2023

End: 31-Oct-2023

Premiere: 27th November 2023

Story Summary: The Emperor establishes a dark pact with Cultists of the Wastelands, promising resources and power in exchange for access to a company of monstrous forces that would work for the Empire. It is said that the cultists are summoning up demons from the abyss which they can bind to their commandments. The party must discover all they can about this alliance to report back to the King. The quest takes the party from Homeland, through the Grasslands and into the Wastelands to learn what they can. Here they discover the leader of the cult. The party battles the cult leader and her small body guard before fleeing by ship and sailing back to Melodia.

Who are the heroes for Chapter 1? 🦸

Like all good RGPs we have a small party of unlikely heroes who have been summonsed by the King of Melodia (dGecko) to undertake a dangerous quest to save the lands.

Our party of four heroes are:

Minuet the Bard (Minuet)
Sir RackABox the Knight (RackBox)
Naitra the Mage (NiTRo)
Soda the Rogue (sodakc) - Note: Joins later in the adventure.

On their quest the party will encounter many NPCs at various location in the world. Each encounter is an opportunity for a member of our server community to take their place within the game and within the Lore of Melodia. (One character/encounter per participant per chapter.)

Chapter 2 - Journey into the Desert

Read the instructions for Chapter 2 - Journey into the Desert

Timeline - Chapter 2

This challenge will be a special round - Round 10 of the current season and our 100th composing challenge on VGM Lounge!! It will start early January 2024 and run for 8 weeks until the end of February, so you have a lot more time to work on this one. It is critical that you submit on time as the next stage is to make up another video that will present the entire story from start to end! The aim is to premiere the video sometime in March!!

Start: 2-January-2024

End: 25-February-2024 Now 3-March-2024

Premiere: March 2024

Story Summary: The story begins in the kingdom of Melodia, where King Okceg sends his daughter Princess Lithia as an envoy to the Desert Nation to negotiate an alliance between their kingdoms. Lithia is accompanied by her childhood friend and personal guard, Captain Filea, as well as a party of adventures including the engineer Mykl, scavenger Soda, and warrior Henrik.

Their journey faces many obstacles, including an attack by bandits in the grasslands outside Melodia. Several bandits betray the group, trying to steal supplies, but Lithia's guards drive them off. The party continues on to Feehil Village on the edge of the Great Forest, which has been plagued by demonic monsters attacking from the forest. With the help of the village warriors and Lithia's keen commands, they defeat a wave of monsters sent by the Empire's leader Sycorax. However, Feehil Village decides to abandon their home due to the continued monster attacks. A village medic named Laru joins the travellers as they venture into the Great Forest.

In the forest, the party is soundly defeated by a powerful swordswoman named Setsuna, the Crimson Princess. Despite their best efforts, she overwhelms them, criticizing Lithia's uselessness. This ignites Lithia's spirit and she manages to land a blow on Setsuna, earning her respect. Setsuna gifts Lithia a magical sword before departing.

After crossing the Great Forest, the party travels through the harsh Kla'Zad Desert towards the capital city of Aishwarya. They face scorching heat, lack of water, sandstorms and desert raider attacks. Finally they arrive at the grand city of Aishwarya and Lithia begins diplomatic talks with Princess Raekalin, daughter of the deceased lord. Raekalin agrees to an alliance if Lithia's party can successfully explore the Ancient Ruins located in the desert. Meanwhile, Soda gathers rumors that political tensions surround who should rule Aishwarya after the suspicious death of the previous lord.

Who are the heroes for Chapter 2? 🦸

Like all good RGPs we have a small party of unlikely heroes who have been summonsed by the King of Melodia (dGecko) to undertake a dangerous quest to save the lands.

Our party of heroes are:

Soda the Rogue (sodakc)
Mykl ()
Henrik (Herbie)
Princess Lithia (Saya)
Lara - joins during the story

VGM Quest: Legends of the Lounge Chapter 1&2 - Music Story Video

At the end of the rounds we will assemble all the submitted tracks, stories and artwork to create a visual "choose-you-own-adventure" style video that tells the story, from formation of the party and the quest bestowed on them by King Okceg, through each encounter they have as they follow the route that will take them to the final conflict and resolution of the first chapter story arc. The outcome of the chapter will depend on you... which choice did your character make? Was the party able to overcome the odds and emerge victorious, or will they be sent packing? The ending is in your hands, and the video will reveal your impact on the Legends of the Lounge.

The Story So Far ...

Read the Genesis story.

Chapter 1 - Demons Rising.

Chapter 2 - Journey into the Desert

Regions of the World

The following are the major regions of the world. Within each region are many diverse locations... your job is to populate these locales! Read about the regions to understand their background and write your story to fit within that background.

The regions are: Homeland, Empire, Grasslands, Industrial Heart, Wastelands, The Great Seas, Desert, Snowlands, Volcanic Rim, Deadlands, Rocky Mountains, The 10,000 Caves, The Underground and Sky City. Note: Only the first five regions are unlocked for Chapter 1.

Each region is populated by a different people, with they own customs and world view. Of course they don't all get along, but that doesn't stop our intrepid adventures.

Once you select an encounter to make your own you can create a location within the region (or expand upon an existing location) to play out that encounter. Some encounters are minor, others are more involved, the choice is yours. There is a Forum on the server to discuss creation of new locations to ensure they fit within the world, but let your creativity run wild.

If you would like to create a detailed map for a region (or an encounter location even), please do!! Just run your creation past dGecko to get it approved and included into the VGM Quest World below. Once the world is firmed up fully we will look to create a high quality map for VGM Quest.

Click on the map to view all the details about this world.