Assigning Music

Minstrel plays music on its own from the assignments you make on the console’s four cue tabs. Each tab gives every document you can assign music to a row where you pick what it should play. The active GM’s client evaluates those assignments and drives playback.

The cue tabs

Scenes lists every scene in the world. The cue you set here is the scene’s exploration music, and it plays while that scene is active unless a combat cue outranks it.

Combat opens with a Global row, then lists every scene again. The Global cue is not tied to a document and applies to combat in any scene. Each scene row is that scene’s combat music. Combat cues apply only once an encounter has started.

Actors lists the tokens placed on the current scene under Tokens on this scene, then every actor in the world. Both groups set combat music. A group with no rows is left out.

Other holds sections registered by other modules through Minstrel’s API. Each registered section becomes its own group, filled with rows for the document types that section declared. A section can carry a condition that switches it off, and while it is off its cues are skipped. The tab is hidden while nothing is registered.

A cue row

Every row has the document’s name, the section it belongs to, a target dropdown, and a priority field.

The target dropdown holds every mood you have built, then each playlist with an entry for the whole playlist followed by its individual tracks. Picking a mood plays that mood. Picking a whole playlist plays the playlist. Picking one track plays that track. Nothing clears the row. A row whose mood, playlist, or track no longer exists reads Missing.

Priority ranks cues when more than one applies at the same moment, and the higher number wins. Each section starts its rows at its own priority, and you can type over that number on any row.

Changing either field saves the row and re-evaluates what should be playing right then. Rows that have a target sort to the top of their group, and names sort alphabetically on either side of that split. The row name carries a tooltip describing when the cue plays, for any section that supplies one.

Jumping to a row from the sidebar

Right-click a scene in the Scenes sidebar and choose Set Minstrel music. The console opens on the Scenes tab, scrolls that scene’s row into view, and highlights it. Right-clicking an actor does the same on the Actors tab. The entry is GM-only, and switching tabs releases the highlighted row.

Silencing scene or combat music

The Scenes tab header carries a Silence scene music button, and the Combat tab header carries Silence combat music. Each is a toggle, and while it is on, every cue in that context is skipped and nothing plays for it. The state is stored for the world.

Both toggles also exist as keybindings, Toggle scene music and Toggle combat music. Neither ships with a key assigned, so bind them in Foundry’s keybinding settings first. Both are restricted to GMs.