Before the band started writing or recording music they sat down with the "Dungeons & Dragons" designers, who informed them of several elements that were essential on the album. According to Ed Stark, the special project manager of Wizards of the Coast, this consisted of "a chase scene and a fight scene and things like that". This was new to the band who had never written music to fit someone else's ideas before. Stark said, however, that "they really got that. We were very impressed, because we're in sort of a niche industry, and we're not always used to people getting exactly what we need right away". After this, the band was mostly left to deal with the music themselves. The designers were already familiar with Midnight Syndicate's music and knew what to expect from the album. As inspiration for earlier albums had sometimes come from "Dungeons & Dragons" gaming sessions, Douglas said that writing the album came very naturally.