I haven't used it in game as of yet...but I can recommend "Conan the Destroyer" soundtrack by Basil Poledouris. I've listened to it before playing to get stoked, and I routinely play it for my young sons before their flag football games (except then my 5 yr old starts swinging an imaginary sword around instead of thinking about football) because it reminded me of some of the cool old "NFL Films" music they would play to drama up footage of old games.
There's an album called "Minstrel in Malachite" basically acoustic guitar that is good for non action backround; the artist is Jocis, one name that's it.
Also there's an album of traditional medieval instruments called "Music in the Great Hall" utterly cool by Ensemble Galilei or found under the name Maggie Sansone (the leader I think).
That's just off the top of the skull mind you, if I connect a couple synapses (routing around the crispy patches)I'm sure I can come up with more...
Gladiator is beyond excellent for D&D music. Also Lord of the Rings. I have others, but these top the list. I also play a lot of Xenia: Warrior Princess music. There are 6 CD's out and the last one is a two disc set. Good stuff so far as I am concerned. But then again, I have been teased for playing Xena music. The culprit is lurking around here on these boards somewhere.
If the music sounds good I would use "The Bubble Fairies meet Pokemon", and those that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones (meaning whoever said that probably has a Xena action figure collection and is jealous cause they can't find the soundtraks)The LOTR music is cool, but iconic to the movies. (The Rohan theme is unbeleivable...when I first heard it I knew I hadn't heard that instrument before, and when I got the soundtrack-sure enough-it was some kind of scandinavian fiddle)The "Braveheart" soundtrack and Holst:The Planets are also pretty good in the classical vein. In the more metally genre, the original guitarist of megadeth, Chris Poland, put out a good intrumental album quite a long while back called "Return to Metalopolis"
Well, that certain someone who teased me about the Xena music did mean it in good jest, as which it was taken. However, should I ever catch up with him I may clip his wings and watch him flutter in circles and crashland. I guess we'll have to see if he finds this post and comments back.
I like most of James Horner's work, (Apocalypto, The New World, etc) and Clint Mansell. The theme from "Requiem" is the best climatic boss fight music ever.
BSG is usually in my random mix, so I don't use it when gaming.
"Requiem for a Dream", I was being lazy. Bad lazy fingers!
Xena music...::shakes head sadly::
I play a lot of video game soundtracks, as, I'm sure I've mentioned in other threads. My favorites are...
Okami- Perhaps one of the most beautiful soundtracks I have ever heard. I blew 60 bucks in christmas money to import this 5 cd set. Worth every penny.
Castlevania- Perhaps a little too synth-rock/classical for some, it's perfect for combat against dark creatures especially in a friend of mine's Ravenloft game..Hard to believe it took place over 10 years ago...
Grandia II- Classic video game RPG music. The battle music is pure guitar rock, and the overworld music is unusually soothing.
Dungeons and Dragons: Not the movie, but the soundtrack put out by the guys who do music for all sorts of tabletop RPG worlds. Didn't care for their Vampire compilation, but everything else was pure gold.
Bastard!!- The ORIGINAL D&D anime, predating Record of Lodoss War by several years, Bastard!! actually has a very deep, classical soundtrack. I've used Nei's solo several times to portray a female bard singing her way to victory.
Other soundtracks I would use if I had them
Suikoden II- Perhaps the rarest of all PS1 games, the soundtrack for this game is just beautiful. I talk to the guy(who is actually a gopher or some sort) in the game who controls the music just to listen to the beautiful instrumentals. The opening is just beautiful.
SaGa games- I don't care about the reputation they've gotten over the years- if you don't like the SaGa games, then you've been playing too much final fantasy. Beautiful, beautiful music, perfect for any game.
Odin Sphere- A new game that I can't get enough of, it has a wonderful soundtrack, but it's not for everyone's D&D game.
Of course there are many, many more- but I don't want to gush TOO much over musical selections. Good to know that there are others out there who believe music goes well with tabletop.
"Requiem for a Dream", I was being lazy. Bad lazy fingers!
I concur; I like this one and also "The Village" has beautiful violin and piano music that is very moody and yet rather sweet.
I used "Pirates of the Caribbean" soundtracks for the Savage Tide Adventure Path; I also used "Last of the Mohicans", "Gladiator" and "Charging Fort Wagner" from "Glory".
Does anyone else try to put together music folders to make music fit as neatly as possible scenes they are doing?
Gladiator is beyond excellent for D&D music.On the Fellowship soundtrack (track 15?) there is that beautiful part where they exit the Mines of Moria and they are all in shock over Gandalf's death. Its a really beautiful part of the score, but unfortunately you have to listen to 5 minutes of intense action score before you get to it. I've always wished that I could somehow cut that track in half because the second half is simply heartbreaking - I just don't want to have to cue up my tracks in mid-song.
On the other hand there's "The Grey Havens" from ROTK, which has a similar feel to it and doesn't change tempo or anything suddenly; it is a sort of long and wistful piece. I used that plus the following:
- Into the West- The Gravel Path (The village)
- Elgar's "Nimrod"
- Meditation from "Thais" by Massenet
for the finale of the Isle of Dread part of the STAP, the Nimrod part being as they are sailing away while they are acclaimed by the happy villagers of Farshore.
Xena music...::shakes head sadly::
Uh huh....I see. If you can't appreciate the lyrics to Joxer the Mighty...well then.....Hmmmmph! (Whips around with her nose in the air and walks off). I'm not talking to you anymore! So there!
For any fantasy games, I use these:
Dead Can Dance.
Philip Glass.
John Williams and Julian Bream.
Clannad (Seventies stuff.).
Kodo.
For classical music, I love to use Grieg and Mussorgsky.
Grieg .
Mussorgsky.
"Charging Fort Wagner" from "Glory".
My personal all time favorite battle track.
In response to your folder question, I usually use my CD/DVD player during my games, only because it has the best speakers in the house hooked to it. I'll put one track on "repeat" for a while, then switch to a battle track and hit "repeat" again when needed.
Thanks for your other suggestions though. I'll have to check some of those out.
I notice that you put "Last of the Mohicans" on there. I bought that used about a year ago and I found a really good track that I was going to use in my game. Then Nike used that track in a football commercial and it became far too recognizable. A pity.
BTW, where does everyone find these video game soundtracks? I never see them in record stores. . .
Props on loving Glory. It's one of my favorite movies. It's been making me cry for the past decade.
Video game soundtracks can be hard to find. If you have a Coconuts or Virgin near you, then you're good- they should be there with the video games or in the anime section. If not, then you should look on Amazon.com or ebay- amazon tends to gouge, but at least you get what you pay for, something that ebay can't always claim.
"Requiem for a Dream", I was being lazy. Bad lazy fingers!That is a good one. If you enjoy Requiem for a Dream you might also enjoy The Fountain soundtrack. Both of them are done by The Kronos Quartet. The Fountain has been getting a lot of secondary play lately as intense BGM for movie trailers so you might recognize some of it. I bought it with the intention of using it in my games, I just haven't had the right moment yet.
I love "The Fountain" soundtrack and plan to use it in my STAP campaign when the PCs are
In Hades talking to Iggwilv, since it has such a melancholy, sweet, and sinister mood. Seems fitting.
Some nice musics i use :
* Complete Dune ost by TOTO (the "Sting" version)
* Complete Bram Stoker's Dracula ost
* The Lodoss War manga has good stuff.
* The Avalon ost end theme is nice.
* Star Wars ost - i use Imperial March when things go well for the bad guys, and Duel of the Fates for epic battles.
* Indiana Jones ost - i use the Temple of Doom and main theme (for end of session) tracks.
* Music from the much acclaimed Planescape Torment video game, really cool. Difficult to find now on the second hand market and nowhere to find in store. More generaly, music from Baldur's Gate and Icewindale is not bad, and many players having heard it like it.
* Babylon 5 - Geometry of Shadows track is nice.
* Enio Morricone, some tracks are very usable.
* 5th Element, Kill Bill 1 (tracks 11 & 7) have some good tracks as well.
* If you can find it, the french "Black Moon Chronicles" PC game by Cryo (1999, french title : Chroniques de la Lune Noire) has an excellent music theme for fighting against evil cults.
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Here is a list of some of my favorites...
Alien -- if you want creepy, this is the one to get.
13th Warrior -- good music overall
Batman Begins -- perhaps one of the best soundtracks ever.
Broken Arrow -- has some pretty good music especially for "traveling" sessions.
Dark Crystal -- hard to find, but pretty good especially for "traveling"
Dinosaur -- overall a really good soundtrack. I was surprised.
Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children -- I was surprised how good the music was on this. Great for "fight" music.
Hellboy -- decent soundtrack overall.
Planet of the Apes (The newer one) -- Forget about the movie -- the soundtrack was awesome. Danny Elfman did a great job and it makes for great "fight" music.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow -- if you ever need "heroic" music, this is the one to get.
Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider 2 [Score] -- The scores on these were surprisingly good. Especially the first one has a wide variety of music styles that can be used for many different occasions.
Transformers -- The recent movie score was also very good. Lot of good "fight" music there.
Waterworld -- Again, forget about the movie, the soundtrack has some really good music that can be used for a lot of stuff. A bit hard to find sometimes though.
Sweet! This is just the thread I've been looking for.
I've ordered like 4 soundtracks based on recommendations here (after sampling them, of course).
My contributions:
Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack: 3 was the best (both musically and otherwise), but if you have a copy of 5, theres some good stuff in there too. Some are really catchy, all are well done, and you get a wide scope of different feels.
Medal of Honor soundtrack: some really great tunes, good for action and suspense. I love when these come up during our games, they're so epic.
Morrowind/Oblivion Soundtracks: Pretty standard stuff, and if you don't have either of these games (Morrowind especially), you're missing out.
Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 soundtracks: Even though I own both games, the music files are hard to extricate. You can find them online, however. IIRC, I got mine off some NWN forums.
If anyone knows how/where to get Icewind Dale and IWD 2 music, I'm all ears.
Okay, I went a bit bonkers, but I'm a bit of a soundtrack geek, so this thread is close to my heart- I mix and match my music, but broadly, here's a selection of my favorites. Most of these are available in some form. Obviously these are the broadest of generalities, so bear with me:
The 3 World of Gulliver- Bernard Hermann Great old school swashbuckling, great of piracy or steampunk. His other Harryhausen music deserves a mention too.
13th Warrior- Jerry Goldsmith East meets west, though the Norse Choir stuff makes it perfect for "big reveal" moments or battle climaxes.
Akira Perfect for SciFi and Oriental Adventures- also good for exotic locations.
Alexander Nevsky- Prokofiev The first and best Epic Movie score- so nails hard it frightens the other music.
Alien 3- Elliot Goldenthal Great Soundtrack for Action Horror and the Underdark, especially since it's not as identifiable as the previous movies themes.
Braveheart James Horner FREEDOM!! 'nuff said
Battlestar Galactica- Richard Gibbs Again, it's perfect for Scifi and for mixing with Akira
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee- George S. Clinton Great for wildlands.
Conan The Barbarian- Basil Poledouris Every druid and barbarian needs this
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon- Tan Dun Perfect journey music and the combat stuff is great for thieves and monks
Dark City- Trevor Jones A bit generic, but spooky and dark- good for long brooding dread
Dragonslayer- Alex North Pure Anglo saxon menace- really good for underdark and massive foes
Dune- Toto Again, classic SciFi stuff- really fits well for Traveller
Dungeons and Dragons I know, I know- but ya know, it's not a bad OST and is a good all round fit.
Earthsea Horrible TV movie- great Fantasy themes if you want to get away from big a brooding and want something more folksy. Also great downtime/ travelling music
Flesh and Blood- Basil Poledouris Probably the best music for WHFRP- the late great Basil Poledouris takes on the Dark Ages and wins. I'll be using this one for CotCT
Gladiator Big and brassy, but my players always liked it when fighting.
Interview with the Vampire Ravenloft through and through.
King Kong-James Newton Howard Dangerous locales, especially lost cites and such
Krull- James Horner The full 2-CD score is great and covers a whole range of Sword and sorcery situations.
Lord of the Rings (Rosemann) Because the Howard Shore Scores get all the lovin' and at least this one is surprisingly dark and not so recognisable
Lord of the Rings Online Great racial Themes on this, especially the Dwarves
Merlin- Trevor Jones Another TV mini series, but this one has nice long rolling tracks that you can just keep playing.
Pirates of the Caribbean-Klaus Badelt Not really used this one much, but if the High seas were my bag, I'd be right there.
Princess Mononoke-Joe Hisaishi A great fit with Earthsea- I used to use the opening theme for my opening monologue, so my players had the cue to settle into the game.
Robin Hood-Geoffrey Burgon This one is hard to find, but it's really excellent since the composer used only woodwinds and drums and it gives it a seriously fangorn/primordial feel
Sherlock Holmes- Patrick Gowers Great for Steampunk or Cthulhu by Gaslight
Silence of the Lambs- Howard Shore IMHO, the best creepy music for CoC- rises and falls and oozes menace, but won't interfere with a GM's mood- just put it quietly on shuffle and go.
Spartacus- Alex North Mostly big brassy fighting music- puts Galidator in it's place.
Stargate- David Arnold Drop the theme music and it's great generic desert/exotic locale stuff- should be a nice fit for the end of RotRL
Steamboy- Steve Jablonsky More Victorian Steampunk, but very bright and adventuresome- perfect for Falkenstein or Space 1889
Taken- Laura Karpman I usually fit this in for more urban SciFi
Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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I've raided my computer games to find some pretty good tracks....
Dungeonsiege (1& 2, and their expansions)
Neverwinter Nights
Fable
Diablo 2
I also concur with The Fountain being an amazing soundtrack (plus quite an amazing movie!). I've recently seen it for the 1st time, and went on a Google hunt for music tracks. Hit a good site that seems to be a remix contest for one the songs... go here for the main song. If you select "view/vote", you can see all the remixes entered
Wow, Flesh and Blood?! I haven't seen that movie in ages, I didn't even realize it had a good soundtrack...
The words arse and kickery spring to mind- imagine Conan but with a late Middle Ages vibe to it. If my house was aflame and I could grab one soundtrack for my games, that'd be it.
"Requiem for a Dream", I was being lazy. Bad lazy fingers!That is a good one. If you enjoy Requiem for a Dream you might also enjoy The Fountain soundtrack. Both of them are done by The Kronos Quartet.
More importantly, they were both composed by Clint Mansell, who also did the title music for "Pi", all three of which are from the same director. (Oddly enough, Mansell also did the soundtrack for the Doom movie... and it's not bad.)
For any fantasy games, I use these:
Philip Glass.
Hallelujah amen, brother. He's a brilliant composer in his own right, but as far as D&D usage goes, his "Heroes" symphony, his Symphony No. 8, and soundtracks from "Mishima", "The Illusionist", and "Dracula" are particularly useful. The "Dracula" soundtrack should have come with the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft book.
The composer Yoko Kanno has a fantastic body of work behind her, in a startling variety of styles and tones, and almost all of it totally unrecognizable to your players unless they're anime buffs. Her Turn-A Gundam OST I-III I particularly recommend, both on its own merits and for soundtracks; "Position X", "Black History", and "Element's" (sic) from the OST III are particularly noteworthy for being fantastically dramatic.
Of course, almost none of her work has had a domestic release, so you'll need to find a torrent.
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Wow, Flesh and Blood?! I haven't seen that movie in ages, I didn't even realize it had a good soundtrack...The words arse and kickery spring to mind- imagine Conan but with a late Middle Ages vibe to it. If my house was aflame and I could grab one soundtrack for my games, that'd be it.
Wow, who knew? As long as it doesn't sound like Ladyhawke, I'm good...
Wow, who knew? As long as it doesn't sound like Ladyhawke, I'm good...Wow, Flesh and Blood?! I haven't seen that movie in ages, I didn't even realize it had a good soundtrack...The words arse and kickery spring to mind- imagine Conan but with a late Middle Ages vibe to it. If my house was aflame and I could grab one soundtrack for my games, that'd be it.
Here's a decent compilation of the basic themes. As you'll hear, it's all adventuresome and great to just set to random in a game. I'd be interested to hear your opinion, any case.
Ugh- The music to Ladyhawke is so bad it makes my teeth ache- it makes Hawk the Slayer sound like Wagner.
Now some of us (ok me) likes Ladyhawk, though I admit I have received criticism about it here. Seems like most of my music choices get criticized, which is a shame since I think my choices are rather good. Oh, well, I guess I have to be right about some things in this world, might as well be music.
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Black Hawk Down Barra Barra is probably the best "getting ready" music I've ever heard. You can just see characters loading weapons, sheathing swords, tightening armor straps, etc.
The Matrix trilogy and Animatrix Fight music, baby!
Gladiator Others have mentioned. I concur.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Good for fighting Gothic enemies.
I was recently turned me on to Amin Bhatia's The Interstellar Suite. Highly reviewed, and you can listen to the songs on the site. His stuff is ideal for science fiction gaming.
If you're going to do Carmina Burana for your fantasy game, do the Carl Orff version (could not find a link for listening).
And Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms have some great selections of old testament Hebrew sung with church choir orchestrations. It's trancendent and favors a paladin's quest. My favorite, of the three recordings I own of Chichester Psalms, was Leonard Bernstein 1918 1990: A Tribute (although there's a lot of West Side Story stuff on that album as well, and unless you're a jet, you may not have use for it)
For Urban Arcana
Soundtrack from 28 days later :-)
For Traveller
Nine Inch Nails :-), Assemblage 23, Mentallo and the Fixer
For Cthulhu
there are some nice "made for horror rpg" cds - forgot the names but can search them if interest exists. nox arcana for instance and the great musica cthulhiana
and some Carpenter Soundtracks and of course a lot already mentioned here.
I use various things, movies and games soundtracks, classical music and so on...
For heroic fantasy games :
- Batman (Tim Burton's)
- Bauhaus (for some gothic atmospheres)
- Conan the Barbarian (i used to play the opening at the beginning of my games years ago)
- Dark Crystal
- Dead can Dance
- Diablo & Diablo II (each theme is evocative of an environment of the game, like wilderness, caves, desert, jungle...)
- Excalibur
- Labyrinth
- Mike Oldfield
- Planet of the Apes (the original movie, fits well a primitive hostile setting)
- The Lords of the Rings (the cartoon)
- The Lords of the Rings (the movie trilogy)
- The Ring of the Nibelungen tetralogy (Wagner)
- Willow
- World of Warcraft (like Diablo, each theme is evocative)
For Sci-Fi games :
- Blade Runner
- Star Trek (a compilation i've got)
- Star Wars
- Tangerine Dreams
- The Planets (Holst)
- Vangelis
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
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and Clint Mansell.
I love "The Fountain" soundtrack and plan to use it in my STAP campaign when the PCs are..."Requiem for a Dream", I was being lazy. Bad lazy fingers!That is a good one. If you enjoy Requiem for a Dream you might also enjoy The Fountain soundtrack. Both of them are done by The Kronos Quartet. The Fountain has been getting a lot of secondary play lately as intense BGM for movie trailers so you might recognize some of it. I bought it with the intention of using it in my games, I just haven't had the right moment yet.
Isn't it funny. Not 30 minutes ago I was in a Poppies mood and (not having them on my new computer yet) so I went scouring Youtube for videos...
Then I turn up to this thread and *bam*Didn't Clint do the music for the Fountain as well?
Err... I probably wouln't listen to Poppies while you're playing D&D though.
I like the LotR Soundtracks plus (hey it's cliche I know) Wagner.
Also, The Dark Crystal has some nice music too.
Now some of us (ok me) likes Ladyhawk, though I admit I have received criticism about it here. Seems like most of my music choices get criticized, which is a shame since I think my choices are rather good. Oh, well, I guess I have to be right about some things in this world, might as well be music.
Ladyhawke (the Movie) is awesome! I haven't watched it in a while, but my fuzzy memory seems to remember that the music was half decent.
My memory is also fuzzy again, but I seem to remember that both the Princess Bride and Legend had decent music as well.I may have to pull Ladyhawke and Princess Bride out of the cabinet and watch them again (just to make sure of course)!
For Sci-Fi games :
- Blade Runner
- Star Wars
Definately Blade Runner. That Soundtrack Rocks.
Star Wars also has some quite good music apart from the Iconic Stuff. I have a John Willians CD of a bunch of stuff he's done for movies (not just Star Wars and Indy) and I really like it.I also like the Lost in Space Soundtrack (the 90's Movie, not the TV Series). It has both Dance (Apollo 440 Dance that is) and Instrumental on it.
The Akira Soundtrack is also quite spectacular if your game has an Oriental bent.
And I just can't not say it because it's The Best Sountrack Ever Made™: The Crow
I can recommend the Legend: Hand Of God OST as well as the God Of War I and II OST. Both good in the overall and with some very epic themes here and there.
Edit:
I would add the Legacy Of Kain series' OST too.
Oh, I forgot... these are not movie or videogame soundtracks, but if you're running a horror campaign and/or a campaign which deeply involves Hell, Abyss and the most extreme evils, maybe you could appreciate having as a musical background some albums from Zoat-Aon and In Slaughter Natives (listen to Angel Meat available in the website, before anything else).
I recommend For D&D:
Apocalypse Now
Mediaeval Baebes (http://www.mediaevalbaebes.com/)
Viking metal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_metal)
A subgenre of Viking metal - Troll metal with bands like Finntroll and Trollfest.
The Carmina Burana - O Fortuna is a bit cliché but In Taberna is good for Inn scenes
For ShadowRun
Akira - Asian Mega Corps
The Cult - That cowboy/Indian feel (Wild Hearted Son)
The Prodigy - Combat
Lots of "Doof Doof" techno music
What I am going to try to do is set up sound tracks per encounter.
At them moment thats going to be easy as I am about to run the battle for Farshore so Apocalypse now and and a few other war movie sound tracks will do.
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I thought I'd reignite this thread as music to me is very important in a game. I almost always play music when DM/GMing - its my style that my players have grown to (hopefully) love.
I've used a large number of soundtracks for my games, but here are a few that I've recently used:
The Dark Knight - We all know 'that' theme, the track called 'Why So Serious'. I've used it when the PCs get to meet/talk/communicate with the psycho who's been screwing with/manipulating them, and it works brilliantly.
300 - I used the end theme 'Remember Us' to finish off our (heaviliy modified) Age of Worms campaign, and 3/4 of us shed a tear. When stuff like that happens in a game, it's magical.
Casshern - This hidden little (big budget!) Japanese film is a tresure trove of music. CD2 is the one. Slightly odd sounding with its distinct style, I think I've used most of the tracks in my playlists somewhere.
Cheers! :D
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Some that I've used:
Van Helsing "Journey to Transylvania" is my dedicated "fighting atop a moving train" music.
The Witcher A number of good ones in here.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest "The Kraken" is good fight music.
Jurassic Park Again, a number of good ones in here.
The Orange Box Fun!