8-bit tabletop soundtrack


Gamer Life General Discussion


Hello, all! I recently ran my first game of Pathfinder and I'm proud to report that it was more or less a hit. But this isn't about the game details. I'm making this topic to discuss what surprised me most - they really like my 8-bit background music.

See, I like to have an adventurous, more lighthearted tone to my games - and I noticed that 8 bit music seems to capture that mood rather well. Luckily, I stumbled upon a program called GSXCC, which can convert any MIDI file into an 8 bit song.

GSXCC Music Program

Over the course of several weeks before I ever ran a session, I converted many a midi and built up an impressive roster of 123 songs, sorted by when they would play - primary categories being Battle, Environment, Mood, and Situational. From there, I subdivided them further by title - Battle has generic "Battle" tracks labeled "Battle1, Battle2, etc.", but also more specific ones like "Boss1, Boss2, Boss3", and even more specific categories like "Rivals", "MadnessBattle", "EpicBoss", and the like. The others are divided similarly - Mood has "Happy", "Bittersweet", "Mellow", "Doom" and more - Situational has "Briefing", "HappyEnd", "GoTime", "DarkRitual", and the like. This system has worked out really well for bringing up appropriate music quickly, and none of it seems incongruous or out of place with the rest of the tracks, as they have all been converted to 8 bit.

And the players loved it! They said that the 8 bit music really set the mood and tone for the adventure, and really helped keeping momentum and immersion during periods of silence. (It also provided me with a handy tool - if they ever strayed off topic or stopped paying attention, I'd stop the music. That'd get the hint across.)

It also helped mess with them - I played the most panic-y tension song I had when they were in absolutely no danger. They were freaking out.

Anyway, what this topic is about: I'm wondering what songs all of you think as far as suggesting songs to add to my collection! Any song that has a MIDI file is eligible - if it's from a video game, you can find a huge collection of video game MIDI files here:

VGMusic.com

Usually, anything that carries an obvious mood or situation with it is ideal - merely "cool songs" wont' cut it if I can't ever use them. (Believe me, I had to woefully leave out some of my favorite tunes from the collection just because they had little utility).

And as neat as it is when a player recognizes a song, if it happens too often, the game gets derailed - so anything too mainstream or recognizable is probably a no-go as well.

Feel free to post direct links to the files, by the way.

Once I get back to my home, I'll probably post a bunch of samples from my collection. If I can find a suitable host, I might even post the entire thing! (Be forewarned: some of the music names make sense only to me, like "Steppin")

So, suggestions? Thoughts?


Here's a few favorites from my collection. (Careful - it's about 80 megabytes!)


Nice! I ran a couple of Ravenloft sessions with music ripped straight from Castlevania 1-4. At first the players chuckled a little, but then they got pretty into it. Thankfully my players are in that age range that were around when these games came out, otherwise it probably wouldn't have had the same effect.


'Rixx wrote:


It also helped mess with them - I played the most panic-y tension song I had when they were in absolutely no danger. They were freaking out.

This was something I had to stay on top of. It takes some work, but you can choreograph the events in the game to the music selected. In most media players, you can save playlists. I made up playlists for "Combat", "Town", "Dungeon", etc.

When inappropriate mood music was playing, it really messed up the mood, so it took some extra attention on my part to stay on it. Try and change up the music before the scene/mood changes, otherwise it looks like you're lagging and trying to catch up!

EDIT: On the other hand, as in your example, if you use it on purpose, it helps mess with the players enough that they won't know what's coming next, and you can surprise them big time.

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