OK, I know that this pops up from time to time and I also know that most people are either for or against it. This is not what I want to discuss because what I want to discuss is the variety of ways to properly use music to enhance gaming sessions and what music that you find effective. In the old days this was hard to do and time consuming because of the need to change tapes or CDs and the need to plan on how you would burn your disks but now in the day of the MP3, Ipods, and playlist the difficulty is gone and now boils down to artistry.
Now I often use music in the games that I run and my groups often react very positively to the choices that I have made so far. In my experience I find that it often helps to set the mood when describing a scene or an encounter. It can also act an audio cue to when your players encounter an important event like a boss or final fight. The musical cue can also let your players know when they are in a safe place which is a tradition I believe that came from a lot of those old Final Fantasy and other videogame RPGs, I.E. the village music. Music can also be used for comical effect to get laughs around the table. Lastly from what I have learned from ambient music is that you can control the mood and actually increase tension or decrease tension.
Areas that I would like to open up to discussion:
You don't have to discuss everything but just on what you want to provide input for this discussion.
1. When to use music and when not to use music.
2. Volume control and when to increase or decrease.
3. Music selection based on situation, in other words what music do you use and for what do you use it for?
4. Music selection to avoid.
5. Altering and or enhancing music that you have acquired.
6. Any other sub-topic that I may have missed.
A little latter I will add to this post some of my song selections I have recently used and some more of my insights but please feel free to contribute.
3. Music selection based on situation, in other words what music do you use and for what do you use it for?
Well, it depends on your group's tastes and whether you think it fits the game to use more...modernish music, but I find that certain anime soundtracks work very well...mostly anything by Yoko Kanno. It's meant to be background music for something already, so it works very well. I like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Cowboy Bebop's soundtracks, particularly.
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3. Music selection based on situation, in other words what music do you
For music selection I have found that classical music is often my goto genre although time to time I do select more modern tracks.
The last adventure I ran my group did a dungeon crawl through an giant ant nest composed of giants ants hopped on with alchemically Royal Jelly from a near by Giant Bee hive. During that I used Gayane: Sabre Dance for whenever the ants attacked which gave the feeling of a fast and furious attacks and not to mention the image of ants crawling all over the place.
Some good boss/ final fight music I have used before was:
El Amor Brujo: Ritual Fire Dance ( This is good when you do a slow build up fight)
The Firebird Suite (1919): Infernal Dance Of King Kastchei ( this is great for big boss fights and is meant to scare your players a bit)
The Planets, Op. 32: Mars, The Bringer Of War ( great for not being to fast but intense enough for intense fight)
Feste Romane (Roman Festivals): Circus Maximus ( great for againts the odds scenarios)
The Rite Of Spring: Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One) ( Great big boss fight)
Some good ambient music I have used before was:
El Amor Brujo: Ritual Fire Dance (great for sneaking into places)
Gregorian chants (These are awesome for mystic dreams and holy places)
Dark Country, Foggy Country This is great for mystic forests or sad moments
Lots of Drops of Brandy, The Donegal Set and Medley by the The Chieftains ( are great for taverns and lively villages)
DO not use: As fun as they are they are to familiar and will only make your players sigh.
1812 Overture, Op. 49 (Conclusion)
Die Walkure: Ride Of The Valkyries
That is much as I can remember at the moment will be back later.
The way that I use my music is that I have a small pair of I pod speakers that I bought for $20 and they work great where we game at. I then set up play lists in I Tunes at home. I name the play list usually after the event I want to use them in and then I dump this into my I pod for use later in game. If you have a laptop that you can plug in where you game at this is even better because you have better control. Boss fights I usually want the song to repeat so I usually only keep on song in those list so I don't worry about going into the wrong song. Ambient music lists can be from 1 to 3 songs that are close together in mood and tempo but keeps it varied.
Often when I am writing up my adventures I am listening to my I tunes basically on random or from categorized play list: E.I. Dark music, mystic or hopping music. If a song comes a long that I think is perfect for an event then I throw that into a play list for later use. Sometimes these songs can inspire events that you didn't even think of doing before.
The album "Under a Violet Moon" by Blackmore's Night is pretty good lighthearted medieval background music for any High Fantasy game in my opinion.
During combat, music should be played softly if at all as it can be distracting.
As a side note, I'd love to play the "Final Fantasy Victory Music" at the end of each PF combat scene, just for laughs.
As a side note, I'd love to play the "Final Fantasy Victory Music" at the end of each PF combat scene, just for laughs.
I did that a few times. Got laughs, as well as groans and things being thrown at me. :P
I find I don't have to play the victory music because everyone at my table seems to sing it anyways in da da das
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1. When to use music and when not to use music.
Set your music as you would a set a soundtrack to a movie. Use it when you want to build emotion or enhance action. I choose a few tracks that are appropriate to locations, important/exiting encounters, key Npcs.
You let it play once, build the effect you want and then let it stop. You don't want music always playing in the background.
Examples from a few APs:
Anytime we started or entered the town of Sandpoint, I played the "cottage" track from legend. Magnimar was always keyed with "Serentity" from the serenity sountrack. Westcrown is the main theme from the TV series Rome.
When the PCs were in the backwoods of the Graul Family, dueling banjos was playing.
Pandora's Box from the Tomb Rader: Cradle of Life soundrack was used to introduce the Karzoug encounter.
Lordaeron's Fall from the WOW soundtrack was played when they first saw Fort Rannick.
If you just let music play all the time, it takes away from the game. Use music like a precision tool.
2. Volume control and when to increase or decrease.
If you have an Ipod Touch or Iphone, download the "REMOTE" app for Itunes and control your PC's volume from across the room. Increase or decrease as appropriate to the feeling you are trying to build. "REMOTE" is a must have app for ALL GMs!
3. Music selection based on situation, in other words what music do you use and for what do you use it for?
Partially answered under #1, but use it a carefully and sparingly for only the encounters you want to enhance. You can pull music from everywhere, any soundtrack to a TV show or Movie is fair game as is any instrumental piece.
4. Music selection to avoid.
Use music with Lyrics sparingly and only when the piece really fits what you are trying to accomplish.
5. Altering and or enhancing music that you have acquired.
With the Itunes remote, I can basically do whatever I want from across the room and behind the DM screen. I've never had to alter any individual pieces, but it you need to, check out Audacity .
6. Any other sub-topic that I may have missed.
Watch movies and pay attention to how and when they use music to enhance the experience.
I've been able to go out and buy a lot of music over the years to build up a large library for gaming use, but you don't need to spend a lot of money to make it happen. Check the internet for great free legal music resources. Example: I love Celestial Aeon Project.
Some video game music can be borrowed as well, I have gotten miles out of the prince of persia soundtrack. Just avoid the tracks we easily identify as belonging to a specific game/movie/etc, unless your game really is ZELDA: THE RPG.
As a side note, I'd love to play the "Final Fantasy Victory Music" at the end of each PF combat scene, just for laughs.
Off topic, my wife and I used Final Fantasy music in our wedding, and the victory fanfare played after we were announced as husband and wife. I didn't know it was going to be played; my wife snuck the track to the music director just before the ceremony. :) She and I are BIG Final Fantasy geeks.
I'm a huge fan of using music during games. Music puts me in the mood and eases my suspension of belief. When I DM games, I try to use music appropriate to the setting. For example, For Ravenloft I use mostly horror movie scores and some video game music(Castlevania in particular). For more standard DnD campaigns, I go with non-horror scores, like Gladiator, Conan, etc. For Star Wars games, I use the scores from the movies, minus the intro/theme song. I only use that at the very beginning of the campaign lol.
For casual pick-up games and one-nighters, I typically go the opposite direction. My friends and I are all into heavy metal music, so we'll listen to bands that have a lot of movement, variety, and typically long songs for exciting background music. Opeth is a fantastic band for this kind of gaming; the music shifts between almost medieval bardic sounding, to really thick and heavy sounding, without being too "aggressive", with more focus on atmosphere. Mastodon has an instrumental version of their "Crack the Skye" album that makes for awesome gaming music as well.
Basically, I just imagine our game as a movie, and then imagine what I would like to hear playing in the background.
You let it play once, build the effect you want and then let it stop. You don't want music always playing in the background.
We're the opposite at my table. We play fairly short sessions, sometimes under 2 hours, so the game is pretty packed with activity. There's enough variety in our background music to where we have very quiet, subtle mood parts playing during down scenes, or maybe there's a bardic tune playing in tavern scenes. There's almost never a spot we don't have something playing. When the music stops, it feels like a break in the mood and everything becomes out of character.
As a side note, I'd love to play the "Final Fantasy Victory Music" at the end of each PF combat scene, just for laughs.
Does anybody have players that start pumping their arms in time to the music?
I do it myself, though since I play exclusively online I have yet to actually inflict it on anyone else.
On the actual topic, my group were all video gamers first, so we cull our music from, primarily, SNES cRPGs. Of course, as we game using Maptools and text (no VoIP service), it usually consists of the DM suggesting the song and people using it if they have it.
I've been on a kick of using the Lufia/Estopolis soundtrack in my last few games, and the other guy in the group who DMs uses a lot of Tales music. Of course, this is usually for combat; most of us have songs appropriate to that scenario readily available hence they get used more often.
Vampire Killer shows up a lot, too, and I'll leave you to guess the context.
As a side note, I'd love to play the "Final Fantasy Victory Music" at the end of each PF combat scene, just for laughs.Does anybody have players that start pumping their arms in time to the music?
I do it myself, though since I play exclusively online I have yet to actually inflict it on anyone else.
A few times, usually ending in dissolving into laughter.
On the actual topic, my group were all video gamers first, so we cull our music from, primarily, SNES cRPGs. Of course, as we game using Maptools and text (no VoIP service), it usually consists of the DM suggesting the song and people using it if they have it.
I sometimes drop music links into Maptool via Youtube if I have a specific song I want the players to hear (example: last week a major villain showed up, so I dropped in Grahf's Theme from the PS1 RPG XenoGears because it suited him well) but otherwise most of my players don't have the massive VG music library I have so my music is mostly for my benefit. I would have it playing in the background back when we played live though, back before everyone moved away.
There was a thread either here or in the Music forum where I listed all the games I use music from, but they're nearly all SNES/PS1/early PS2 RPGs or adventure games like Castlevania.
As a side note, I'd love to play the "Final Fantasy Victory Music" at the end of each PF combat scene, just for laughs.Does anybody have players that start pumping their arms in time to the music?
I do it myself, though since I play exclusively online I have yet to actually inflict it on anyone else.
On the actual topic, my group were all video gamers first, so we cull our music from, primarily, SNES cRPGs. Of course, as we game using Maptools and text (no VoIP service), it usually consists of the DM suggesting the song and people using it if they have it.
I've been on a kick of using the Lufia/Estopolis soundtrack in my last few games, and the other guy in the group who DMs uses a lot of Tales music. Of course, this is usually for combat; most of us have songs appropriate to that scenario readily available hence they get used more often.
Vampire Killer shows up a lot, too, and I'll leave you to guess the context.
Who doesn't pump their fist in time with the music?
Lufia? The Tales series? Overall cRPG love?
It's good to make your acquaintence, brother.
Also, they are super slow and might put some to sleep, but Arcana(Legend of the Card Master) and 7th Saga(Mystic Ark) had some AMAZING MUSIC!!!! Secret of Mana is also quite good if a little hard to justify.
A whole series of music scores that I want to see if I can use is all the old music from NFL Films by Sam Spence. You know it was that heroic music they would play while they put all the players into slow motion? I recently came across it again and really I think it has potential as background music for RPGs in general.
Contributor
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My most recent campaign was led (steamrolled?) by two n'er-do-well half-orc drug addicts. Every time they smoked up the world's equivalent to opium, I faded Purple Haze in on my iphone. They even did it on a river raft. Very Apocalypse Now.
The soundtrack to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is always a good one. Even without instantly recognizable title track.
Also, they are super slow and might put some to sleep, but Arcana(Legend of the Card Master) and 7th Saga(Mystic Ark) had some AMAZING MUSIC!!!! Secret of Mana is also quite good if a little hard to justify.
True dat. I had a love affair with 7th Saga in my younger years, so music from that is always nostalgic (though I don't think I've recovered any since the last time my hard drive exploded). The Secret of (X) games had some pretty sweet music, too - I've used Evermore songs a couple of times. (Some good slow, creepy ones on there and several different 'feels' due to the nature of the game). Seiken Densetsu 3 (the Japan only Secret of Mana sequel/prequel) has some great stuff, too; Nuclear Fusion is my fallback 'boss' song.
Few other series/games that come to mind are Baiten Kaitos (Gamecube, some great orchestral stuff), Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma (both SNES). Fire Emblem (and presumably other SRPGs) fit big/especially tactical combats well, and I've been known to play the 'meeting a new unit' music from various titles whenever a new PC joins.
Gunmetal Action from Wild Arms 3 gets honorable mention because I used it for a chase/fight on horseback. Probably too cheesy western-ie for general use, though. The boss fight theme is probably good for general purposes, though.
A whole series of music scores that I want to see if I can use is all the old music from NFL Films by Sam Spence. You know it was that heroic music they would play while they put all the players into slow motion? I recently came across it again and really I think it has potential as background music for RPGs in general.
If I know what you're talking about (I haven't cared for football since I was a wee tyke who wanted to be just like daddy), that's an awesome idea. I was in the rough equivalent of A/V club in high school and I seem to recall folks using some stuff like that for the high school football clips, too.
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Anyway, since all this talk about good songs to use (or at least what I use, heh) got me thinking, I came up with some thoughts about selection/appropriateness.
A lot of my stuff is music for combat. I can only speak for myself (unfortunately), since I communicate with my fellows exclusively through text, but I tend to have two reactions; faster-paced, up-tempo tracks will cycle through a time or two and then either have my headphones removed or the media player closed as we get to the nitty-gritty dice rolling and whatnot, unless the tune is really catchy (or somewhat short, repetitive, and not in a bad way). As I alluded to with my comments about Fire Emblem, slower songs tend to fade more into the 'ambiance', presumably because they're designed to be listened to for a long period of time in tactical combat.
Then there's the occasional 'just so obvious it has to be done' additions, like the above 'meeting a new unit' comment, creepy overtones in haunted places, etc. But I imagine that doesn't help much. Since I use primarily video game music, its original use also gives me some cues to work with.
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Aha! I thought I'd never find the link, but here is the freely available Divine Divinity soundtrack (and apparently a lot of other stuff from the composer). I've never used it in game, but I imagine a lot of it could be of use (and I will be bookmarking that one now).
Secret of Mana is also quite good if a little hard to justify.
I personally don't even try :P If I think the music fits, I use it. But then I get some leeway being the DM and all ;)
I still remember the looks on my players faces when they were having a discussion with an annoying recurring villain in one of my prior campaigns and rather than cut to some scenic music as I usually did when he Word of Recalled or flew away on his dragon mount I started playing this instead. I think the Dwarf Crusader actually cheered.
If you're wanting to use a lot of video game music, I recommend Zophar's Domain for the music files and plugins. You'll need to download WinAmp to play them, but for those of us who dislike the loop dissonance it's rather helpful, just set the plugins to "play indefinitely".
I exclusively use movie soundtracks... The volume set as to have it as backgroud music, and not overlap with the players and I talking.
I tend to use the same re-occuring soundtracks a bit everywhere (like The Lord of the Rings soundtracks, and a few well known others) mixed in with story-oriented ones, like The Davinci Code, which was used a few times during the Skinsaw Murders, and The Dark Knight which I used quite a few times during the Hook Mountain Massacre.
Ultradan
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As far as fantasy music goes, you can't go wrong with letting Radio Rivendell play in the background. Works like a charm !
Just found a LOOOOOOT of 7th saga music at youtube- apparently it's the place to go to for background music for games.
Secret of Mana is also quite good if a little hard to justify.I personally don't even try :P If I think the music fits, I use it. But then I get some leeway being the DM and all ;)
I still remember the looks on my players faces when they were having a discussion with an annoying recurring villain in one of my prior campaigns and rather than cut to some scenic music as I usually did when he Word of Recalled or flew away on his dragon mount I started playing this instead. I think the Dwarf Crusader actually cheered.
Not in a D&D game but in a homebrew system I made, a friend of mine with playing a solo adventure and when the main bad guy came along I played the Sephiroth music from FF6. Ya I know that this was a major no no but it actually worked out well because he knew the tune and that the music meant get the hell out of here. He was already saying I run away before I could finish the flavor text.
Just goes to prove you that there is always an exception to the rule.
Secret of Mana is also quite good if a little hard to justify.I personally don't even try :P If I think the music fits, I use it. But then I get some leeway being the DM and all ;)
I still remember the looks on my players faces when they were having a discussion with an annoying recurring villain in one of my prior campaigns and rather than cut to some scenic music as I usually did when he Word of Recalled or flew away on his dragon mount I started playing this instead. I think the Dwarf Crusader actually cheered.
Not in a D&D game but in a homebrew system I made, a friend of mine with playing a solo adventure and when the main bad guy came along I played the Sephiroth music from FF7. Ya I know that this was a major no no but it actually worked out well because he knew the tune and that the music meant get the hell out of here. He was already saying I run away before I could finish the flavor text.
Just goes to prove you that there is always an exception to the rule.
Had to fix that. My love for FF6 and my hatred for FF7 demanded it.
If it hasn't already been stated, the Castlevania soundtrack is a plethora of background music.
The music files from the original Everquest are very subtle and work well.
Also if you have the Pools of Radiance soundtrack those are great except for the track with lyrics.
The music files from the original Everquest are very subtle and work well.
Also if you have the Pools of Radiance soundtrack those are great except for the track with lyrics.
Thanks for this!!!!
I like "Trailer Music" it's hard to recognize for your players and you get it alredy labeled for each situation, for example (Epic,Futuristic,Comedy,Drama,Terror) on the downside they are usually short (1-3mins).
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I like to use the Baldur's Gate/Baldur's Gate II soundtracks. They have music for every dungeon, outdoor, city mood. I like the Copper Coronet music for taverns.
Some of the tracks are perfect for exploring and others are great for battles.
Some of my players really like it. Others have found it annoying and distracting.