I honestly wonder how many groups game to music. I've played with a few different Gms and in a certain group the GM turned on old timey 20's music (sort of like in Fallout) Because it was a D20 modern campaign set in the 20's.
I wonder how many groups play themed music or even just any kind of music?
If you do have any playing what kind?
-Moviesque epic music?
-Contemporary music?
I'm honestly curious to know if some people if any at all do.
I used to do music at the table, not anymore. Now I do ambient sound effects for wherever they might be in the game.
We rock out when we play. And it has nothing to do with the game--we just play whatever records we want to hear. (And when I say "we" I mean, of course, "me"--"Oh, you don't like Public Image Ltd.? You want me to turn it off? Rocks fall, you die!"
Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Harry Han
When I run, I have set up "RPG playlists" on my laptop. I have one for battles, one with brighter adventuring themes, one for taverns, one more subdued, one creepy, etc. The music is taken from various video game soundtracks (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Suikoden) and movie/tv soundtracks (Xena, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, the Slayers).
Sometimes an appropriate music sting happens to play at the right moment.
The thing is to cue stuff up well so you're not searching for exactly the right piece when you're playing, so you don't get distracted by your own soundtrack.
I haven't in the past, but I just finished the final of three sessions running my party through a haunted house. (A PFRPG-converted of Foxglove Manor, from Rise of the Runelords, AP#2).
I put together a 3-1/2 hour-long playlist on my iPod and played it over the stereo. This is all ambient, creepy music that would be a suitable soundtrack for a horror movie.
You can see and listen to the playlist at Spotify:
http://open.spotify.com/user/1215796770/playlist/1dr3muLEydltKNLcX62k7J
Have fun!
Hal
I used to use a compilation of songs from video games to use for battle music. Stuff that ups the mood and makes the players get that fun rise like when the music picks up in a video game boss battle.
Absolutely not. I’d like to hear my fellow players and the DM, thank you.
Absolutely not. I’d like to hear my fellow players and the DM, thank you.
If someone's got the volume that high, they're kind of missing the point of "background music."
We listen to music, ipod shuffle/pandora. It isn't really related to the game session, just whatever someone plays. I could see how having a set playlist for the session would be set the mood though, and might suggest it.
sometimes, if I'm really up to it, I record my own voice as an opening narrative before we start the session. XD
Cinematic music, anime music, mostly stuff without lyrics. I allow my players to pick a theme song as well and play it when awesome stuff happens. Two steps from hell has some especially awesome stuff.
Absolutely not. I’d like to hear my fellow players and the DM, thank you.If someone's got the volume that high, they're kind of missing the point of "background music."
I have been playing since 1974 or so, so even background music prevents me from hearing talking.
If it's too loud, you're too old!
Tried it. Didn't last.
Found it too distracting.
The right background music can enhance the mood rather than spoiling it. Like others, I feel that it's best to stick to instrumental stuff (of any genre). Singing tends to distract the players' and GM's attention on a subconscious level.
Be grateful for progress, you kids! For years we old coots were simply spinning CDs, and it's a rare CD that doesn't have at least one track that spoils the mood (I'm looking right at you, Enya!) Using digital playlists, I split up all my instrumental music based on the main emotional response of the music. Here are the big five lists that I use for fantasy RPGs:
Comedy (sometimes played ironically in deathtrap dungeons)
Tragedy (also good for solemn or tranquil moments)
Terror (use this one only rarely!)
Travel (good for any down-time, in town or wilds)
War (for most combats)Your particular tastes may involve different categories: for instance, I started out with a 'Sneaking' playlist and a 'Romance' playlist, but they turned out to overlap too much with 'Terror' and 'Tragedy' respectively.
Do you have any ideas/artists/musical enembles/songs you could recommend for them?
Oh yeah, certain video game soundtracks are simply amazing for tabletop background music.
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I use playlists of music carefully vetted by me for three different categories: City, Combat, and Exploring. The music doesn't always match perfectly, but a lot of times it works out really well. In my old game, it got to the point where my players would make sure we switched between playlists whenever we went from exploring to combat, etc.
A while back I copied the playlists out of iTunes into a Google Docs spreadsheet, which is available here:
Hope you enjoy it :)
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We almost always play music during games! In fact, I purchased (for the most part) or otherwise acquired (library etc) some great soundtrack CDs. I then went through each one and picked out the individual songs that I felt worked well as music to play during a game.
These songs then went into iTunes. I manually organized the songs so music from the same soundtrack did not play after each other and then burned them all to CD.
We now have a 12 volume set! 12 CDs filled with more than 200 great gaming tracks - over 14 hours ... not to mention really fun to listen to LOUD in the car :)
Here are the main soundtracks that make up the 12 disc set. By main, I mean there was a LOT of great stuff on these and I ended up choosing a significant number of tracks from each one. There are assorted single songs from a number of other soundtracks as well to round the collection out, but these CDs served as my primary sources:
Conan the Barbarian
Braveheart
The Cell
300
Lord of the Rings (all three)
Gladiator
Lost (TV show)
The DaVinci Code
King Kong (new one)
The Last of the Mohicans
Pirates of the Caribbean (all three)
Last of the Mohicans
Alexander
Kingdom of Heaven
King Arthur
The 13th Warrior
Excalibur
Troy
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight
Clash of the Titans
Prince of Persia
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (Kevin Cosner version)
Robin Hood (new one)
Star Trek (new one)
The Tudors
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
A LONG and involved project, but it was worth it!
Of course, I still continue to pick up sountracks, so I can't rule out a Vol. 13 and 14 at some point ... :)
I always play with some background soundtracks, usually from movies. I find they really add ambience to whatever the players are doing. Nothing loud, just barely perceptible.
These are some of my favorites...
Steve Jablonsky (The Island, Transformers 1 to 3)
Alan Sylvestri (Predator, Back to the Future)
Anything by Hans Zimmer (Davinci Code, Angels & Demons, Batman Begins and Dark Knight)
Most John Williams (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, many more...)
Danny Elfman (Last of the Mohicans, Batman (the older one))
Also try these other movie soundtracks:
Twister,
Predators,
1492,
Mortal Kombat,
Of course Lord of the Rings,
Some Harry Potter (actually most but not Hedwig's Theme),
Avatar
X-Files
The Mummy
and most Tomb Raider games soundtracks.
I have tons more, but I don't remember them at this time.
Ultradan
We use a dedicated game soundtrack ipod. It contains a sampling of tracks from our huge library of movie and video game soundtracks.
All the tracks are arranged into playlists that can be shuffled independently. The playlists are created thematically and are titled accordingly. We have the generic Adventuring, Suspense, and Combat, as well as more specific playlists like Town and Tavern. Actually my wife manages the whole thing, so I'm recalling what little I can remember.
We use everything that we think fits, new and old. Video game soundtracks range from the original Baldurs Gate to Skyrim. Many movie soundtracks we use have already been listed above.
This is all group preference really. If music bothers even one player I'd say don't use it. If it works for your group, go for it.
I'm surprised nobody's said World of Warcraft yet.
I'm surprised nobody's said World of Warcraft yet.
World of Warcraft soundtracks are in our playlists, plus some from Warcraft III and the Diablo series.
Plus a whole slew that I can't recall off the top of my head.
For me I find that music while gaming can inspire moments and set moods, if timed well. You can play music during gaming, but it needs to fit and can be jarring otherwise. We've carefully groomed our playlists over the last 6-ish years and have weeded out tracks that didn't work.
What I'm also discovering is that certain soundtracks that may not fit in a fantasy game are inspiring me to run other games, or to come up with games just to use that soundtrack while playing.
Most recently it's been the soundtrack to Hanna. Another good one is the Book of Eli soundtrack. I would love to run a game using those two.
Tried it. Didn't last.
Found it too distracting.
this is more or less why I switched to ambient sound effect on soundtracks. Too bad many players with excellent ears were playing name that tune.
I've used the music from the Lost TV series on low volumes during my Smuggler's Shiv setting to portray mystery and sadness. Seemed to go down well but was pain to maintain the atmosphere as well as tracking everything else so stopped.
A fellow GM uses music from Tron, Advent Children, Star wars and anime like Naruto and bleach for his stuff. Went very well with cinematic intros to places in scifi campaigns. But it gets annoying when he stops the session to go through his itunes library for 'the perfect song' to play loudly and distractingly during battles.
And then another GM just played the SW canteena song over ang over whenever we went anywhere then even looked like it sold alcohol and/or had a gathering of more than 3 races... Was funny the first 10 times.
Music can add to a game but only if you have a cheat sheet for your playlist and the volume level is subtle enough that people can talk and think over it.
If by music, you mean the symphony of sobs that my players make as their characters are crushed in a cascading cacophony of falling rocks? Yes, yes I do listen to sweet music.
oooh thats my favourate song :)
I also like 'Burn PC's Burn' by the Goblin Boyz.|
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I always play music when we play. I have satellite radio and play a 60s or 70s thing because that works for most of my group (our age group).
Sometimes I play a playlist from my ipod. But not something game related. I have tried that and I found that it is another thing I need to attend to. It was nice when I did it. I have a hard time preparing for my sessions anyway because I have a busy life. Now, when I have done it, it has been fun but it is a time thing.
Yeah, however there are no lyrics within the music.
Too old for what, you young whippersnapper? Hey back in my day there were just three classes. Now get off my lawn!
