Need Some Music For My Table

[Apostle of Gygax]

Okay, so I found out on Thursday that my players like music with their games, not going all the time in the background but theme music for battles or reoccurring villains and so forth. So I was hoping to get some suggestions of what I could use. I have already assigned the Imperial March to one villain and I am using O Fortuno for when the LE god of tyranny shows up. He is actually aiding the PCs to further his own ends. I know my players are big into anime and video games , but I am not, so maybe some of you know tunes from those sources which might work. Thanks in advance.

[Wiggz]

Apostle of Gygax wrote:

Okay, so I found out on Thursday that my players like music with their games, not going all the time in the background but theme music for battles or reoccurring villains and so forth. So I was hoping to get some suggestions of what I could use. I have already assigned the Imperial March to one villain and I am using O Fortuno for when the LE god of tyranny shows up. He is actually aiding the PCs to further his own ends. I know my players are big into anime and video games , but I am not, so maybe some of you know tunes from those sources which might work. Thanks in advance.

I highly reccomend music from:

Robin Hood: The Prince of Thieves (Kevin Costner one, especially the opening fanfare)
All of the various Harry Potter movies
The Pirates of the Carribean movies
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Last of the Mohicans
Both of the Star Wars Trilogies
The Battlestar Galactica soundtracks (new series)

I can actually reccomend specific pieces from each as I have them all for use in games, but I'm not at home with them right now. I'll post again when I am.

One little theater technique I always did was select one piece of music about 2-3 minutes long and have everybody be quiet, making notes, getting their character sheets ready or whatever while it played. It served sort of like the opening credits for a favorite television show and got everybody's head into the right place - then I would follow up th emusic with a brief recap of the story thus far.

I find the first part of the opening credits from Robin Hood: Prince of Theieves to be a superb piece for that, but obviously tastes vary.

[submit2me]

This is might only be because I've been playing it non-stop for the last five days, but music from the Soul Calibur series could be appropriate. The only problem is that a lot of it is obviously video game music that sounds like a synthesized orchestra.

Final Fantasy music also works, but has the same issue with sounding like a synthesized orchestra. FF XIII doesn't have that issue as much, but it may not be as appropriate as other music.

[Apostle of Gygax]

Wiggz wrote:

One little theater technique I always did was select one piece of music about 2-3 minutes long and have everybody be quiet, making notes, getting their character sheets ready or whatever while it played. It served sort of like the opening credits for a favorite television show and got everybody's head into the right place - then I would follow up th emusic with a brief recap of the story thus far.

I find the first part of the opening credits from Robin Hood: Prince of Theieves to be a superb piece for that, but obviously tastes vary.

I actually prefer this piece for the "opening credits," but I will look at the Robin Hood Soundtrack for some of the other pieces I need.

[Mage Evolving]

Go to Pandora and type in Basil Poledouris. You get an incredible mix of fantasy, horror and sci-fi music. The best part of course is that it is free.

[Alex the Rogue]

Apostle of Gygax wrote:

Okay, so I found out on Thursday that my players like music with their games, not going all the time in the background but theme music for battles or reoccurring villains and so forth. So I was hoping to get some suggestions of what I could use. I have already assigned the Imperial March to one villain and I am using O Fortuno for when the LE god of tyranny shows up. He is actually aiding the PCs to further his own ends. I know my players are big into anime and video games , but I am not, so maybe some of you know tunes from those sources which might work. Thanks in advance.

I use the sound track from Conan the Barbarian, Vagner flight of the Valkreys (spelling), 2001 space oddessy (spelling again), and other classical music. The conan soundtrack has great tracks for battle and shopping at a bazzar...

[Atarlost]

I'd suggest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. All are old enough to be in the public domain, though not all recordings are. All have a variety of moods. If you need more battle music Wagner has some stuff.

[Tirq]

For any situation that the PCs find themselves in, try Dvorak's 9th Symphony, aka. The New World Symphony. Part 4 is a monster.

Just remember that when in doubt, try the Halo 3 OST. Real orchestrated music that suites your every need.

Explosive by Bond is also a good song.

[master arminas]

Mage Evolving wrote:

Go to Pandora and type in Basil Poledouris. You get an incredible mix of fantasy, horror and sci-fi music. The best part of course is that it is free.

+1. That is one of my Pandora channels, and I am listening to it now.

MA

[CalebTGordan]

Here is a good article on music.

Here is another good resource to gaming music.

[Shah Jahan the King of Kings]

Halo has some very good music. I would avoid their theme, as it is pretty much saturated to the audience. However, if you pick one of their suites, it is quite possible for people to be like "That's an awesome song, where is it from?" and be surprised when you tell them Halo.

A bittersweet sorrowful one with hope at the end- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD21I2tlEaM I was going to use this one as the last march on the BBEG. My campaign was never completed, but by this point all gods but Vecna are dead, and the party is headed from the devestation of the desecrated world under the total rule of Vecna's tyrany to their final fight with the Lich himself.

A "Heart of the Madness" style one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GdmaGK5ud8&feature=related This was going to be used on the first sight of Vecna's champion, who used the power of his shattered soul to override the morphic traits of divine planes- Essentially, he was able to shut off the divinity of gods and kill them.

A good "Roll Out" theme- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RccLY1xWPz8&feature=related This was going to be after the fall of Asmodeus. Without Hell to distract the demons, they begin to pour into the Prime Material. The party sees this scene at the violin segment, and when the drums begin, angels and archons begin pouring from the skies to combat them. This begins the bleak "scorched earth" phase near the end of the campaign.

[Arikiel]

I don't know about battles but for general background music check out AncientFM

[Arikiel]

Mage Evolving wrote:

Go to Pandora and type in Basil Poledouris. You get an incredible mix of fantasy, horror and sci-fi music. The best part of course is that it is free.

Free with commercial interruptions. But ya it can be handy sometimes. :)

[Ismodai]

midnight teatre for creepy/night scenes, the baldur´s gate OST has a bit of everything and the skyrim OST

[pipedreamsam]

Here are two youtube users with some decent music, most of it I found useful was for battles or for important story moments, theme songs, etc. A lot of the music is from popular anime shows and video games.

User 1

User 2