RPG Mood Music

[praetorian]

Something I have been very interested in for a long time is the kind of music that people play in the background when roleplaying, to set the mood or other reasons.

Personally, I use a lot of power/progressive metal since a lot of the albums have a fantasy theme, such as Blind Guardian's Nightfall in Middle Earth, or Rhapsody's Symhony of Enchanted Lands. The music is very varied and in my mind does a great job of capturing all the emotions that adventuring contains.

But enough about what I use, what do the rest of you like to have playing when you are RPing?

 

[Jarval]

Well, Enya is always good in my book. Other than that, some clasical, some soundtracks, my Sci-Fi themes CD , the odd bit of RnB/Hip Hop.

 

[Chaldfont]

Soundtracks, soundtracks, soundtracks

You can't beat soundtracks. If you have a computer, you can queue up a zillion mp3s ripped from your favorite CDs. My favorite new toy for gaming is this device from http://www.x10.com that hooks up to your soundcard and broadcasts to your stereo. There is even a remote control so you can change tracks.

Anyway here are some good ones.

Soundtracks:
Conan the Barbarian
Legend
Star Wars
Indiana Jones
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Braveheart
The Godfather
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Farscape
Other CDs:
Carmina Burana
Yes: Topographic Oceans (the first track is this great chanting incantation)
Enya

 

[Bass Puppet]

I am recently using Lord Of The Rings soundtrack. From time to time, I will put on an Intelligent Drum and Bass Mix by one of my boys. We have tried Metal, Classical, Rap, and I feel that the players have a better reaction to soundtracks. Bram Stoker's Dracula soundtracks is AWSOME.

On another note, I produce, and have produce several LONG loops of Atmosphere ranging from Villages to Dungeons to Forests. I even put in some world Instruments (sitar, congas, etc.) and composed a couple of simple tunes to highlight the Atmosphere.

 

[mattcolville]

We generally have some Rush or Zepplin in the background, not to listen to as much as white noise.

I made a D&D Soundtrack at one point to see if music would make a difference. It was great mood music but the problem is, there was no time to listen to it. I describe what's going on, people want to react and reply, they don't want to listen to the music. So it went back to being white noise.

 

[Wippit Guud]

Akira soundtrack rocks for this.

 

[Dundragon]

Monte Cook has a good list of CDs that work well for different kinds of atmospheres, I will try most of them when I get around to it. Our group uses the Braveheart and LoTR soundtracks at the moment.
http://www.montecook.com/arch_dmonly6.html
He also includes links to Amazon.com so you can listen in to the CDs, and buy them if you like them.

 

[Amrynn Moonshadow]

everything from classical to ambient. (but no boy bands!)

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

When we do use music, it really depends on what we're trying to do. I fully plan to make use of the LOTR soundtrack that I just got. The Realm of Shadows CDs are WONDERFUL I only have one, but I really want to get more. I've got a CD of sound effects--The Game Masters collection volume 2: monsters--and other than that, I just find stuff online and rip it onto cds as needed. So far, i haven't made any cds, but i do have quite a few mp3s of various stuff that I COULD use. From what I've heard from my brothers CDs, I could stand to pick up some Rush music for background. Lately, I've been grooving to a Helloween song, i think it's called keeper of the 7 keys--is any of their other stuff good? Nightwish--Dead Boy's poem and most of the Blind Guardian stuff that I've heard are also pretty good.

For SciFi games, i think the sountrack to the movie Pi would be great (not to mention, it's just a damn good techno cd)

I'm thinkin' that I'm all out of ideas for the moment.

 

[Fyrie]

Last of The Mohicans
Dracula