How important is Music in your games?

I've been using music in my games for years. The last Cthulhu one-shot i ran incorporated 6 background mood trax and nearly 20 specialized sound effects. For me, running adventures (and playing in them) is really missing out unless i got the right music. Creepy, eerie, traveling, combat, big boss fight, ewok victory music, it's all got its place somewhere. One reason i like running pre-fab adventures is so i have more time to craft sound effects.

What does anyone else prefer?

the occassional gust of wind.

otherwise the dice hitting the table.

diaglo said:

the occassional gust of wind.

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Heh. I think i have about 10 different kinds of gusts of wind. Zephyr to Tornado and all of 'em inbetween.

Nebulous, I've always been looking for sound effects/moody music, could you tell me where you get them from ?

I usually throw something on, but I don't change it to fit the exact moment of the game. More just the overall feel. The worst, though, is when a player brings over his or her own music, throws it all on, takes the remote control, and spends more time trying to match a song with the game than he or she does playing, heh. And that's without asking the DM if he's cool with it. Some people

SOS Mike said:

The worst, though, is when a player brings over his or her own music, throws it all on, takes the remote control, and spends more time trying to match a song with the game than he or she does playing, heh. And that's without asking the DM if he's cool with it. Some people

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Yeah, that is not too cool. I see it as the DM's job to handle stuff like that, although my brother used to be the "sound guy" in our campaigns. It was his laptop, his speakers, and he knew where every file was. In the years since, i've sort of taken on that responsibility and really enjoy it, although it is an added layer of complexity to an already hard job.

rythm_rampage said:

Nebulous, I've always been looking for sound effects/moody music, could you tell me where you get them from ?

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Well, there's several ways. I recently purchased RPG soundmixer that has hundreds of effects bundled with it. If you want genuine moody background music, you'll want to buy or borrow from friends certain movie soundtrax and rip them to .wavs or .mp3s. Just off the top of my head i highly recommend Conan, Gladiator, Blade, Last of the Mohicans, and Aliens.

Now, there are snippets of sound effects you can find plastered all over the internet. For the purposes of just injecting a 30 second loop of music, they suffice just fine. And if you have a microphone, it is easy to make your own sounds.

I used to have "mood music" for my various different campaigns; I loved it, at least one of the other players loved it, and the rest were indifferent.

Then, alas, the group broke up; the current group seems to be mostly indifferent, except for the one player who actively dislikes it.

So I don't use it any more. But I miss it.

Oh, to be in a group of Method Actors/Storytellers again...

-The Gneech

I wish I had more time to use music as a DM. Unfortunately, collecting appropriate pieces, and becomeing so familiar with them to be able to chhoose from the selection can take a lot of time and resources that I just don't have.

I don't mind music, so long as it isnt distracting. Pretty much any music with lyrics is out, and very recognizeable themes, such as the LotR soundtrack, are out too. Softer insturmentals work well. Final Fantasy music, despite some of its recongizeable stuff, works too cause there's just such a variety and it fades nicely into the background.

I'm ambivalent to music. Sometimes I make a sound effect myself, though.