Renfield
Explorer
Allright, while I'm on a 'posting on enworld' role I figure I'll add this to the fray. I already have my own little 'Dungeons and Dragons soundtrack' but I'm posting this for other to give ideas for good choices of background music and the like for campaigns and D&D adventures. I'll also post a few tips I've found helpful and all that fun junk.
*For a nice fantasy like setting avoid techno or other obviously modern music.
- this is obviously a given, granted I recieved a nice responce as a rather viscious battle was fought with Disturbed playing in the background so there are exceptions.
*Try avoiding music with lyrics.
- Lyrics tend to distract players. Though some music where the main chunk of the melody is done in lyrics like gregorian chants and the like work as well. Or perhaps irish jigs for tavern scenes and various upbeat celtic music for a town festival.
*Try not to get stale.
- my main problem with music has always been having the song on repeat and forgetting to change it until a player notices the nice peaceful town music is still playing during an nasty battle with Orc barbarians in the Stonelands. So switch music from time to time. If scenes are going by fast don't worry about it, but combat is rarely very short and it's nice having something up beat in the background.
*Keep the volume relatively low.
- if the PC's have to raise their voices to be heard in the dark of night because that dark forboding music is up too loud then the music is obviously becomming an obstacle as opposed to enhancing the environment. Another mistake I tend to have to be reminded on >.<
Suggested music:
Well, my first on is the obvious choice of the Dungeons and Dragons Soundtrack recently released by Midnight Syndicate. You can probably purchase that at your local hobby shop and barring that order it from the groups website. (the link of which I don't have on hand as of yet.
- this soundtrack has a good chunk of the essentials. Combat music, dark forboding music, victorious heroic music, the chanting of a wizard casting a spell or performing a dark ritual etc etc.
- considering Midnight Syndicate is known for their gothic background music soundtracks a good chunk of the songs tend to be a tad darker in flavor. Still quite befitting of a D&D world.
Another good suggestion if you can afford it and don't already have them is this: I recently aquired the box-set containing both Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter, and Icewind Dale II computer games. The gem I found in this boxset and half the reason why I bought it (the other half being I never had Icewind Dale 1 and the expansion.) the award winning Icewind Dale Soundtrack.
- There are a few rather nice combat songs that range from highly energetic to grim and desperate in tempo.
- lot's of eerie background music that just screams desolate environment in the middle of nowhere.
- a few nice peaceful tunes that can be used for nature environments and town or village scenes.
They also have a Baldur's Gate II boxset containing Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: The Throne of Bhaal. As well as the wonderful soundtrack for that game. Alas I have yet to purchase it so I cannot really give much or a review. I know this though, the baldurs gate games have good background music for busy cities and towns and the like. Especially the music for Waukeens Promenade, very nice if you have extended RP going on in a bazaar typ locale.
I also imagine the Neverwinter Nights soundtrack has some good ones, alas I've never known how to get my own paws on that one.
For darker settings that might have a horror or gothic air to them I would suggest any of Midnight Syndicates other albums. They were made specifically for gothic/horror backgrounds so should be nigh perfection for those Ravenloft Campaigns. I would also reccomend any of the Lord of the Rings Movie soundtracks. The story get's rather dark and the music reflects this. They also have some good music for any epic adventures or climactic combat scenes. My players have complained often that the music was too forboding when all I had available was the Two Towers soundtrack.
Movie soundtracks in general. The 13th Warrior has some good ones. Especially if your campaign has a lot of Barbarians or something or a Nordic quality. The first few tracks have an Arabic air to them good for any of you running an Al Qadimesque campaign. The First Knight soundtrack is good as well. The track "No Surrender" is vary good for climactic fight scenes or desperate chase scenes. "To Leonese" is nice for battle scenes as well. A lot of Jerry Goldsmith's movie soundtracks in general are really great. The guy writes film scores for breakfast lunch and dinner and does a damn good job at it even if the movies they go to aren't the greatest.
Celtic music is good as well... especially if you're looking for something a little more up-beat, serene, or magical. I find the cd Celtic Nights is great for peaceful nature type background music. Perhaps for the Fey Courts or the Enchanted Forest type places in your campaigns. Celtic Odyssey and Celtic Legacy have some good songs befitting of towns or cities as well as taverns.
I like to avoid music that come from obvious sources like various themes and identifying musics in the Star Wars soundtracks or other suchs things. Final Fantasy music is good too and there are some orchestrated final fantasy musics that use some great songs from a lot of the better final fantasies (i.e. in my humble opinion: 2 (j4), 3 (j6), and 7 with some good stuff in ten. I particularly like Terra's Theme from 6. There are also numerous MP3 variations of these songs one for World of Ruin from FFVI that sounds rather modern with electric guitar but is made to sound very sad and depressing (as befits the name and that part of the game) so I'd still reccomend it for appropriate scenarios and RP scenes. I'd avoid obvious FF rip offs like the main theme, the famous sepiroth battle song "One Winged Angel" and the chocobo theme as well as any FF combat music but that's just my opinion. One of my players ran an interesting campaign in which various final fantasy and anime characters made cameo appearances so such things were perfectly acceptable if not downright appropriate.
I'm sure there are other sources out there but I've merely covered my personal favorites and opinions. Other opinions, suggestions, and favorites are encouraged to post.
Once again, I am no expert or proffesional, or godly experienced DM, I simply know what works and doesn't work for me and am open to further suggestions. Also typing this up because I thinks it's simply downright helpful to other DM's out there.
*For a nice fantasy like setting avoid techno or other obviously modern music.
- this is obviously a given, granted I recieved a nice responce as a rather viscious battle was fought with Disturbed playing in the background so there are exceptions.
*Try avoiding music with lyrics.
- Lyrics tend to distract players. Though some music where the main chunk of the melody is done in lyrics like gregorian chants and the like work as well. Or perhaps irish jigs for tavern scenes and various upbeat celtic music for a town festival.
*Try not to get stale.
- my main problem with music has always been having the song on repeat and forgetting to change it until a player notices the nice peaceful town music is still playing during an nasty battle with Orc barbarians in the Stonelands. So switch music from time to time. If scenes are going by fast don't worry about it, but combat is rarely very short and it's nice having something up beat in the background.
*Keep the volume relatively low.
- if the PC's have to raise their voices to be heard in the dark of night because that dark forboding music is up too loud then the music is obviously becomming an obstacle as opposed to enhancing the environment. Another mistake I tend to have to be reminded on >.<
Suggested music:
Well, my first on is the obvious choice of the Dungeons and Dragons Soundtrack recently released by Midnight Syndicate. You can probably purchase that at your local hobby shop and barring that order it from the groups website. (the link of which I don't have on hand as of yet.
- this soundtrack has a good chunk of the essentials. Combat music, dark forboding music, victorious heroic music, the chanting of a wizard casting a spell or performing a dark ritual etc etc.
- considering Midnight Syndicate is known for their gothic background music soundtracks a good chunk of the songs tend to be a tad darker in flavor. Still quite befitting of a D&D world.
Another good suggestion if you can afford it and don't already have them is this: I recently aquired the box-set containing both Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter, and Icewind Dale II computer games. The gem I found in this boxset and half the reason why I bought it (the other half being I never had Icewind Dale 1 and the expansion.) the award winning Icewind Dale Soundtrack.
- There are a few rather nice combat songs that range from highly energetic to grim and desperate in tempo.
- lot's of eerie background music that just screams desolate environment in the middle of nowhere.
- a few nice peaceful tunes that can be used for nature environments and town or village scenes.
They also have a Baldur's Gate II boxset containing Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: The Throne of Bhaal. As well as the wonderful soundtrack for that game. Alas I have yet to purchase it so I cannot really give much or a review. I know this though, the baldurs gate games have good background music for busy cities and towns and the like. Especially the music for Waukeens Promenade, very nice if you have extended RP going on in a bazaar typ locale.
I also imagine the Neverwinter Nights soundtrack has some good ones, alas I've never known how to get my own paws on that one.
For darker settings that might have a horror or gothic air to them I would suggest any of Midnight Syndicates other albums. They were made specifically for gothic/horror backgrounds so should be nigh perfection for those Ravenloft Campaigns. I would also reccomend any of the Lord of the Rings Movie soundtracks. The story get's rather dark and the music reflects this. They also have some good music for any epic adventures or climactic combat scenes. My players have complained often that the music was too forboding when all I had available was the Two Towers soundtrack.
Movie soundtracks in general. The 13th Warrior has some good ones. Especially if your campaign has a lot of Barbarians or something or a Nordic quality. The first few tracks have an Arabic air to them good for any of you running an Al Qadimesque campaign. The First Knight soundtrack is good as well. The track "No Surrender" is vary good for climactic fight scenes or desperate chase scenes. "To Leonese" is nice for battle scenes as well. A lot of Jerry Goldsmith's movie soundtracks in general are really great. The guy writes film scores for breakfast lunch and dinner and does a damn good job at it even if the movies they go to aren't the greatest.
Celtic music is good as well... especially if you're looking for something a little more up-beat, serene, or magical. I find the cd Celtic Nights is great for peaceful nature type background music. Perhaps for the Fey Courts or the Enchanted Forest type places in your campaigns. Celtic Odyssey and Celtic Legacy have some good songs befitting of towns or cities as well as taverns.
I like to avoid music that come from obvious sources like various themes and identifying musics in the Star Wars soundtracks or other suchs things. Final Fantasy music is good too and there are some orchestrated final fantasy musics that use some great songs from a lot of the better final fantasies (i.e. in my humble opinion: 2 (j4), 3 (j6), and 7 with some good stuff in ten. I particularly like Terra's Theme from 6. There are also numerous MP3 variations of these songs one for World of Ruin from FFVI that sounds rather modern with electric guitar but is made to sound very sad and depressing (as befits the name and that part of the game) so I'd still reccomend it for appropriate scenarios and RP scenes. I'd avoid obvious FF rip offs like the main theme, the famous sepiroth battle song "One Winged Angel" and the chocobo theme as well as any FF combat music but that's just my opinion. One of my players ran an interesting campaign in which various final fantasy and anime characters made cameo appearances so such things were perfectly acceptable if not downright appropriate.
I'm sure there are other sources out there but I've merely covered my personal favorites and opinions. Other opinions, suggestions, and favorites are encouraged to post.
Once again, I am no expert or proffesional, or godly experienced DM, I simply know what works and doesn't work for me and am open to further suggestions. Also typing this up because I thinks it's simply downright helpful to other DM's out there.
Last edited:
) on three discs with different feel:
