4e Battle Music! My Dilemma.

[That One Guy]

I was actually thinking of coming back and suggesting DragonForce. ^_^ You can't really get more appropriate, but their music isn't for everyone.

And Victoly, we suggested music from Strategy RPGs, not Traditional RPGs. SRPG battles tend to last 20 minutes or more (much more in some cases). Their tracks are specifically designed to be listened to for long periods of time.

The only problem with Dragonforce is that it only really works for levels 21-30. Which makes me consider the idea of tiered music to go with the players' tiers.

Why didn't I say Apocalyptica? Some songs better than others, but a lot are good for D&D.

 

[SaffroN]

Someone already mentioned music from tactical RPGs, but what about music from fantasy real time strategy games, perhaps Warcraft 3 or LotR: Battle for Middle Earth? I know a single game in Starcraft on average takes about 20 minutes, so RTS music is designed to be played for a long period of time without being obnoxious (just play it kind of soft).

I strongly agree with this. I use the music from Warcraft 3 in many of my games.

Link

If you use music from computer games you can't be too wrong.

 

[Hammerhead]

Music from tatical rpg videogames are indeed perfect but i am also downloading soundtracks that carries the whole spirit of a fantastic medieval adventure, here are some of them:

OSTs

LadyHawke

Ladyhawke? The movie where they accidentally used the Shaft soundtrack? You're kidding, right?

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Why hasn't anyone said Dragon Force, Prodigy, or Rammstein, yet? Did I miss them?

They're not to everybody's taste, opinions will differ. I find Dragon Force to have a couple good songs but mostly be filler and a bit too commercialized. Rammstein is just too industrial now, some of their early stuff can be useful but not most of the recent stuff.

Edit: Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack is excellent for a Swashbuckling campaign.

Absolutely, I love the sound tracks of all 3 movies for anything to do with the sea or large bodies of water.

 

[greyscale1]

Wow, seeing a lot of good suggestions here! I'm currently downloading a whopping 8gb of PC game music right now (PC games because its easier to find high quality MP3s rather than sort of tinny MIDIs).

Also some Apocalyptica, because they just rock.

However, the hard Finnish metal, etc etc, I don't think will fly. My group would probably just laugh at it (and I might myself). Though good in its own right, in our games it feels more like bad 80s high fantasy, like muscle bound naked viking in piles of women. Delightful, but definitely a different feel.

The same is similarly true with Dragonforce, though they are good, sometimes (most times) their lyrics are a bit... silly.

'FLYING THROUGH FIELDS OF FIRE!!! WITH DRAGONS ON WING THAT BURN WITH DESIRE'

I just made that up, but its pretty damn close to what they usually sing about.


Anyone who has a collection of music that they would like to share, I encourage you to put it in a zip and upload it to rapidshare.com or megaupload.com or something similar then link it here.

I plan on doing that myself once I get my collection... collected.


Theres some DMing help that you can take to the bank, eh?

 

[Cmarco]

I find Apocalyptica works pretty well. Also, without the theme tracks, Star Wars soundtracks are good and the official D&D soundtrack still does pretty good. Come to think of it, the soundtrack to God of War and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children are good too.

Just sayin'

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I'll second the suggestion of viking/black metal. The stuff is sinister, it keeps consistently chugging along, and the lyrics are usually impossible to decipher (so that players won't get distracted by the words being spoken).

Most of my group listens to mainstream rock at the hardest. It probably says something that I listen to the stuff so much I understand it as well as conversational English.

TANGENT ALERT: You know I've listened to a LOT of metal and something has occurred to me. Metal is especially suited to Germanic and Slavic Languages. It's like they were made for each other. Romance languages don't sound right for metal. I've never heard metal in African or Middle Eastern languages but the structure and rhythm of the languages don't mesh. The various Indian and East Asian languages just can't do metal. I should know I've heard attempts by Japanese and Koreans but the sounds don't work together.

 

[That One Guy]

HSB, you make excellent points. Well-stated. I did have older Rammstein in mind, and Dragonforce does get grating. A lot. But some of it (like you said) is enjoyable. I think your warnings should be considered before listening to the music I suggested or including it in a game.

 

[sunspot]

I put my DnD cd on DivShare.
http://www.divshare.com/download/4578491-1b0
You can download all the tracks.
(compilation of Conan, Jurasic Park, Zelda, John Williams and much more.

I keep the tracks in the following order:

1-7 Traveling tracks
8-12 Combat tracks
13-16 Victory tracks

Enjoy!

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I put my DnD cd on DivShare.
http://www.divshare.com/download/4578491-1b0
You can download all the tracks.
(compilation of Conan, Jurasic Park, Zelda, John Williams and much more.

I keep the tracks in the following order:

1-7 Traveling tracks
8-12 Combat tracks
13-16 Victory tracks

Enjoy!

Thank you I'm downloading now. You can never have too much good music or useful data.