What is your Gaming Music

[Dougal DeKree]

I want to point out the thread of Michikawa on the General RPG Discussion board here - he has very good free stuff for download, which can be used for setting a mood really good! I just don't have the link at hand, sorry.

Apart from that I usually choose one musical category theme for every campaign that gets played when we play that campaign. For example for the last AU campaign I used the soundtracks of both Hero and CTHD. This IME helps players to stop the chatter and get into the mood to start playing. After the campaign ended, whenever someone heard one of the two soundtracks they went "Ah, AU time again?"

For the current Spacemaster campaign I use Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian - which actually is part of the Aliens soundtrack.

As for changing CD's: well, have the stuff on mp3, connect your computer with the stereo and have winamp loop over the files at random, that guarantees noone ever has to restart the music

 

[ForceUser]

In the past year, I've used a Lorena McKennet CD, the LotR soundtrack, the Morrowind soundtrack, and the Eberron soundtrack.

Oh, and Queen.

 

[gamecat]

Escaflowne's soundtrack. over. and over. and over. and over. It's played out to the point of banality, but it still gets played for some reason. =/

 

[Bloodsparrow]

Our DM uses LotR mostly, with a splash of the Gladeator soundtrack. But when he forgets that he uses Lorenna McKennet's Book of Secrets and the World of Warcraft Soundtrack. Because that's what I have that he likes.

 

[Arnwyn]

I have a rather extensive list of music that we use for our sessions, including a great many movie soundtracks (Lord of the Rings, Stargate, Cutthroat Island, etc), anime soundtracks (virtually everything by Yoko Kanno, as well as a great many other selections, including Lodoss War, Magic Knight Rayearth, etc), and video game soundtracks (such as the Final Fantasy series, Chrono games, Tales series, and much more).

With a HTPC filled with more than 50 GB of music (most of them soundtracks), we have a lot to choose from.

 

[Django]

We have a mixture of progressive rock/metal with the occasional soundtrack and ambient thrown in.

Some features include:

Ayreon
Brian Eno
David Arkenstone
Dream Theater
Enya
Fayman & Fripp
Genesis (the old good stuff, not the newer crap stuff)
Jethro Tull
King Crimson - especially the Discipline era
LOTR Soundtrack
Marillion
Spock's Beard
Yes

 

[diaglo]

Dice hitting the table. it is the true music of the game.

 

[Desdichado]

For some reason I always like this topic when it comes up.

My M.O. is to rip songs from my CD movie soundtracks into mp3 format, and then burn them onto a CD-R as mp3s so I can get 130 or so tracks per disk. Because I play in the living room, I can just toss that in the DVD player, put it on shuffle, and let 'er run the entire session without hearing the same track twice. I use material from lots of different soundtracks, including (but not necessarily limited to):

Lord of the Rings Soundtracks
Signs
Gladiator
Last Samurai
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Last of the Mohicans
Stargate
The Mummy
Van Helsing
Batman Begins
Aliens
Sleepy Hollow
Hunt for the Red October
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Troy
Starship Troopers
Conan the Barbarian
Bram Stoker's Dracula
End of Days
From Hell
The Thirteenth Warrior
Braveheart
The Sum of All Fears
Minority Report
Patriot Games
Dragonheart
The Time Machine

As you can probably tell, my games tend to feature a lot of dark, mysterious and even frankly horror elements. For a more straight up fantasy, I use a slightly different mix that concentrates less on the eerie tracks and more on action and fantasy tracks.

I absolutely despise using modern "pop" music during games, even ones in modern settings. Some hardcore lyric-less techno would work great for a futuristic, or cybperunk game (like Shadowrun) and of course there's nothing like the actual Star Wars soundtracks for a Star Wars game, but I draw the line at playing anything like Death Metal or whathaveyou at the gaming table. It just distracts the nonfans (like me) and the fans alike.

 

[freebfrost]

It depends on the game.

For my Call of Cthulhu game set in Cody, Wyoming I've been using Native American dances and flute instrumentals.

For my Conan game, I use the Conan soundtrack and similarly themed movies like LotR.

For my last "regular" d20 game I used a lot of Apocalyptica.

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

I use a lot of soundtrack music (from many of the movies listed above e.g. Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, etc.), but I have recently discovered soundtracks from videogames. I just got the soundtrack to Advent Rising and I really like it. Also, Orff: Carmina Burana is great for Gaming Music