Do you use song lyrics as inspiration for adventures?

[DungeonmasterCal]

Oh, and I can't believe I forgot MANOWAR !!,

That does it. Turn in your demon whip and prepare yourself for violence and bloodshed.

 

[gizmo33]

That does it. Turn in your demon whip and prepare yourself for violence and bloodshed.

Tell me about it! My only excuse is that Manowar practically built my campaign - while the other songs were dungeon adventures. I even have spells such as Blackwind, and Summon Chariot of War (with spikes). Since the band's concerts are the reason I can't hear anymore, I figure they owe me something.

Last century, I was playing this MUD and I walked into a hall. Inscribed on the wall were some words along the lines of "Everyone of us has heard the call. Brothers of true metal... the power within us has brought us to this hall..."

So I had my character yell "Wimps and posers, leave the hall !" Instead of getting immediately promoted to 100th level, some of the other players just made some snide remarks along the lines of "you first". What a let-down.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Dang... Manowar is the last band on my "must see before I die" list. I'm well and truly envious of you. Guess now I'll go home and listen to the Battle Hymns LP (yes...on vinyl) over and over tonight.

sigh.....

 

[cybertalus]

'In the court of the Crimson King' by King Crimson

Dude, you just made me change CDs. That album is amazing, and as you say, full of D&D type imagery. With the lines about prison moons and such I always thought it would be really suited to a moody, atmospheric Spelljammer game. Maybe it's partly the colors of the album cover, but I have a vision of the game world being a habitable moon orbiting a red gas giant, with the prison moons being other, less hospitable moons of the gas giant. The big problem is that I'd wanna use the CD itself (sans the first track) to set the mood as well, and that might give away the plot.

Oh, and alsih2o, Dylan always made me think more of the Old West. Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Lilly, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts, and even Tangled up in Blue to a lesser extent, feel to me like they're set in the 1800's frontier. Though Shelter from the Storm sorta has an otherworldly broadly D&Dish feel to it. Course I'll admit that aside from Blood on the Tracks, I mostly listen to Dylan's stuff from collections rather than original albums.

 

[Samothdm]

(I guess not surprisingly) it looks like DnD and metal go along handily.

I noticed that, too, while reading through the thread today. Either the metalheads are just really vocal or there's a disproportionate amount of metal listeners on ENWorld. I'd love to hear some other non-metal choices. I keep trying to think of a jazz song that would be cool, but the only thing I can come up with off the top of my head is "That Old Black Magic".

This morning on the way to work I was listening to the Clash. "London Calling" has some cool post-apocalyptic lyrics for people running that type of campaign:

The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in
Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin
A nuclear error, but I have no fear
London is drowning-and I live by the river

 

[Talmun]

Dude, you just made me change CDs....

I'm jonesing to listen to it myself now, but I'm at work (shhhhh).

I'm surprised no one has listed any ELO or Allen Parsons Project, once you get past the somewhat dated aspects of the music, the imagery is very evocative of fantasy gaming.

 

[Testament]

I noticed that, too, while reading through the thread today. Either the metalheads are just really vocal or there's a disproportionate amount of metal listeners on ENWorld...

Nope, IME, other gaming sites are full of metalheads too.

 

[cybertalus]

I'd love to hear some other non-metal choices.

Irish Traditionals are about as non-metal as you can get. There are some that are D&D-ish, but I've never taken an adventure from them.

The Black Velvet Band (about a guy from Belfast who gets sent off to Van Diemen's Land after a pretty pickpocket sets him up*), The Wild Rover (about a young man who's been out in the world making his fortune, and comes home rich), The Cobbler (about a travelling, rabble-rousing cobbler who gets sick of his nagging wife and drowns her), and Rising of the Moon (about one of the Irish uprisings against the English, but it mentions pikes quite a bit, so it's got that D&D flavor going on) are the best ones that spring to mind.

And truth be told, aside from Led Zeppelin, I'm not into anything that could be remotely considered metal. Though many of my favorites seldom write D&D-able lyrics.

I'm jonesing to listen to it myself now, but I'm at work (shhhhh).

I'm surprised no one has listed any ELO or Allen Parsons Project, once you get past the somewhat dated aspects of the music, the imagery is very evocative of fantasy gaming.

Headphones are your friend. Unless you work the phones, then hopefully the music you get stuck in your head is the good stuff.

I'll confess to not being able to stand ELO. Aside from the Willburys, I really prefer Jeff Lynne as a producer to him as a writer or performer. I never managed to get into Allen Parsons or much other Prog Rock. A little Rush, two King Crimson CDs (and the other one, In the Wake of Poseidon, is horrible), and Tull's Thick as a Brick make up my entire Prog Rock collection. Unless Pink Floyd/Roger Waters count, then it just about doubles.



*I almost had my rogue PC do this to another PC once when the party was being agonizingly slow to get together, and it was totally song-inspired. Instead my PC got the guy's money pouch, dropped it on the floor when he wasn't looking, and then asked him if he'd dropped it, which was enough to get things rolling finally.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Not adventures, but I have gotten places, characters, game themes/styles and long term story arcs from songs.

Also, I throw XP bonuses at players who give me theme music for their characters. There's nothing like turning on the players' theme songs when brainstorming.

Wait, I lied. Kurgan's theme by Queen. Maybe it was called Gimme the Prize. That basically wrote itself into a fun adventure.

 

[kolvar]

Did kind of this once with a campaign: Took a Renaissance-compilation and thought about each title on the cd. each one became an encounter or something they found: The black Flame bacame a powerful artefact, that could burn away sins (for a price), the ship they traveled on was namened after another song