Is there anyone who takes music really seriously for D&D?

[Libramarian]

In short, they acted like a real group of people being hunted by tigers.

Great story In the past I have used Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight"* as a recurring theme in Call of Cthulhu, typically right after the moment in the adventure where the players start to realize how in-over-their-heads they are and even if they do succeed their PCs probably are not making it out alive or sane. Works really well.

*This is before I saw the CoC-ish movie that also uses this song a lot, Shutter Island, btw.

At the moment, for example, there are 4.8 hours worth of music in the D&D Generic Combat playlist.

Thanks for the tips. That's pretty much what I was thinking of doing, a playlist for wilderness, combat, city, and dungeon. What kind of stuff is in your combat playlist?

 

[Libramarian]

A lot of people always link to that thread. There just seems way to much information and linking in that thread. It's like drinking form a fire hydrant.

Yeah it's kind of overwhelming, but I'm browsing through it.

 

[Ravellion]

I've got an eight and a half hour Dark Sun playlist. It consists of the soundtracks of 300, Fallout 1&2, Rome (TV series), Gladiator and Conan (minus a few tracks here and there - 300 and Conan especially are not too fitting at times), supplemented with a few Lisa Gerrard titles.

 

[JustinAlexander]

Thanks for the tips. That's pretty much what I was thinking of doing, a playlist for wilderness, combat, city, and dungeon. What kind of stuff is in your combat playlist?

I've got significant selections from:

Aliens
Assassin's Creed (I, II, Brotherhood)
Baldur's Gate I, II
Battlestar Galactica
Bourne Trilogy
Breath of Fire 3, 4, 5
Chrono Cross
Conan (Barbarian, Destroyer, and Age of Conan)
Cutthroat Island
Dune (Movie and TV Miniseries)
Final Fantasy (VII, VIII, IX, X, Tactics)
Full Metal Alchemist
Genso Suikoden II, III, IV
Gundam (various)

Along with a number of miscellaneous tracks from a bunch of stuff.

One important note is to avoid the tracks that people will recognize unless you specifically WANT them to make the association.

 

[Libramarian]

Bumping for a great music find: Burzum's albums Dauði Baldrs and Hliðskjálf.

He's a Swedish neo-Nazi metal musician who served a prison sentence for murder. These are the two dark ambient albums he made in prison when he wasn't allowed any instruments except for a synthesizer.

They're creepy as hell but(?) so good for D&D.

 

[Razjah]

I've done it a few times. When I was either gaming at my apartment I used my stereo with an iPod dock to play background music. When you spend weeks playing certain playlists during combat and press one when the party enters a room of complete magical darkness-they panic and get out in any way they can.

I've also used Pandora to have ambient music for exploring, towns, strange otherworldly experiences, suspenseful moments, and combat. That has worked, but the ads are annoying, I don't have the money to pay for the upgrade to get rid of them. If I could it would be spectacular. Pandora has been a mixed success.

Overall, I find the music great, but as a GM I tend to forget about the music with everything else. In a game like Savage Worlds I would give the music duty to a player and that person would earn a benny for helping. For now, I go without it.


EDIT: Crysalize by Linsdey Stirling just came on Pandora. I could definitely picture this looped as PCs explore a capital city.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I recently ran a viking-themed campaign and had good results from playing a lot of Viking metal in the background, especially during the fights. Ensiferum in particular, worked really well for this, as they have a heavy folk influence. Also check out Fejd for a similarly good folk-viking vibe. Calmer scenes would benefit from stuff like Gjallarhorn. I also used a bunch of the 13th Warror Soundtrack, as well as other more generic fantasy stuff from my playlist. Some of the LotR soundtrack was also good in that game.

I usually have my playlist on quietly in the background during games, but occasionally I turn it off if it becomes too distracting. I try to avoid most non-videogame stuff that is overly electronic-sounding for D&D, or the opposite for stuff like Shadowrun.

 

[reelo]

Over time, I've moved away from this type of specificity and instead prepped generic playlists for my iPod. At the moment, for example, I have four primary playlists that I use for D&D:

- D&D Generic Background
- D&D Generic City
- D&D Generic Combat
- D&D Epic Combat

Whenever I add a new CD or soundtrack to my collection, I go through it track by track and add songs to the appropriate playlists.

This is exactly what I planned to do for my possible future PF campaign.

I will draw from soundtracks like the Elder Scrolls games (Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. They have THE best background/ambient/non-intrusive soundtracks ever!) Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, LotRO and DDO, among others.

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[BlackSeed_Vash]

depends on whats going on in the game.
While not completely on topic, I once hunted down some audio files of Hitler's speeches just so the players could get a feel for just how EVIL that Kobold bard and his minions truly were. That really convinced the two Jewish players in the group that this bastard had to die (normally they are fine with gnomish genocide).

 

[Razjah]

depends on whats going on in the game.
While not completely on topic, I once hunted down some audio files of Hitler's speeches just so the players could get a feel for just how EVIL that Kobold bard and his minions truly were. That really convinced the two Jewish players in the group that this bastard had to die (normally they are fine with gnomish genocide).

I think this is both clever and messed up. As long as the players didn't get offended it would be acceptable. Did you ask them before hand if that was okay/were they comfortable with it? Or did you just play it?