Music of Dungeons and Dragons

[Behold the Void]

I thought up this idea not too long ago, and have desperately wanted to try it, but I am not an accomplished pianist. Yet.

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you Dungeon Masters out there who can play the piano well would like to try this.

I believe that music can be valuable to setting the mood for a game. I was thinking that, if one is good enough at the piano, they could play music while the PCs adventure, or maybe have someone play and have the DM do what they normally do. The pianist would have to be good, of course, and able to segue into different musical styles very rapidly.

What would be done is that the pianist would play music, setting a kind of tonal atmosphere for the game. As the adventurers move through, say, a serene forest, the pianist might play something light and reminescent of faeries. However, say the group suddenly encounters a group of hostile centaurs. Then the pianist segues into a more sinister piece. I think that the music could greatly enhance the quality of the game, but as I said, I am unable to pull it off. Would any of you be able and willing to try this out and tell me how it goes? I'd appreciate it a lot. Thank you.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Well, being a piano player myself, what you're asking for may be a bit much.

Unless you're improv-ing, it's going to be hard to get a repertoire of music that could fit every possible action the PCs might take-and depending on the length you have to play it, if you just keep repeating everyone might get bored. But, if you are good enough to play 3 hours straight (assuming that's how long a session is), of music like that, you usually good do the same at a restaurant, party or some other establishment-but get paid for it And pretty decently, most people I know like that can get like $50 an hour or more, depending on their skill doing that.

And let's not forget, unless you use a keyboard, you're kindof limited to where you have to play your game since a piano isn't usually easy to move around.

As a gamer though, I it would be cool-but since you're playing the piano for the whole time you don't have time to play your character, so you're not gaming-you're just entertaining-which is cool if you can find some one who likes to do that over a group of players shouting about killing orcs and the rolling of dice

I'd just suggest instead just getting some CDs or similar for background music, or if you can bring a laptop or play near a computer that would be nice since you could put all your music files there, and just prepare the appropriate ones before the game and play them when needed.

Just my 2 copper

 

[Behold the Void]

Yes, I know it would be difficult, I probably should have said keyboard, I don't know why I said piano. The problem with CDs is that it doesn't change immediately, and if you do switch it, it doesn't sound that great. A skilled pianist would be able to do that, and yes, they could be getting paid, but it would be for the love of enhancing the game. If the pianist is good, though, they could probably still involve themselves in the game, they'd just have someone else roll the dice for them and such.

By the way, nice avatar. All hail Yogo Junzo!

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Eh, multitasking about thinking how much damage my longbow would do with an arrow of sleep against the orc shaman while playing angry/loud battle music makes my head spin

Thanks, there was an Industrial Revolution (IR) game set in Rokugan a while back-although it never finished, it was fun. I was-you guessed it, the Shadowlands (you controlled whole armies, territories, on top of your PC-mine was Daigotsu, though).

 

[Behold the Void]

It would definitely be difficult, but man, if you could pull it off...

Daigotsu? That must have been fun. I play the CCG myself, and the closest thing to a Shadowlands Deck I have is a corrupt Dragon (I am a Dragon Clan player, one day I shall show their might to everyone!) Clan deck.