Musical Catagories for RPGs

[Philotomy Jurament]

Mediæval Bæbes or Dead Can Dance might be appropriate, too.

 

[Werebat]

As far as actual music goes, I generally prefer music without lyrics - the soundtrack to Diablo II, Neverwinter Nights, Age of Empires (game soundtracks have a lot of usable music and more modern games often have mp3 files you can extract and use) or movie soundtracks (Star Wars, 300, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc.).

Seconded. There is a LOT of video game music out there that works well for RPG background. I think you can find most of the background music for World of Warcraft out there somewhere, which is all pretty good (I prefer the background sound effects to the actual music most of the time). The Fallout series had some excellent music as well, very useful for Dark Sun campaigns.

I could go on and on, really.

- Ron ^*^

 

[Andramelech]

I tend not to use music during a game, it's pretty distracting.

I guess it can be, but there's a whole lot of instrumental music out there that we're so used to reacting to, when watching a movie. Sometimes the music can serve as a clue, or to let them know you want to get on with the adventure.

 

[Andramelech]

Star Wars, 300, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc.).

I try to stay away from mega popular soundtracks, like LOTR and Star Wars because I don't want the players to be thinking of those movies when we're playing

If you don't have a big music collection but have access to a computer or web-enabled media player, I find Pandora Radio and Radio Rivendell can provide nice backdrop music. Pandora and it's kin have the advantage you could create different "stations" based on your music categories - perhaps in your case an "Action station" based on songs similar to Slayer.

I remember pandora from way back. Radio rivendell sounds like it would be awesome. I'll definetely need to check that out.

 

[Andramelech]

I have used music in my games for years. In fact, most of my iPod is dedicated to RPG music. I've spent a lot of time categorizing it as well. So much time that I am very, very careful about backing it all up! At this point it would require a nuclear war level event for me to lose more than say 80% of my library.

The three main categories I use are "Background", "Combat", and "Quips". Subcategories of "Background" include "Dungeon", "Spooky/Undead", "Creepy/Alien", "City", "Tension/Suspense", "Terrain", and "Travel". Subcategories of "Combat" include "Movies", "Television", "Video Games", and "Other". Subcategories of "Quips" include "Cartoons", "Gauntlet", "Ghostbusters", "Hobbit/LotR", "Labyrinth", "Monty Python", "Mighty Boosh", "MST3K", "Video Games"... There are a LOT of categories in "Quips".

(I use "Quips" primarily for humor, such as playing the sound effect for Pac Man dying when a PC dies. It gets laughs.)



- Ron ^*^

lol. I like the pac-man idea. Or something like wha-whaaaa. Maybe even an incorrect answer buzzer.

 

[Andramelech]

Try some "atmospheric sludge"

Never heard of Sludge music. Gotta check that out.

 

[Andramelech]

It sounds like three might be the magic number for this. Almost like a middle high low. backround music that's just kind of "there" for the middle. Fight music for the high, and spooky mysterious music for the low. You go from Low to High to make them jump. I also like having unique songs for certain things. I always play 1965 by White Zombie whenever there's zombies around. I play the goblins song from the hobbit, for goblins. I found the old fight song from the original star trek series.

I found a tool called RPG Deck
It's pretty cool. You can use one computer, or two. If you have a networked laptop you make that the "controller", and you make your desktop with good speakers the "player". You have two boxes full of buttons. On the left you have your soundtracks (buttons for folders containing different kinds of music). If you put plenty in these folders you'll get something random and different every time, and the music will fade out nicely and begin a different soundtrack if you press a different button. On the right side are your sound effects. Sword slashes, arrows flying by, or Pac man dying. Way easier than using WMP or whatever. and it's free.

 

[Werebat]

lol. I like the pac-man idea. Or something like wha-whaaaa. Maybe even an incorrect answer buzzer.

If you get a decent audio grabber (there are several out there) you can lift audio right off the web. Youtube can be a gold mine of funny little quips.

Admiral Ackbar -- "IT'S A *TRAP*!!!"

That sort of thing. It can be tailored to a specific group, such as the guy we have who makes a godawful lot of noise when he eats his chicken wings (so I grabbed audio of Cookie Monster OM NOM NOM-ing to play whenever he eats). All this on my handy iPhone, hooked up to a set of decent speakers from Cambridge Electronics.

I've delved into the guts of many a video game to pull audio for different things. Made my own tracks for a Skaven warren, a monster tavern in Droaam (Eberron), etc. from many of the old D&D computer games like Baldur's Gate. There's usually a "sound bed" that fits and then I throw in various effects. Lots of fun.

Really, I'd put it all online for people to download if I knew how to set up a website and didn't think anyone might bust me for copyright issues.

- Ron ^*^

 

[Andramelech]

you can search google for mp3's or wav files too. I got the sony pictures sound effects library, but haven't had time to go through it. It looks like it has thousands of sound effects. I saw big collected archives on eMule as well. They have literally 20 different sounds of someone getting punched in the mouth. Body falling on dirt, grass, leaves, sand, everything. Arrows, sword swing, splattering gross sounds.

I'd like to get real animal sounds, and tweak them to sound unearthly. I already picture in my mind what kobolds and goblins sound like, I just have to find them.

 

[Werebat]

you can search google for mp3's or wav files too. I got the sony pictures sound effects library, but haven't had time to go through it. It looks like it has thousands of sound effects. I saw big collected archives on eMule as well. They have literally 20 different sounds of someone getting punched in the mouth. Body falling on dirt, grass, leaves, sand, everything. Arrows, sword swing, splattering gross sounds.

I'd like to get real animal sounds, and tweak them to sound unearthly. I already picture in my mind what kobolds and goblins sound like, I just have to find them.

Oh, get a halfway decent audio program and you can have lots of fun. I recently made an attack sound for my friend whose character has a chimera for a follower -- spliced together a lion and "dragon" roaring with a goat bleating. Great fun!

- Ron ^*^