reluctant to ask...

[Vorith]

When we (my group) plays D&D we listen to music (from a playlist on a computer) it plays softly in the background, and we just over time started giving our characters theme songs...it just seems to help us get a good feel for that particular character.Plus it really makes some moments awsome (like in a combat). I pretty much just want to know if anybody else does this...

 

[Moff_Tarkin]

We used to do this all the time. We would listend to songs from star trek, Conan the destroyer, and indiana jones. And on somtimes Alan Parsons Project or KMFDM. I even remember there being an amulet of theme music in second edition. Oh, second edition. Good times. So many memories.

 

[Quidam]

we all do

There was actually a Dragon article a couple years back about music to D&D to. We used to listen to a Live365 net radio station called WDND.

 

[JediSoth]

I ripped a whole bunch of MP3s from fantasy movie soundtracks and have them organized into categories like Themes, Travel, Combat, Cities and I load up the appropriate playlist at just the right time. If I wanted a certain mood, I'd pick out a piece specifically to play (e.g. the main them to Bram Stoker's Dracula as the PCs headed down into a crypt) if the situation called for it.

I don't know if it helped or not, it certainly did during combat (though one player kept asking for the music from Star Trek: TOS during combat, you know, the one from Amok Time when Kirk if fighting Spock).

JediSoth

 

[Orryn Emrys]

I have frequently used my collection of movie scores to augment the spirit of our game, a habit I picked up several years ago when I started running RAVENLOFT campaigns in a candlelit room with appropriate mood music (originally, Bram Stoker's Dracula, later included selections from Interview with a Vampire). I have since turned to certain soundtracks for each campaign, highlighting a unique musical feel for each world and collection of heroes. It's a lot of fun... even years after the fact, players in my game will easily associate a certain flavor of music, and often specific pieces, with the appropriate adventures of yesteryear.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Years ago a long term group I was in did the same thing with theme songs, songs we would play as we marched into combat etc. A more recent group used to put on "appropriate" background music, but we found that we either had to talk over the music or that it was so quiet it added nothing, so we gave it up.

 

[Desdichado]

I use music, but it's more generically themed for the entire campaign, rather than having character themes, or combat themes, or whatnot. I mostly use ripped movie Soundtracks all combined on a single CD of 180 or so tracks.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

We find music distracting, so we turn it off before beginning play.

What I would love to find -- and if anybody knows of a resource, please let me know -- is a database of mp3 sound-effects. I can load mp3s on my PDA, for easy play at the table.

 

[Arnwyn]

I pretty much just want to know if anybody else does this...

Absolutely. We consider the use of music critical to our game sessions.

However, music is used only when appropriate - thus, character themes (for example) are only played during introductions or when the character does something especially cool in combat. Same with combat music - it's only played during a meaningful/important encounter.

 

[The Grackle]

Yea.
My barbarians theme song is "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

I used to do this for Vampire games, but D&D? What would you listen to? I could imagine a lot of Rush, Zepplin, and Queen going on.