RPG Deck soundtracks

[Andramelech]

You guys have heard of RPG Deck right? RPG Deck . It's DMDJ software, really awesome if you haven't seen it yet, and free. What I wanted to ask was: What soundtracks do you use? The catagories you put music into are called soundtracks. You don't neccesarily have to use a movie soundtrack in it, but that's what the program calls it's musical folders from which you play. You're supposed to maybe make a "Fight" soundtrack, load fight music into it, and play it during a fight.

What I wondered is what catagories you guys use for your soundtracks? I made: Intense action, suspense, comedy, a few others and decided I was going to make to many for it to be practical. For you guys that are experienced DMDJ's: Do you have a few catagories that can cover everything? All I can think of is "drama" and "action", but I know there's got to be a better, cleaner way.

 

[Andramelech]

bump

 

[El Mahdi]

I've never heard of it before, so I can't help you. But, it seems pretty cool. I've saved a link to it so I can try it out a bit. Thanks for the Link!

 

[Andramelech]

I'm wondering what genres or catagories you guys use with role playing music. Example: suspense, action, comedy, .... see, I can't think of many. An experienced DMDJ might have just a couple catagories that cover everything nicely.

I could just use a bunch of catagories: Suspense action drama inspirational comedy sadness victory morbid confusion chase ToughGuy LittleDude badmood celebration drunk stupid happy ugly holy, but if I did it this way I'd have 20 or more catagories, and I want it to be quick. My catagories might be redundant, Example: Suspense, action, chase, and drama might be better as just one catagorie, like action. But an experienced DMDJ might know that you need separate catagories for action, and suspense, for example.

I know there's someone out there who has the perfect musical catagories to use for role-playing. Not to many, but they'd cover what was needed in a game.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I use a fair amount of classical and folk music, as much by locale as theme. Romanian folk music for a gypsy camp, wood flutes for some exotic locations, etc.

One that I cued up a while back was in game as well as background music - The Witch's Reel, dating back to King James (not my favorite monarch, no not at all).

Faun, The Mediaeval Baebes, Anonymous 4 are good for background music as well, lots of Latin which is less likely to distract from the game than English. Gregorian chants and the chorus from Greek Orthodox liturgies also work well.

I also sometimes have a song play before the game itself begins, for example one that I have for a Fallout scenario titled 'Welcome to the Freak Show' is Coney Island Creepshow by Beat Circus. For Steampunk I sometimes use The Decemberists in this manner.

The Auld Grump

 

[Andramelech]

Thanks for those suggestions, but I already know what music I want to use.

Say for instance I have 5 or maybe 10 buttons that I press to activate a certain kind of mood music. What should those buttons say? One of them might be a sad button. When I press that button, music I put in the sad folder will come on. But maybe I shouldn't have a sad button, maybe thats getting too detailed. I want to have more than, say, two buttons that say "fast", and "slow", but what buttons should I have to be able to bust out with different moods of music, that will cover any kind of RPG mood?

I'm looking for generic RPG music mood catagories that will cover everything, but I don't want 20 catagories.

I want to know what you guys have used successfully. Maybe you've found that a "fight" catagory doesn't work so well, because sometimes you want the fight to sound suspensfull, or maybe even sad.

I'm thinking 5 catagories, but I'll go with what you guys know works.

 

[Oryan77]

Here is a list of categories that might be useful to you. I'll explain my own organizational methods after the list:

Evil Music
Pleasant Music
Tribal Music
Exotic Music
Underwater Music
Volcanic Music
Creepy Music
Battle Music
Tavern Music Exotic
Tavern Music Mellow
Tavern Music Upbeat
City Music
Cave Music
Forest Music
Sewer Music
Desert Music
Random Music



My music is categorized according to my planar game. I listen to music, then decide which of the planes the song relates to the most. Then I place that song in a playlist for that particular plane. For example, Beastlands music, or Mechanus music.

I'll try to break down my planar categories into more generic categories for you based on the mood of the plane:

Evil planes = Evil Music (usually creepy but "harder" sounding music)
Good planes = Pleasant Music (soft & relaxing music)
Exotic planes = Tribal Music (Native American & African music with lots of drum beats & flutes) & Exotic Music (usually Indian, Asian, or Arabic music)
Elemental planes = Underwater Music (my air, water, & even Astral plane music is similar, so I'd just call it Underwater. Earth & Fire music could maybe be lumped together as Volcanic Music or just use Evil Music if you ran a Volcanic scenario)
Ethereal plane = Creepy Music (sort of like evil music, but more soft & spooky "Halloween" style music)

That should cover the basics as far as how my planar music could be separated into more generic categories.

Then I have other categories for more generic moments:

Battle Music - fast paced music that gets the blood pumping
Tavern Music - music I can imagine a bard playing, separated into Tavern Music Exotic for exotic bars, Tavern Music Mellow for relaxing taverns, and Tavern Music Upbeat for the party tavern.
City Music - Elven City Music, Evil City Music, & any specific city music (like Sigil)
Cave Music - creepy & very slow music
Forest Music - peaceful traveling music
Sewer Music - similar to cave music, could probably just use Cave Music for this (I have a lot of songs, so I have enough for both categories)
Desert Music - arabic type music, could probably just use Exotic Music for this.
Random Music - any song I liked but didn't really get me in a mood that would make me relate it to another category. I play Random Music when I get tired of hearing music from another category, or when the moment in game is nothing special.

BTW, I tried using RPG Deck a while back. It would have been great to use, but all of the features the creator mentioned that he did not include are all features that I need in order to use RPG Deck. Not being able to skip around the songs in a playlist sucks, since I like to skip songs I'm tired of hearing or if I want to start the playlist at a certain song. Being able to play songs from a playlist in random rather than from first to last would be nice. Starting and stopping a sound effect would be nice since some of my effects are an hour long (birds chirping, rain falling etc etc). I also couldn't figure out how to remove a soundtrack from the interface once I added it. There were a few other features I needed, but for a free program, it's still nice.

I just can't seem to find any program that provides all the features I need in order to easily run background music. I've even tried DJ software. My best solution is to use Winamp & Windows Media Player at the same time, and that's not very convenient.

 

[Quickleaf]

Not a comprehensive list, but here's my take...

Adiemus IV – Eternal Knot Adiemus
Aion Dead Can Dance
Between the Worlds Aine Minogue
Blood of the Dragon Nox Arcana
Dragon Age: Origins EA Games Soundtrack
Dungeons & Dragons Midnight Syndicate
Eberron Soundtrack David P. Davidson
Henry V Birmingham Symphony
King Arthur Hans Zimmer
Kingdom of Heaven Harry Gregson-Williams
Legends of Kitholay David Allen Young
Nights From the Alhambra Loreena McKennitt
Salva Nos The Medieval Babes
Seikilos Corvus Corax Pop
The Seven Valleys Stellamara
Sleepy Hollow Danny Elfman
Van Helsing Alan Silvestri
Venus Vina Musica Corvus Corax
Batman Begins Soundtrack
Thief Soundtrack

Also, check out Benjamin's Syrinscape: http://syrinscape.com/

YMMV

 

[Aeolius]

How is this product different than using iTunes to create a series of themed Playlists?

 

[Quickleaf]

My music is categorized according to my planar game. I listen to music, then decide which of the planes the song relates to the most. Then I place that song in a playlist for that particular plane. For example, Beastlands music, or Mechanus music.

So raising a dead thread to ask about your Beastlands music?

It ao happens I'm running a Planescape game which is taking the PCs to the Beastlands next session and I'd like to include some atmospheric background music and also some fight music. I've got a great music collection for gaming but none of my stuff seems to fit the feel of the Beastlands without becoming obviously traditional tribal music or new agey like Deep Forest.