soundtracks

[Minicol]

Ok, this has probably been done to death before on several occasions, but I do enjoy a good music during my game session.

So what are your suggestions of good music to run during a play session / a fight ?

Right now, I am listening to the track of "the Witcher" video game. I have several other gems of this kind.

Say for instance, there are these odd-groups like "Irfan" and "Faun" doing semi-medieval music. And they're quite good too.

So what are your suggestions ?

 

[timbannock]

For a strange but cool feel that I used in a Planescape campaign: older Delerium albums (Spiritual Archives is the best, but also stuff from Spheres, Spheres II, and Semantic Spaces). By the same guys: Synaesthesia (any), or for something more industrial and hard hitting, Noise Unit. Delerium and Syn are atmospheric and dark but (mostly) natural sounding ambience, while Noise Unit is a little more tense, industrial sounding. Their most recent album, Voyeur, is amazing, though it does have some vocal tracks and more of a modern electronica sound.

For more epic, combat/tension music, I use instrumental stuff by Therion (albums like Deggial, Vovin, Secrets of the Runes)--doomy metal with a full on chorus singing vocals and lots of classical instruments give it a very soundtrack-y feel. Toss in some Darkane (even though it has vocals), especially the Insanity album. May be too thrashy and modern for some tastes, but the bursts of bombastic classical music over chaotic death/thrash music is pretty intense.

Soundtracks that I use over and over: Event Horizon (creepy), Myst III (good ambience), Planescape: Torment (ambience), Hellraiser III (horror/combat), The Hobbit (video game), Lisa Gerard's "Duality".

Instrumental tracks off of the Stigmata OST and anything by Danzig's Black Aria are pretty neato, too, though a bit somber for some groups.

I'd love to use James Plotkin's "Atomsmasher" or "Phantomsmasher" albums, but they are just so noisy and chaotic that it'd probably just be a big distraction.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Here's a link to the Planescape Torment soundtrack

http://www.planescape-torment.org/?page=soundtrack

You can play the tracks as needed. The only one I don't think is well suited to a game is Dak'kon's theme because of that weird "ping" in the middle of the track.

 

[tennyson]

On the topic of game soundtracks, you can download the Bioshock soundtrack (very atmospheric) here:

http://www.castod.com/download-bioshock-soundtrack/

 

[Ry]

I cobble my soundtracks from lots of places. The challenge for me is finding music that doesn't draw too much attention to itself: THat gets old fast and sometimes you get an elaborate crescendo while the players are planning how to kick in the next door.

Some great ones are the Trigun (anime series) soundtrack and the Fallout 2 soundtrack (esp. Khans of New California, the 2 Worldmap tracks and Arroyo). Both have great guitars and a lot of variety.

Planescape:Torment soundtrack's awesome too.

 

[ivocaliban]

Perhaps you're already aware of it, but there was a pretty decent article in Dragon #355 that featured four themed mixes using selections from various soundtracks. There was a mix for "Heroes", "The Dungeon", "Villains", and one designed to take you through the entire Savage Tide adventure path. There are dozens of song suggestions included and ideas on how to make your own mixes. It's worth checking out.

Personally, I tend towards classical music for most fantasy games, but only because it's another hobby of mine and I have a ton of it about. As Halloween was yesterday I've been listening repeatedly to Philip Feeney's ballet Dracula and was just thinking about how well it would work in-game. It would be particularly effective if the villain was a vampire as there is a beating heart motif that appears throughout the work...and would work equally well in a fantasy setting or something like Victorian England in Call of Cthulhu.

 

[Henrix]

No RPG music thread is complete unless Corvus Corax is mentioned.

 

[TerraDave]

We have gotten a lot of use out of the Lord of the Rings soundtracks (all 3).

Probably too much. I also look forward to suggestions.

 

[WSmith]

We have gotten a lot of use out of the Lord of the Rings soundtracks (all 3).

Probably too much. I also look forward to suggestions.

These three are on my "most played" list, and are perfect. However, there is one that I am appalled that hasn't been mentioned yet that usually comes up in the first 2-3 posts.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN

Some other good ones are the Gladiator Sountrack and the one for Diablo II which IIRC is still posted on the Blizzard site.

 

[JustinM]

Last I checked the Diablo II soundtrack was taken down. If some intrepid soul can find it again, I'd be VERY appreciative. I'm a big Matt Uelmen fan.