Theme music for Bosses

[ProfessorPain]

I'm thinking about starting a new tradition in my games. Whenever a Boss encounter starts, I'm going to play the Boss' theme music. I'm thinking this will help add a little drama to the encounter, give the players a heads-up that they are getting ready to start a major encounter and to solidfy the Boss in the player's memories.

Anyone do anything like this? If so, how does it work and what kind of theme music do you use?

I do it for certain campaigns. Personally I love background and theme music in my games. Just try to read your players so you know when the music is too much or they aren't down with it.

There are a few options to use here. I usually use my computer and make playlists based on the kind of scene (down time/battle/suspense/mystery, etc). Then I just call up what I need when the scene changes over.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Yeah, sounds like a good idea. I still miss the Final Fantasy 1 game, where we played appropriate background music everywhere. Lots of good stuff from videogames, most of their boss battle themes work well.

Standbyes (generally useful choices) for us included Gothic Neclord and The Chase (Luca Blight's fight theme music) from Suikoden 2, Shimmering Blade from Suikoden 3, The Decisive Battle from Final Fantasy 3/6, Dragon God from Chrono Cross, and so on.

For non-battle theme music, Talpa/Arago's Theme from Yoroiden Samurai Troopers / Ronin Warriors was always my favorite. I'd link if there were a video with it. I have the track, it's not very long...

 

[Bercilac]

This one time...

My last campaign ended with civil war. The mercenary company employing the pcs launched a coup against the religious government of the city, and the slaves in the slums rioted en masse. The last encounter was the PCs facing down the Temple Guard (elite goblin fighter/rogues with spiked chains). Several rounds in, they heard the yelling of the mob. Because, as some of their mercenary work, they had worked as slavedrivers, the mob rushed them and the temple guard indiscriminately.

They had nearly cleaned up the guards, but upon sighting the mob they fled the city. It led to a nice conclusion, as I got to describe the sight of the city blazing behind them. Also, because the campaign started with the characters migrating into the city, there was some good symmetry there. "You've eventually decided that whatever the terrors of the Southlands, they cannot be worse than what you have witnessed in the city of Kreyak."

Anyway. In the last encounter I put a short playlist on loop. You can probably see my thinking behind it:
Burnin' and a Looting (Bob Marley)
I predict a riot (Kaiser Chiefs)
White Riot (The Clash)

And one or two others. There may even have been a Woody Guthrie track on that one.

Anyway, it wasn't terribly atmospheric, being a rather varied list, more lyrical than melodic. I think I'll try music again in my next campaign. I'll stick to a subtler score though. Probably some classical music, with a few picked out for bad guys. What I'd really love to be able to do is cue just a snippet of music from a villain's theme when they discover evidence of his work, find his secret hide-out, et cetera. But I don't think I have the technical wherewithal to pull it off right. (Nor do I want to take the time to install or learn new software).