Who Uses Music in their Game?

[ender_wiggin]

Does anyone use ambiant music while DMing? It's a practice that I think could be very effective if one knows what they are doing.

If you do, you have any suggestions? Of course, suggestions that don't involve costs like buying a $400 GigaWorks speaker system?

 

[Stone Angel]

your best bet is to set up music on a playlist on a computer and having speakers in your gaming room. That way you have control over what you play.

I used to just burn cd's and play them on a little boom box. I love adding music to a game.


The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[Napftor]

Music is one of the essential "props" all DMs need, IMHO. The kinds you can use are really limited to your group's tastes. I mean, if you personally enjoy classical and your group doesn't, then you might want to find some kind of middle group. I don't care for singing unless it fits the mood and opt for the more traditional: soundtracks, new age, and occasional classical track.

 

[Jolly Giant]

No music for our group. We get distracted too easily!

 

[ender_wiggin]

I think that's one of the problems with using music: the better the music, the more distracting it is, the worse the music.....well duh. And do you find it difficult to talk over it?

 

[Napftor]

I think that's one of the problems with using music: the better the music, the more distracting it is, the worse the music.....well duh. And do you find it difficult to talk over it?

Our group doesn't find it distracting (at least no one's ever said anything). Iin fact, I find that it really gets players more into the mood. There are some spots where the cd runs into a "combat track" during some NPC interaction. At that point, if DMing, I switch to a mellow track saying something like, "Well, this guy isn't quite that exciting."

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I love using music. Sometimes I forget to set things up before hand. Give Midnight Syndicate a try. Perfect for fantasy gaming.

 

[Boojum]

I have loads of music on my computer that I just play as needed (I bring a laptop into the game room, and share with the main comp through itunes). One of the projects I keep meaning to get around to is going through my entire library and making specific playlists for exploration, battle, climactic battle, interaction, suspense, etc. Now, though, I just pick a song while the characters are discussing something amongst themselves or one of the players is trying to decide his actions. I don't use anything with lyrics, but have a wide variety of classical (mainly from a 4-disc set called Classical Thunder, which has lots of high-energy pieces), movie soundtracks (mainly Gladiator and LotR, though occasional Star Wars), and game music (mostly various Final Fantasy games).

 

[BSF]

I like to have music on. I have a lot of different music. I just avoid music with lyrics.

 

[R-Hero]

A standard at our games is the Conan the Barbarian sound track.(Thanks to eBay) I have used music ranging from Motzart to Manowar.

One major response from players was off the Amadeus soundtrack. There is a track that was called peasant music or something like that. The orchestra had used period instuments in the recording and I used it for background music during an encounter with a gypsy encampment. (Ravenloft I6 1st ed) It realy gave the encounter flavor.