Your DND music soundtrack

[Angel Tarragon]

I use Midnight Syndicates Official DnD Soundtrack along with about 5 cds full of the sounds of nature - everything from rainstorms, waterfalls, jungles, desert nights and a bunch more.

 

[merztrumpet]

Sometime I'll use music on low. For medieval fantasy, I have things like the OSTs for Baldur's Gate or IWD as well as other fantasy themed movies. For a specific cultural feel, there's lot of corresponding ethnic music. On a more modern or futuristic tip, lowkey ambient/soundscapes/drone has a place. For instance, Future Sound of London's Dead Cities works well with a cyberpunk theme. I try to play off my players - nothing too distracting.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Oh yeah I also use the tracks from the CDs that came with the Red Steel Campaign Setting and Savage Baronies.

 

[Ryltar]

I used music for the first time in a game I had last new year's eve, as a kind of experiment. What I did was search for music that fit the campaign's theme on the internet, and on various OSTs. Thus, every major (N)PC got his/her/its own music that was cued whenever they appeared; every major location, every battle and so on. My players loved it - so here I am, searching for music again *sigh*. Maybe I'll just end up composing something myself.

There really is a wealth of great stuff online; try using your google-fu to find computer game OSTs. Lots of free sample tracks to find.

 

[F.C.Desoya]

Seriously it needs to be 80's music! We listen to an 80's alternative cable music channel....of course everyone in the group is mid to late 30's

 

[iwatt]

I've downloaded lot's of ripped game music (I like Halo for this), midnight syndicate, and like Joshua Dyal, I also use the soundtracks from movies. I've somewhat categorized them, but i nedd to doa better job. lately I have them as: spoooky, and filler.

But for combat I like to get the juices flowing. So i use a lot of Heavy Metal songs. Nothing set's the mood for a BBEG battle like Iron Maiden's "If You're Gonna Die, Die With You're Boots On." I also like ACDCs "Highway to Hell", Iron Maidens "Be Quick or be Dead".

 

[ranger89]

I really enjoying playing with the right music in the background. I find that it helps me get into and stay in character. One of my favs is music from a group called "Mediaeval Baebes". They sing tradional music from the middle ages in ancient and modern languages. Very cool stuff. Also, nothing makes my group more in the mode for combat than the "Carmina Burana".

 

[The_Universe]

Mostly movie soundtracks - lots of John Williams, plus the Gladiator Soundtrack, The Incredibles, etc.

I also have a few classical pieces - The 1812 Overture, etc.

I have them organized into playlists by the following categories:

Action
Sneaking
Dramatic Dialogue and Artifacts
Beginnings and Endings

 

[Crothian]

DM Hold Music has its uses

 

[John Morrow]

When running a game, do you ever think of having music play in the background to help set the mood? Just very softly so it doesn't distract from gameplay.

I normally just let a playlist run at a reasonably low volume. I have eight "fantasy" playlists (or categories) set up in iTunes:

Fantasy Ambient (key sources include Conan, Children of Dune, 13th Warrior, Lord of the Rings, Lodoss, and Weathering Continent)
Fantasy Combat (key sources include Conan and Gladiator)
Fantasy Creepy (key sources include Prince of Darkness and Vampire Hunter D)
Fantasy Exotic (key sources include Black Hawk Down, and the two Dune miniseries)
Fantasy Exploration (key sources include Kull, Lord of the Rings, and Lodoss)
Fantasy Misc (specific tracks that I might look for like the combat music from Amok Time and the Orion slave girl music from the original Star Trek series)
Fantasy Romance (no particular sources)
Fantasy Travel (key sources include Halo, Lord of the Rings, Van Helsing, and Weathering Continent)

I'll generally pick the best fit and just let it run. It's too much work to find particular tracks except for really special situations.

Some good soundtracks that don't often get mentioned include:

Children of Dune (miniseries) (mentioned earlier in this thread)
Halo (the video game soundtrack -- all the tracks are good to just let play)
Heavy Metal (Elmer Bernstein's score for the music with Tarna and Den)
King Arthur (the recent movie -- all the tracks are good to just let play)
Koyaanisqatsi (an odd sountrack by Philip Glass -- Kundun is also interesting)
Kull the Conquerer (the opening theme is particularly good for combat but there are some other good tracks)
Prince of Darkness (by John Carpenter -- the whole soundtrack is built on deep menaching beats -- Ghosts of Mars is similarly good for modern or science fiction games)
Record of the Lodoss War (anime -- various compilations)
Van Helsing (the recent live action movie -- good chase music)
Weathering Continent (anime fantasy -- there are two CDs for this movie)

I also use St. Vitus' Dance from A Knight's Tale (this is where iTunes comes in handy, buying one track at a time), the obligatory Conan soundtracks, Dagger of Kamui (anime), Dune (the Toto soundtracks), the Dungeons & Dragons movie (yes, THAT movie), Farscape, The Fifth Element, Frank Herbert's Dune (the SciFi miniseries), the obligatory Gladiator, Hercules and Xena soundtracks, a couple of tracks from La Reine Margot (The Queen Margot), the obligatory The Last of the Mohicans, Clannad's Legend (their Robin Hood series soundtrack) and Enya's The Celts (her soundtrack for the documentary series), the obligatory Lord of the Rings soundtracks, The Musketeer (the recent action movie), The Scorpion King (the score, not the rock music), Slipstream (also by Elmer Bernstein, with some epic tracks reminiscent of his Heavy Metal score), some tracks from the original Star Trek series (the Amok Time combat music and the Orion slave girl music), the obligatory The 13th Warrior, and Vampire Hunter D.

You should have all of the soundtracks that I called "obligatory" above. You'll find them mentioned again and again in threads like this. After that, I think you should track down King Arthur, Prince of Darkness (if you run a dark game and can find it), and Halo. All three CDs are consistent enough in tone that you can just press "play" and let them play without fancy playlists. Also, don't entirely dismiss the Kull the Conquerer, Van Helsing, or Dungeons and Dragons soundtracks just because you might have hated the movies. All have good tracks for D&D games. One benefit of more obscure soundtracks is that they aren't distractingly familiar. My group, for example, didn't even recognize one of the Dungeons and Dragons tracks and had to ask what movie it was from.

(Edit: Spelling)