Background Music

[rust]

When I design a setting, I usually also look for a piece of music that could

help to create the right feeling for the campaign.

For example, for the Mesoamerican setting for Call of Cthulhu I am currently

working on, I was searching both for a "Native" and a "Spanish" theme to

start the sessions with and / or to use as a background music.

Right now I think I will use these two:

"Native":

"Spanish":

YouTube - Sting - Saint Agnes and the Burning Train

There are many interesting pieces to be found on the Internet, and more than

a few traditional songs would make a fine addition to a fantasy adventure.

This one, for example, seems perfect for a Viking-type setting:

YouTube - KrummavÃ*sur - Iceland Folk Song

And here is something with a bit more "power" for other types of fantasy:

YouTube - Kiri Te Kanawa - Tarakihi

[Dredj]

I'm toying with an idea of making an extreme metal fantasy campaign. When I mean extreme metal, I'm taking the standard American route of lumping death metal with black metal. I understand everywhere else in the world separates the two.

Then I'm going to throw in pulp/retro tech into my setting such as this: Dr Grordbort's -

It would be Metalocalypse meets the pulps. Actually, my campaign world idea is much more in-depth than that. But I don't want to get too much off the subject of this thread.

Anyway, you can guess what kind of background music I'll be using.

For a heavy metal sword and sorcery setting, you might want to look at Bal-Sagoth: The Official Bal-Sagoth Website

[Thalaba]

I find music too distracting to listen to while I'm GMing - I could probably do it with that Sting song (nice one btw), but the others are too bombastic for me to have in the background while playing. I do a lot of improvising and acting, which pretty much takes most of my focus.

That said, I am heavily inspired by music in my scenario writing and often the things that happen in game are inextricably tied to specific bits of music in my mind. I can pick out music that would go towards making the soundtack to my game, but I wouldn't use it as background music.

These are some of the (wildly diverse) bits that are flavouring my current game:

YouTube - Ralph Vaughan Williams: Job, A Masque for Dancing (1927/1930) Scene VIII e IX

YouTube - Ravi Shankar - West Eats Meat!

Edited November 24, 2009 by Thalaba

[rust]

I find music too distracting to listen to while I'm GMing - I could probably do it with that Sting song (nice one btw), but the others are too bombastic for me to have in the background while playing.

Yes, I know what you mean, and "background music" probably was the wrong

description.

I use music as the introduction to a setting, when we sit down at the table

and get ready for the evening's session, and I use specific themes to begin

or - less often - to highlight specific situations during the game, but the mu-

sic does not play all the time.

Almost the only exception are situations where there is a background music

in the setting itself, for example when the player characters visit a bar where

jazz musicians are playing, or some native religious ceremony with the beat

of drums in the background.

[Rurik]

The only game I ever used music in heavily was Cyberpunk 2020 and it was a blast. The setting of course really lends itself to using music though.

God how I would have loved an MP3 player back then - toting around tapes and cd's with the gaming supplies and changing them every time the scene dictated it seems so archaic now.

[Dredj]

God how I would have loved an MP3 player back then - toting around tapes and cd's with the gaming supplies and changing them every time the scene dictated it seems so archaic now.

It's probably people like you that created the mp3 player

[Puck]

For example, for the Mesoamerican setting for Call of Cthulhu I am currently

working on, I was searching both for a "Native" and a "Spanish" theme to

start the sessions with and / or to use as a background music.

You may want to try the soundtrack for the movie " The Mission", or "1492 Conquest of Paradise". Both of those are hauntingly beautiful and may really capture what you are looking for.

Edited November 24, 2009 by Puck

[rust]

You may want to try the soundtrack for the movie " The Mission", or "1492 Conquest of Paradise".

Thank you, a very good idea.

The two pieces mentioned above are just the "general themes" of the setting,

and I am still looking for other pieces for specific campaign situations. "The

Mission" and "1492" are indeed good soundtracks to start with, with a variety

of pieces with different "feelings".

[gevrin]

I'm currently partial to Arcana - Le Serpent Rouge. An album full of exotic "ethnic" tunes (no primary vocals to distract). Great background music for classical history or fantasy settings.

I've used the LotR soundtracks - a little obvious and can be distracting but good music nevertheless and essential for a LotR game in particular. Gladiator and 13th Warrior are also great pieces of music and are exotic enough to be usable in a variety of historical or fantasy settings.

Cheers

Dave

[sdavies2720]

Great suggestions throughout -- I've found some wonderful background music for our games. Thanks everyone!

Steve

[Dredj]

If you want music for a gothic horror game, you probably cannot do better than Midnight Syndicate Midnight Syndicate Welcome

[Pyronnic]

Rust - I remember a film called "The Mission" (The Mission (1986)) that might have the right kind of soundtrack for the Spanish/Mesoamerican setting. I remember it having some really poignant music. And it was a damn good film, too.

Edited November 26, 2009 by Pyronnic
corrected link, added extra comment.

[Rurik]

Inca Son comes to mind for South American music. They are from Peru and pretty polific even if a somehat commercialized version of Andean Music.

[rust]

Rust - I remember a film called "The Mission" ...

Thank you, I will take a look at it ... ah, listen to it.

[samwise7]

I like listening to instrumental metal when gaming. I call it instrumetal.

[Jason D]

I use soundtrack almost exclusively for gaming. I've got a collection of roughly a hundred or so, including about another hundred tracks in mp3 format from various computer games or other sources.

For Mesoamerican, I'd heartily suggest the Apocalypto soundtrack. Some tracks from the Farscape soundtrack would also be appropriate (if the players aren't familiar with it... if they are, don't use it).

Brian Eno's Ambient: On Land is a good all-purpose creepy ambient soundtrack good for almost anything swamp/jungle/forest related. I use it for all sorts of games.

For Norse games, I've got an eclectic collection of The 13th Warrior, Rune (the computer game), a soundtrack of Icelandic Eddas and some other sources of Norse traditional music.

My "writing" soundtrack for Interplanetary currently consists of Holst's The Planets, the soundtracks for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, King Kong, The Rocketeer, and a few others.

[claedawg]

I was thinking of using:

Metallica's - Sanitarium, Orion, Call of Ktulu and the Thing that Should not Be;

Danzig's - Not of this World;

Ozzy's - Dairy of a Madman;

The themes from Nightmare on Elm Street, The Omen, and Halloween.

As far as using music as a theme or ispiration, I've always wanted to come up with a campaign based on Black Sabbath songs.

>:->

[Guest Vile Traveller]

You may want to try the soundtrack for the movie " The Mission", or "1492 Conquest of Paradise".

I have used Vangelis extensively for my game soundtracks since I first started with the early red Basic D&D book. I mostly like instrumental music during games, so anything by the above (Heaven & Hell and Bladerunner are my favourites), Mike Oldfield, Tchaikovsy, Sergio Leone, and a few anime soundtracks such as Akira. I use a few other film and TV soundtracks, too, e.g. Conan and Gerry Anderson shows.

The trick is to prepare your stack of CDs (if you still use those) according to the mood of the game before you start.

[The Venomous Pao]

Oddly, the City Of Prague Philharmonic does a whole lot of albums of film music, and emusic stocks most of them.

Their albums range from composer-specific (like Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone) to genre-specific (westerns, Hammer horror, scifi, etc.) and other thematically-related compilations (like Music from the Films of Johnny Depp).

Do note that in some cases the same version of a song appears on more than one of their compilations (for example, the "Once Upon A Time In The West" bits appear separately on one album but combined into a single track on another) so pay attention if you're mixing and matching.

I used a whole bunch of their stuff for the background music for a western I ran last weekend and it really helped make the night one to remember. It's good stuff, and emusic is a fairly cost-efficient way of acquiring their works.

[threedeesix]

I have used many different movie soundtracks such as the original Conan soundtrack and Nightmare on Elm Street, dependent upon the feel I was trying to evoke. While not a movie sound track, I have used Holst the Planets for a space opera campaign. I ran a BRP Flash Gordon campaign once and couldn't help but use the Flash Gordon movie sound track by Queen. My favorite sound track for gaming has to be the "original" Planet of the Apes. The track for the Forbidden Zone is just awesome.

Rod

[Thalaba]

My favorite sound track for gaming has to be the "original" Planet of the Apes. The track for the Forbidden Zone is just awesome.

Rod

Oooh! Thanks to this I've been listening on Youtube. I just found the track that fits our battle with the Monkey King - it's called No escape - sounds perfect!

[threedeesix]

Oooh! Thanks to this I've been listening on Youtube. I just found the track that fits our battle with the Monkey King - it's called No escape - sounds perfect!

Yah, all of the tracks are great. I use "The Forbidden Zone" as ambiance when the party is just exploring ruins or some such, and "No Escape" is good to up the tension, but there all great.

For those interested...

The Forbidden Zone

YouTube - Planet on the Apes (1968) 5/10- The Forbidden Zone

No Escape

YouTube - Planet on the Apes (1968) 10/10- No Escape

Rod

Edited December 8, 2009 by threedeesix

[Puck]

My favorite sound track for gaming has to be the "original" Planet of the Apes. The track for the Forbidden Zone is just awesome.

I picked this up at a dollar store a few years back and forgot about it. I just dug it up again. Thanks.

Several other CD's I find that I listen to a lot are Pan's Labyrinth and The Fountain. Two more really great soundtracks from movies that were not well received are Waterworld and the Original Hulk movie.

[Lammomedes]

I have used numerous soundtracks from my Ipod depending on what genre I am playing. But just for fantasy, I can draw from:

Age of Conan, Burning Crusade (WoW expansion), Conan the Barbarian, Dark Age of Camelot, Dungeons and Dragons Soundtrack, The Mummy, World of Warcraft Original Soundtrack, World of Warcraft: Taverns of Azeroth,13th Warrior, and 300.

Admittedly I have to be choosy with the WoW soundtracks for anyone who plays regularly, but the Tavern Soundtrack is particularly useful.

I have three albums specifically for rp in Egypt.

Nox Arcana and Midnight Syndicate albums are usually pretty good for horror rp.

Stargate, Stargate Atlantis and the 4 soundtracks for the new Battlestar Galactica all have decent pieces for sci-fi rp.

[dragonewt]

My favourite for mythic Chinese/Japanese anime influenced games (either ancient or ancient style futuristic):

Zen, The Search for Enlightenment - by Terry Oldfield