Role playing Music

[The_Scilent_chronicles]

I'm a sucker for atmosphere when I lead a game. I have this music program, Spotify, with all kinds of music on it. I've built playlists for all kinds of situations, and for different kidns of settings, but i've recently become interested in a Western setting, which is nnew to me.

So my question goes, What music is best for roleplaying, andnin what setting?

And do you have any good tips for Western rpg music?

[Mankcam]

Well, the obvious tips for Western music would be 'The Man With No Name' Trilogy movies (A Fist Full Of Dollars, A Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly) composed by Ennico Morricone. Also another good tip would be the soundtrack music from the PC game "Red Dead Redemption'. If you have these then you've got it covered. Really, any music from the 1960s/1970s spaghetti westerns would do the trick. Perhaps if you find the soundtracks for 'Unforgiven', 'Deadwood' (TV series) and 'Justified' (TV series) you'll have a good range of western genre music to game by.

A far as Fantasy gaming goes, you can't go wrong with some of the PC game soundtracks for 'Worlds of Warcraft', 'Dragon Age', and the 'Conan' online game. Some good movie soundtracks for fantasy gaming would include 'Conan The Barbarian', 'The Dark Crystal', 'Legend', and perhaps 'The Lord Of The Rings' albums. Music from the recent 'John Carter' would probably be good for fantasy gaming as well. If you like your fantasy to have an 'edge', then perhaps the soundtrack from '300' would also do the trick.

I'll jump off here, and let others open this thread up a bit...

[dragonewt]

For when player characters are about to enter a large empty area, play the "Klendathu Drop" theme from the Starship Troopers movie. Whether anything is actually encountered is up to the deviousness of the GM.

Alternatively, for similar impact, there is the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0G6od81Uic.

[Toadmaster]

Classical works pretty well for fantasy, probably not bad for a lot of other genres either.

Mozart - Symphony 25 in G minor, Symphony 40 in G minor, Requiem Mass in D minor

Wagner - Siegfried Funeral March, Ride of the Valkeries, Entry of the gods into Valhalla

Grieg - In the Hall of the Mountain King, Funeral March for Rickard Nordraak

Orff - O fortuna

Vivaldi - Gloria, Storm

Bach - Tocata and Fugue in D minor, Air on a G string

Beethoven - 5th Symphony, 9th Symphony

Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain

For something a bit more recent Joe Satriani has some amazing (mostly) instrumental music good for pretty much any action if electric guitar won't ruin the mood. Surfing with the Alien is my favorite of his CDs, Hill of the Skull always makes me think of the scene from LotR when Boromir is defending Merry and Pipin.

I used to have a tape of misc Ennico Morricone music, not period correct but anyone who grew up with Clint Eastwood westerns will relate. A lot of it would probably work for fantasy too. It is actually kind of hard to find accurate music that is not classical prior to the 1930s, but for westerns you are probably pretty safe with blue grass music. While as far as I know it is really no more period correct than old country it sounds more "old timey".

I also used to have the Conan soundtrack which was pretty awesome. One you might not think of was the soundtrack from Backdraft, it had some very dramatic music again useful for many genres.

[Thalaba]

And do you have any good tips for Western rpg music?

Mankam covered you pretty well for soundtacks, but for more pop/rock oriented music try these:

Looks Like We're Shy One Horse by Colourbox:

Pretty much anything off the album 'Rome' by Danger Mouse:

or

'El Vaquero' by The Men They Couldn't Hang from the album Silvertown (sorry - can't find a video but you can listen to it here: http://searchmp3.mobi/download-men-they-couldnt-hang-el-vaquero-515062.xhtml)

A couple of tracks of this album have that Spaghetti western sound...

(the western sound comes in the second half - the first half makes me think of a CoC scenario in a lighthouse I played recently.) Edited October 10, 2012 by Thalaba

[Daxos232]

I like to use ambient sounds to give another way of bringing PCs into the setting or activity, besides descriptions with words.

Sounds of Winter - YouTube Winter woods

summer woods

rain and thunderstorm

Tavern or inn, too bad its a short one.

I'm sure you could find a few cool ambient outdoors tracks that would work for a western. I second Mankcam's suggestion for "The Man With No Name" tracks, those are perfect for westerns.

Combat is kind of difficult for me, most tracks get your blood pumping quick and it makes you excited but sometimes that conflicts with MRQ2 combat which can be a little bit slow sometimes with all the detail. I have found some slower kinds of stuff works better, especially if the combat will take longer than a few rounds or you need suspense or dread.

Game of Thrones works really well, too bad some of them are a little too short for my liking.

Nox Arcana - Eternal Champions - YouTube Also this Nox Arcana bands tends to have some useful tracks.

Now what I would really love to find (if anyone knows where I can find it) is some ambient tracks of a medieval/ancient battle. One with metal weapons clashing together, the thunder of horses, arrows whistling, and warhorns blasting. That would be cool to have.

Edited October 10, 2012 by Daxos232

[Puck]

I love these threads. I always seem to pick up one or two ideas every time. I use a lot of soundtracks in the background during games. I love the Morricone stuff. Another great soundtrack is Once Upon a Time in the West- The harmonica bit is great. The theme to Magnificent Seven is good. The soundtrack to Dances With Wolves is good too.

For fantasy, two of my favorite are the Soundtrack to the HBO Rome miniseries and The soundtrack to the new Battlestar Galactica (particularly seasons 2 and 3).

During any sort of melee we tend to play the original Star Trek arena fight music. It is great and just adds to the proper mood. Now it is kind of an ongoing joke, but combat doesn't feel the same without it pounding away in the background.

[Mankcam]

Some great ideas coming through here. I think I'll hunt down the 'ROME' and 'Game Of Thrones' soundtracks myself, the music really added to the mood of both of those series and I think any ancient/medieval game would be enhanced by these. BTW if you want to have a pseudo medieval-pagan feel for your setting, then perhaps Loreena McKennitt would be a good place to start, especially some of her more medieval evoking albums. I really like the work on one of her recent albums 'The Wind that Shakes The Barley', but many of her earlier albums would also suit. Not great for battles though, but quite good for evoking a folk or mystical medieval flavour and ideal for playing in the 'Merrie England' setting.

Also, all jokes aside, if you like playing in a western setting with a lot of tongue-in-cheek then you can't go past the soundtrack for 'Rango' heh heh

Edited October 11, 2012 by Mankcam

[seneschal]

Of course, your dastardly villain needs his own theme song, like Darth Vader ... sort of ...

Home on the Range - Yodel-Adle-Eedle-Idle-Oo - YouTube

[Conrad]

Overblown melodramatic music is always best for battles in fantasy games!

[Daxos232]

Found some more good examples. I thought of the old RPG computer games I used to play when I was younger, many of them have great music that I can still remember to this day. They cover a wide variety of situations.

Tavern 4 - YouTube NeverWinter Nights, this one is great, there are 3 more variations to this for different types of taverns and inns.

Baldur's Gate II had some great tracks.

IceWind Dale II

[Erasmus1966]

For mysterious places, such as exploring the interior of a derelict alien spacecraft, may I recommend the old fallback of Holst's 'Saturn' and 'Neptune' from the Planet's Suite?

'Mars' is quite suitable for scene-setting, and for some reason 'Uranus' always makes me think of giant spiders.... listen to it and you'll see what I mean...

Bruckner's 6th Symphony has a certain charm for Fantasy settings too.....