Music?

[Nick_mi]

Has anyone attempted and succesfully had background music depending on what the players are doing. I feel like this is either a hit or miss idea in that it will be real sweet or it will just be an epic fail. Anyone ever succesfully pulled it off, and if so what songs have you used for what themes(bosses, traveling across plains, running from a soon to explode building, etc)

[pffh]

I always have some background music going. Usually it's some fantasy sounding songs but recently I have been experimenting with giving certain npc's theme songs.

One major success was with my current BBEG, a bard vampire drow that plays a piano usingpiano man (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se9rfWucgeY). One of my players actually asked me to change the music to something gothic because the music along with the vampires attitude (way to pleasant and happy to see them considering they just slaughtered his followers) creeped him out to much.

One thing to watch out for is to keep the music at a low volume under no circumstances should you need to raise your voice while the music plays. Another thing is keep several songs for each encounter since just one song on repeat gets annoying (for example with the vampire above I've collected several different piano and orgel songs and organized them into different playlists depending on what's going on (combat, him patronizing the players, the players exploring his lair etc)).

[AslanCross]

As long as the speakers work well, music has always helped my games run better.

I used this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnm3oRv_n8E) when the players entered a city that was in the midst of a laborious evacuation right before an invasion. Morale was low, there was plague, and it wasn't a very happy sight to see shops boarded up all over.

During a red dragon battle. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Br7AcIiu84)

Final dungeon: the Fane of Tiamat. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtfOn_6MZd4)

Final battle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfI3KWr8XPU) with the BBEG, a half dragon high priest of Tiamat.

Extra last boss: Aspect of Tiamat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nYwHXJY-7s)

(yes, this was Red Hand of Doom)

I often listen to countless songs way in advance before finally deciding which ones to use for the scenario.

Since we run Eberron, I tend to make room for slightly more techno/metal music as opposed to traditional fantasy orchestra-only music. I reserve those for the really important battles.

I avoid anything that has vocals, though, unless the vocals are in another language and add to the epic sound. (The Sanskrit vocals in Neodammerung from the Matrix, for example, or the faux Latin choir in Yama of Xanadu above)

One song I really struggled with was Rhapsody's Queen of the Dark Horizons. It's perfect for Tiamat, and the instrumentation is spectacular. However, the vocals are...extremely cheesy. :P That lost out to Yama of Xanadu.

[sciencepanda]

Maybe I've just been playing too many videogames, but I have a fondness for playing music during fight sequences. I generally try to pick something that correlates with what is going on in some way, but songs from the Garo OST (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO-Q06GdvPY&feature=related) works very nicely as a standby.

[dsmiles]

I've got two words for you: Lux Aeterna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKLpJtvzlEI).

6 and a half minutes of pure unadulterated awesome. :smallbiggrin:

@AslanCross: What about the vocals in the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack?

[tcrudisi]

Has anyone attempted and succesfully had background music depending on what the players are doing. I feel like this is either a hit or miss idea in that it will be real sweet or it will just be an epic fail. Anyone ever succesfully pulled it off, and if so what songs have you used for what themes(bosses, traveling across plains, running from a soon to explode building, etc)

No, I have not ever used music in my games, but I'm a bit different when it comes to music. I hate it, with a passion. If music were to fall off the face of the earth tomorrow, I would celebrate.

However, I have been involved in a game where the DM used music and sound effects to "help" the mood. If it had not been a 2-shot game (and I knew this from the start), I would not have stayed. Heck, if it had not been for 1e Tomb of Horrors and all of it's legendary-ness, I also would not have stayed. Music just makes me so ... angry. Plus, why would anyone play music when you have to be heard at a table? Either it is turned down so no one can hear it or it is loud enough to interfere with people talking.

[darkpuppy]

While playing music in a game does indeed heighten the atmosphere if chosen correctly, several problems do have to be avoided with some care. For example, the simplest problem to resolve is that of either players or GM getting distracted by selecting the music. This can be resolved either by having a pre-planned set of songs/tunes for certain situations, or, in extreme cases, a stick with a nail in it...

...But much worse is when you have made a CD for your entire session (no MP3 player being handy), and you neglect to ensure the track times match up or to put the track on repeat... good example here would be one of my nWoD games. They were in a club with the villain (Chiasm's "Isolated" quite blatantly used in homage to V:TM Bloodlines), and, mid villainousness... "Catch You Catch Me", the theme to Card Captor Sakura, and a track I had put on for us to have a laugh at/with afterwards, comes on... just as he is threatening them with painful death. Obviously, nobody took the threat too seriously, being rather more concerned with guffawing their lungs out.

[El Dorado]

Our DM was fond of Conan The Barbarian (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UChMJ14dQNs). Good mix of moods. There was one track that he played whenever we found ourselves raiding a tower. Our track record attacking towers wasn't great so there was always a collective groan whenever he cued that track. :smallwink:

[AslanCross]

I've got two words for you: Lux Aeterna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKLpJtvzlEI).

6 and a half minutes of pure unadulterated awesome. :smallbiggrin:

@AslanCross: What about the vocals in the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack?

I'm not exactly sure what it sounds like. I never really saw the movie as far as I can remember, and the link posted above is the only song I've actually heard from it.

[Nick_mi]

So last night I was in the "making up a little side adeventure" mode and DMing a game. And they are on a row boat to an island. And I am looking through the monster manuel and I find something so I ask my guys to make a listen check.

they all succeed. I procede to tell them that suddenly everybody hears

*plays the jaws duh nuh theme song*

"are attacked by a shark!"

Funniest moment of D&D in awhile.

[Morithias]

Oh god....one time...epic campaign, it was like a comedy based one. The party mage gets the bright idea to make a spell that played music everytime we fought like in game...he even took the craft skill to let him write the music.

Needless to say when he sent me the mp3 to "Ginyu Force Rules" from dragon ball kai, I was amused, but flat out told him no other DM would let this.

So yeah, every fight for the rest of the campaign...Dragon Ball Kai music playing "in universe".

[Kalaska'Agathas]

I was playing in a game where background music was often used, typically by the Assistant DM. We had all sorts of stuff, depending on the situation. In my favorite session from that campaign, exploring this apparently-benign-but-truthfully-quite-evil Wizard's University Tower place, we were using music from Silent Hill 2 and other music with an atmosphere of creeping dread. We only had one combat encounter that entire six-hour session, and it was the best I've ever played.

We also used Verdi's "Dies Irae" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDFFHaz9GsY), Palestrina's "Sicut Cervus" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsw1kdLqfec), and other such music as appropriate.

[SilverLeaf167]

It's usually annoying, and though it might create some mood, it is usually kind of extravagant. Also, the volume issue.

Whenever one of my players gets bored, he starts playing something like "I'm Blue" from his MP3, and whenever there's some kind of boss fight, even just some drider or such, "One-Winged Angel".

[FelixG]

No, I have not ever used music in my games, but I'm a bit different when it comes to music. I hate it, with a passion. If music were to fall off the face of the earth tomorrow, I would celebrate.

However, I have been involved in a game where the DM used music and sound effects to "help" the mood. If it had not been a 2-shot game (and I knew this from the start), I would not have stayed. Heck, if it had not been for 1e Tomb of Horrors and all of it's legendary-ness, I also would not have stayed. Music just makes me so ... angry. Plus, why would anyone play music when you have to be heard at a table? Either it is turned down so no one can hear it or it is loud enough to interfere with people talking.

pretty much this for me, i see no point to music.

[Zaggab]

We try to always use music in my gaming group, though it is important that the music a) suits the setting and b) doesn't have vocals. It should also be unobtrusive - if you are conscious of the music, it's not that good as background music. This usually makes it quite difficult to find usable music, which sometimes means we have to do without. It's generally no problem to set a volume that doesn't interfere with speaking, while it's still heard.

When I DM fantasy games, I usually use the bg1/bg2 soundtrack. In our current 80'ies agent campaign, the DM worked really hard to find tracks that works, and actually found some pretty good ones.

[Nihb]

I tried using music last time we played, about two months ago. The reception was rather mild. One of the players kept asking about Final Fantasy battle music (I had a subtile soundtrack which I had planned the day before), two of them didn't look impressed and the last one, I have no idea. He said it was cool, but maybe the overall reaction put him in a corner.

As with everything in RPGs, the group must like it. If they don't give a beaver dam, just don't use it. I know I won't be using it again. But I would with another group I had. Just not this one.

I used Jamendo to find more atmospheric tunes. Beyond Good and Evil OST for battle music.

[RebelRogue]

No, I have not ever used music in my games, but I'm a bit different when it comes to music. I hate it, with a passion. If music were to fall off the face of the earth tomorrow, I would celebrate.
In general, not just for gaming? :smalleek:

In general, I think music use can be good once in a while, but it depends on the situation and (very importantly) the individual players' taste if it will work or not. My best personal experience was a happy accident with some black metally stuff (which would definitely be too busy for most groups most of the time, but these were young players and they needed some action-packed music at that moment to keep attention) that I let one player choose and put on because we played late at night. The music had some cheesy added "spooky background vocal stuff" going on in an interlude, and this happened to come on just as I described spectres surrounding and closing in on the party in a ruined city in the middle of the night, with the full blast beat stuff kicking in as they reached out for the PCs souls with their incorporal touch attacks. That certainly made it much more special than just another undead encounter! But it was all accident!

[tcrudisi]

In general, not just for gaming? :smalleek:

Yes, in general. I listen to either advertisements or NPR while in my car.

Don't get me wrong, I don't normally speak up unless someone is just playing their music loudly enough that I can't speak without raising my voice.

Your story is pretty cool though. The sort of thing that I would have liked to have seen (heard?) first-hand... albeit for only a very short time. :smalltongue: