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TechnoScrabble
2012-05-25, 03:02 PM
I figured that with all the individual threads out there where people ask for music, someone needs to just make one giant thread in which people suggest music for role playing and what situation they like to use it in.

To start it off, I recently used neodarkid's prologue battle (fast) for a fight in a cathedral and the players loved it.

Malimar
2012-05-25, 04:14 PM
For generic background music while nothing particularly special is happening:

I've had some success with Radio Rivendell (http://www.radiorivendell.com/), which is designed for this very purpose.

I've also had some success with a station on Pandora Radio seeded with the likes of John Williams, Howard Shore, Hans Zimmer, Basil Poledouris, James Horner, Ennio Morricone, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Gustav Holst.

Kol Korran
2012-05-26, 01:12 AM
I've bookmarked some of the said threads. i think it might be a better idea to have a master thread of... threads (though i still think threads will pop up asking for music).

lets see:

basic thread with some lists on the first few posts (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190723)

Welknair's list, pretty impressive and detailed (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210048)

pirate themed music, especially the 7th post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210048)

creepy disturbing music (initially for the Mournland (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195160&highlight=mournland+sound+tracks)

Creepy "hiilbilly" music, especially post 29 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234162)

that's all i got so far.

samuraibsd
2012-05-28, 09:58 PM
I've played around a bit with music in games. The way I go about it depends quite a lot on who my players are and how much work I want to put into managing the music with *all* the other DM duties I'm fulfilling. I don't necessarily want to have constant music, so I might just throw it in for battles in some games. In others, no music at all is best. If I'm running a particularly cinematic game, where I don't have a lot of combat planned, but more character development and political intrigue, I might plan out all the music I want to use far in advance, and map it to specific points in the story.

The issue I always had with using a Pandora station including stuff by Zimmer, Williams, Elfman, etc, was the risk of that very familiar music like the Pirates of the Carribean or Star Wars main theme coming up and ripping my player's out of the game world. If I know some specific pieces from those films that I really want to have in the game, I'll go get them and put them into a playlist by myself.

Here's some of what I've used, though:

Guilty Gear and BlazBlue soundtracks. Now, I know those aren't very fantasy-ish, but in some cases (particularly a game that's on hiatus for summer, but just finished a chapter in April), it can work really well for accentuating battles, and letting everyone know that the action is up. Also, they're designed to be looped a lot of the time, so they work well for battles, since you don't know how long they're going to go.

Dark Souls and Demon's Souls soundtracks. These tend to fit fantasy a bit better, and can also work for situations outside combat.

Final Fantasy soundtracks. Works for a lot of boss fights. Not great for set themes.

Deus Ex soundtrack. I used VersaLife, the NYC theme and a few others for set themes...locations and people, mostly. Like BlazBlue, it's not the best for fantasy settings, but it can really easily work.

Silent Hill Just the ambient stuff. Silent Hill 3 in particular had a lot of good modern music, but the ambient, almost white-noise like music the games used (especially 2) makes for a really good horror backdrop. If you're into that kind of thing.

And of course, any other game or movie you can pass off on your players without tearing them completely away from the game world will work. But really, you have to tailor music to fit the campaign and the players.

CapnRedBeard
2012-05-29, 10:18 AM
I'm a bit of a metal head myself...

Old skool metal like "Devil's Island" by Megadeth and "Mob rules" by Black Sabbath
Newer metal (but not nu-metal) like well anything by Mastodon
Stoner metal like "Fury Whip" by High on Fire

Metal makes for some great battle music imho.