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Far'adrim
2013-01-04, 11:00 AM
I like to play the game with epic music on the background.

During the years I have compiled a massive list of music from games, movies and other sources that spice up the game.

I have divided them in 3 categories:

1. All Is Clear: PC's are travelling, shopping, talking to friendly NPC's or whatever.

2. Danger Nearby: PC's are in a place which obviously holds danger but no battle yet. Searching for traps, sneaking past guard etc.

3. Battle: Well... you know, battle music. Epic and dramatic.

It's all "classical" music, with some guitars every once in a while.

I thought I'd share it with you.

My group loves it, perhaps yours will to.


{{scrubbed}}

I hope you guys enjoy!

Morrolan
2013-01-04, 11:04 AM
Music during D&D can definitely enhance the experience. I myself like use Two Steps from Hell music for battles.
Too bad some players can't focus on the game with music in the background.

I'll take a look at your collection once I get home from work.

Guizonde
2013-01-04, 11:26 AM
my dm uses mainly classical music, with baroque overtones to create certain ambiences on occasion (we he wants to know we're gonna die, ie 75% of the time). if you're interested, i'll ask him for a write-up.

he tends to use medieval ballads when in town and whatnot, and even jeremy soule's complete works from morrowind onwards.
an example would be this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msgBdyNTbcc)

he also pulled out a rulebook (cthulu? i can't remember, but grimdark and evil) that had a "recommended playlist" of dark ambient music, including a few titles by brian eno and obscure scandinavian bands. i'll grab it tomorrow and post it sunday.

as a joke, he also pulled up the pirates of the carribean theme song when we faced a kraken in a dungeon. the situation was too unbelievable as it was, and he went the whole 9 yards to keep it epic (and straight faced)

Morrolan
2013-01-04, 12:13 PM
That might have been a World of darkness book, they have recomended music in them.

Slipperychicken
2013-01-04, 01:32 PM
https://ca.isohunt.com/torrent_details/442112285/Dungeons+Drageons+Epic+Music+D+D?tab=summary



Link says the torrent was "censored, as required by US court".

Sacrieur
2013-01-04, 02:22 PM
Try music from Two Steps From Hell, Immediate Music, X-Ray Dog, and Audiomachine.

Rogue Shadows
2013-01-04, 02:43 PM
The soundtrack to TRON: Legacy is actually pretty good even in fantasy games...

Far'adrim
2013-01-05, 12:21 AM
Link says the torrent was "censored, as required by US court".

Does it? That's lame, I'll look take a look at it in the morning.


my dm uses mainly classical music, with baroque overtones to create certain ambiences on occasion (we he wants to know we're gonna die, ie 75% of the time). if you're interested, i'll ask him for a write-up.

If you would, that would be cool. Thanks.


as a joke, he also pulled up the pirates of the carribean theme song when we faced a kraken in a dungeon. the situation was too unbelievable as it was, and he went the whole 9 yards to keep it epic (and straight faced)

I tried to leave out as much recognisable stuff as I could, still... you cant slip anything past gaming geeks. But after a few sessions it wasn't as distracting as first.


Music during D&D can definitely enhance the experience. I myself like use Two Steps from Hell music for battles.

Never heard of it, I'll take a look (listen) at it. Thanks.

NikitaDarkstar
2013-01-05, 01:15 AM
Try putting it on kat.ph (Kickasstorrents) instead, never had an issue with them.

When I still had an irl group my DM liked to play marilyn manson to go with our CoC game set in the 1920's.... he completely turned me off on "ambient background" music with that. At least in an irl group, still played music I liked when I played over msn though.

And if you want some more suggestions I'd look into Corvus Corax and Midnight Syndicate (along with Nightwish, Avantasia and Hammerfall if you like metal that works with fantasy games and give an epic feel... but the first two are very good ambient background stuff.)

Dread Angel
2013-01-05, 04:35 AM
My girlfriend got me the Skyrim Premium Edition for Christmas, knowing I already have the game.

Why did I still squee like a little girl with a puppy?

Because the T shirt is awesome, the extras are wicked cool, there's a novel in the package...

...and the full soundtrack!!!!!

I use it for DnD background. It is pure win.

Acanous
2013-01-05, 05:08 AM
I was just gona say... Yeah, Skyrim wins for this.
also, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hKPWrX85U8

Far'adrim
2013-01-05, 10:22 AM
Try putting it on kat.ph (Kickasstorrents) instead, never had an issue with them.

Did that.

But I also got a message for Admin, saying I should not post links/directions to copyrighted material, as it might get the site in trouble. And we don't want that, do we?

so yeah... no more links. Sorry.

Templarkommando
2013-01-05, 02:17 PM
I've actually tried some of this sort of thing in the last year, and I've run into the slight problem that we (my party and I) like to get distracted by the music in the background. So it takes a minute to adjust volume to an acceptable level especially if the volume changes much from one song to another.

That said, I think there are a couple of paths to take when selecting music, so I thought I'd share my input.

Video game music can be helpful - computer RPGs and table top RPGs transfer nicely, but you need to be aware that a lot of the material is protected intellectual property, so I would steer you away from that. There are some game sellers that will release a soundtrack with or separate from their game. (I think Medieval II: Total War has a sound track as does Rome: Total War). While video game music is certainly not period, I look past that because it is written with the idea of RPG gaming in a medieval setting in mind. Also, battle music doesn't show up in period pieces very often if at all. One final mention here, there are hundreds of games in medieval settings and not all of them are from the last year or so. You have a wealth of older games as well that feature music in this genre.

Television sound tracks - There are several TV series or movies that have excellent medieval/adventure type soundtracks that can be purchased. The big one that comes to mind is the LotR track, but you can find plenty of others. My advice is if you hear a song that you really like while watching a TV show and think it's appropriate for the setting look into whether it is available for purchase.

Celtic Music - This is a very versatile genre as far as as game music is concerned. It shows up everywhere, and it really does a great job for background D&D music. I would suggest tuning in to http://www.thistleradio.com/ or the weekly radio program on NPR. You can get podcasts even when the show isn't going though. In any case, some of these pieces are definitely not period, but a lot of them can still be placed in a gaming atmosphere regardless.

Medieval Popular Music - There are really a couple of forms of medieval pop music. The first is the music of traveling minstrels and so forth. This can be very handy if you have a bard of some sort in the party - try to get music that features the instrument or voice part that your bard is known for. The basic instrumental music will feature instruments like: lute, rebec, drums, violin (though technically not period), flute, pipe, dulcimer(hammered or otherwise), lyre, harp, mandolin, and maybe harpsichord. You might also get lucky looking up a list of medieval instruments. One of the big forms at the time is called the madrigal. As opposed to the traveling minstrel in a tavern somewhere, madrigals are frequently performed by patronized musicians for wealthy merchants or nobles as music for dinner, parties, or in a concert hall of some sort.

Medieval Sacred Music - This sort of music would be highly appropriate for adventuring in temples or if your campaign has a religious theme of some sort. The big forms here are going to be Gregorian chant, the Motet, and the Mass. All of these tend to show up in Latin more often than not.

Most of these medieval "buzz words" are searchable on a search engine and can get you to information on these forms or sample tracks.

Doorhandle
2013-01-06, 12:04 AM
I would highly recommend the vitamin string quartet, and their classical remixes. (http://www.youtube.com/artist/vitamin-string-quartet?feature=watch_video_title)

Guizonde
2013-01-06, 08:36 AM
unfortunately, there was no first game of the year yet :smallfrown: so i couldn't get the soundtrack/playlist my dm uses. however, (and please bear with me here) i have found martin o'donnell's works in the halo universe to be impeccable for gaming. special mention to the ODST soundtrack, and it is available as one video (almost 3h of songs) on youtube. there may be electric guitars, but they're subtle, and it makes for some truly dissonant moments (the biggest mob evar with the calmest and most eerie music for the situation possible, for example). it's to be tested, since it changes from your average "med-fan" playlist, so it might not appeal to all, but we enjoyed it.

SgtCarnage92
2013-01-09, 12:37 AM
Could you still post a listing of the music you had in your torrent? I may have some of it and I'm always looking to see what's worked music-wise for other tables. I don't have the time to sort through my entire collection for the "right" piece of music before every meet and suggestions for general playlists is always appreciated.

Far'adrim
2013-01-10, 10:40 AM
Could you still post a listing of the music you had in your torrent?

Al right, here we go.

I have a lot of soundtracks from games: The baldurs gate series, the elder scroll series, Kingdoms of amaleur, The total war series, the witcher series, The Dragon age series, Dungeons and dragons online, WOW, guildwars.

Then there are the soundtracks from movies and shows: LoTR (might be to recognisable), Pirates of the Caribbean (same problem, some parts you can use though), Conan the Barbarian, Sleepy hollow, Beowulff, The Chronicles Of Narnia, Spartacus (the tv shows), 28 days later, Gladiator, Sunshine (has some cool parts), Arthur, There will be blood

And there are some bands/producers who make awesome stuff: Celestial Aeon Project, Midnight Syndicate, E.S. Posthumus, Gothic Storm (they make trailer music, works well even though the songs are short), Turbine, Inc.

You're going to have to sort through it all to get the appropriate songs together, just putting it all on shuffle won't work.

I already did that so I thought I could save you all the trouble. But alas...

Remember the keep the volume low enough you can still speak without raising your voice, otherwise it will become annoying.

SgtCarnage92
2013-01-10, 01:41 PM
Cool stuff. I know I have access to a number of those soundtracks and I'll certainly check out some of the produced stuff you mentioned as the only one there I've really listened to is Midnight Syndicate (who i heard about due to them producing an official D&D soundtrack).

yougi
2013-01-18, 05:35 PM
Did that.

But I also got a message for Admin, saying I should not post links/directions to copyrighted material, as it might get the site in trouble. And we don't want that, do we?

so yeah... no more links. Sorry.

Maybe we could make a Songza (www.songza.com) playlist (or Songza playlistS), that way they'd be easily accessible.

Bacon Elemental
2013-01-18, 06:12 PM
I've always thought Sburban Jungle works great for against-the clock end-of-the-world sequences.

Deceit
2013-01-18, 07:26 PM
You guys are weak. WEAK.

I play this while:

- Creating my characters
- Reading through GitP
- Cooking breakfast
- Cooking lunch
- Cooking dinner
- Taking a dump
- Walking my dog
- Going to sleep


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3P2iaWma-Y&list=PL23352A4AD502B3A3&index=4

woodgod
2013-01-18, 07:59 PM
I tend to stick with movie/game/TV soundtracks because they're, for the most part, written as background music. I also sometimes use tracks from composers who specifically write "epic" or "fantasy" music, but otherwise actual folk and classical stuff can get a bit too noticeable and distracting for me sometimes. I also tend to shy away from things that sound too electronic or rock/metal (despite metal being what I mainly listen to). Certain tracks from the Diablo soundtrack are about as far as I go in that respect. I don't use tracks with vocals beyond chanting either.

Over the years I've gotten over 100 hours of "fantasy music" and I've made a bunch of playlists for different themes, moods, situations, etc. Apart from the peace, pre-battle, and battle categories mentioned in the OP, I also made playlists for caves, jungles, forests, deserts, oceans, spooky places, quirky hobbit/gnome villages, taverns, etc. It's actually a lot of fun sorting out tracks like that, tying to figure out what should go where.

Also useful when reading fantasy, historical fiction, and some of the more epic sci-fi.

I used to listen to Radio Rivendell a lot, but they've been forced to cut out a lot of the music there, so I don't go there as much as I used to. For people looking for ideas for new music, the site can be useful since they have a list of all the albums that they play (and their last.fm account has a record of the stuff they used to play). The guy who runs the site specifically made the station for tabletop gaming.

One of my favorite soundtracks right now is the Neverwinter Nights one, even though the game itself is only decent at best.

Sith_Happens
2013-01-20, 12:55 AM
IN CASE OF CLIMAX TO ENTIRE CAMPAIGN, BREAK GLASS. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAlztMvvNkk)