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Rocktopotomus
2007-07-30, 08:37 AM
i'm running a game and I think a little incidental music would really add to the storytelling
does anyone have a playlist or know of any site that has a good all around sellection?
my current campaign is running towards the horror side of things also, so I'd love some creepy music, hopefully instrumental - are there any good horror movie soundtracks I should take a look at?

AslanCross
2007-07-30, 08:43 AM
I usually get my music from video games. I would recommend the Parasite Eve soundtrack in your case---if you have a relatively modern setting.
Neverwinter Nights has some decent horror music as well.

I know a site that has the entire Parasite Eve soundtrack, but I doubt posting it here is legal.

valadil
2007-07-30, 09:06 AM
Video game music usually works pretty well, but try not to use the music from games they recognize. You want your boss fight to be epic because you wrote it that way, not because they recognized Sephiroth's theme song. I also recommend avoiding lyrics so your players don't get distracted.

Midnight Syndicate has a lot of ambient darkness. I think they actually made the D&D soundtrack, so they're about as appropriate as it gets.

I'm particularly fond of Sephiroth (not related to the comment in the first paragraph, this is the name of an actual band). They record sounds of some creepy ass forest at night and impose tribal drumming over that. It's very dark and angry. My players thought it was a little too dark actually and they made me stop using it.

It probably won't fit your genre, but Vangelis does a lot of movie soundtrack type things. Their songs are usually more uppity than what you'd want for horror but you might find something appropriate. If you want a theme song for the game or certain characters but don't want to take something from a particular movie, Vangelis is a good pick.

I haven't suggested them for gaming music before, but since you want horror, Isis might work. They do ambient heavy metal. I don't know how to describe them beyond that. It's just metal that's written to be in the background instead of something you focus on.

Yechezkiel
2007-07-30, 09:20 AM
After drawing out the description of several rainy days in my game (to make the PCs realize it sucks walking in rain and mud for 8 hours every day for a week), I got the notion to download some rain mp3s. I mostly found relaxation-type music to help people sleep but I now have about a two hour block of stormy weather to break up my movie soundtrack playlist.

I think calm music can build suspense and is good during the slower parts of dungeon crawls and non-combat scenes.

There's a couple posts about gaming soundtracks on these forums (go search), and here's another good one on the WFRP boards (http://forum.blackindustries.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10233).

Dairun Cates
2007-07-30, 01:17 PM
i'm running a game and I think a little incidental music would really add to the storytelling
does anyone have a playlist or know of any site that has a good all around sellection?
my current campaign is running towards the horror side of things also, so I'd love some creepy music, hopefully instrumental - are there any good horror movie soundtracks I should take a look at?

I actually built up a rather large campaign playlist the last campaign I ran. Literally like a couple of gigs of it. For Boss battles, there's two songs in Escaflowne that work particularly well. The first is Curse of Dance, the second one I'm having trouble remembering the name of, but it starts with a lovely organ striking part. If you're interested but can't find them, I could e-mail them to you.

LotharBot
2007-07-30, 10:03 PM
OCRemix (http://www.ocremix.org/) and VGmusic (http://www.vgmusic.com/) have remixed and original video game music. If you know of a game with the right "feel", music from that game can be useful. (For creepy games, I love certain good remixes of DooM's soundtrack.)

Ravyn
2007-07-30, 10:51 PM
I should be able to think of more, but here are my two favorite pieces for tension-building.

Hajimari, from Kitaro's CD Kojiki. Nothing says "Something's coming in the dark" better. Problem is, it doesn't loop too well, and it does build like anything.

And, strange though this may sound, Tempus Vernum from Enya's A Day Without Rain. (Pax Deorum from Memory of Trees also works pretty well.) Excellent music for rituals and summonings, though it loses a bit of the impending doom feel if your audience has a reasonable Latin vocabulary.

LordMalrog
2007-08-03, 11:36 AM
Yo, i found a great song for a creepy Silent hill esque campaign i did. The music to Nightmare on Elmstreet, one song just looped perfectly, and was perfectly ambient

talsine
2007-08-03, 11:44 AM
I use a lot of Cradle of Filth for my horror games, played really low with a lot of bass it works great. I also play a lot of modern darkwave and industrial, again, turned down way low witha lot of bass, though i've been running a lot of Shadowrun lately, so its not super out of place.

Its a lot fo fun to be able to have a pair of dualing goblin rock cover bands as the backdrop for the meet and have the real music playing. its very effective and helps a lot with immersion.