moo-sic? Music in games

[BobVosh]

I'm curious how many of you use music while playing to set an atmosphere, theme songs, or battle music. Or any other use, tell me how often, and how. If you don't tell me why.

I don't use music mainly because it always takes too much away from the game to pause it a sec to get it started. Also I'm fairly softly spoken so I can't always be heard normally much less with more noise.

For Tabletop P&P gaming

[Crow]

I just play some instrumental stuff at a low volume from start to finish when I use music. Loud enough to be heard when it's quiet, but low enough that voices easily overpower it.

Anything with lyrics is usually out as they can be distracting.

[Andras]

I'd never use it, personally, barring stuff like the Fallout 2 soundtrack (ambient enough to be background music, but definitely sets the mood). Others decidedly disagree.

[AslanCross]

I only use music for encounters. It sets the mood at the beginning, but eventually it fades into the background. Since I have all my DMing stuff on my laptop (barring the books), I'm able to start it up fairly quickly. Eventually all of us forget that it's even there. (Especially when everyone gets caught up in trying to decide what to do during their turn.)

There was one time, however, when I was running the Hell's Heart adventure. The Diablo soundtrack helped a lot in setting the creepy mood.

[Tsotha-lanti]

I've got an approximately 300-hundred-song cyberpunk soundtrack, with music from Aphex Twin to Rage Against the Machine, from Velvet Acid Christ to Gridlock, from Haujobb to NWA...

When I use it, I tend to have it running quiet in the background the entire time, on random.

For Call of Cthulhu, I've always used the Blair Witch 2 ambient soundtrack, and the Twin Peaks OST. Silent Hill OST on occasion. Music is a must, along with only candles for light.

[biggest]

It depends on the game. Most games I play nowadays have great soundtracks so no need to as it ruins the gameplay sometimes..

In rest I listen to sound tracks but it also depends on the kind of game I play.. Mostly I listen to hip hop for the mood and all

[BobVosh]

It depends on the game. Most games I play nowadays have great soundtracks so no need to as it ruins the gameplay sometimes..

In rest I listen to sound tracks but it also depends on the kind of game I play.. Mostly I listen to hip hop for the mood and all

Er, I was referring to D&D/any other P&P game. Didn't declare this due to the section, but I will now.

[valadil]

I tried having background music in the first D&D game I ran. It was too much of a distraction and didn't add much to the game so I gave up after that.

The last time I played a bard I brought a guitar to game and strummed along when I wasn't in a scene. That was fun, but also pretty distracting for me.

[Tsotha-lanti]

It depends on the game. Most games I play nowadays have great soundtracks so no need to as it ruins the gameplay sometimes..

In rest I listen to sound tracks but it also depends on the kind of game I play.. Mostly I listen to hip hop for the mood and all

Did y'all notice which subforum y'all were on?

[Drascin]

To me, it's only reserved for particular moments. Beating a half-god while Darkness of the Unknown blared around us (I did make arranges to do that day's session in Will's house, 'cause he has that lovely surround array) was one of the highlights of previous campaign for my players, as was me timing the villain's monologue to Dancing Mad with as much exactitude as possible, so that the first initiative roll would be rolled right as the song's two-minute intro finished and it started the epic part.

[Piedmon_Sama]

I couldn't use it even if I wanted to, I game with my friends via AIM chat. But if I could, I'd be willing to try running a game to some "space" or "drone" music, maybe faintly electronic, the sort of thing they play on an internet radio station like Drone Zone. It would be perfect for my current (cosmic-horror themed) campaign.

[loves_to_laugh]

For my group music is a must. We have a few pump up songs that we will play to help set the mood but otherwise we have it fairly low for background music. Of course we have 2 separate playlists for encounters/battles and other stuff.

[Ravyn]

I play with my friends over AIM, and relay music through Ventrilo (Piedmon_sama, you may wish to try this); since nobody's talking, I don't have to worry about noise, and people can always choose not to listen if they want by muting the program. It was originally something one of my players took care of, but I got a bit tired of the same video game themes over and over, and I'd happened upon a bunch of interesting music that hit the spot, so I took back the musical spotlight. Usually, I use pure-instrumentals, with occasional forays into songs in languages that only I (if anyone) would understand. I recently ran a three-session party in which most of the background was a random assortment of koto-and-shakuhachi pieces, since the group had hired for the party entertainment an instrumentalist who sounded most like those--except for the one part with the local equivalent of the DDR pad, in which I switched to a top-speed piece from the Noir soundtrack that seemed to fit the dance-game feel appropriately (and as an added bonus, had lyrics that foreshadowed my upcoming plot twist). Sometimes I even use it as a way to give hints of things ahead of time: One of my nastier side creatures, the demon-spider Akhterim, is always cued by pieces from John Sampen's Shadows and Dawning CD due to its rather wiggly, off-kilter feel.

Generally, I favor pieces the group isn't completely familiar with. The video games I draw from are obscure, and I won't use an anime soundtrack if more than half the group has seen it, since I want to establish my own images. A lot of it ends up being classical or world music, because that doesn't have images attached.