Music

[Arken2011]

For those of you who use music to accompany your games, what type of music do you use?

[hirumatogeru]

Currently in my Conan campaign I use music from the first movie, along with some soundtracks as follows:

Last Samurai
New Battlestar Galactica series
Passion of the Christ
World of Warcraft
Gladiator

And a few others I can't remember. I generally split up the tracks into a battle playlist and an ambient playlist for combat and roleplaying portions of my adventures as appropriate.

[Fizz]

I also like soundtracks. Here are some good ones:

Lord of the Rings (duh)
King Arthur
Chronicles of Narnia
The 13th Warrior
Willow


-Fizz

[gazza666]

See, I must totally suck as a DM here. I've heard over and over how music can enhance a game - but I've never had any success with it personally. We find it to be either distracting or just irrelevant.

It is possible I've never used the right music, of course. I've tried suggestions of other DMs before (eg The Crow soundtrack for a Vampire game), but never with any success.

Kudos to everyone that manages to integrate music into their gaming. I'd be more jealous if I had any idea what I was missing.

[RaspK_FOG]

A good choice is game soundtracks, since they generally set a good atmosphere with the ability to repeat them indefinitely, something that one cannot claim for movie soundtracks.

[celtibear]

For most of my D&D games, I use a combination of Clannad, Hedningarna, and a little-known renaissance dance band called Musica Subterranea. Once in a while I break out Hovaness or Vaughn Williams.

[Lee]

In a message dated 8/23/06 9:04:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
brnetboard@BIRTHRIGHT.NET writes:

<< I also like soundtracks. Here are some good ones: >>

Master & Commander: the far side of the world
Icewind Dale (there was a free soundtrack disc in the "collection" boxed
set.
Dune (the 1980`s movie, but there are some narrated tracks you might want
to skip)
Batman (score, not soundtrack)
Aside: When playing WWII games, we like to get out Shostakovich symphonies,
there are plenty of martial airs there, and they are contemporary.

Lee.

[Flaggerkatt]

Throughout my time as a DM, both for Birthright, other *D&D based games and others, I've used music with varying success.
The successfullness usually depends a lot on the setting in my experience, it's easier to find music that works for a medieval setting like Birthright, than for let's say Mage: The Ascension.

My most positive experience with use of music/sound effects is worth mentioning, though:

A friend I once shared an apartment with, bought a surround system and a LaserDisc player back in the days. While watching the "Stargate" movie, I noticed that the sound from the rear speakers was really nice - most of the time just "wind blowing over a desert" style sound...

Imagine then, just using this sound, put on repeat, with all other sounds turned down, playing a DarkSun game with an outside summer temperature in the upper 90s

[Kay]

Well I'm not a DM , but if my opinion counts for something I say put the music on.
We use Arcana and Dargard albums (dark ambiental style), I think they are from Norway or...
And also a lot of ambient sounds from games that go together, like wind or dungeon noise (make a playlist and loop it).
It makes the atmosphere so much better.