Tabletop Tunes

How many people here use background music in tabletop games, and what music?

I have two songs that I frequently play during dramatic scenes (whether I'm the GM or a player): Beauty Baron, from the Disgaea OST, for certain kinds of bosses, and Fight On from Final Fantasy VII for others, particularly battles where escape is not an option. I've pulled out a few anime themes, the OST for Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero?, and Duel of the Fates. My list also includes Panic at the Disco's "Intermission" for transitions, and Let's Go Down The Wine River from Super Mario RPG for certain plot hooks.

edited 28th Jul '10 11:55:23 PM by Ezekiel

...Every time the characters go to sleep and then wake up the next morning I play this tune.>.>;

edited 29th Jul '10 1:52:31 AM by Renagade

I rarely play specific songs at specific times, but sometimes I'll have music on in the background to set the mood. Midnight Syndicate or Nox Arcana are good for atmosphere, as are some film scores (Star Wars and The Lord of The Rings are often in rotation). Sometimes I'll play metal (usually something appropriately cheesy like like Rhapsody of Fire or Nightwish), but that's more frequently for board games, since it tends to be distracting for RPGs.

edited 29th Jul '10 2:51:26 AM by Chaostryke

I've tried to do this.

It did not go well, at all.

Our GM ran a playlist during combat that included All The Strange, Strange Creatures and some Conan music.

One of my players has an iPhone with a huge music collection. For fight scenes, I've been known to use the battle music from Final Fantasy or Pokemon. When the party competed in the grand arena, they were introduced with "GO GO POWER RANGERS".

Also, there's a big giggle in having the Star Wars theme play when you do your plot exposition at the beginning. And chuckles all round when the Big Bad appears to the sound of the Imperial March.

The key thing is not to use anything that'll distract the players, and keep the music quiet enough that you can talk over it without having to raise your voice even a little.

I give my players both their own theme songs (I'm running a oWoD game where the Get of Fenris player has Howling Moon from Blazblue as his main theme) and giving them themes for their battles. Since I DM online, I just give them a link and tell 'em to listen to them for the fights.

A recent, very major plot battle against a Wraith was done to "Master of Shadow" from Persona 3, and before that, the battle against a bunch of zombies was done to music from Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

I like to think I'm an awesome DM. :)

I absolutely will not GM without music. I have a foot-tall stack of movie musical scores I use for various purposes, and now about a dozen playlists on my iPod as well.

Top favorites (in no particular order)

-"The Crow" musical score: Great for tense or dreary moments. This got used a good deal when I was running old Wo D Vampire.

-"Interview with the Vampire": Another good tension-builder.

-"The Rock": for battle sequences.

-"Original Sin": I used this for running period pieces (like 7th sea, when it wasn't sword-swinging time).

-"Heavy Metal (80s version)": So perfect for running Mech Warrior chronicles. I almost got sick of hearing it because of that.

-Monster Magnet, "God Says No": Good all around rock for urban games. A favorite for Shadowrun, as well as a setting I personally designed.

-Deathline Int'l, "Cybrid": I used this album so much running Cyberpunk 2020 that my old crew can't hear it without reminiscing about favorite moments. A classic: Rolling up on Night City while their cover of Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City" played in the background.

-Queensryche, "Operation: Mindcrime": Not so much for running games as plotting them out, but makes a good soundtrack for Crapsack-style plots.

I don't GM with music very often, but when I do, here is what I use:

The theme for Jurassic Park - Anytime I have to describe awe-inspring scene or landscape. Especially in pulp game.

Johnny comes home again - not sure it's the right title, but for when my player decide to make an entrance, that,s what I use.

Score from Conan the Barbarian - Nothing say "Let's bash skulls" like that score.

I remember one time we were playing an (otherwise not particularly interesting) Legend of Zelda-inspired game, and I was playing the Goron. We had a CD of songs from ocarina of Time playing in a loop,a nd weirdly, each time my Goron decided to get the drums out and play (music was important in that game), the goron theme would play. It did thatthree times. We were amazed.

edited 29th Oct '10 8:46:35 AM by collex

I use them on occasion, but the problem is they're too short for (Dn D) combat.

I play online, and we have a full BGM soundtrack for most significantly sized games, comprised of various video game remixes and the like.

^ Oh Gods, the looping, THE ENDLESS LOOPING! Unless you play the full version of Sparkling 1000%, then it only repeats a few times XD

edited 1st Nov '10 8:26:07 AM by TheyCallMeTomu

There was an issue of Dragon (can't recall which one right off, but I'll eventually track it down) that put out a list of appropriate music for different situations. I'd call that a good starting point.

Not unless there is music in the scene. With suitably annoying background music you can even get a character to waste an action in a fight scene to shoot out the damn speaker.