How do you incorporate music in a campaign well?
Do you use only ambient quiet tracks as background noise?
Do you use music from real albums that fit the mood of the moment?
Do you make your own music?
How do you incorporate music in a campaign well?
Benjamin Gomez
Other urls found in this thread:
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtu.be
youtu.be
youtu.be
youtu.be
youtu.be
youtu.be
twitter.com
Tyler Gomez
For my campaign, I've been thinking of using Field music, Dungeon music, Battle music, and Boss music for each setpiece I've created, and each of these four pieces in this set should have some connecting "flow" or "feel" to it. All of the music I use comes from Vidya OSTs I listen to regularly, so it's not too hard for me to come up with music choices.
Ryder Miller
The only thing I've found that works and doesn't distract from the game (which is, by necessity, mostly talking) is ambient music. Anything melodic is just too distracting.
The only time I've found that music actually helps a lot is when running horror. Dark ambient is very good to put on over horror scenes. Normal city or adventuring stuff doesn't feel better when there's music going on.
Jackson Martinez
I'd be happy to share some tracks I have stored if you want a rough idea of what I meant by .
Ryan Nelson
Please do
Bentley Diaz
It might not be quite what you're expecting, because my campaign isn't exactly Shadowrun or DnD, but I'll do it.
Asher Peterson
I normally pick a genre based on the setting of the campaign, then choose tracks that match the themes of each area or npc.
Colton Bailey
Just play this in the background
youtube.com
Nolan Rivera
I have yet to use music, being a new DM for a new party, but when shit goes down, such as revealing an important evil character or something, I might.
Oliver Wilson
I like to use cave ambience for crypts and, well, caves.
Benjamin Sanders
bvdub for my post-apocalyptic game
>youtube.com
>youtube.com
>youtube.com
>youtube.com
Really gives that sense of otherworldly sadness and loneliness that I go for. I love listening the music watching the sunset or being somewhere alone. It's comfy as hell, depressing in a beautiful way. I think if, as a GM, you can make yourself actually want to escape to the world you've portrayed, then you have done a good job.
Jack Thomas
So for instance, in my new DM'd game, I'm adding a desert area that only knows the light of the moon, where the sun never really rises. I've got a good number of tracks prepped for it, including the theme for the trek through the desert youtu.be
Honestly I even went so far in planning that I've thought of music for the final dungeon youtu.be
I'm really only able to be this autistic about this because I listen to and remember so much music that it has actually been part of the process in creating the setpieces that I make. Especially if you're doing a homebrew, you'll have the freedom to make your setpieces based on your musical choices like I did, but otherwise, just listen for tracks from your favorite media and see what works for a given place. I could recommend tracks to listen to to get where I'm coming from, but I feel I'm reaching character limit with this post.
Jose Gonzalez
>I'm really only able to be this autistic about this because I listen to and remember so much music that it has actually been part of the process in creating the setpieces that I make.
I know that feel man.
Logan Rodriguez
I'm a DM that multiclassed to bard. I have recurring themes for every PC, every major area, and have hundreds of hours of instrumental music saved for taverns, cities, swamps, dungeons, forests, everything. I pull from a lot of movie and video game soundtracks, but dig for original tracks and write my own stuff as well.
My players compliment the musical selection frequently so I think I'm doing alright.
Christopher Moore
didn't mean to reply to your post
but I too know that feel
Cooper Martinez
I tend to use dungeon music from video games (it's not a particularly serious game so it keeps the lighthearted mood up). The BBEG is a vampire lord, so I'm looking forward to using the Harmony of Despair version of Vampire Killer when they get to his lair.
Kayden Wright
What vidya music would you normally use for your campaigns?
Jeremiah Morris
I've grabbed a bunch of OST albums from games and movies, and sorted the songs into background/exciting/mysterious/creepy/etc folders, and I stream it to the party on YT every session. Works like a charm.
Orchestral and choral works only, but I'm plannin' to run a cyberpunk/sci-fi campaing with some retrowave and synthwave.
Gabriel Morgan
Dark Souls for Fantasy, Dawn of War for 40k, Stellaris for generic Sci Fi
Sebastian Harris
bump
Mason Collins
While preparing for a campaign I'm listening through various tracks to find something I like. I collect tracks I like and which I think can be used for certain moods - taking in beautiful new scenery, ardious trek across a mountain, desperate odds in battle, dramatic showdown, moment of optimism as the party works together. These are the generic tracks that can be reused and are not necessarily tied to a specific moment, though they may be even more apt if, for instance, it's a samurai-themed battle - then I'd use samurai movie tracks that I otherwise have in my general folder.
If I have no idea what to play I'll just search for general music for the occasion. One of the last sessions had the PCs go to a royal feast that began with a masquerade ball, so I just searched for waltz and let the multi-hour videos play along.
Sometimes I'll keep certain tracks in reserve for a particular character or location, have them be their leitmotif.
For one of the coming sessions I've done it in reverse - I found a bunch of tracks, all being different versions of the same tune, and based on them created a concept for a character that will hopefully be a recurring rival and potential ally of the party. Depending on their interactions with him different versions of that tune will play - the goofy, the epic, the dark and so on.
It helps that one of my players is a soundtrack composer (in training) and if I don't know what to play he'll shoot a suggestion quickly and we'll carry on.