Music for Gaming

[MythAdvocate]

What sorts of music do you like to play during your games? I prefer Progressive Rock like Rush, Yes and similar. To me, D&D and Prog Rock have always gone hand in hand. Not that I am against other sorts of music during games, this just really gets my creative juices flowing.

One band I have recently encountered is Wolf People (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfDbWuUw5uY&feature=related) a folksy prog rock band from the British Isles, and a new favorite.

[Wizardawn]

I have music from Ultima Online, WOW, EQ, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate, Heroes III, Heroes IV, Heroes V, Diablo and Planscape Torment. I took all the softer music (meaning no harsh/loud battle music) and just hit the random button.

- Djeryv

[3llense'g]

I have music from Ultima Online, WOW, EQ, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate, Heroes III, Heroes IV, Heroes V, Diablo and Planscape Torment. I took all the softer music (meaning no harsh/loud battle music) and just hit the random button.

- Djeryv

Hell yes videogame music! I myself listen to the Baldur's Gate and Majesty soundtracks why developing my rpg videogame. And sometimes the official D&D soundtrack from Midnight Syndicate.

[knightvision]

Here's a great link from Gnomestew on RPG music

[The Venomous Pao]

I tend towards classic old metal (Sabbath, Maiden, etc.) and newer "old school" metal (Wolfmother, The Sword, etc.) as the soundtrack for my LL/D&D type fantasy games. It takes me back to when I was younger. Which is probably a great hook for some of the "Oh, retroclones are just about nostalgia" crowd, but so be it.

I've used lots of other music over the years, ranging from bellydancing music by El-Bakkar (for my BRP-powered Arabian Nights game) to era-appropriate jazz for pulp and noir-ish games. For scifi I've used some ambient stuff, but I'm no connoisseur of the genre, so I don't really have any recommendations.

Other GMs in my group are suckers for soundtracks (Stargate seems to get a lot of play, regardless of game genre) or "active" classical. Oh, and when we were playing Champions back in the day the Batman Beyond soundtrack reigned supreme. Man, I got tired of those tracks

[samwise7]

I go to Pandora.com and type in a metal song that is instrumental. My current Pandora station is based on Megadeth's Dialectic Chaos song. You can also modify channels by adding in other bands, or other songs. I typed in Karma To Burn, and Megadeth's Into The Lungs of Hell song as well. Karma To Burn has mostly instrumental songs. Here is a direct link to the station I made:
http://www.pandora.com/stations/4ef0593 ... a5cf801fa8

[Aelwe]

I've tried using music, but my group have always found it distracting. But the times when we used it, was mostly a mix of metal and hard rock (everything, from AC/DC to Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, etc.) with a bit of classical thrown in the mix.
The only exception was when we played Star Wars, I had enough "Star Wars ambience" music extracted from videogames (Jedi Knight mostly), that when played randomly helped to set the mood a lot and was not really distracting.