Gaming Music
A Music Resource for GMs
Now with over 200 albums reviewed! Also check out the character pages for artists/composers and a tools section for a little extra help. Checkout the Playlist Helper by Gaaran and the accompanying pre-made playlists by theme.
Do you have recommendations that aren’t already on our massive To-Do-List? Leave a comment with your suggestions. We would love to hear what you use for gaming background music, whether it be for village themes, battles, futuristic urban exploration, or whatever.
Notes from the Gaming Music Staff (music staff! get the pun?):
Unfortunately school and my personal life has kept me so busy that I had barely updated this page in 2 years, and I haven’t played a single tabletop game in two years. =( However I have a little extra time right now and have been putting up new reviews, so Gaming Music now has over 200 albums reviewed just in time to hit 1000 fans!! Thank you all so much for the support and I am glad this page can be such a great resource for the OP community. I have another idea in the works, but I expect it will be quite some time if/when I make that happen.
-DarkMagus
8/5/13
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I apologize for the lack of involvement and updates that this site has suffered from over the last 10-12 months. I just started graduate school and didn’t realize just how much time it was going to require. Sadly I have had to put aside all of my hobbies, including playing RPG’s and working on this project. Support for this page has continued to grow despite its stagnation and I thank you all for that. There have also been many recommendations,they have all been added to the to-do list (if I missed yours please let me know!). I hope to put some time in over my summer vacation to provide you all with new reviews and playlists.
-DarkMagus
7/6/12
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’This project is only in its nascent stages but has already recieved overwhemling support from the OP community. I would like to thank you all for the outreach and the suggestions. Due to the epic scale of the project and the collaborative and supportive environment here on OP this page is now also the project of Dethstryke and Gaaran. A HUGE thanks goes out to Dethstryke for creating the wonderful page templates and thinking of adding composers/artists/bands to the Characters Tab and to Gaaran for the idea for the Playlist Helper.
Vladimiravich also deserves a HUGE thanks for his constant feedback and suggestions.’
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Gaming Music Comments
And for everyone who doesn’t use Spotify, this is what I have in my Fantasy playlist:
Enya: Watermark (Album)
Clannad: Magical Ring (Album)
Lisa Gerrard: Dualety (Album)
Dead Can Dance: A passage in time (Album)
Enya: Watermark (Album)
Clannad: Magical Ring (Album)
Lisa Gerrard: Dualety (Album)
Dead Can Dance: A passage in time (Album)
Graeme Revell – Birth Of The Legend
Thomas Newman – Route 12
Tom Tykwer – Prelude: The Atlas March
Tom Tykwer – Travel To Edinburgh
Mauro Scocco – Stella
Enya – Pax Deorum – Remastered 2009
Tori Amos – Battle Of Trees – Instrumental
Oskar Linnros – Växande molnighet
Jay Gruska and Christopher Lennertz – Americana
Philip Glass – Koyaanisqatsi
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales – Gray’s Theme
Tomas Ledin – Dyningar
Malena Ernman – Requiem : Requiem aeternam
Lord Of The Rings 3 Soundtrack-The Return Of The King – A Storm Is Coming
Mae McKenna – The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (“May It Be”)
David Arkenstone – Song Of Sheherazade
Harry Gregson – Williams – The Prince Of Persia
Movie Sounds Unlimited – Theme From Prince Of Persia
Hoven Droven – Årepolska
Nathan Barr – Bill And Sookie’s Reunion
Nathan Barr – Jason And Amy
Lisbeth Scott – Love Theme
Alexandre Desplat – The Resurrection Stone
Mogwai – Hungry Face
Hans Zimmer – Time
Hans Zimmer – Dream Is Collapsing
Lisbeth Scott & Nathan Barr – Sancto Erico
Moondog – Bird’s Lament
For those who use Spotify I’m more than happy to share the playlists I’ve made there for roleplaying. I have one for Fantasy settings , one for Urban Fantasy and Acction settings and one sutible if you happen to have a game in an Viking or other early medival Scandinavian setting . Enjoy! :-)
Here is a heavy rock redux of the dramatic orchestral sound of Shadow of the Colossus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdhPe1udAHM .
If you’re looking for a song to accompany “that part where everyone kicks major ass”, and don’t mind some crunchy guitars in your medieval fantasy RPG music, this is perfect for you.
Great site and resource!
Some additional suggestions:
•••••Heroic and/or triumphal pieces•••••
Symphony No.3 by Aaron Copland, 1946. In particular the 4th movement, but the whole piece is great, and incorporates thematics from Copland’s Fanfare For The Common Man.
Encuentros by Samuel Zyman, 1992. This is a fantastic, multi-layered piece, rousing, celebratory, resounding, and Zyman is a master of counterpointing brass and string, and then bringing them together for an even bigger sound. It’s the kind of music to defend a walled city to, or uncover a lost treasure to, or rescue an important story figure to, or claim victory on a great battlefield to.
“The Great Gate of Kiev” by Modest Mussorgsky, 1874, from his Pictures At An Exhibition suite. In this case, I’m referring specifically to the orchestration by Ravel (can’t go wrong with the Leonard Bernstein-led New York Philharmonic version). This is a great piece as a processional for heroic PCs entering the capital city in triumph, to claim a throne, or to celebrate victory over a powerful foe on the battlefield, or similar. The “Promenade” pieces from the same suite are also good for a similar feel (they are thematically united).
•••••Reflective/Atmospheric/Background pieces•••••
Study No. 8, Prelude No. 3 by Heitor Villa-Lobos (not sure the original publication date of this one, Villa-Lobos’ dates are 1887-1959). I have a recording of this as performed by the great classical guitar maestro Andrés Segovia. If you run a game set in historical Spain or Brazil, or similar landscape, or want a background piece to convey sun-baked lands with citrus groves swept by ocean breezes, passionate court intrigues and arras-cloaked dagger wielders, and so on, this kind of piece may go a long way to lend atmosphere. The recording I have is a live recital, so it includes the audience clapping when Segovia finishes, which you could even leave on as court audience of nobles enjoying a bard’s performance, for example.
Cello Concerto No.1 in C by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Great for court background music. Powerful, resonant, grand, layered. But really, the secret here, is to purchase the EMI Classics collected 4-disc set of Jacqueline du Pré The Concerto Collection. If you like cello music at all, du Pré was one of the finest artists ever, her career sadly cut short by multiple sclerosis and her death in 1987. The set is awesome: Haydn, Boccherini, Schumann, Saint-Saëns, Monn, Dvorák, Delius, Elgar, and Strauss, and du Pré’s work on the cello is so magnificent it may, at times, melt your mind (in the best possible way). Go get it. Why are you still reading? Go! Off with you!
“The Old Castle” by Modest Mussorgsky, 1874, again from Pictures At An Exhibition. Great music as background for—you guessed it—an old castle, maybe as PCs arrive, or while exploring, or while leaving it in triumph (or perhaps defeat) as they glance back, sun setting behind the ruins, treasure in saddlebags and perhaps new nightmares in their minds. Good little evocative number.
•••••Scary/Haunted/Villainous pieces•••••
Night on the Bare Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky, 1867. Famous as one of the feature pieces in Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia (and rightly so), the music in this one is the kind of songs to summon devils by, or to suggest the impending menace of some ancient evil, or similar. Very evocative and powerful.
There’s tons of great stuff out there from the “original masters” in the classical music world. A great tip is spend some time tuned into your local classical music station, and take some playlist notes.
Hope these are useful and, if nothing else, enjoyable!
Still learning,
Robert
Hi. There’s a great album entitled Game Music by Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà.
Lastly, everyone should check out Quadrivium’s music, she’s got a beautiful voice!
I also started a new section in the Free Music tools for music made by OP users. =)
Thanks for the suggestions, they have been added to the to-do list. Also LizBailey, your Grooveshark playlist collection has been added to the Playlist Helper and VaticanLoki, your amazing looking project in the works has been added to the Free Music Tools section. Thank you everyone for making this site better with your input! =)
Hi everyone! I had no idea this existed but this is great! Twiggyleaf from the Obsidian Portal referred me over here. So I am running a campaign on Kickstarter called “Ambient Environments: Soundtracks for RPG Settings” that focuses on music for roleplaying and tabletop games also with sound effects added. You can get a free download by visiting the KS page. Here’s the link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/moontribestudios/ambient-environments-soundtracks-for-rpg-settings Thanks!
I trolled through the comments and possibly I missed something but back in the 1980s AD&D era, our soundtracks were less perfectly contrived but possibly all the more atmospheric:
Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, Paranoid, Sabotage
Blue Oyster Cult: Tyranny and Mutation, 1st album, Career of Evil
Franz Liszt: les Preludes (I think)
Ozzy Osbourne: Diary of a Madman
Lost more in the heavy metal vein since it really tapped into the gamernerd-dom of the era. I think the goth metal stuff sort of takes over from where all that stuff left off. Anyways, just stirred my thoughts to read people’s lists here.
Hey there, just thought I would point you to my Ultimate RPG Playlist on Grooveshark. It could still use a lot of work, but there’s a LOT of sorted material in there, useful for anyone!
Feel free to get in touch if you have questions or maybe know someone who would be interested in helping me to sort music on a more regular basis. :) thelizardofodd@gmail.com
Medieval 2: Total War OST.
Especially perfect for campaigns set in a Crusades style atmosphere, as many of the tracks have an eastern flavor to them, while others feel very early-Middle Age European.
Here’s an example of a track I’m particularly fond of using- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY81yYFzgiU
And here’s the entire album- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA1hZoBLrdY&list=RD02UY81yYFzgiU
(a few tracks from Rome: Total War in there as well)
What an absolutely lovely page!
I’d like to add something to your To-Do List (if you don’t mind). I tend to run [Silly] Adventure games which end up with soundtracks that include Yakety-Sax / Scooby-doo / (what my players fondly refer to as) Derpy-Town music. But that’s not what I’d like to suggest here, but rather the only soundtrack I’ve managed to have actual player respect for.
The Soundtrack to Skies of Arcadia.
Like most videogame soundtracks this one is great music that can be (almost) infinitely looped. Specifically out of this Soundtrack I’d like to recommend Kingdom of Ixa’taka for jungle music, Tension for deserted ruins exploration, and Yafutoma Dawn if you’re going for a slightly eastern feel for your desert oasis. Like much game music of its era Skies can be a bit jarring, and so I often turn the volume down before using them (there are also some fabulous remixes available).
Acolytes of the Machine & Other Gaming Stories is an album (mine) that are songs inspired by gaming and/or about it.
http://marycrowell.bandcamp.com/album/acolytes-of-the-machine-other-gaming-stories
I describe it as “an unabashed love letter to the hobby of playing Dungeons & Dragons created by a singer/songwriter and folk/jazz piano composer who plays a Bard in Real Life.”
I’m Not sure if this has already been suggested but one of my fellow players in one group showed us all this song , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtAITPpMzWI Goat Rodeo – Atta Boy. Its got god like transitions throughout and overall it gives me the feel of adventures traveling across a set of grassy plains and hills whether on horse , carriage , or feet. I use it almost all of my campaigns now. Hope someone else will also come to enjoy this song!
Worthy of the spot of most popular campaign! A great resource!
Recently got to listen to the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria soundtrack. It’s an excellent soundtrack, made even more interesting by the fact that fan favorite composer Jeremy Soule contributed about 20 tracks. The soundtrack obviously lends itself to being made for a Far East setting, but don’t think the whole soundtrack sounds exclusively Oriental. Several “classic” sounding Warcraft tracks abound among the Chinese inspired tracks. The music for the newly revamped Scarlet Monastery is a perfect background for a tense or scary scene or location.
I’ve had great success with the soundtrack to the video game Gun, by Christopher Lennertz. Here’s a YouTube sample (the main theme):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKoNKXUKKpk
It’s got great music throughout the game, with a good mix of “moods”.
Sumptuous!
I would like to thank all of you for the recent suggestions, I will be adding them to the to-do list. :) I may not get to the for a while, but I’ll try my best!
An album I used much for a Swashbuckling campaign was the Master and Commander OST . Christopher Gordon is the composer.
It has, in my opinion, some great pieces for suspense and I love the classical and traditional songs, that are on the soundtrack, too. Great for court scenes!
And by the way: Thank you all for this amazing gaming music campaign project!
It’s a bit hard to find, but the Eternal Arcadia OST (also known as Skies of Arcadia) has a lot of great themes.
A guy named ClydeArrowny00 on Youtube has posted all the songs. Link to the first one below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5m8OcC6BQ8&feature=relmfu
On June 14, 2012 at 11:49 PMJameyRobinson said:
“I noticed that nobody has mentioned anything from the Doctor Who series. The series 5 and 6 soundtracks by Murray Gold are excellent for a variety of ethereal, suspenseful, and action oriented scenes.”
Oh yes! And don’t forget the Series 3 soundtrack. For instance: “The Doctor Forever” and its opening bars with boy sorprano—achingly beautiful and tinged with sorrow, it’s a suitably fitting euology to the Time Lord. We’re not given time to mourn but are quickly drawn into the action as the track segues into an action-oriented ending. My friend played this one for me and I was hooked. However, I was blown away by the subsequent track “This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home”. The relentless pace of the low strings in the background immediately drew me in and the theme builds on strings, oboe, and French Horn into the reveal—which took my breath away. I highly recommend this one, even if one hasn’t seen Series 3.
I have a few suggestions and I apologize if the titles have already been suggested. I am a fic writer and am constantly listening to music in hopes of making soundtracks for my stories. So it is with that frame of reference that I recommend the choices below.
Halo Wars —By Stephen Rippy.
It’s an excellent mix of quiet/romatantic/contemplative with the action/adventure/battle music. Track 01 is a stirring musical recruitment poster for the military. Track 11 is a sharp contrast, a moment of tenderness stolen amongst the horror of war. There is something in this soundtrack for just about every narrative theme. If there is a drawback, it sounds modern and is thoroughly rooted in a modern/sf setting. Even so, I recommend it highly.
Epic Action & Adventure Volume 09 by Epic Score.
This is another good collection rooted in the modern/sf setting. Haunting motifs, brooding passages, flat-out epic battle scenes, sorrow, and joy. Again, this collection runs the gamut. I was able to make a soundtrack for a fellow gamer’s character arc at campaign’s close with tracks selected from this volume, a soundtrack made all the sweeter as I’d discovered it independently of the campaign months after its close. One was not influenced by the other and yet serendipitously they were made for each other. Sweet!
Halo 3: ODST — by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori.
I know this one has been mentioned on the To-Do List but I would like to mention that this OST suffers for having three or more songs blended together to make single tracks. This is a staple of the Halo OSTs and a practice I deplore. ODST has great film noir style tracks that would serve gaming purposes if there were a way to isolate them from the rest of the music. In addition, there are a few brooding pieces that would sound suitably creepy in a Cthulu campaign. Off the top of my head, I would recommend isolating Disc One, Track IV “Deference For Darkness”, subtrack 12: “Rain”, then subtrack 13: “Trailhead”. On Disc Two, Track X “Bits And Pieces”, subtrack 37: “Premonition” and subtrack 38: “Something Like Sorrow”. The information on the tracks are provided in the liner notes accompanying the physical CD I’d bought. These tracks are the ones that I took the trouble to isolate but are by no means the only ones worth singling out. A point of opinion: Disc Two runs very much like an alternate arrangement of Disc One. Many of the tracks are “instrumental” versions of their corresponding counterparts, featuring pared-down arrangements of only piano or percussion. Or paradoxicaly a more rock-guitar treatment of the same. Enjoyable for the contrasts in mood they invoke and each relistening reveals something new.
I hope I have helped more than hindered with my rather longwinded post, but ask anyone who knows me: I’m damned near irrepressible when it comes to my obsessive love for soundtracks. ;)
I noticed that nobody has mentioned anything from the Doctor Who series. The series 5 and 6 soundtracks by Murray Gold are excellent for a variety of ethereal, suspenseful, and action oriented scenes. I particularly like to use track #3 from the series 6 soundtrack, “The Impossible Astronaut” for whenever a scene calls for something somber, dark, and ethereal.
I know I’m new, but I have used the Assassin Creed’s soundtracks by Jesper Kyd. They have a large range of choices but one of my personal favorites is Roman underworld from the Assassin Creed II brotherhood soundtrack.
Hi great project
Couple of suggestions
Heat Soundtrack esp Force Marker by Brian Eno – used it is a modern crime game very good repetitive track with a sense of urgency.
Judge Dredd movie score by Alan Silvestri – Block war is great
Tron Legacy OST by Daft Punk – some excellent tracks
Total Recall by Jerry Goldsmith is also useful
great project
Andy
Thanks so much everyone for the suggestions and I apologize for the really really late response but school has had 100% of my time. I will add all the suggestions I have received in my absense to the to-do list ASAP. =)
Jerry Goldsmith’s – First Blood
A wonderful album brimming with tension and danger… And one or two tracks full of sadness.
I’ve used some of the albums by Celestial Aeon Project as background music for some of my fantasy campaigns and my PCs have enjoyed it. Most of their stuff is free, and it is all incredible music. Worth checking out. Google Celestial Aeon Project and you should find it quickly enough.
Lorenguard is an unknown group that plays epic fantasy heavy metal. They’re pretty dang good.
The album Stargate by Mortiis is brilliant cheesy d&d fantasy music.
http://www.amazon.com/Stargate-Mortiis/dp/B000G5SIM6
Listen to some of the samples, you can almost hear dice rolling in the background :)
if its not on there already “Amarok” by Mike Oldfield
webmaren: Thanks for the suggestion it will be added!
calicojack: The first three halo soundtracks have already been reviewed by me. I have done Alien but not Aliens so I’ll have to check that out. The Dig and Dune will also be added. Thanks for the input!
I’m running a Rogue Trader campaign and for background music you can’t beat the Halo Trilogy Collection
I also like the Aliens soundtrack for building suspense.
There was an old game by Lucasarts called The Dig. I like that for when the group is uncovering Xeno ruins.
Some tracks from the Dune soundtrack are good. Others not so much.
A worthy addition to the list of free music options is Jamendo. It offers cost-free downloadable tracks, which can be much more useful to people looking for theme songs etc. than streaming radio services, which can be full of surprises.
Its discovery features are underdeveloped, but it offers a nice spread of content.
entomologist: I have since free time over the next few weeks in which I will try to put up your playlist suggestions in the Playlist Helper section (under the adventure logs). Thanks for sharing and making this project ever better!
Beaumains: If you look to the right of the wikipages there are tags that you can click on that will show you all the albums that have been tagged that way. For instance as per your suggestion “suspense” is a tag we have been using since this project started a year ago and there are currently 51 albums with that tag. Unfortunately OP doesn’t yet allow for cross tags, such as suspense AND dark as a search or dark AND battle. That would be awesome and would be more awesome as this page grows and the number of albums under any given tag continues to grow.
Ouch. Can I have a do-over?
Elven rescue: “Splitting Hairs” (archery sound effects) and main title from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Arriving in Qualinost: “Valis Fanfare” from the Record of Lodoss War OAV (sorry, no link for this one)
Laurana Abducted by Toede: “The Faces of His Family” from The Usual Suspects
Into the Sla-Mori: “Kobayashi’s Domain” from The Usual Suspects
Entering Pax Tharkas: “Shawshank Prison”
Escaping Pax Tharkas: “Shawshank Redemption”
I used a fair amount of music for the Dragonlance Chronicles campaign I ran about twelve years ago, generally using specific tracks for specific scenes or locations, rather than just playing an album for atmosphere. Here’s the complete list:
Dragons of Despair
Khisanth’s Lair: “Back to the Pier” from The Usual Suspects
Escaping the Caverns: Main theme from Gremlins 2 (The version I have is a different recording off the album “Music for Murder;” it has a faster tempo, which gives the players a real sense of urgency as the cavern collapses around their characters)
Back in the temple: “To the Stars” from Dragonheart
Smoke over Solace: First part of the main theme from Vertigo
Dragons of Flame
Ruins of Que-Kiri: “Dreamers Awake” from 12 Monkeys
Elven rescue: “"Splitting Hairs":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN24yo0yg6c” (archery sound effects) and main title from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Arriving in Qualinost: “Valis Fanfare” from the Record of Lodoss War OAV (sorry, no link for this one)
Laurana Abducted by Toede: “"The Faces of His Family":http://www.amazon.com/The-faces-of-his-family/dp/B0013DDIYS” from The Usual Suspects
Into the Sla-Mori: “"Kobayashi’s Domain":http://www.amazon.com/Kobayashis-domain/dp/B0013DC6YQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1266495208&sr=1-1” from The Usual Suspects
Entering Pax Tharkas: “"Shawshank Prison":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6XgzdN-Lik”
Escaping Pax Tharkas: “"Shawshank Redemption":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCtRg5RpTz0”
“Now I destroy you!” and Ember vs. Flamestrike: Main theme from Crimson Tide
End of DL2: Finale from The Shawshank Redemption
Dragons of Hope
I didn’t use any music for this module, but I’ll probably come up with some if I run it again; my music collection has only gotten larger in the interim. The dungeons of Skullcap really deserve something grim and atmospheric. For the arrival in Hopeful Vale, I might use Building the Barn from Witness.
Dragons of Desolation
Tomb of Derkin – Soundtrack from The Dig
Area 26 (Hall of Enemies): “Dimensions of Time”
Area 27 (Upper Galleries): “Ghosts”
Area 30 (Fountain of Time): “The Ancient City”
Area 32 (Banquet Hall): “The Madness of the Crystals”
Area 37 (Ruby Tower of Singing Light): “A River Canyon”
Area 39-41 (Histories of Derkin): “Underwater Cavern”
Area 42 (Unseen Danger): “Cathedral of the Lost”
Area 47 (Vestibule): “Another World”
Area 48 (Ruby Chamber of the Hammer): “Tomb of the Past”
Area 52 (Derkin’s Final Peace): “The Monument”
Ember Attacks: Main theme from Crimson Tide, reprise (the looks on my players’ faces as they recognized the theme and realized there was nowhere to run and hide from the dragon were priceless)
The final battle in the South Hall of Justice: “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt (because really, what other music could one use?)
That’s as far as we got in that campaign, but other music I might have used later includes:
Soundtrack from Smilla’s Sense of Snow: crossing Icewall Glacier
“Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre: Battle of Icewall and/or Battle of Istar
“Magic Fire Music” from Die Walküre: climbing the Stone Dragon
“Symphony 19” by Alan Hovhanness (from “The Music of Cosmos”): the sea voyage at the beginning of DL7
Parts of the soundtrack from Gettysburg: Battle of the High Clerist’s Tower
The Lord of the Rings Soundtracks: Exploring the High Clerist’s Tower (particularly “A Journey in the Dark” from Volume 1)
The Abyss Soundtrack: Istar of the Deep
Would it be possible to have an alternate organization by, say, style? For example, if you know you want “tense” or “suspenseful” music, you could then filter that by genre. The idea as I see it should allow someone who so desires to find (if it exists) a soundtrack or song that is Futuristic, but could be used in his Western or Medieval campaign (if that’s the sort of game he’s runnin’).
I’d also like to suggest that the individual entries be bestowed with links to similar or related music, so that “Serene Fantasy” music could be associated with “Serene Steampunk” music, or something like that. In other words, each stub should have a “you might also like” section.
Interview with the Vampire has a great OST. Particularly yhe opening track “Libera Me”, which is quite short but delivers the shivers down my spine every time.
Bastion, the Videogame, has a quite insane, but awesome soundtrack as well. It’s kind of an electro-blues-rockabilly weirdness that has a few tracks that might fit really well into some particular ambiance.
The Hitman games (Particularly Blood-Money) have a score by the master composer Jasper Kyd. Very intense atmospheric sound.
Just about every game from the Black Isle studios has a soundtrack that could be useful at the gaming table. Baldur’s Gate, Fallout and Planescape Torment.
Dude, this list is too awesome. Thanks for the collection!
DM, it just gets MORE and MORE MASSIVE, this site!!! I like the Playlist Groups according to different scenes. That’s a nice idea!
Thanks Shawn, Bo has been added to the list. (I’m actually a bit surprised with all the 70’s rock and jazz I’m into I’ve never heard of a rock/jazz instrumentalist from the 70’s who’s into LoTR.)
Hey, new to the site….wanted to suggest my fav game music: Bo Hansen…pretty much anything he did, but especialy his Lord of the Rings album…
Thanks a bunch Antilogic, Invictus, Librarygirl, and no1starwarsfan they’ve been added to the seemingly infinite to-do list. Fivegears I haven’t checked it out yet, going to add some speakers to my computer again soon. I’m going to send you a message soon too. Thanks man. :)
Sort of stumbled across this “campaign” – fantastic idea. I was in the process of putting together some background music for my Gamma World game, which, like so many post-apocalyptic things, was made largely out of things laying around. I’ve been using a site called 8tracks for some time, and am using previously uploaded songs to put together a couple of soundtracks to keep some noise in the background.
Here are the links to the track-listings, and on those pages, the links to the actual mixes themselves, if you wanted to put them on and listen.
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/gamma-world-oasis/wikis/alpha-mixtape
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/gamma-world-oasis/wikis/beta-mixtape
Feel free to let me know if you actually like the listing, in contrast to the feel of the game, if you get so far, or, hell, just say hello.
With the latest rush of steampunk games and costumes (GenCon had a category for it), I think you should add some steampunk music to your list. http://www.abneypark.com/
We are currently using the Game of Thrones soundtrack for our regular D&D campaign and the Prince of Persia soundtrack for our D&D Dark Sun Campaign. Both work great!
Transverse City by Warren Zevon
i use a few key tracks for our shadowrun games. The title track itself evokes a very eighties dark future feel.
Dj Rivers- The Green Room, The Orange Room, Liquid Nonsense
a series of arranged music that each last about an hour. excellent background music.
Something that no one has mentioned, so I think that it would be good for people to think of…I recently acquired Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi’s album Rome. It is amazing! I think that people wanting something for a Western themed game or anyone playing the Firefly RPG would appreciate it.
Thanks for the kind words Risirthid and DBrigner!
Dethstryke thanks, and congrats to you as well for you are part of the team here and deserve the credit too.
Just wanted to chime in with a huge Congrats(!!) to DarkMagus & Gaaran, as Gaming Music is the second most popular campaign on all of Obsidian Portal! :)
Very Cool stuff, I recently used music for the first time in one of my campaigns. I went with the “Irish Fiddle” deal from the end of Last of the Mohicans for a climactic airship battle. The party was pretty stoked. I’ll defiantly be looking up this stuff.
I love this! I have some old stuff from my ex that I use at my games, but I’m always looking for fresh material. I use a lot of obscure video game music and soundtracks, so this is great! Thanks for all your hard work. We appreciate it.
Thanks Panda! Someone else mentioned that to me not too long ago, but I can’t remember if it was on or offline. Either way I had forgotten to add it to the to do list so I will be doing that now. Thanks a bunch! :) Glad to hear your campaign is back from hiatus, I’ve found that breaks can kill a game, no matter how far into the story you are. My own campaign “The White Wastes of Aultha” never really even got to take off. Players kept canceling, and it was an already small group, and seeing that I only have a few weeks left before moving 3500 miles away, it just didn’t make sense to try to continue playing when a story hadn’t even really begun to develop. :( BUT on the positive side I’m playing in another group and that game is going quite well.
Hey hey! My campaign is officially back from hiatus this week and with the posse heading back east I found myself looking less at Western flavored music and more suited to American Victorianism. Listened to the Sherlock Holmes movie soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer (who rocks my world a little) and it’s kind of awesome for Victorian/Steampunk settings.
@Familiar_Raven: I don’t think you can consider them covers since the composer, Nobuo Uematsu is (or at least has been, not sure if he always is) their keyboardist :).
ImmortalDM: I’m not sure exactly how that would be executed and I think it is currently beyond the scope of this project and the amount of time I put in to it (not much as of late). Thanks for the suggestion, though, and maybe it will be implemented in the future.
Soryn: I’m a HUGE Zimmer fan. I can’t believe I hadn’t come across that yet. Thanks! It will definitely be added to the to do list.
Familiar Raven: Thanks for the heads up about the Black Mages. I’m going to have to mention them to my brother who loves the music in FF.
I don’t know if you guys are into Final Fantasy, but if you are, check out the Black Mages. They’re a great band that covers all of the famous Final Fantasy songs. The GM in a group I used to play with would play ‘Skies Above’ before, during, and after any epic battle (if you listen to the whole song, you’ll know why).
The soundtrack to King Arthur (2004) by Hans Zimmer is one that I highly recommend you guys add to your list.
Great compilation! I don’t play music during my games, but I love to listen to soundtrack music when writing for gaming and the like. I found some stuff here I wouldn’t have found on my own otherwise, so thanks for putting this together!
Ever think about adding a section for sound effects? Battle sounds, dragon roars, exploding fire balls, etc…
Greatcontroller: Thanks! (Didn’t see your comment there or I would’ve said something in the last comment.)
Thanks dragongamigndm! I will add Clash to the list of albums to do before the end of the world this weekend. As for Halo I actually have already put up the first two soundtracks, they can be found in the video game music section (scroll down below the albums and tv shows or click the “game soundtracks” button in the quick navigator. My review of them isn’t very, how do I put this, eloquent. I wasn’t crazy about the quality of sound and didn’t get too much beyond that. If you like this album and you want to submit a review for any of them please send them to me and I’ll put it up and give you credit because honestly mine isn’t very objective or informative and the people here could probably use something better. Thanks for your positive feedback, its much appreciated! Happy gaming!
Just started taking a look at your list here, and I have to say it is very impressive. I really enjoy playing some background music while I play or run games. I looked at your list, and noticed that you do not have the OST for Clash of the Titans on it. Its worth a look, and you may also want to add some of the Halo soundtracks to it as well. They don’t always fit, but for games that may be a little more “urban” like Shadowrun or future like 40k/Starwars it might be fun. Thanks again for taking the time to put together this resource for the gamers.
Just wanted to stop in and thank you so much for your time and hard work on this! It’s a fantastic tool to have as a DM and writer. And you are right Grooveshark is AMAZING!
Twiggyleaf, I was thinking similar thoughts the other day! Times like this I wish cloning technology were more advanced.
Hey, Duane!
I just looked at your “To-Do” List. Yikes!!! Have you ever thought about immortality?
twigs
Thanks Tolsimir!
BlueGnoll, thanks for the suggestions they have been added to the list. :)
Okay, last comment. It would be wrong of me to walk away and not mention:
Stargate (The movie)
The Cowboys (John Williams)
Gettysburg (Randy Edleman) (!)
The Black Stallion (Carmine Coppola) No seriously, the main and ending theme aside, it’s fantastic stuff.
Also, if you can find the soundtracks from the first three Harry Potter PC/console games, that is a collection of some awesome incidental/mood music to have available.
Oh yeah, and the Mission! People keep citing Ennio Morricone, but I don’t think anyone said The Mission. Also, the Soundtrack from 500 nations by Peter Buffett, if you have any adventure with an Amerindian backdrop ;)
There are only so many adjectives y’know, so I’ll repeat brilliant and fantastic idea!!
If I could, I’d like to suggest a few more Movie/TV soundtracks for your lists that might not have occured to people — probably because I’m old now. ;)
Escape from New York
Predator
Predator2
Halloween 4 (Trust me)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Starman
Scottish Moors (‘kay, that’s an ambient CD, but worth it in the between hack-n-slash times)
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Escaflowne
The Last Starfighter
Braveheart
Robocop
Jaws (That’s right, trust me on this one too)
Lethal Weapon
To name a few. Again, thanks very much for the links and resources. Great idea, great contributions!!
wow man this thing has turned out so great fantastic job i new this would be big! =D
Thanks for the kind words Mattrim! Ennio Morricone is a great composer, can’t believe I skipped over him completely. D43mon, the site has been added to the tools and free music page.
Gaaran, don’t worry about it, the closer I get to 30 the more I feel out of the loop anyways! lmao
DM, I’m sorry you didn’t know about Grooveshark, I should’ve thought to mention it. I LOVE GS, it’s so handy when you want to hear just about any song.
Another online music streaming site is http://radio3.cbc.ca/. It’s all Canadian, mostly indie stuff, but there’s every genre and you can build your own playlists.
In fact, I would suggest just about anything by Ennio Morricone if you’re looking for epic without going too overboard. He does a good job, for the most part, of making songs that can be used for more than just the Westerns that made him famous.
This is a really great idea and resource. A personal suggestion I would like to add is “The Man With the Harmonica” from the Once Upon A Time in the West soundtrack. The long introduction with the harmonica then the addition of repetitive strings provides an excellent creepy vibe, and it also turns very nicely into a confrontation theme once the big bad creeper is revealed should you wish to use the latter half of the song.
Panda, that site is amazing! Thanks for sharing it, it will help TREMENDOUSLY in my reviewing process (it can be rather hard finding everything on youtube) and it is also an amazing resource for GMs so it will be added to the free music page. :)
I don’t know if you’ve ever tried it, but I love using Grooveshark to pull up music for my games.
I don’t work for them, but my MBA Entrepreneurship class did a study of them (the founders went to my university a few years back) so I got pretty good feel for what they do. It’s 100% legit, free music through your computer, unless you want to pay to upgrade to premium services so you can use it on a mobile device. It’s easy to search, you can create playlists, and it has TON of music on it, I pulled up the entire Red Dead Redemption soundtrack for use in my game.
Happy gaming!
Thanks for the kind words Twigs. Can you believe its still only 3 months old?! I am honored by the acclaim this site has received. I can only speak for myself, but I imagine Gaaran and Dethstryke will be quite thrilled when they next visit the page too.
DM, It is amazing how the volumes have swelled in this site since I last looked. And I think the amount of OPites who have FAVOURITED the site is testament to its worth! The Obsidian Portal Grammy goes to you!!!!
Thanks for the suggestions Mockery and RangerRick. They have been added to the to-do list.
Netbattler, I haven’t considered the idea actually. I don’t know how to do much with youtube and I have limited time, so maybe in the future I might consider this. Thanks for the idea.
I’ve turned to the soundtracks from these games for some great material:
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy XII
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
I’m going to suggest something that’s going to sound a little strange, but hear me out:
The CD is called Christmas Music from Medieval Hungary, performed by Anonymous 4. A collection of beautiful, mostly-Latin a capella pieces that despite their origins won’t call to mind the holidays to the casual listener. It may or may not work for you, but I find it very evocative.
Firstly, I want to congratulate and thank you guys. This is a great idea and it has been executed masterfully. Second, have you considered making youtube playlists of your suggested playlists? It would make it a lot easier on us DMs to find music for a specific situation when our players do something unexpected. Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Thanks lilmissclever. They’ve been added to the to-do list. I’m definately going to see if I can find some samples of “Shadows” on youtube to check out tonight.
I’m surprised this hasn’t been listed yet, actually! The soundtrack for the video game Shadow of the Colossus (composer Koh Ohtani) is one of the greatest epic orchestrated soundtracks I’ve heard. And as far a Japanese-style music is concerned, the video game Okami has some jewels (it’s long though; over a hundred songs ranging from jingles to five-minute fight scores).
Thanks for the suggestions everyone they have been added to the to-do list.
DeltaDave, great station, I have added it to the free music page.
damn it! html broken – here it the url
http://www.last.fm/listen#station=%2Flisten%2Fartist%2FTwo%252BSteps%252BFrom%252BHell%2Fsimilarartists
I have a last fm station called two steps from hell that I think is fantastic.
I wholeheartedly recommend “The Dark Corners of the Earth” by Lustmord. Dark ambient music, scary stuff.
http://www.lustmord.com/
I nominate Jeremy Soule’s soundtracks for the Elder Scrolls games Morrowind and Oblivion – great variety of moods from epic to contemplative.
As we say from where I come from, this is a bostin’ idea! Good luck with developing it!
Thank you for the awesome and helpful wiki, Dark Magus! Just two suggestions from my collection:
The Dig soundtrack, by Michael Land. Fantastic orchestral pieces, mostly fitting for somber or majestic settings, and very handy for exploration themes. Very ambient.
And the music of David John, composer for various music for the Neverwinter Nights premium modules. His music is available for download, for free, from his website: http://david-john.com/. The music ranges from quiet orchestral to fast-paced action.
Dragon Age: Origins has been added to the list.
Thanks Libran
Hey DM,
have a suggestion for a soundtrack. how about the game soundtrack for Dragon Age: Origins?
Thanks Stygianheart! It has been added to the to-do list. If you find any more good tunes please let us know.
Your work is much appreciated, a wonderful resource,
Whilst trawling the net for more ideas I happened upon this artist named Matti Paalanen, who made background music for RPG’s (and other projects) that are free to download.
Celestial Aeon Project
and
Project Divinity
stood out to me.
Once again many thanks.
Glad this could be of use Erwin!
And the 13th Warrior is an amazing soundtrack that I too had forgotten about for a few years. When I rediscovered it and listened to it again I was very excited. Xenogears has been added to the list.
Also, I didn’t notice it recommended yet on the forums or here on the comments but..
The massive Xenogears (PS1) Soundtrack.
A personal favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GvpjwTM8p0
Really diggin’ this. Going to put some of your recommendations to use during tomorrow’s game.
Can’t believe I forgot how awesome the 13th Warrior OST was.
Again, daps for putting all this work together fellas.
Oh man, I am loving this project. Great idea, I’ll try and find some of my game music and see if you want it on here :)
Yes, but I just listened to the John Denbey work on Spotify, and it is also amazing!
Were you thinking of The Last Temptation of Christ by Peter Gabriel? That’s soon to come! :)
Ooops! Just realised I was thinking of the wrong album. I’m sure both are very good though. I remember liking the music in the Mel Gibson movie.
Thanks for Passion of The Christ, Duane – one of my favourite albums, PG being my all time favourite artist. I also thought there might be some useful resources for you in some of David Sylvian’s catalogue.
Thanks for the support Twiggy and Erwin! Elfabet thanks for the helpful suggestions and thanks again Vlad!
The Dungeons and Dragons movies were terribly horrible (IMO), but that might not have stopped the music from being poor.
Also, Avatar and Tron both out recently have pretty neat tracks.
Actually, the one I’ve loved using recently is ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ soundtrack. Very well done, in my opinion again.
Great work guys, last time I checked this page out there were just the two lists..
Digging how much more fleshed out this portal’s getting. Keep it up. And Happy Holidays!
Here are some more music suggestions, if any one them will help!
Some one mentioned Delerium Earlier and I looked it up and found a playlist of there music on you tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEVsFqdQ_M4&feature=BF&list=PL2E2056A577A604B3&index=1 Fitting music for Horror themed games. ( Call of Cathulhu? maybe Shadow Run? )
And I know this has been mentioned already but Nox Arcana and defiantly some thing of note. All of there albums are themed to a sub genre’s of horror and fantasy. (mostly horror though)
For insane amounts of Video game tracks I would recommend that you take a look at http://rpgmusic.org/ They have an obseenly large collection of free game music.
And if its of any help, I have the soundtrack for my own game on Obsidian Portal, http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/ballad-of-the-deep/wikis/soundtrack
A handy resource for all of us at any time. Thanks, Duane!
Hey, just wanted to say that I alphabetized everything for you (on the to-to list): http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/melekar-test/wikis/alphabetical-order-for-you
Thanks for the support Dethstryke! I’m really glad so many people are digging this idea.The suggestions really help too because I want to make this list as inclusive as possible and if other people have music they know is good for gaming it helps to just pass that along. I have had sooooo many suggestions in just the last 3 days. I could have never gone through that much music myself.
My To Do List is getting crazy long, I thank you for the patience of sorting through to see if your music was already listed. I know it would be more helpful if I alphabetized it or just sorted it somehow, but that would be time taken away from adding the real content to this and I really want this to hit the 100 mark as soon as possible, right now I’m only in the 30’s.
Sorting into genres is the main impetus for this idea being its own campaign, I realized I could use tags to catagorize albums. The problem however is that it groups all the individual tracks together. But if I wanted to break down every single track I don’t think it could be done. I guess this site is just a good first step, leaving some work to still be done on the GMs end.
Thanks again.
Got a couple more… takes some time to check the list for each album I have. :)
Samurai X – Original Soundtrack (Taku Iwasaki)
Thief: Deadly Shadows (OST) (Eric Brosius)
Unspoken: the Music of Only Breath (Jami Sieber)
The Promise OST (Klaus Badelt; China National Symphony Orchestra)
Piano Collections Final Fantasy VII (Nobuo Uematsu)
The Last Samurai (OST) (Hans Zimmer)
Icewind Dale – The Soundtrack (Jeremy Soule)
Aliens: The Deluxe Edition (James Horner)
Animatrix: The Album (Various Artists)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within OST (Dirk Brosse/London Symphony Orchestra)
Run Lola Run OST (Susie Van Der Meer)
I’m a huge fan of soundtracks and scores for movies as background music for RPGs. I actually go through tracks in the albums in iTunes, rating & using groups to catagorize them into uses like Combat, Tension, Gen Adventuring, Horror, etc. That way I don’t run into a soft ballad in the middle of a combat. :)
While I’m not a fan of their albums for my own games, there are some heavy metal / thrash style bands that have a fantasy theme. Two of the more popular ones I’ve checked out are Rhapsody of Fire and Kamelot. They are both fairly prolific bands with a sizable discography. In my experience with their albums, if you dig one of their albums, chances are you’ll like them all.
Thanks for this! Awesome to see someone else interested in this kind of thing.
First, check out Softrope if you haven’t already. http://softrope.net/
Combined with sound effects and music tracks, it’s pretty fun to make scores for scenes and places. :)
Got some for your list, too:
A.I. Artificial Intelligence Soundtrack (John Williams)
Batman Begins OST
Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm OMPST (Shirley Walker)
Battlestar Galactica OST (Richard Gibbs)
Battlestar Galactica: Season One (Bear McCreary)
Battlestar Galactica: Season Two (Bear McCreary)
Battlestar Galactica: Season Three (Bear McCreary)
Black Aria (Danzig)
Children Of Dune OST (Brian Tyler)
Jade Empire Original Soundtrack (Jack Wall)
Naqoyqatsi – Life As War (Yo-Yo Ma & Philip Glass Ensemble)
Pandorum (Original Soundtrack) (Michl Britsch)
One Cello x 16 (EP) (Zoe Keating)
One Cello x 16: Natoma (Zoe Keating)
The Puppet Masters – Soundtrack (Colin Towns)
Almost anything from the Mediaeval Baebes
Venus Vina Musica (Corvus Corax)
HOLY S**** You have got to be kidding me! a Page dedicated to game music, sign me up! :D
In all honesty, making play lists for table top games is a big waist of time for me as it takes hours of listening and searching, but its a whole lot of fun to do! I am willing to toss in suggestions once I understand how this page will work!
Thanks so much guys for all the supoort and recommendations! Keep them coming. I have quite a long, long, long list right now, but I’ll get to it all in enough time.
Two Steps From Hell. Pretty much everything they have ever made is amazing for gaming:
Heart if Courage, for example.
Here are a few suggestions for you to check out:
Dawn of War 2 OST (Doyle w. Donehoo) – Some good battle tracks
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (Gustav Grefberg) – more battle music
Stone Tower (Delerium) – Great creepy atmosphere music
Ico OST (Michiru Oshima) – wonderful atmospheric music with some darker tracks
Robin Hood OST – 2010 (Marc Streitenfeld) – great epic scene music, from battle and build up to suspense
Inception OST (Hans Zimmer) – great heavy music
Metropolis OST (Toshiyuki Honda) – great for steampunk, a sort of dark, jazzy motif
The Witcher OST (Adam Skorupa and Paweł Błaszczak) – great suspense and dark tones
Insect Song (Suidakra) – this is a metal band, but the track And the Giants Dance is absolutely perfect for a fantasy town/tavern
Explosions in the Sky (various albums) – great new age and soft tones, some in minor keys to give melancholy tones
Can’t forget about Midnight Syndicate and Nox Arcana, they both make mood music that is great for fantasy games.
Brilliant idea DM. I have only occasionally used music in my campaigns, mainly because I am not that familiar with materials that would be appropriate for a fantasy base RPG. At some point I will need to read through all of your suggestions and broaden my horizons a bit. Thanks for creating this resource for all of us.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
I second this as pure brilliance.
At my table, I generally use the World of Warcraft Sound tracks or the Lord of the Rings Movie Soundtracks because they are long and I have them on CD.
I really really love Chris Heard’s use of music on the Icosahedrophilia podcast—mostly stuff by Nox Arcana (http://www.noxarcana.com/) which I think you can get from DriveThruRPG.com. Chris does mix in some other stuff—most of which is available from his amazon storefront:
http://astore.amazon.com/rpgd-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=5
This is a fantastic idea, I’ll put some stuff together, as i use hundreds of songs for my games. I can’t wait for this to get more fleshed out :)