By Marc Farrimond

Music plays a big part in lives of almost everyone on the planet, and it has often been said that music is the soundtrack to life, with tunes and songs often bringing back images or thoughts of events long passed. Well music can also be used in gaming in all its wide and varied forms. Here I hope to bring you some ideas for you to use to add music to the games your playing, be it roleplaying or wargaming, music can add another dimension to your games.

So what do I know about music? Well for over 9 years I was a disc jockey and have amassed a huge collection over the years of a wide variety of different styles of music, from Rap to Death Metal, Classical to House.

In your Roleplaying games music can really get across a sense of the dramatic that mere words sometimes cant express. By simple planning you can create an atmosphere that will relax or un-nerve your players and really bring the game to life.

For example a few years ago some of my group were getting a little bored when playing GDW’s excellent Space 1889 rpg. The scene called for a break and while some of the gamers went to the local store to stock up on goodies and drink I hauled the CD player into my games room and set it up. The plot had the players on a Zeppelin crossing the Atlantic with Queen Victoria on board. I grabbed a few of my classical CDs and worked out a play order and popped them into the player. The adventure took a complete turn when play resumed with the soft gentle music playing in the background. One of the players had uncovered a plot to kill the Queen and was trying to reach the others when he saw a strange figure lurking around the engine room of the airship. Of course being a player he had to go and find out what the guy was up to and after a brief fight he knocked the stranger unconscious and saw that he had placed a small black box near the engine. Cue the music change and ‘Bach Toccata in D Minor’ began to play at the touch of a button ( the creepy organ music you often hear in old horror movies in case you haven’t heard of it!) and to say that the guy jumped would be a complete understatement!

By the simple use of music I turned a boring adventure into a thrilling ride as the players rushed around trying hard to diffuse the bomb and avert a disaster. The music really added pathos to the game and ever since that night I have used music on a regular basis in my gaming sessions. Before I give you a list of some great stuff to check out here are a few things you really need to think about though before you jump in and load up the CD player or tape deck.

1) Style. The type of music you wish to play will often depend on the type of game your running at the time. It may seem out of place to play Classical music in a game of Cyberpunk or rap music in a game of AD&D but if you feel that the music warrants it then use it. Many fantasy systems work well with classical music or even with instrumentals such as Pan Pipes, these set the scene and you can pace how the players will react by using faster tempos for encounters or slower more sombre tunes for the times you want them to pay attention.

2)Volume. This is perhaps as hard as choosing the music your going to use in your sessions. For the most part you need to keep music to a low that runs in the background and wont distract both you and the gamers. If you have the music to high then the players cant hear you, too low and then you lose out on the benefits it can give. As a rule of thumb I tend to let music run very quietly until I need to use a certain track then if need be I can crank it up higher or just raise it to an audible level.

3) Timing. This is something that really only comes with practice or familiarity with the music being played. Slapping the latest Hanson or NIN CD in to the system and putting it on random play will tend to be more of a distraction than an aid to gaming. If you want to use a new album then give it a run through firstly and check if you can use any tracks. There is nothing more likely to spoil a good atmosphere than a random track that is out of context.

4)Planning. Its very simple to plan out the tracks your going to use if you give it a little time and thought before hand. If your using albums by popular music artists then perhaps this may help. Tracks on albums and CDs are always placed in a particular order (often decided by the acts management!) and you can use this as a guide line. More often than not the first 3 or 4 tracks will be among the acts favourites and what they consider the best on that album. Of course this isn't always the case but in most occasions the first half of the album will often be the best and sometimes some acts like to save the best track as a closer to an album.

If you are writing an adventure or running one from a pre written source you need to decide what kind of mood you wish to set. Look at all the locations that you have in your adventure and then check to see if you have any tracks that will fit in with the theme even if its only loosely. Try not to use too many tracks or have so many CD’s or tape changes as this will really slow down the game for you. Write a running list of the stuff you decide on and work out the length of the total playing time. If you have a system with a remote that can be pre programmed then use this option as it’s a great way to speed things up. If you don’t have this kind of technology don’t worry as its still simple to use a tape deck and get the right mood if you plan it right.

In roleplaying games set in the modern day, such as Delta Green or Conspiracy X, you have a wide choice of music styles to use. Take a look at TV shows such as X-Files or even Buffy The Vampire Slayer and just see how the shows directors use music to set the mood and you will get an idea of what I mean. If the characters in the X-Files uncover something sinister (as usual) then the tempo of the music will often change to a deeper tone and more darker music will be used, where as if Buffy is fighting against some Undead foe then a fast high tempo tune is used often by a band or group.

This is called theme setting or Incidental music and is used widely in the television and movie industry. Most music will fit in with a contemporary game as the spectrum of music that is played in everyday life is vast and often encompass many forms and styles.

Games such as Call of Cthulhu and other games set in the 30’s or 40’s work well with big band music of Glenn Millar or Swing even Jazz. Remember to try and keep the tempo of the music in tandem with the events of the game, if you want to keep things within a timeframe, then try not to play music that wasn't around when the game is set. This is a little strange I know but in the Back to the Future movie, when Marty plays Johnny B Goode, the date he plays the song was in fact almost a year after it had been released by Chuck Berry (and the guitar he plays wasn't around for another 18 months!) so do a little research if you want to keep things accurate.

Now here you can let your mind run riot and really go to town. Games such as AD&D and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay have so much scope that almost anything goes. Of course thrash and death metal would be a little out of sorts here, but perhaps an encounter with Chaos Dwarves wouldn’t seem that bad when backed with the loud speed metal throes of Slayer or Sabbat. Instrumentals such as Pan Pipes and classical guitar give a more sedate pace to the nature of the music and should be used to slow things down a pace or perhaps in those lulls in battle. Another great source of material for you to use is the Motion Picture Soundtrack (more on this later on!) and here you have a ready made selection of tracks that are set for the mood. The soundtrack from the John Borman movie Excalibur or the soundtrack from the Conan movies are excellent and have enough scope in them to meet all encounters, even the romantic ones! Fantasy works well also with soft folk music playing in the background. An encounter at an Inn or Tavern could be highlighted with folk music played quietly as it’s the pace of the music and not the actual lyrics that sets the mood. Enigma and Enya are both excellent sources for Fantasy games with slow sedate tracks and some that are a little faster for encounters.

Again you can let your mind go wild here, but a word of warning here. Most sci-fi games are extremely fast paced and often a high tempo track works best here. Music from grunge or industrial artists such as Nirvana or Nine Inch Nails works very well with a lot of futuristic games as the deep fast tones of the songs are very good at getting the mood across. Other bands such as Orbital or Prodigy or Techno in general give a very metallic feel to the mood and are great in games such as Cyberpunk or Shadowrun. Of course Classical music isn't out of sorts here either. Pieces by the great composers such as Beethoven or Mozart give you a sense of power and make the players sit up and pay attention to what is being said. Volume control is essential with all the music I am suggesting here (and that’s just it suggestions) but it wont hurt that much to crank the volume up during encounters every now and then.

If its Call of Cthulhu or Vampire the Masquerade, music can really give you an edge in your games. Classical music in horror movies has become something of a cliché in itself now and often is used in movies. Rock, Thrash or Techno are for the most part out of place here (in the case of most horror games that is but I will get to VTM in a while!) and will destroy the mood if used in a setting in which the music wasn’t around (Chasing a Deep One Cult on the Titanic in COC for instance!) so think long and hard before using it.

Modern day horror games such as VTM and Werewolf the Apocalypse can benefit any form of music and both Thrash and Techno fit in well here. The pace of the music as always gives you the pace that the action will follow. Using slow and sedate music in the middle of a fire fight or an encounter with some bizarre creature from another dimension can add to the dramatic, but can on the other hand be a distraction when rolling the dice and calling the shots. As always use your judgement here. Stuck for ideas? Simplicity its self. Rent or watch a horror movie and check out the styles of music used during encounters. If you watch Aliens you may remember the part in the movie where Ripley is driving the APC through the complex after the Marines have been attacked for the first time. The music here is of the classical variety but highly charged and of a very fast tempo. Also of note that same piece of music as appeared to my knowledge in at least 6 other movies in the horror and sci- fi genres, and not only are the instruments of the orchestra present, but we can also hear car horns, cow bells and other things that one wouldn’t expect to find.

Here is a sample list of the some of the music I often use in my roleplaying sessions. I hope that you may find something of use here.

1. Theme music from Conan the Barbarian
2. The Klingon theme from Star Trek the Motion Picture.
3. Toccata in D Minor. Bach
4. The Titanic Soundtrack (ideal for Cthulhu)
5. Song 2. Blur (fast paced and ideal for action scenes.)
6. Stairway to Heaven. Led Zeppelin.
7. The Star Wars soundtrack. John Williams.
8. Fat of the Land. Prodigy (some great techno music of Cyberpunk and Shadowrun)
9. Xena Warrior Princess. Great for any fantasy system, lots of vocal and tribal style music.
10. Powerslave: Iron Maiden. One of the best rock bands ever and a great album with some fast paced music and some slow sedate tracks. Ideal for Vampire, Shadowrun and any contempery system.

As you can see its a wide and varied list. Of course I don't use these albums all the time, only when a game dictates it and when it is in context with the system. Another great thing you can try out is this. As I said before movie soundtracks are an excellent source of background music (after all that is what they are written for!) and if you look around you can often pick up soundtracks very cheaply. Supermarkets (at least here in the UK) are great to pick up CD’s at bargain prices and soundtracks (not always the original artists) are often among them. I managed to pick up a set of 3 CD’s that all had music from movies and television on them and each one covered a different aspect, Wild West (Deadlands), Horror(Cthulhu) and Thriller (any system) for under £10.00 (around $14.00US).

Remember that music can calm the savage beast, make the soul soar and even make grown men cry. Use it as a tool and you will get more from your adventures.

Marc