Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Music & Roleplaying
From: canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson)
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 18:45:40 GMT
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

In article <1992Aug11.084152.1755@cs.kuleuven.ac.be> philipd@cs.kuleuven.ac.be (Philip Dutre) writes:
>Has anyone tried to use music and/or sounds during a roleplaying session?
>Did it enhance the atmosphere of the game, or was it just annoying when the GM
>was busy trying to locate the correct sound on a tape?
>
>What kind of music did you use? The "Campaign & Catacombs Guide" gives some
>titles of classical music (Wagner etc...). Anyone tried these out?

	Of course, some appropriate background music is always nice.  When
we play BTech we like to pop in some Hawkwind CD like Hall of the Mountain
Grill or Doremi Fasol Latido.  They provide good atmosphere for a SF (no
arguments about what "SF" is please) game.  Actually my MechWarrior
character has developed music collection as a character trait because of
it ...
	When we're in my RM campaign we throw in some Fairport Convention
or suchlike to get that Englishy Medievally feel.  Sometimes I'll pop a
tape of actual medieval tunes in, or some solo bagpipes where appropriate
:)

	That's just background to provide mood for the players.  I also
sometimes use music specifically as part of the game.  For a horror
campaign I was in I culled a whole bunch of feedback off my Dead bootlegs
and had an "Awful Noises" tape which continously churned out eerie
unplaceable sounds which really unnerved the other players - just as it was
supposed to!  Some baroque organ music can work this way, Orff's Carmina
Burana, and even MacBeth by Laibach (!).  
	Some of those "environmental" CDs work well too.  Try putting
a thunderstorm on!  Or whatever is appropriate.

	I use bits and pieces of music as parts of the campaign as well.
In my RM campaign the players received a certain prophecy in the form of an
Albion Band song, Richard Thompson's "New St. George" was used to rile up
the peasants to a revolt, and the Dead made a cameo appearance as Tha
Waerlogan (led by Johannus Geraldus Garcius) and revealed one PC as a bear
lycanthrope during an extended jam (yes, it was a horrible dancing bear
joke!).
	Some years ago I was in a campaign where us PCs survived by being a
band!  When we weren't adventuring, we'd pick up some extra silver playing
in the local taverns (kept us from starving in the winter too!).  Some
times the players picked songs we knew to play from albums, sometimes we
re-wrote things to sing ourselves (we were a vaguely musical bunch).
We once started a religious riot in a city-state sharply divided over
doctrinal issues by performing Tull's "My God" in the forum!  It was great
fun and we nearly got trampled to death.

	I like using music in campaigns, though it should be carefully
placed - too much gets in the way.  It adds some depth to the culture of
the game world.

Carl

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Carl Edlund Anderson	            	"Hefi ek ok aldri sva reitt vapn
canders@isr.harvard.edu			at manni at eigi hafi vidh kommit."
OR
anderso2@husc.harvard.edu			- Skarphedhinn Njalsson 
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