Café de Nuit

Soon, hopefully hopefully I'll be running House of Strahd converted to 4th Edition. So far, I've converted the encounters, made the hand outs, informed the players of the limitations and started to compile a sound track. This is what I have so far (with links, if you've not heard them and want to use them):

The Impossible Planet from Doctor Who.
Just Scarecrows to War from Doctor Who.
Midnight from Doctor Who.
Turn Left from Doctor Who.
Elves at the Mercy of Men from Dragon Age; Origins.
Human Nobility from Dragon Age; Origins.
Doomsday from Doctor Who.
Memory from Cowboy Bebop.
Close Your Eyes from Buffy; the Vampire Slayer.
Requiem- In Paradisum by Faure.
Requiem- Lacrimosa by Mozart.
The Carrionites Swarm from Doctor Who.
Relm's Theme from Final Fantasy VI.
Terra's Theme from Final Fantasy VI.
Ascension to Cosmo Canyon, a remix from Final Fantasy VII.
Winter; Allegro non molto by Vivaldi.
Violin Theme from Castlevania 64, set to start at the beginning of the violin, after ther intro.
Molossus from Batman Begins.
The Main Theme from Batman (1989).
Oogie Boogie's Song from the Nightmare Revisited soundrack.
Claw Finger from Silent Hill.
Kill Angels from Silent Hill.
The Final Fight from Buffy; the Vampire Slayer.
Theme of Laura from Silent Hill 2.
Forest from Silent Hill 2.
Promise (repirse) from Silent Hill 2.
Magdalene from Silent Hill 2.
Laura Plays the Piano from Silent Hill 2.
Theme of Laura (reprise) from Silent Hill 2.
Never Forgive Me, Never Forget Me from Silent Hill 2.
Tales from the Crypt Theme by Danny Elfman.
Toccata & Fugue by Bach.

I'm lacking a good piece for the tarroka reading and for the temple near the village. Some generic fantasy-ish tavern music would be nice too. Any suggestions?

Macabre Hallway

This one might be good.

All of Waldetoft's music is good, even when he is including Wagner in his arrangements (mostly as an homage). This piece is from Europa Universalis 3 I believe, but he has become the house composer for all Paradox Interactive games and their soundtracks are fantastic.

Great list by the way, Drinnik!

I would humbly suggest:

Shining Theme and Rocky Mountains: by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind (from The Shining score).
Les Memoires Blessees by Dark Sanctuary.
Loneliness by Olivier Deriviere & The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices Choir (from Alone in the Dark).
Carmila's Masque and The Graveyard by Moonlight by Cradle of Filth.

I like some of the more atmospheric and eerie songs from Agalloch and Opeth.

Here's a link to "In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion" by Agalloch


For sheer dark atmosphere however, the Suspiria soundtrack from Goblin is tough to beat, I've used this one for House of Strahd in the past.

You should try Nox Arcana. They got music for everything and it is pretty good.

I like the Goblin track, didn't they do the "Dawn of the Dead" music?

Drinnik Shoehorn wrote:I like the Goblin track, didn't they do the "Dawn of the Dead" music?

Yes, they also did the soundtracks for nearly all of Dario Argento's films in his heyday

A few more suggestions.

The deserted outskirts of the village: The Lost Crown Theme.
Grief at the loss of an NPC (or PC): "Pair Bond", from Bioshock 2
A general theme: Nosferatu - The wrath of Malachi theme
Wandering the dark interiors of the Castle: Amnesia The Dark Descent - Soundtrack - (Mikko Termia) Main theme, The Darkness,Daniel Theme, ...etc.
The grandeur of Ravenloft of old: Santiago's arrangement of the Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim theme.

Cheers, D.

The first time I ever heard anyone use ambient music for a Ravenloft game, it was the orchestral album Black Aria by Danzig. Still one of the most effective for the mood, I think. (Make sure you look up stuff on the first album, though, rather than Black Aria II. The second's not nearly as good.)

A few of the pieces can get a tad repetitive, but that actually works in their favor for establishing background atmosphere in some situations.

Strahdsbuddy wrote:

All of Waldetoft's music is good, even when he is including Wagner in his arrangements (mostly as an homage). This piece is from Europa Universalis 3 I believe, but he has become the house composer for all Paradox Interactive games and their soundtracks are fantastic.

That was excellent, thank you!

Joël

I posted these today on the Paizo board:

John Zorn and Diamanda Gallas. I knew the song but just found out it’s from a soundtrack. Just saw this clip from the movie and I’m not sure I want to see the whole movie … (!)

Diamanda Gallas again. She sings like I imagine a Marilith would.

John Zorn again, very creepy ghostly atmosphere (in fact my preferred Halloween ambient music*). And here’s v2.

* In fact, when my kids were young, I spooked them with this song. I told them there was this musician living alone in a forest. One day, he woke up and found something had recorded this during the night ...

And two tracks from the (great) movie Eyes Wide Shut: (I see evil rituals on this music).

And this extremely creepy piano piece by Brad Mehldau. (but get the CD soundtrack, it is without the car noise, voice, and other distractions heard in youtube) (EXTREMELY creepy if you also lower the light in the room)

Joël

Anything from Midnight Syndicate. They did the music for the Dungeons and Dragons Soundtrack.

Music is very dark and gothic. Ideal for Ravenloft.

Let's move past just music that would work for RL and just post anything that spooks us or tells a spooky story. We've all heard songs about ghosts and haunted places like 'Hotel California' by the Eagles and 'Home by the Sea' by Genesis, so let's start a collection here. I'll add this. Here's a song I heard when I was very little. It scared the hell outa me even then, and now somebody's made a cool video of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuNYEUYtD8c
You can probably find youtube videos or at least renditions of the song on youtube. Also any kind of music qualifies; country, rap, chamber music, TV themes, if it's scary or it tells a spooky story. POST IT!

Thief's Soundtrack - all three games.

Seriously... while the games might be a bit too steampunky for a lot of Ravenloft fans, the soundtrack is just golden.

A good selection can be found at the Thief: The Circle fansite.

Some tunes worth checking out just for an idea are:
Into the maw of Chaos
Shalebridge Cradle (Haunted orphanage and sanitarium.)
The Pagans
The Overlook Manor
Rutherford Castle

Checking out the soundtracks of Stalker, Age of Empires III, Battlestar Galactica, Mass Effect, and even World of Warcraft could all be well worth your time as well.

Yes, I will admit to still enjoying WoW's soundtracks years after I stopped playing the game. Say what you will about Blizzard, but they've always had some utterly fantastic music in all of their games. Just stay away from some of the more well-known ones, and it works like a charm! (I used Karazhan for the bbeg of one of my earlier campaigns.)