Music in Ravenloft

[Snake]

OK, so I'm sure this has been addressed 85 times throughout the Fraternity's history, but I went back to March and couldn't find a thread on it; could have missed it though.

Can we put together a list of music appropriate for Ravenloft both combat and RPing? I'm always on the look for new and exciting music to add further life to my and my friends games.

Here is stuff my group has used before:

Blackhawk Down Soundtrack
Bram Stoker's Dracula Soundtrack
Willow Soundtrack
Midnight Syndicate
Manowar
Hammerfall
Blind Guardian
Dragonforce
Lord of the Rings Soundtracks
300 Soundtrack
Apocalyptica
Kingdom of Heaven Soundtrack
Gladiator Soundtrack
Nightwish
Angtoria
We Were Soldiers Soundtrack
Therion
Switchblade Symphony
Theatere of Tradgedy
Legacy of Kain Video Game Music (Especially Blood Omen One)
Kamelot
Mortiis
Axenstar
Axel Rudi Pell
Sonata Arcita

And I'm sure there is stuff I'm forgetting, but I hope this helps DMs to better their gaming table atmosphere. Hopefully there is new stuff I can use as well from everyone else.

[Guardian of Twilight]

A couple of songs that I'm fond of are "Breathe" by Disturbed and also (one of my personal favorites) "The Howling" by Within Temptation. And yes, I was once so bored that I spent over an hour making a soundtrack for my Ravenloft character. And after I did, my players did the same thing.

[Isabella]

When I played a Cleric of the Morninglord, I tended to sing "Here Comes the Sun" as my morning hymn. It was oddly fitting... er, that probably wasn't what you were looking for, though.

Probably anything by J.S. Bach and other Classical artists of said ilk would work. If you don't mind a little electric guitar in your music I'd recommend the Quest for Glory 4 soundtrack, which you can find if you look enough for it.

[Archedius]

Dimmu Borgir's synth guy Mustis usually has 1 track per album where he is playing alone, and I have to say he's a great composer.
Nox Arcana's stuff is perfect IMO for Ravenloft too.
I tend to avoid music w/ spoken word in it for use in my games. I don't want to ruin mood and I don't want to be distracted by extraneous words.

[Guardian of Twilight]

I should most likely add a bit more to my above post. I don't actually use music while playing. I've never really been a huge fan of the concept since I am so easily distracted by melodious sound, no matter where it's coming from. Before gaming, however, I play 'mood music' to get a better feel of what we'll be doing.

[Jennifer]

Hi all,
I admit to using "of man and wolf" by metallica, everytime one of the PCs was unfortunate enough to have his monthly werewolf problem.

Jennifer

[Ail]

My experiences with music haven't been all that good, as my players usually complained about it or didn't pay attention at all. I think the one that worked best was 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' soundtrack. On occasion, I also use Mozart's requiem.

Recently, I had a scene in a gypsy camp and I used several videos I found on youtube with gypsy music, mainly by Roby Lakatos. It worked pretty well. He is very very good. There were also some videos from essentially gypsy dance and music schools, either based in Portugal or Spain, that also had the right festive mood.

Alex

[WolfKook]

O, the memories!

I haven't been very good with music, either. In part due to the fact that the music choice is not mine, as we play in my cousin's house, and the music choice is pretty fixed. And, don't get me wrong: I do like the "Baldur's Gate" soundtrack. I am, however, getting a little tired of it.

My previous DM, however, used music very well. Almost too well. He really knew his music, to the point that could mark the pace of the adventure based on the music, and for the most part the changes is mood of the score marked similar changes in the feeling of the adventure. It's been almost 12 years since then, and I still wonder how he managed to do it (No mp3. Just CDs).

For what I recall, his music choice centered on:

Bram Stoker's Dracula Soundtrack
Enigma
Enya
Interview with the Vampire Sountrack
Loreena McKennit
Metallica (The Black Album and later)

Speaking of Metallica, there was this creepy, recurring character, a hooded figure that was after us, and which we were constantly running from. He was very powerful, and creeped us out (Players and characters alike), a lot. Our DM gave him "The Unforgiven" as a theme song: Each time he appeared, he would put on that song. After a while, the sound of the intro was enough for us to creep out and to start running for our lives!

BTW, I'm still on therapy, and my shrink doesn't understand why my heart bumps that way each time I hear that damned song!!!

[cure]

You most certainly don't want to you the Ladyhawk sound track. Talk about a film whereof the music carbon dates it to the 80's.

Substitute some less timely music and it would be enduring piece of respectable fantasy cinema.

[Archedius]

if you have an mp3 player its a good seamless way to change music depending on events. Thing is you have to perfectly select each piece of music for an event otherwise the mood doesn't occur. letting a cd play through or worse yet changing them around constantly doesn't work at all.
- I have been successful with the implementation of music into my RL campaign and a few things that have helped me a lot are:
1. Avoid metal, pop, techno or any modernish music
2. Avoid music with lyrics w/ the exception of voices used as instruments or chanting/canting
3. the music MUST match the moment but the work on your part as the DM is worth it

[Guardian of Twilight]

Oh, another great soundtrack comes from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Absolutely wonderful soundtrack, and an equally awesome game.

[Sylaire]

I tend not to use music when I've actually been playing; on the other hand, I inevitably do so when writing or designing; mood music is almost inevitable for the creative process. I also tend to be the kind of person who can listen to the same song on "repeat" for hours on end (thankfully, my wife is also that kind and our musical tastes are pretty compatible, so no one gets a stuffed penguin tossed at them ).

With that said, my favorite Gothic-horror mood music includes:

The soundtrack from Bram Stoker's Dracula--One thing I exceptionally like about this soundtrack is that it has music for a variety of different scene types: "Love Remembered" and "Mina/Dracula" for romantic scenes, "Vampire Hunters" and "The Brides" for generic Gothic-adventure moments, "The Storm" and "The Hunt Builds" for action scenes (on a side note, I always thought the scene where "The Hunt Builds" plays in the film is especially well-done for the use of music combined with cinema images...)

The soundtrack from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night--Guardian of Twilight is right about this one. The techno pieces aren't particularly Ravenloft ("Tragedy of a Young Prince," for example, is a great song, but the electric guitar doesn't do it for me as RL music), but "Prayer," "Requiem for the Gods," "Nocturne," "Woodcarving Palteeta," "Waltz of the Pearls," and "Lost Painting" are all exceptional.

Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata"

The soundtrack from Shadow Hearts: I mentioned this in a similar thread about a week ago, but this soundtrack contains some of the best Gothic-horror mood music I've ever experienced. "Coffin fetish" has become something of a theme song for reading the works of Basil Copper.

Other videogame soundtracks:
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Koudelka
American McGee's Alice
Koudelka
Devil May Cry (Track 9 on Disc 2, "EV-18," is very atmospheric)

Anime soundtracks:

Vampire Princess Miyu (both the OVA and TV series)
Lunar Legend Tsukihime
Fate/stay night (okay, so I like Kenji Kawai's music for horror )

[Snake]

Oh, another great soundtrack comes from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Absolutely wonderful soundtrack, and an equally awesome game.

Oh my god, yeah I completely forgot about that game. Castlevania is just awesome in general, but that game is the best in my opinion.

[Guardian of Twilight]

Oh, another great soundtrack comes from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Absolutely wonderful soundtrack, and an equally awesome game.

Oh my god, yeah I completely forgot about that game. Castlevania is just awesome in general, but that game is the best in my opinion.

Yeah, it's my favorite Castlevania of all time. But the ones that I played as a kid on the old Nintendo are a close second. Ah, the memories...

It just sucks that kids of 16 now call me 'sir'. I'm just 26, after all... *sigh*

[LordGodefroi]

As a game master, I've never used music in my games though I've always been in favor of the idea.

I have, however, used Toxic Bag Productions' Game Master's Collection sound effects to the benefit of my game. Worth every penny.

As a player, I've encountered various soundtracks (Bram Stoker's Dracula, Carnivale,etc) as well as the various albums from Midnight Syndicate.