Recommend Me D&D Music!

Mr Pink

Monday I'm starting my very first 4th Edition campaign for Dungeons and Dragons (I DM'd a campaign in 3rd that went about three years, and have been itching ever since to do it again.) Now that we're playing in a nice location and not a basement, I thought about using some music to set the moods. It'll be piping through a very nice sound system, but the problem is, I don't know what 'it' is.

Here's where you come in! What's come good game music, preferably that can be looped. Here are the categories I have so far:

Town (shopping, town stuff, seeking prostitutes)
Exploration (caves, woods, mountains, maybe DUNGEONS?!?!)
Battle (sweet axe-swinging jams)
Boss Fight (don't you dare say One Winged Angel)

Thanks in advance!

Reznik

The Black Mages have 3 albums worth of music, mostly battle/boss stuff but some town/exploration.

Apocalyptica has some good tracks as well. I'm more familiar with their earlier albums.

Hans Zimmer soundtracks also tend to make it into the roleplaying playlist. Try the Pirates soundtracks. Batman Begins has some nice dark, spooky sounding stuff as well.

Belruel

One of my old DM's played some WoW music sometimes.

I'd say search through WoW music, and maybe even some of the new starcraft 2 music. Music from many games helps fill up the background and add ambiance without being distracting.

Tallahasseeriel

A lot of the music From Morrowind and Oblivion are good.

Possible the Witcher score or Dragno Age

Yogo

• Age of Conan
• Conan the Barbarian
• Baldurs gate 1,2
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Diablo 2
• Fable 1
• Heroes of Might and Magic 4,5
• Jade Empire*
• KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic)
• Planescape: Torment
• Shadow of the Colossus
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines**
• The Witcher

Almost all of these are from video games and are often used to amplify the atmosphere. They should serve you perfectly.

Just remember to go through the list and sort out the combat tracks and such, so you don't get a combat theme when you are narrating tavern shopping .

* Jade Empire features mostly instruments from the East.
**Note Vampire features a distinctive bass level which may or may not suit your D&D theme.

Ferrus

The Witcher soundtrack essentially IS an RPG soundtrack and includes music for all occasions.

I also like the Chaos Gate music, although it might not be fitting for a fantasy setting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOXe0RfMHvo

TychoCelchuuu

In addition to what has been mentioned,

Arcanum
God of War II
Quest for Camelot
Two Worlds
Guild Wars
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance

Seeks

Icewind Dale soundtrack (Jeremy Soule, also did Morrowind, Oblivion, and a bunch of other stuff). It comes with the game, which if you can find it, is probably cheaper than the average CD anyway.

piL

So I did this when I was running DnD. Sountracks are some of your best sources. With boss music, I found the really intense music was great, but realise that a dnd boss battle is going to take much longer than most video game boss battles, so you'll want a variety of music.

I used to make folders with basically those categories you listed, although I separated exploration into overland and dungeon. Then I would pool tracks I got from soundtracks or whatever into the appropriate folders.

Some specifics from experience:

Black Mages is a fantastic suggestion, as are Oblivion and Morrowind. Planescape torment has some good choices, but a lot of the PST tracks are similar, so make sure to play it through and cherry pick.

The Shadow of the Colossus music is fantastic for this sort of thing, and also already suggested. Arcanum has especially great music that fits the town.

I can't find my copy of the StarCraft 2 soundtrack, but I seem to remember some good things on that if you were going to get that anyway.

Inglorius Bastards soundtrack is actually really great for this.: Green Leaves of Summer is good exploration, the Verdict and White Lightning are pretty good dungeon exploration type musics, and I think White Ligthtning could be good combat too, although it might not be up beat enough for that. Slaughter by Billy Preston is something I liked to throw into a boss fight here or there, but it has the fault of containing english lyrics so oh well. One Silver Dollar, Tiger Tank, Un Amico, and Rabbia E Tarantella are good to sort as well. If you don't mind the lyrics, Cat People by David Bowie might be one of the best boss battle songs ever devised.

Toru Takemitsu, a composer of soundtracks (in particular for the Kurosawa film Ran) could probably supply you with everything you need. A bunch of stuff by him would be great, and you could probably make a Pandora channel with his name if you needed still more.

Hope this helps!

Mr Pink

You guys are awesome, thanks! I feel like if I use every suggestion here, I can pretty much always have fresh music ready.