Need music for stabbin'

Garret Dorigan

I'm taking up the reins of GM in an upcoming D&D game, and I had (what I thought to be) a great idea. Mood music.

Basically, for whatever the players are doing; whether that be traveling to another town, searching a dank crypt, or partaking in a battle, have music semi-choreographed in the background that matches the mood and pacing, akin to a movie or video game. Something like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK1jbzMyFeU&feature=related

for an inspirational or 'getting-ready-for-battle' scene, or:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbI8CE-ABSg&feature=related

when in a fight with something decidedly evil.

What I need help with, to get to the heart of the matter, is that my Google and Youtube fu have failed me. I've found a pretty good selection, but I need more to round it all out.

Right now I've got some choice tracks from the Princess Mononoke OST, the FFT OST (obviously), various other Final Fantasy orchestrals (particularly Dancing Mad), and the LotR OST (but I'm not really happy with it).

tl:dr- I'm looking for epic sounding classical and orchestral music for a D&D game.

Adus

Instrumentals only?

E.S. Posthumus and Two Steps From Hell have some great soundtrack style music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDv79OgYLvc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISzK6e237II

Is symphonic metal too 'modern'?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfEJwK6InXc

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmBhrF7-FRw

These don't even contain the guitars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozz2am3yq4Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQSFpKG1les

Lost Odyssey also has a great soundtrack, done by Uematsu of Final Fantasy soundtrack fame:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgxFLMM9TLw

Garret Dorigan

Adus wrote: »

Instrumentals only?

E.S. Posthumus and Two Steps From Hell have some great soundtrack style music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDv79OgYLvc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISzK6e237II

Is symphonic metal too 'modern'?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfEJwK6InXc

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmBhrF7-FRw

These don't even contain the guitars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozz2am3yq4Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQSFpKG1les

You never fail to amaze, Adus. To answer your questions:

Instrumental and orchestral pieces with or without choral accompaniment, akin to the 30 man chorus in the TESV: Skyrim video above if so.

Both the E.S. Posthumus and Two Steps from Hell pieces are amazing, and they (and others they have done, thank you 'related videos' aspect of Youtube) will now enter my repertoire.

Symphonic metal isn't too 'modern'... situationally. I knew about Blind Guardian previously and searched for a bit of their stuff, but everything I've heard so far, though awesome and will probably find their way onto my Ipod, get that speed metal-type of pickup after the refrain which I don't think would fit thematically. Same with the Neverland track. The Nightwish track though, is awesome and fits.

Both the Dimmu Borgir pieces fit well, but I think their 'epicosity' would relegate them to use in the equivalent of a boss battle. I.E. I don't need that many like them.

Delzhand

The entire OST to the upcoming Tactics Ogre remake is on YouTube. If you've already got the FFT soundtrack, this is basically the same composer doing very similar work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayymvmuAu2M&p=E8E88A54CE605B87

There's a playlist link in the video details section.

Lord Yod

Soundtracks are where it's at for D&D.

-Conan the Barbarian
-The Last Samurai
-Tron: Legacy (interestingly it works pretty well)
-The Lord of the Rings
-basically any other semi-fantasy movie

My experience trying to get this done (been DMing for 15+ years) has shown that usually the best way to handle music in a session is to set it up so you don't have to screw with it at all. If you try and work out a system where you have to hunt down a particular track whenever you change scenes then it will tend to take away from the mood a lot.

Adus

Garret Dorigan wrote: »

The Nightwish track though, is awesome and fits.

The special edition of the album Dark Passion Play came with a CD of all the tracks in instrumental form so they're all pretty easy to find and are really excellent. The orchestral versions without the metal instruments seem to be pretty available as well. They're all pretty good in my opinion, though some probably fit better than others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l6dyvY_bIM

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

Some of their older tracks are available in orchestral form, too. This one is a favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq-Cro2VDSM&feature=fvw

Beck

I feel bad not knowing the name for this song, but my friends and I use this song in every campaign we do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZhbZEJYm0M

Garret Dorigan

Delzhand: You rock. I had forgotten about TO, sad to say considering the PS1 version is less than five feet away from me. Once I heard a couple of these remastered tracks I remembered to look at where it is on the shelf and saw another one I forgot about. 'Wind's Nocturne' from Lunar: The Silver Star Story will fit perfectly for one thing I have planned. Many thanks.

Lord Yod: I've set it up so that each track fits a certain 'feel', so that when I hit the dungeon button (let's say) one at random will play. Certain songs I want to use I'll set up for easy retrieval beforehand.

Adus: Sweet. I'm listening to a playlist of Dark Passion Play's instrumentals. Gotta say, good stuff. I'll definitely use it, and thanks.

Beck: I love the Morrowind opening. Thanks.

If anyone else has anything so completely obvious that I probably didn't think of it or something more obscure, put it in here if you'd please. I could always use more, though I have a great head start now.

Midshipman

It's pretty much already touched upon, but the Morrowind and Oblivion soundtracks are both great for atmosphere.

RocketSauce

Here's some stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlcUwUwjLrshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOAHva8TF_M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCWRdpyXlaw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3L9n-HG5xY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrt42nX_wiw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMTk5SBbsf4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkQPlYICRtU

Reznik

What about The Black Mages? 3 (last I checked) albums of metal arrangements of Final Fantasy tracks. Perfect epic battle music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdt74rarv4g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBfc0-KuDGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGUQW6snRWU

Pirusu

I know you want to be able to pick and choose what you're using, but when a group of my friends and I got together and all played for the first time, I put together a Pandora station just using "Lord of the Rings" as the base. We got some pretty great choices, if you just wanted to see new suggestions!