Better Game Immersion Through Noise

At the table I often find myself running through my limited repertoire of snarling bad guys, or stumbling through a vocabulary that seldom feels all the way up to the task of building a rich, shared gaming experience.

Simply hitting play on a CD player or ipod is fine, but shouldn't there be a way to pipe in exactly the right tunes for exactly the right situation? Shouldn’t your monsters actually roar or chitter? Considering the incredible power music and sound has to literally create emotions in people, can you imagine the impact it could have on your game?

Unfortunately, imagine it is about all I can do. Too often do I just hit play and get back to the action—the music is background noise, neither adding or detracting from the gameplay. Frankly, it's about time that sound improved this amazing hobby.

But How?

I don’t really know. The challenges are balance, moderation, and the fact that everyone needs to hear everyone else at the table at all times, not to mention the differences in taste and personal gaming goals. Music prep of any kind also adds tasks to already beleaguered DMs.

Still, I have some tips I can share to help you get more out of your game through noise. I hope you’ll share your own with a comment.

Choice of Venue

Speaking of noise, step one should be to eliminate the noises unrelated to your game during game time. You don't want phones ringing, you don't want loved ones wandering through the room, and you don't want anyone to hear you when the cursing and screaming begins.

Not everyone is as boisterous as I am during a game (seriously, if I haven't screamed curses or made animal calls at least a half-dozen times a session, something is seriously wrong), but we ALL need a place where the inherent nerdiness of trying to bring a rabid babboon, devil, or goblin to life won't upset your neighbors. You need to be able to cut loose, so find a place where you can do so.

Ka-choo ka-chah indeed! I love the new PF goblins—they really deserve the name.

Choice of Music

I heard somewhere that any word—in any language, whether you speak it or not—has the potential to distract you from your focus. I had a player who would start singing the lyrics to whatever we were listening to at the game table, which was a distraction for all of us.

Also, music is art, and everyone has an opinion. The last thing you want is to be annoying people with your choices. While it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, classical music seems to be timeless and evocative for most anyone, so it’s probably a safe bet.

So, ditch the Black Eyed Nicklebacks and grab a movie score, TV series soundtrack, or something instrumental.

Here are some of my favourites, and why.

1. Batman Begins by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. There are a lot of great tracks on here that ooze ass-kickery, and we’ve all become quite familiar with Molossus as it has been re-used in many a soundtrack and movie trailer since. More than a dose of horror in here as well, thanks to the Scarecrow’s movie antics.

2. Carnivale by Jeff Beal. Carnivale’s soundtrack is mysterious, moody, and a little disturbing. Its strong atmosphere is ideal for creeping around caves, visiting ghost towns, or exploring ruined ships. Black Blizzard is one of my faves.

3. Children of Dune by Brian Tyler. This one is so good, and has a middle-eastern flavor that works so well during so much of what adventurers do. I dare you not to crank the Main Title (House Atreides) track and not like it.

4. Metroid Metal does some excellent work if you’re looking for a harder-edged feel (D20 Modern and futuristic games would match up very well). It’s a bit tough to resist doing air guitar while these guys are playing. While not done by the MM boys, here’s one of my favorite takes on the Metroid Theme EVER (by Shade Music Studios).

5. The Best Classical Album in the World by Many. While you can find all of these songs elsewhere, and while many of them are not hardly suitable to the average gaming group out there, tracks like O Fortuna (Carl Orff) are indelible in our music psyches. When the bad guys wake the slumbering gods or unleash hell upon the world, these are the songs you want everyone to be hearing.

You can probably get most of these at your local library. As a side note, please support this amazingly useful service.

Voicework and Body Language

You are probably not Jim Carrey or Frank Caliendo (can you imagine having those guys at your table?), but you probably have a surprising range of sounds you can make to lend life to your characters and monsters. Most guys can drop their voices an octave or two and give it that gravelly quality—90% of my monstrous bad guys sound just like this—but have you ever really tried growling deep in your throat and chest? You won't quite sound like a wolf, but you might be able to pull off something a bit more monstrous than your usual bass.

For example, I'm capable of a pretty decent snarl by sucking in through my mouth and nose at the same time and acting as if I am chewing the sounds out.

This adorable kitten breaks up text.

Need to project nobility? Simply be mindful of using contractions (read: don’t ;) ). Articulating each of your words fully can go a long way to changing the qualities of your speech.

Body language isn’t my forte, but I can tell you that you're well served by choosing a few positions—crossed arms, deep scowls, a hideous rictus, standing over the table and your players, a far-off gaze—and attaching one each to a handful of important characters to lend them a personality that is all their own.

Ambiance

I've staged several combats in a thunderstorm, and while I've applied the modifiers and added the puddles to the map, and told the players that, yes, it is raining, I've never really had the buy-in that I've wanted. Math is boring, and no encounter should come down to anyone thinking about just the math.

So, use www.rainymood.com the next time you have a rain battle. If you pound it loud enough the interruptions from the thunderstorm will be entirely natural, and no one will forget for a second that a storm rages around them.

It’s worthwhile to explore other non-musical sound effects. For example, crackling fires will come in handy nearly every session, and you might want to try out fog machines or go all the way, like this guy (although I’ve never done so and know no one who has).

Also, try playing by candlelight, or play outdoors. Anything you can do to place your characters more in the game environment will help create enjoyable sessions and lasting memories. For example, I remember playing Vampire a decade back at a friend’s acreage out on his deck. Coyotes started howling halfway through, and the effect was delicious.

Share the Looooad

While you may have trouble building buy-in for this, choose an active player with a musical interest to be in charge of providing the session soundtracks. You can even give this worker bee a sessional hint through what you ask for (“I want the most epic apocalyptic track you can lay your hands on for this session. No reason.”)

This will take the worry out of your hands and possibly build some tension for your gossiping players.

That About Covers It

Hopefully you gleaned something useful from this. I would love to hear what, if anything, you do with sound at your table as I’ve always struggled to tap what I feel is nearly unlimited potential. Got any favourite soundtracks, tips, or strategies?

Lay it on us, and thanks in advance.

Comments

[Swordgleam]

Blackmore's Night has some great medieval-y instrumental stuff. The Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack is also good, though it might be too recognizeable at this point.

One of my players had fun during today's session by periodically interrupting the other players to do his impression of what gargoyles fighting a horde of undead sounded like. (This was going on outside the building where the party was.) I'm not sure anything could quite do that justice, though.

[John Morrow]

I divide the music up into broad categories (ambient, travel, combat, creepy) and fill a folder with music that works for each mood. That way, I have to do some changing when the tone of the game changes but not within scenes.

I agree that Children of Dune is a good overall album, especially if the game has a Middle Eastern flavor to it. All of the Dune soundtracks (the Toto movie soundtrack and Frank Herbert's Dune, as well as this one) have good gaming tracks.

The best gaming music, in my opinion, not only doesn't have words (or at least understandable words) but also isn't tightly tied to events in the movie such that musical flourishes or strong changes are tied into specific events in the movie and keep a fairly even mood throughout. Music that follows the events of a movie closely or tracks that change mood in the middle or end often sounds choppy and uneven for gaming.

A few soundtracks that I think should be in ever role-player's collection:

Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Destroyer
King Arthur (the Hans Zimmer soundtrack)
Halo (video game soundtrack)
Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter -- hard to find)

I think the Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (video game soundtrack) also sounds promising, but I haven't used it in an actual game yet.

Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (Original Soundtrack)

[RPG Ike]

Cool, guys. Thanks much. I don't have even one of those soundtracks. I'll add them to my library list immediately. :)

[ken]

good article, great ideas. although, the soundtrack from "pirates of the caribbean" wouldn't work with my crew- they are/were all in the marching band. and they did 'pirates' a couple of years ago. i can't imagine the havoc this music would cause at the table with my bunch of nutjobs.