Favourite Theme Tunes For Traveller

[alex_greene]

Something for the Referees.

I like using the Ultravox instrumental track "Astradyne" to announce when the characters' ship is about to enter Jump. There are other tracks I call upon - some of them instrumentals from a site called Incompetech, composed by a chap called Kevin MacLeod.

Here's Arcadia, which I use for dreamy, wonder-filled scenes.

This is "Frozen Star," for those scenes set in the depths of space, sometimes at the end of a story.

How about you? What are your favourite Traveller tracks, and how do you use them?

 

[GypsyComet]

This came up elsewhere last week.

I can't find the links now, but the website for Eve Online used to have a bunch of space atmospheric tracks.

>The title track to the movie "Midnight Run" is Jump run-up music
>"The Sea named Solaris" (the Bach bit used on Carl Sagan's "Cosmos") is deep space atmospheric
>Babylon Zoo's "Spaceman" is a Belter's theme
>Much of Mike Oldfield's "Songs of Distant Earth" is general purpose
>Alphaville's "For a Million" is not the song you want to hear when being put in cold sleep
>Bond's "Speed" is more chase/combat music
>Lesiem's "Navigator" is odd and martial
>Pink Floyd's "Learning to Fly" is, of course, flying music
>Tomoyasu Hotei's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" (the Yakuza fight theme from Kill Bill) is fun for cities, Startown, and as a warning that the Marines are about to show up.
>And really, if you aren't using "Blue Danube" for orbital docking maneuvers...

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Anything with an orchestra.

 

[Jacqual]

I don't know why my last Traveller players always hummed the Imperial Theme from Star Wars when I started running a game?

 

[GypsyComet]

The only thing against using large parts of the six Star Wars soundtracks is their instant recognition. It's ALL space opera music.

 

[alex_greene]

I once saw a YouTube video showing all six extant Star Wars movies, played simultaneously on one screen. LOL As all six themes played at the same time, I noticed that each one's timing was off compared to the others, making the whole thing sound like a dreadful school orchestra.

A pity I never got the chance to mine that theme. It would have been hilarious to play it at a game some time. Especially if it was in the background of something the player characters were trying to do.

 

[High Orbit Drifter]

I've always like the soundtrack from Aliens for Traveller use. I even wrote an adventure with Bishop's Countdown in mind as the climatic scene.

 

[Prime_Evil]

I usually look for orchestral works that have a slightly cinematic feel but are unlikely to be familiar to my players. A few that I have used recently include the soundtrack from the Blakes' 7 Rebellion soundtrack by Alastair Lock, the Children of Dune soundtrack by Brian Tyler, Beyond the Library by Erdenstern, and Solaris and Skyland albums by Two Steps from Hell. Check the samples from these works out on itunes or amazon if you are interested. Video game soundtracks are also a good choice as mediocre games occasionally have excellent orchestral soundtracks - and are unlikely to be too familiar.

 

[alex_greene]

Of course, if I was just going to run a straight combat scene and hang the story arc and character development, I would feel tempted to play this venerable theme:-

ROLL INITIATIVE!

 

[Infojunky]

Somewhere in my collection the is 1 hour looped track based on the audible portion of Cosmic background radiation, cut in with snippets of random music and traffic control radio transmissions including and a interlude of whalesong call and response. I cut this together a long time ago as a background tape for actions taking place on the bridge....

 

[Rick]

Tomita's electronic version of the planets suite.

 

[dragoner]

I go for a more electronic feel, it being sci-fi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZfQ-RMNY00

 

[Easterner]

These get it done as do other works by Andrew Boulton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44t_xHH1y3c&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iWehLi_4ug&feature=related