Soundtrack for your Games?

[Nyarlathotep]

Does anyone here make use of an audio element to their Conan games?

I've used music in my various other games - usually for Call of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies, etc.

Any suggestions for Conan?

 

[Lucius]

Well first is the obvious Conan the Barbarian soundtrack, composed by the excellent Basil Poledouris. This sets the Hyborian Age firmly in my groups mind...

But my personal favourite is the soundtrack to the dreadful game, "Conan: The Dark Axe". I emailed the makers, Cauldron, begging them to release the soundtrack. Apparently I wasn't the only one, for several weeks later, I had a reply telling me they were putting them all online for free. It can all be found here

http://www.cauldron.sk/projects/conan/music.html

and I can't recommend it enough!

 

[Majestic7]

I use background music extensively in all the games I run - horror, Traveller and Conan. I think my fantasy soundtrack is about 26 hours right now, with scifi and different horror soundtracks coming up close. I've noticed that music from computer games is often better than stuff from movies as RPG background stuff - easier to loop and fade in to other songs.

 

[Kyorou]

I've noticed that music from computer games is often better than stuff from movies as RPG background stuff - easier to loop and fade in to other songs.

Can you give us some titles ? I'm also trying to get some music for use in my Conan games.

 

[Majestic7]

I've noticed that music from computer games is often better than stuff from movies as RPG background stuff - easier to loop and fade in to other songs.

Can you give us some titles ? I'm also trying to get some music for use in my Conan games.

Let's see... In no particular order, my current fantasy soundtrack includes music from the following movies and games:

Gothic 2 & 3, 1492: Conquest of Paradise,
Both Conan movies and the Conan game mentioned above,
Medieval: Total War and Medieval II: Total War,
Rome: Total War and Rome Total Realism mod,
Oblivion and Morrowind, Dawn of War,
World of Warcraft and the addition, Burning Crusade,
Europa Universalis III, Mark of Chaos,
Chaos League, Stronghold & Stronghold Crusader,
Kingdom of Heaven, Pharaoh, Diablo II,
Baldurs Gate II & Throne of Bhaal,
Neverwinter Nights 2, Crusader Kings,
Planescape Torment, Myth I - III,
The 13th Warrior, 300, Pirates of the Caribbean
Ultima V Lazarus, the song Stonegate is currently my Stygia theme http://lazarus.thehawkonline.com/music.html

In addition, Arcana - Le Serpent Rouge is very good background music for Shem or Stygia. I have as well many solitary pieces of music on my soundtrack - many soundtracks of movies, for example, have one or two good pieces while the rest are useless from a gaming point of view. I have extensive horror soundtrack, which I've used in Conan as well - in dungeon crawls and such.

 

[Auggie]

I use both Conan soundtracks, "King Arthur", both "Gladiator" soundtracks and soon I'll use the scores from "300" and "Pathfinder"

 

[VincentDarlage]

Here is a partial list of what I use.

Babylon 5 (6 volumes)
Back to the Future
Batman
Batman Returns
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Captain Blood – Classic Film Scores for Errol Flynn
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Dark Axe
Conan the Destroyer
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Cybernet Official Roleplaying Soundtrack
Dances With Wolves
Die Another Day
Doctor Who: Ghostlight
Dracula by John Williams
Godzilla – Akira Ifukube
Goldeneye
Halloween
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Hercules (not as good as Xena's soundtrack)
Jaws
Jurassic Park
King Kong by Max Steiner
King Kong by James Newton Howard
King Kong by John Barry
Last of the Mohicans
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Pirates of the Caribbean
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Return of the Jedi
RoboCop
Rocky
Shaka Zulu
Silverado
Stargate
Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan
Star Trek the Motion Picture
Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country
Star Wars
Superman the Movie
The 13th Warrior
The Best of Ennio Morricone
The Best of Godzilla – 1954-1975
The Best of Godzilla – 1984-1995
The Black Hole
The Bride of Frankenstein
The Empire Strikes Back
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Lord of the Rings movie soundtracks (all three)
The Man in the Iron Mask
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns
The Terminator
The World is Not Enough
Tomorrow Never Dies
Xena the Warrior Princess (volume 1 and 2) (surprisingly good)
Young Sherlock Holmes

Please note that I am not recommending any of these films/tv shows - just the soundtracks, some of which are better than the shows they support.

 

[Auggie]

Ah yes, I use the "Last of the Mohicans" as well. When we venture into Stygia, I'll use both "Mummy" soundtracks...

 

[VincentDarlage]

Ah yes, I use the "Last of the Mohicans" as well. When we venture into Stygia, I'll use both "Mummy" soundtracks...

Yes. "Stargate" is also good for that.

 

[bradius]

The party is pretty globetrotting. I try to get "World Music" that is applicable to the area they are in. e.g. in Nordhiem, I played Scandinavian folk music Also some Grieg too. My favorite "Conan Music" is Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade (sp?).

 

[VincentDarlage]

I use some classical music, too. Grieg is wonderful, so is "Scheherazade." I also use Liszt (especially his Dante Symphony). One of my favourite CDs is called "Paul Paray conducts Dances of Death"and it includes pieces from Liszt, Saint-Saens, Strauss and Schmitt.

 

[Kyorou]

The group "In the Nursery" also has some interesting pieces. I use the "Engel" album.

 

[Majestic7]

Hmm, some good tips in here I have to check out. Most from movies I haven't seen because I've thought them to be too bad. Heh, I'm afraid soon I'll break 30 hours of music.

 

[VincentDarlage]

Hmm, some good tips in here I have to check out. Most from movies I haven't seen because I've thought them to be too bad. Heh, I'm afraid soon I'll break 30 hours of music.

Yeah. Always remember that movie quality does not always reflect on the music quality. I drive my wife nuts because I will sometimes go see a movie just to hear the soundtrack. I love music, so what can I say?

The lists I offered above are what I have on CD. Unfortunately, I started collecting soundtracks before CDs were available, so much of my collection is on cassette tape or LP - neither of which I can readily listen to anymore.

 

[Aholibamah]

I would add:

Batman Begins soundtrack
Holst's "The Planets"
Aliens soundtrack
Predator soundtrack

 

[Auggie]

Ah, I forgot- I also use the "Legend" soundtrack.

 

[Damien]

I had a hell of a time finding something I was looking for once - tribal music. The few CDs I bought were crappy. So I went on Limewire and downloaded a bunch of tribal drum music. Great stuff for Black Kingdoms campaigns. I'm still on the lookout for a really good CD of tribal drum music. S'hard to find.

Kingdom of Heaven is a great score. Works well for a number of countries. Those with a Near-Eastern bent are what it works best for, though, since the score was written with Jerusalem and the Latin Kingdom of the East in mind.


Nox Arcana and Midnight Syndicate both make wonderful albums for background music. The Constantine score is good too. L'ame Immortelle and Nightwish have a few non-lyric songs that I have ripped and burned onto compilations of other non-lyrical music from other albums to use as background for my games.

The Metal Gear video game scores work really well too, a lot of the time. The main 'Evasion' theme from the first PS2 game is awesome for any sneaking around kind of moments.

Scores from almost any movie can work really well. Lord of the Rings, Van Helsing (crap movie, decent score), Troy, Gladiator, Tristan & Isolde, King Arthur, Batman Begins, etc, ad nauseum. What I did, years ago - and what I still do from time to time with newer movies, is to make a list of every movie I've seen that I can remember, and then look up the scores to see if they sell them (some don't have any, surprisingly). Then I find the good ones to use in my games. That can be expensive if you don't have a good memory.

And I once played Theatre of Tragedy's A Rose For The Dead during the funeral scene for one of the PCs that died.
But I tend to avoid any music with lyrics, as it detracts from the game, in my experience.

 

[Bjorn the Barbarian]

I'll second Holst's The Planets as being excellent background music. The Conan movie sound tracks of course, as well as many other movie sound tracks depending on the scene at the time. I even used the track from The Magnificent Seven once when the players were defending a village.

 

[The King]

If you like some dark tendencies: http://vampirefreaks.com/bands.php

 

[Aholibamah]

I used "the Magnificent Seven" when the players were riding out of a city to go on a scouting mission in a recent game.