Fan Club “Blog” #24: Two amazing mixes for your Public Access campaign & a musical chat
Added 2026-02-17 16:23:22 +0000 UTCComments
This is WILD
Quinns Quest
2026-02-26 18:40:40 +0000 UTCI have a living playlist for my Slugblaster campaign, because I use a narrative framework of telling their story from the perspective of a documentary being done about them 20+ years after their journey ends. I kind of montage through story beats by way of the Director of the film in the editing room choosing a music cue for that scene. Likewise, the players will often describe what song they're listening to, and then that gets added to our group playlist.
Eddie
2026-02-24 23:24:55 +0000 UTCI agree on principal, but also disagree in a way as the music needs to fit and its such a specific thing to get right, especially playing with a bunch of ADHD folks online, it can become distracting if the wrong kind. I did something for Impossible Landscapes, but it was mostly ambience of actual town and rooms etc I could link to stuff in the game and rarely songs (for start in a radio or such). That was effective and lot of fun, but quite the effort i didnt repeat again and mainly also due to the hassle of keeping track of it too. i got a musican among, maybe i should ask her to do something on a whim to see if it will fit. :)
Auburnt Amaranth
2026-02-20 01:53:45 +0000 UTCThe lack of music might be the biggest downside to the games I play online. Unless I can really trust the audio setups of all my players to be locked in it usually causes more trouble than it's worth. This blog already has me excited to get weirder with it in my in-person games at least though! It's also always nice when games have official soundtracks to lean into. Heart and Wildsea kill it in that department, but now I want to go digging for more variety!
A Scruff McGruffin
2026-02-20 01:35:10 +0000 UTCOh my god I've wanted a soundboard for so long! The one thing I wanted in my Delta Green campaign was an UNBELIEVABLY loud sound effect for if anyone fired a gun. Never found the time to arrange it, though What hardware and software are you using for it?
Quinns Quest
2026-02-19 09:58:54 +0000 UTCOh my god, the algorithm's assumption about your musical taste becomes so weird 😅 I would love to know what having a respectable recommendation page looks like. I really would.
Quinns Quest
2026-02-19 09:54:59 +0000 UTCMusic truly elevates a game. I was running a Lancer game and using some old Gundam/Robotech music for ambience during battles mixed in with a soundboard I was using full of classic mecha sounds. But then they get to the end of the first mission, and they face down a “Monstrosity” which is Lancer speak for a Kaiju. There were some some mutated super soldier squads for a whole mad science vibe. I ripped in with Dance with the Dead’s “The Man Who Made a Monster” and you could feel the electricity in the air
Andrew Hill
2026-02-18 20:24:43 +0000 UTCMy advice would be talk to friends. My brother in law is a metal guy. I am not a metal guy. He came up with some immensely on point doom metal for our Trophy Gold game that I would never have found by myself.
Ads
2026-02-18 13:31:29 +0000 UTCOn a similar note to Tzusing, this is a heavy beast, if not as fast paced. More for that Night Phase energy https://liesrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dream-of-the-walled-city
Ads
2026-02-18 13:29:05 +0000 UTCDoes anyone have advice for finding music that fits a certain vibe if that's not what you usually listen to?
Tom Kaplan
2026-02-18 13:17:30 +0000 UTCOmfg I LOVE Tzusing and 日出東方 唯我不敗 in particular. My brother deployed their music ruthlessly in his cyberpunk campaign. A+ using it for a gunfight in Delta Green. It's alien and heavy and exciting all at once. Lots of BoC in our PA game, and Aphex in the Night Phase because ofc
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2026-02-18 12:35:11 +0000 UTCOn the rare occasion that I have tried to roleplay without music, it's felt like trying to drive a car standing up (I presume, I can't drive). When I'm a player, I don't feel like I know a PC until they have their own playlist, and when I'm DMing, making a playlist is usually my in when I'm thinking about a new location. The next city the party are going to? Chill jazz flute. When they're riding motorbikes across the planes, that's all sludgy electric guitars. When they get to the convent of the vampire nuns, well then it transitions into moody flamenco guitar, of course. It does mean that my Spotify Wrapped (I'm in the process of trying to divest, but the playlists are making it hard) is always insane. One year most of my top 10 tracks were Easy Listening or Rag-Time Piano.
Josh Rodell
2026-02-18 09:20:36 +0000 UTCHey man, Music realy helps with emersion so it realy worth creating a few playlist (or just using the ones you find on Spotify). I usually can get away with a combat, exploration and a creepy playlist. Becuase we use Discord I installed Spoticord on my Discord server. ( https://spoticord.com/ ) its super easy and if you know how to use Spoti then you will be able to use this too :)
Winston Smith
2026-02-18 09:02:14 +0000 UTCHell yeah, my favourite bit of GMing is finding weird music to play. Not gonna lie tho, the best moment I had was when I accidentally put the wrong playlist on and we did a massed battle in Mythic Bastionland to Hell March from Red Alert and it totally worked for some reason?
James Reichelt
2026-02-18 07:17:12 +0000 UTCI have never had great success with music during any games. I think one reason is that most of my games are online, and online sound is a technical leap too far for me when I'm also running a game. The times I have done music at a meatspace table have been big parties of DND, where the needs of new players, and the ambient volume of the table, meant that music didn't feel very impactful. Perhaps it's also because I was simply putting on fantasy videogame sound tracks and forgetting about it, but the alternative feels odd, because I feel like I don't listen to soundtrack appropriate music? Like I like *my* music, but I know that its polarizing, and constructed in a way to take over the entire emotional space in any given moment, paced with climaxes that *hit* , at their specific moment. I feel a bit attacked really, because I read this post and feel like I can't really do that, I don't listen to enough music. And maybe that does mean I can only ever get to a 9/10. But that's sad to hear nonetheless. I know my players often do want music, because they've offered to do the playlists, but they also seem to do very little other than look up an ambient fantasy themed playlist. Is there something I'm missing that makes this part of the hobby actually feasible?
Peter Robinson
2026-02-18 03:56:17 +0000 UTCYeah WBN is absolute peak. The performances combined with the editing and the sound design is phenomenal
Lojaan
2026-02-17 23:06:12 +0000 UTCAbsolutely agree that music is a cornerstone to this type of storytelling. Ttrpg share so much from all sorts of fictional modes but cinema and television are the easiest reaches because we're using sight and sound to process the story instead of reading, and music is integral to those mediums. For the last D&D 5e game I ran I used one anime soundtrack in particular (Ranking of Kings) that had a ton of short evocative tracks that spanned a lot of different emotions. I attached different tracks to different themes and narrative threads. So each PC had a couple tracks, each villain, each location, etc, and I just swapped playlists when each thread foregrounded in play. Super satisfying. Also a ton of work. So. Mileage varies. But! Also I think it's what makes the Worlds Beyond Number podcast the current peak of Actual Play. The addition of original composed music to match the storytelling beats elevates it as a piece of storytelling to engage with above even the ones with good playlist management.
Brandon Johnson
2026-02-17 17:52:58 +0000 UTC
