what is the best music to listen to while playing d&d?
Had to look up “d&d”.
I think 50’s Rock-a-Billy to get your feet back on the ground.
Jethro Tull’s Broadsword and the Beast
does anyone else have another opinion. i’m thinking some dark mood music, but i need some ideas for artists.
or maybe Hot Night in Hell, by Gorebag and the Grunts, which can be searched for from the Zaphod link. But if ya want elven atmosphere try Steeleye Span, or old Incredible String Band, if still available- “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter” was a good album of theirs.
The Gorebag people also have an RPG-themed album called “Send Money or the Fairie Dies”, but I haven’t listened to that one yet.
Leslie Fish’s filk-singing is sometimes dark, and certainly sufficiently weird.
If you want an old fart’s advice from someone who used to play D&D, try these:
Queen II: Their fantasy themed album, with a black side and a white side. Funny, I always preferred listening to the black side, with “The Seven Seas of Rhy,” “The Fairy Queen” and the like. Rock with a fantasy theme.
Rick Wakeman: Keyboardist for the original “Yes” (either that or he came in early on). He went solo for awhile and did albums on King Arthur & the Knights of the Round Table, and the Six Wives of Henry VIII.
In fact, the early Yes albums had a kind of fantasy feeling to me as well. “Tales of Topographic Oceans” is a double album that’s probably not well regarded, but their earlier ones are.
You may want to consider some of the ambient artists as well, particularly those who deal with Tibetan themes (bells, sounds of drifting wind and the like). Can’t name names, but check out http://www.hos.com (Hearts of Space) and you might find some ideas there.
Personally, I never felt the need for background music, but that’s because it was shared storytelling with us rather than dungeon-diving and loot-collecting. Ah, those were the days, but I better stop before I start with the stories, like the time when we came across these Orcs and . . .
Hey! Where’d everybody go?
Stuff we used to use for D&D and other RPGs:
Cure (early stuff)
Sisters of Mercy
Black Sabbath (also early stuff)
Motorhead
Lords of Acid
Danzig (I recommend Danzig 4)