The Role of Soundtracks: RANDOM BACKGROUND MUSIC GENERATOR

[Gallahan]

Just like in adventurous, action-packed high-concept Hollywood movies, the music you play to accompany your games can affect the drama enjoyed by the entire group. I've been into movie scores/soundtracks for years, and have incorporated them into every game I've run. First, we should note the distinction between "soundtrack" and "score." A score can be considered a soundtrack, but not all soundtracks are scores. A "score" is comprised of music composed for the movie, either via traditional orchestra and/or synthesizer; the key is no words although there may be a chorus that sings words as music. A "soundtrack" can be anything from a score to a collection of pop songs; sometimes a movie's soundtrack is nothing more than an anthology of lyrical pop songs.

Okay, now onto the fun topic of conisdering some scores/soundtracks for Palladium Fantasy! --Personally, I don't use anything with pronounced lyrics in my games, as it is distracting. Every now and then, I'll toss something in that fits into the fantasy genre that has lyrics, but this is very rare. Iron Maiden's song, The Journeyman, is an example of a song I've used as the "end titles" portion of my CD mix. I do this (like many movies do) to change things up, and perhaps to signal its time for a quick break.

Here is a list of a few scores I've come to love over the years, and selections from these scores make great cues to use in mixes for your games. Keep in mind that it is rare, even for a fantastic score, to be able to just put the CD in and play the entire thing for your game. Even the best scores have sections that are too silent or don't fit well into a fantasy game (e.g. The Rocketeer is a GREAT score by James Horner, but there are selections/cues that are songs from the 1930s --great for Steampunk genre, but not fantasy). Also, I will list only those CDs you should still be able to find at Amazon or other soundtrack sites...

1. SpaceCamp (recently re-issued, one of John Williams’s best; get it before it's discontinued and runs again for $120 --it was once RARE to find on CD, only 1,500 copies originally pressed --and only in Japan!)
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
3. Lifeforce (5-stars for main theme and several selections from the end of the movie that prove EPIC for both fantasy and Beyond the Supernatural campaigns
4. Krull
5. Conan the Barbarian (original)
6. Conan the Destroyer
7. Hook (several selections)
8. Young Sherlock Holmes (several selections)
9. Percy Jackson: Lightning Thief
10. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
11. Frank Herbert’s: Children of Dune
12. DUNE (original by Toto, several selections)
13. Thor: The Dark World
14. Babylon 5: Messages From Earth
15. Priest
16. Star Trek 6 (get the recently issued expanded edition if you can, otherwise the main titles, battle sequences and end credits are amazing, and with only a small amount of the Star Trek theme present)
17. The Last Starfighter; mainly the main and end titles, and “Death Blossom” –but well worth the majestic main march
18. Fantastic Journey, an anthology of re-performed score music by Eric Kunzel, a great collection of various scores from numerous movies
19. The Great Fantasy Adventure Album, again by Eric Kunzel, and the title says it all; it’s even better than Fantastic Journey; getting these anthologies will save your money and time, as they serve as ready-to-play background music mixes already created for you
20. Memphis Belle; several selections will add to the complexity of your mix, and there are WW2 period songs great for steampunk
21. X-Men 3: The Last Stand; a surprisingly fantastic score that you can almost play in its entirety! But, several selections stand out throughout the score, especially the last 1/3
22. Obviously, ANY of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogies
23. Soul of the Ultimate Nation; this might be a game score, but it’s by LOTR and Hobbit composer Howard Shore, so you get his epic style without the LOTR feel
24. Twilight Saga: Eclipse: same as above, you get Howard Shore’s style without the LOTR feel
25. Battle Beyond the Stars: James Horner’s first major score, even before Krull
26. Cocoon 1 and 2: very similar, both scores, by James Horner, and main titles and end titles are fantastic; the chase sequences are short, but worth it for your CD/mix
27. Glory: deep and thoughtful, adds contemplative breaks between your action cues, essential for a good mix
28. THE PERFECT STORM: there are three tracks on this one that are about 8-10 minutes long that I put on almost every mix because they are GREAT FOR ANY OCCASION; this is one of the BEST background scores ever composed
29. Star Treks II and III, also by James Horner. Numerous tracks on both CDs are great for background music, with minimal Star Trek main theme
30. Troy by James Horner
31. Willow by James Horner
32. King Kong by James Newtown Howard
33. The Last Airbender by James Newton Howard
34. Malificent
35. Snow White and the Huntsman
36. Waterworld
37. Clash of the Titans
38. Wrath of the Titans
39. The 13th Warrior
40. Congo
41. First Knight (find the expanded edition if you can, there are wonderful cues that are about a minute-long that can break-up the longer cues in your mix
42. King Soloman’s Mines by Jerry Goldsmith
43. The Mummy by Jerry Goldsmith
44. Rambo First Blood Part 2
45. Rambo 3
46. Rudy by Jerry Goldsmith –fantastic, adventurous score, great for a climactic battle!
47. Star Trek: First Contact; while the main title begins with the iconic Star Trek main them for a few seconds, it leads into one of the best scores composed by Jerry Goldsmith, great to set the adventurous tones to your campaign
48. Total Recall: the main theme to this one is great for fantasy and RIFTS genres, one of the best, evoking thoughts of Conan the Barbarian’s main theme if it melded with The Terminator
49. Star Trek: Insurrection; several GREAT cues by master Jerry Goldsmith without the main Star Trek theme; these pair well in a mix with Total Recall
50. Dances with Wolves; several cues here are rather fantastic, filled with depth and adventure, especially The Buffalo Hunt and end credits; also great to listen to in general
51. Cutthroat Island by John Debney: master score! Most of the score is usable AND playable as is, but you still might want to make a mix including this music; pairs well with Independence Day and Titanic
52. Independence Day by David Arnold; almost plays as is, as well; pairs well with Cutthroat Island and Titanic
53. Close Encounters of the Third Kind; a great CD in general, but only a few cues are good for a fantasy mix (1, 2, 13, 14, 19, 21, 22, 23, and 25) the end credits (26) might work, but is a great 12 ½ minute listening experience
54. Far and Away (tracks 14+) are the best
55. Any Indiana Jones, if the main theme doesn’t distract
56. Any Star Wars, if the main themes don’t distract
57. Any Jurassic Park, if the main themes don’t distract, and they really shouldn’t
58. Minority Report (tracks 8-10, mainly)
59. Star Wars Episode III, in particular, BATTLE OF THE HEROES, and works GREAT almost anywhere
60. Star Wars Return of the Jedi: mainly the space battle themes, the Battle of Endor (all separate parts)
61. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl; great for seafaring adventure
62. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
63. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
64. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
65. The Never Ending Story; great to add some change, texture and depth
66. The Dark Crystal: listen to the entire score and then pick your gems, and they’re there!
67. Prometheus
68. Speed
69. Speed: Cruise Control
70. Twister: just a few cues on this don’t work, but MOST of it does, and is rather epic, the end titles feature guitar-playing by Eddie Van Halen
71. Con-air: pairs well with Speed and Twister; epic selections in this score!
72. John Carter: great score composed by “The Next John Williams,” Michael Giacchino
73. Star Trek (2009): use the themes that don’t have the main ST theme; Giacchino is brilliant; the end titles are pure enjoyment to listen to
74. Star Trek: Into Darkness; very similar to Star Trek (2009), not as good, but more atmospheric
75. Robinhood Prince of Thieves
76. Highlander The Original Scores (movies 1, 2 and 3); great mood music punctuated by action
77. Camelot (TV series by Mychael Danna)
78. Thor by Patrick Doyle
79. The Three Musketeers (2011)
80. The Three Musketeers (1993) by Michael Kamen: pairs well with Robinhood Prince of Thieves
81. Cliffhanges: Action and Adventure in the Movies: a great anthology mix of many great scores
82. Ender’s Game
83. Your Highness
84. Battlestar Galactica: any of the re-issued scores from the 1980s; you only need ONE for the main theme which is rather audacious and makes for a great mix intro; if you only get one, I recommend getting “The Living Legend” score
85. Legend by Tangerine Dream; great to change things up, especially when they get magical
86. Beautiful Creatures
87. DUNE original by Toto ---but EXPANDED; try to get this one, although the non-expanded one has a cue by Brian Eno (Prophecy Theme) that is transcendental and not present on the expanded edition
88. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
89. The Last of the Mohicans; the main and hunting themes here are great for any adventure, especially those in forests
90. Immortals by Trevor Morris
91. Invincible by “Two Steps from Hell” – a collection of short movie trailer music, great for short cues to toss between longer selections
92. Conan the Barbarian by Tyler Bates
93. Guardians of the Galaxy by Tyler Bates – be sure to get the score, not the soundtrack which has pop songs; there is a version that has both in the same package
94. Rise of the Argonauts by Tyler Bates
95. Alexander by Vangelis
96. The Fourth Kind; while this works well as a BTS score, the mystery also serves high magic fantasy, or fighting the undead
97. Season of the Witch by Atli Ovarsson, pairs well with the Fourth Kind also by this composer
98. The Thing (1982); great horror score, but makes for great background when the campaign/story has horrific elements, especially if mixed into more adventurous music
99. Predators by John Debney
100. Skyline by Matthew Margeson; the movie might have bombed, but the score is energetic and a bit spooky
101. The Celts by Enya; this is great for adding texture, a break from all the action, and to help add that Celtic feel to your adventure

There you have it, 101 ideas for music to pair with your roleplaying. Remove selection 101 (and just add some into your mix) and then you have 100 options to randomly create a background mix for your next adventure.

LOL… I love random tables, and didn’t begin this with the thought of creating such a table for background music, but here you have it. Roll-up 6 different results, get those albums and listen, enjoy, then make a mix! Who knows what this might lead to.

Music can be an essential part of the stage setting for a fun adventure. Dim the lights, put in some multicolored light bulbs, and turn on the music, not too loud, not too soft… and let the adventure begin!

[Whiskeyjack]

Hope you don't mind if I add a few excellent choices you skipped over.

Starship Troopers. Basil Poledouris. Excellent for any military campaign. Especially if using Coalition troops.
Gladiator. Hans Zimmer at his best. The Battle is one of the most epic battle songs IMHO.
Last of the Mohicans. Promontory is a strange running battle song that works great. Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman.
True Romance. You're so cool. Another oddball composition by Hans Zimmer.

[Gallahan]

Hope you don't mind if I add a few excellent choices you skipped over.

Starship Troopers. Basil Poledouris. Excellent for any military campaign. Especially if using Coalition troops.
Gladiator. Hans Zimmer at his best. The Battle is one of the most epic battle songs IMHO.
Last of the Mohicans. Promontory is a strange running battle song that works great. Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman.
True Romance. You're so cool. Another oddball composition by Hans Zimmer.

Hey, AWESOME. I somehow overlooked Starship Troopers! And I have two versions if the extended scores! Doh! Same with Gladiator. Good catches! I haven't heard True Romance, but will look for it. HOWEVER... I did include Last if the Mohicans (item 89).

Please include more! Again, great catches of two scores I shouldn't have overlooked!

[Whiskeyjack]

Missed that while scrolling.
True Romance is pretty much pop songs except for You're so Cool. But it's an interesting song, and a great movie.
Thanks for the great list BTW. I have some new soundtracks to look into, as well as some movies I've been meaning to introduce the kids to.

[Gallahan]

My pleasure. I love making mixes for roleplaying. It really adds to the excitement.

I'm sure I've missed some more soundtracks, too. I have about 300 of them, or more, but left them out because they didn't fit and/or they weren't on my latest Windows Media Player playlist. I might add another 100 scores if I find them/RIP them to my player.

[Tearstone]

Another soundtrack/score you might look at is The Patriot (Mel Gibson, period flick)
The Last Samurai, for a more Oriental Adventures feel.

I've been a musician for many years, as well as a music buff and audiophile. I have DJ'd and been an audio/music producer, and I almost always have a set of headphones on, playing SOMETHING. A lot of the scores and soundtracks you guys mention on the list are ones I've listened to for a long time. Never really thought about using them on tabletop. When I was really getting a lot of RPG time with friends, our GM never used them, ruling them as a distraction. I can see it, sure, but I can also see it as a great atmospheric tool, like you mentioned.

I might have to experiment with this on Spotify and see how many of these scores/albums I can find. Also, SoundCloud has a lot of great options, some of which can be just things like ambient sound which adds environment. You can also look into MyNoise.Net - They have some great sound generators, including Battlefield RPG and all. You can create some great ambiances there, as well as find great stuff to use to help you block out the world, sleep better, or just loose yourself in your work without always having music. A $5 donation gets you unlimited access for life too, and supports a good cause. (No, I'm not advertizing.)

I tend to use SoundCloud on Roll20 which can work into some great environments. I'll have to see about incorporating a score/soundtrack or six if I get to play on table-top or anything. I also sometimes directly reference songs when I'm doing play-by-post, especially freeform versions. I may also make mention OOC to whoever I am posting with a song that came to mind, or if a song came on while I was doing the writing that was pretty fitting or gave a unique vibe to the RP, or a subtext to it. A lot of my friends have enjoyed those little additions and made things much more rich.

[Hotrod]

Your selection of theme music is great! In a way, though, I worry that it might be too great and become a distraction for a table-top RPG session.

[The Beast]

This is what I have in my fantasy mix:

a few tracks from The Phantom of the Opera
Ogre Battle 64
Skyrim
Morrowind
WoW
Diablo 3
Claymore
Civilization 3
Civilization 4
Gladiator
LotR
a few tracks by Midnight Syndicate
LoZ: Link to the Past
the first three PotC
Sleepy Hollow (the Johnny Depp movie)
Everquest
Age of Wonders 2: Shadow Magic
300

[Gallahan]

Another soundtrack/score you might look at is The Patriot (Mel Gibson, period flick)
The Last Samurai, for a more Oriental Adventures feel.

I've been a musician for many years, as well as a music buff and audiophile. I have DJ'd and been an audio/music producer, and I almost always have a set of headphones on, playing SOMETHING. A lot of the scores and soundtracks you guys mention on the list are ones I've listened to for a long time. Never really thought about using them on tabletop. When I was really getting a lot of RPG time with friends, our GM never used them, ruling them as a distraction. I can see it, sure, but I can also see it as a great atmospheric tool, like you mentioned.

I might have to experiment with this on Spotify and see how many of these scores/albums I can find. Also, SoundCloud has a lot of great options, some of which can be just things like ambient sound which adds environment. You can also look into MyNoise.Net - They have some great sound generators, including Battlefield RPG and all. You can create some great ambiances there, as well as find great stuff to use to help you block out the world, sleep better, or just loose yourself in your work without always having music. A $5 donation gets you unlimited access for life too, and supports a good cause. (No, I'm not advertizing.)

I tend to use SoundCloud on Roll20 which can work into some great environments. I'll have to see about incorporating a score/soundtrack or six if I get to play on table-top or anything. I also sometimes directly reference songs when I'm doing play-by-post, especially freeform versions. I may also make mention OOC to whoever I am posting with a song that came to mind, or if a song came on while I was doing the writing that was pretty fitting or gave a unique vibe to the RP, or a subtext to it. A lot of my friends have enjoyed those little additions and made things much more rich.

Impressive! Wow...!

I happen to love the Patriot. How did I miss putting that on the list! Yes, I have the Last Samurai, too. I haven't listened to that one very much; will have to refresh my memory and listen again. Along the Oriental Adventures lines, I also have/like....
1. Dragon, the Bruce Lee Story
2. Pearl Harbor (the Japanese fleet cues)
3. Shanghai Noon
4. Remo Williams, The Adventure Begins
5. Princess Mononoke

I don't have Shogun, from the 80s TV mini-series, but want to get it for the main titles alone, but there's also SO MUCH good music in there. In the NEW AGE realm of music, there are some neat Japanese composers, Kitaro and Osama Kitajima (sp). I have many Kitaro CDs and the only one of Osama Kitajimas "Passages." But, I'm sure that there are TONS of Japanese bamboo flute music. I'll have to research Amazon and try to find Asian classical music.

I happen to like the "weird west" genre (something I think Palladium could expand into terrifically), and loved mixing horror music with wild west action scores. It's really a neat kind of mix to make. There are a lot of great western movie scores out there, and mixing them with horror music is a lot of fun.

[Tearstone]

Oh god, that gave me an idea for a BTS game, the weird west thing... But having ideas pop into my head is good, right?

[Gallahan]

Oh god, that gave me an idea for a BTS game, the weird west thing... But having ideas pop into my head is good, right?

First, I wrote "Osama" but his name is "Osamu," so he's not in any way affiliated with the notorious "Osama." This composer is Japanese.

Second: BTS in the Wild West?! Oh yeah! Imagine all the potential! Imagine gunslinging PCCs and gambling magician (cheating) OCCs! Imagine skinwalkers, native Anerican shamans, Civil War officers wanting new beginnings, and railroad barons... Mixed with werewolves, werecoyotes! And Chinese immigrants (Mystic China tie-ins) and rangers and vampires and jack-a-lopes. Toss in Nikolai Tesla, mysterious airship sightings and Sasquatch! And you have one HECK of an adventure/campaign.

[kiralon]

This is what I have in my fantasy mix:

a few tracks from The Phantom of the Opera
Ogre Battle 64
Skyrim
Morrowind
WoW
Diablo 3
Claymore
Civilization 3
Civilization 4
Gladiator
LotR
a few tracks by Midnight Syndicate
LoZ: Link to the Past
the first three PotC
Sleepy Hollow (the Johnny Depp movie)
Everquest
Age of Wonders 2: Shadow Magic
300

thought id add some more
Diablo 1 and 2
extracting the sound effects from the avp2 game makes for really good and scary ambient noises
Stardust
Battlestar galactica has very good militaristic music (I do like bear mcleary)
Remixes to c64 games
Some harry potter albums
homeworld and homeworld 2
danny elfman collection
fallout2 soundtrack
MechWarrior 2 the game came with a lot of good music.
The ultimate Halloween scary music album is great for scary tense times
willow
medieval baebes haves some good ones (does have vocals)
the starwars sountracks
total annihilation soundtrack
wing commander movie soundtrack (better than the movie)
dominions 3 and 4
freespace2
the myth games music
oblivion
elemental and fallen enchantress
shogun total war, well in fact most of the total war range.
HOMM's
bards tales

[Gallahan]

I purposefully didn't include superhero scores, but some dam fine ones are:
Batman (Danny Elfman)
Batman Returns (Danny Elfman)
Spider-Man (Danny Elfman)
Spider-Man2 (DannyElfman)
Superman (John Williams)

Thee are many more, of course.

[The Beast]

I purposefully didn't include anything that didn't have a fantasy/medieval feel to it.

[zyanitevp]

The most popular site on Obsidian Portal is a Gaming Music site that I have used.

[tmbn]

I made several lists on Spotify. This is just one of them with a lot of music described in the first post. This is one example of traveling music in Palladium. Playing when players travel:

https://open.spotify.com/user/tmbn3000/ ... xXgJgv8uzx

The list is updated every now and then. Just follow list if you want. I have more lists on Battle, Dungeon, Epic, town etc. if you want more.

[Gthomas41571]

what about pirates of the Caribbean ?