Background Music for Dungeons & Dragons and Other Fantasy Tabletop RPGs

Welcome back to the blog!

I wanted to talk about the background music that I use in my own Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. There's no cutting-edge DMery here—plenty of DMs use soundtracks at the table. But I believe that I've compiled a solid list of soundtracks and I hope you agree!

But first, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when playing music at the table:

• Make sure that your music is background music, not foreground music. It shouldn't be loud enough to break anyone's concentration or interfere with conversation.
• Know when to turn it off. Think of horror movies where the background music drops out, leaving only ambient sound effects. That really ramps up the tension, doesn't it? While I'm describing a location, I like to fade the music out while fading in some sound mixes instead. My favorite site for these is ambient-mixer.com.

Let's get on to my favorite soundtracks, but first, some disclaimers! These are the soundtracks that I use in my own campaigns. They may not be the best soundtracks for you, but I think there's enough variety here that most Dungeons Masters will find this list useful. This article is not sponsored in any way, although I may receive commissions for purchases made through the links below.

Film and Television Soundtracks

Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer by Basil Poledouris. These soundtracks belong on any Dungeons & Dragons playlist. They truly are the most epic of epic fantasy soundtracks! If you're already a fan of Poledouris, you may also appreciate his soundtracks to RoboCop and Spellbinder.

Midsommar by Bobby Krlic. These suspenseful and ethereal soundscapes are perfect for any horror scenario.

The Dark Crystal by Trevor Jones, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Vol. 1 by Daniel Pemberton, and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Vol. 2 by Daniel Pemberton and Samuel Sim. Sometimes dark and sometimes mystical—and often both at once—these soundtracks are ideal for journeys through mysterious lands.

The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King by Howard Shore. These are arguably more famous than the Conan soundtracks, at least to younger fans. Sometimes the main themes are too recognizable, so I usually stick to the more subdued tracks.

Bram Stoker's Dracula by Wojciech Kilar. This is an underappreciated horror masterpiece! It has moody exploration and travel themes, but also plenty of tracks suitable for action and combat.

Game Soundtracks

Pillars of Eternity by Justin E. Bell. If you need one soundtrack that covers just about any fantasy scenario, it's Pillars of Eternity! This deluxe edition has 61 tracks!

Myst and Myst II: Riven by Robyn Miller, Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation by Jack Wall, Myst V: End of Ages and Uru: Ages Beyond Myst by Tim Larkin. Much like the Myst games, these soundtracks are filled with mystery and adventure. Play them while exploring dark dungeons and you won't regret it.

Darkest Dungeon, Darkest Dungeon: The Butcher's Circus, and Darkest Dungeon: The Color of Madness by Stuart Chatwood. Cinematic and epic game music, perfect for combat or action sequences.

General Instrumental Music

Dungeons & Dragons by Midnight Syndicate. This is as "official" as you're going to get, because the album was made at the request of Wizards of the Coast! The soundtrack is fantasy-oriented, but the rest of Midnight Syndicate's work is more appropriate for horror.

Theater of Mineral NADEs by Eyvind Kang. Cinematic medieval music, perfect for bard and minstrel performances.

Zeit, Phaedra, and Rubycon by Tangerine Dream. Ambient electronica, excellent for flying ships and trips to weirder planes.

SkyWorld and Battlecry Anthology by Two Steps From Hell. This duo composes music for movie trailers, so you've definitely heard them before—even if you don't know it. I like these two albums the best, but really anything will give your game a cinematic feel!

Instrumental Metal and Rock

nihsahshsaH and Badakhshan by Hashshashin. Traditional Middle Eastern music meets metal, psychedelia, and drone. Planning an encounter in the desert? This is your soundtrack.

Jumyr-Kylysh by Ulytau. Turkic folk metal to give your combats a nice non-Western flavor.

Australasia, City of Echoes, What We All Come to Need, Forever Becoming, and Nighttime Stories by Pelican. Yes, that's a lot. Slow to mid-tempo post-metal, perfect for combats and encounters, especially boss battles.

Perichoresis by Secret Chiefs 3. Afghani folk meets rock music. Really, anything by Secret Chiefs 3 could be played at the table, but this album is the most consistent from beginning to end. Some of my other favorites include Book M, Book of Horizons, Book of Souls: Folio A, and Xaphan, which all include a mix of Afghani and other genres outside the Western tradition along with death metal, surf rock, film music, and more.

Free Soundtracks

Of course, there are free RPG soundtracks, too. A couple of my favorite soundtrack YouTube channels are D&D Breakfast Club and Michael Ghelfi. Check them out!

If you know of any other epic soundtracks, please let me know in the comments!

Cheers!

Wyatt

Review of Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

Welcome to the first proper article on the blog! There's still plenty to do on the campaign site, but it's relatively stable now. Which is to say, the basic skeleton of a campaign world is there, and I just need to keep adding to it. But it's time to work on some in-game campaign tasks, like miniature painting and terrain building, and also sharpen my own Dungeon Master skills.

I wouldn't say that I'm a great DM. Average, probably, but also inconsistent. To fix that, I've been watching a lot of Matt Colville videos while preparing for my upcoming campaign. You've probably heard of his Running the Game series—and if you haven't, be sure to check it out. There's a lot of valuable advice for Dungeon Masters in those 100+ videos.

But I've also been hearing about Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael E. Shea. Some have said that it's a better Dungeon Master's guide than the official Dungeon Master's Guide itself. That's strong praise, so I wanted to check it out. I'll mention right now that this is not a sponsored post. I bought the book myself and I'm under no obligation to review it. I will include a link below with an Amazon Affiliate code, meaning I may earn a small commission if you buy it, but that's it.

So what is Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master? It's a variety of DM tips and tricks to make your life as a Dungeon Master much easier. Being a "lazy" DM is really about efficiency and optimizing how you prepare and run your game, so these are DM hacks to help you do that. Some examples include starting each session strong to get your players invested, having your players create wishlists of rewards (like magic items), and using upward and downward beats to maintain a fun pace. But you'll also find general DM advice, like ignoring whatever doesn't work for your game. That's true in Dungeon Mastering, gaming, and life in general, right?

Chapter 6 ("Define Secrets and Clues") is a standout DM tip for me. It involves writing down ten or more secrets or clues before each session. These are basic story elements, like a part of the villain's plan or a non-player character's secret identity. What's important is that you don't specify how players discover them. They're meant to be like breadcrumbs that you sprinkle in whenever the players find something. That might start a new quest, connect elements in a current quest, or reveal some secret about the world itself. It's a great way to keep your game flexible by preparing small details ahead of time and dropping them in when the time is right.

Another favorite of mine is chapter 20 ("Three Tricks for Group Storytelling"), which is all about transferring some of the burden of DMing to your players. We're probably all familiar with Matthew Mercer's "how do you want to do this?", where his players describe the killing blow. I like to let players "build a dungeon" by coming up with their own rumors about the location. (I'm sure I'll write about this soon.) Shea suggests asking players to describe interesting features about monsters, taverns (and other locations), and even events that happen during travel. They're all wonderful ways to involve your players beyond combat and role-playing.

I don't want to give away all the secrets, so check out Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael E. Shea (commission link) if you're interested in being more efficient in your own DMing. Or check out more of Sly Flourish's advice at slyflourish.com.

Take care,

Wyatt