I wish “Music for Roleplaying” had been one of the first sections I added to GameWyrd as perhaps it would have had a higher profile and been more successful. I still think the internet would benefit from a music database/recommendation service for gamers and scenes.
Lately sites like Last.fm and Spotify have helped though. Last.fm seems to be especially good at recommending appropriate music based on tags and there are gamer groups there.
If you’ve any music suggestions for scenes or types of games then please leave a note in the comments section below.
| Scene / Theme | Album | Single: | Artist: | Style: | Contributor: |
| A ball held by the goblin king | Cristifori’s Dream | Cristifori’s Dream | Daivd Lanz | New Age | LAdye Amethyst |
| A bard (female) singing; lots of different fantasy themes. | Fires At Midnight | Blackmore’s Night | New Age | Wyrdmaster | |
| A Call of Cthulhu game | Any | Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne | Rock | Ceredhion | |
| A Celtic RPG/Traveling along a sea-side Village | (None) | The Dragon’s Breath | David Arkenstone | Ambience | Luinethondwen |
| A fight/Race | none | Brave Heart (techno remix) | Paul Oakenfold | Techno | Sempiternal |
| Agathering of evil worshipers beneath a full moon | Black widow | Come to the Sabbat | Black widow | Rock | argonus |
| A group of adventurers, getting ready for war | Kill ’em All | The Four Horsemen | Metallica | Metal | fantasia down |
| A moment of wonder/Entering a enchanted place | Music inspired by Middle Earth | David Arkenstone | New Age | Luinethondwen | |
| A song for a paladin, especially one with inner turmoil/emotional issues | Us and Them | Heroes | Shinedown | Rock | Nidius |
| A vampire encounters a dark mage and they fight to the death | Damnation and a Day | A bruise upon a silent moon | Cradle of filth | Metal | Thornhelm the Skullspilter |
| Aftermath of killing/eeriness | O Brother where Art Thou? | Lord show me the way | Various | Gospel | violet |
| all | Under the Violet moon | Blackmore night | Ambience | gurgi | |
| All is Lost/ World Of Darkness | Pretty Hate Machine | Something I can Never Have | Nine Inch Nails | Pop | BeefcakeTheMity |
| An evil paladin dies | vs. the world | Death in Fire | Amon amarth | Metal | Thornhelm the Skullspilter |
| Any deadly peril | unknown | Trouble | Shampoo | Pop | MadCelt |
| Any horror or a heavily dreary campaign | Devil May Cry OST 1,2,&3 | Various | Soundtrack | Epiphris | |
| Any part of a Warhammer 40,000 game | Living With The Past | Protect and Survive | Jethro Tull | Rock | The Supreme One |
| any superhero game | Spiderman 2 soundtrack | Ordainary | Train | Rock | shaluus |
| any vampire the masquerade | – | the nobodies | Marilyn Manson | Metal | Sorrow |
| Bar Fight | It’s been done many times… | Ballroom Blitz | Blue Oyster Cult | Rock | Cryomancer |
| Bar-Room Brawl | Uppers And Downers | Rumble(d) | The Yo-Yos | Rock | BeefcakeTheMity |
| Barbarian Rage | Kill Maim Burn | Kill Maim Burn | Debauchery | Metal | Nasir6 |
| Battle | Piper At The Gates of Dawn | Interstellar Overdrive | Pink Floyd | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| Battle | We Are Not Alone | So Cold | Breaking Benjamin | Rock | Tek |
| battle (large scale or epic) | the phantom menace | duel of the fates | John Williams | Soundtrack | Sorrow |
| Battle in court/Fight against authority | Ride the Lightning | Creeping Death | Metallica | Metal | chloe |
| battling a demon | final fantasy IX soundtrack | trance Kuja battle | – | Ambience | Sorrow |
| Battling a powerful magic user and ruler | Wrath of the Tyrant | I am the black wizards | Emperor | Metal | Nasir6 |
| Brawling fight sequence. | War and Wine | All of it!!!! | Dukes of Nothing | Rock | BeefcakeTheMity |
| Caravan / Travelling on Horses | Waiting For The Sun | Spanish Caravan | The Doors | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| Caves / Dungeons | Meddle | Echoes | Pink Floyd | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| Circus or Magic Show | Sgt. Peppers | For The Benefit of Mr. Kite | The Beatles | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| Colleseum-type battle scenes; appeasing the warlords | Holywood | Fite Song | Maralyn Manson | Rock | Crawf Riddle |
| Combat | The Headless Children | Mean Man | WASP | Metal | Harlequin565 |
| Combat, combat against a female werewolf | Cryptic Writings | She-Wolf | Megadeth | Metal | Wyrdmaster |
| Cyber Punk/urban sprawl | Give me Convenience or give me death | Police Truck | Dead Kennedys | Punk | Agarg |
| Cyberpunk | Cyberpunk | Billy Idol | Punk | Wyrdmaster | |
| Cyberpunk | The Matrix Soundtrack | Various | Metal | Rain | |
| Dark Music that’s modern | Fallen | Everybody’s Fool | Evanescence | Metal | LAdye Amethyst |
| Driving, Scenes in Las Vegas or Miami, especially those set in the 70’s or 80’s | Lounge-a-Palooza | Music to Watch Girls By | The james Taylor Quartet | Jazz | Guildenstern |
| Dungeons and Dragons song | N/A | N/A | Unknown | Ambiance | Kvetch the Mighty |
| Elven temple | Deep Forest | Deep Forest | Sweet Lullaby | Ambiance | Wyrdmaster |
| Epic Battle | Through the Ashes of Empires | Bite the Bullet | Machine Head | Metal | lil turtle |
| Epic Evil Unleashed | Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia | Puritanica | Dimmu Borgir | Rock | Guildenstern |
| Epic, building conflic, with PC/ NPC death | Wishmaster | Fantasmic | Nightwish | Metal | Lord Stavros |
| Ever find a situation that just intoxicates you? | Blue crush | Alive | P.O.D | Rock | C-Puff |
| Fantasy | Lord of the Rings | Various | Soundtrack | Wyrdmaster | |
| Father’s Funeral | Harvest | Old Man | Old Man | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| Fight with strong enemy/Deamon | ? | Down With The Sickness | Disturbed | Rock | Faol Falconbreeze |
| Fighting demons | Tubular Bells | Tubular Bells part 1 | Mike Oldfield | Ambiance | Aratos |
| Final Battle! Defeating the ominous evil thingy | Ascendancy | Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr | Trivium | Metal | lil turtle |
| Floating Down a River in a Raft or Boat | Revolver | Tomorrow Never Knows | The Beatles | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| For riding a desert | Exile | theme from Edanna | makers of Myst | New Age | Jade |
| Gentle travelling | Live 1993 | Little fluffy clouds | The Orb | Techno | Wyrdmaster |
| Getting pumped for a fight in a modern setting | And Then There was X | Party Up in Here | DMX | Rap | Guildenstern |
| giant robots/war machines | Sehnsucht | Sehnsucht | Rammstein | Metal | nejiblack |
| Gladiatorial Combat | “Gladiator” movie soundtrack | Various | Soundtrack | lordbasl | |
| Gnomes on Adventure! | Piper At The Gates of Dawn | The Gnome | Pink Floyd | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| Haunted Church, healing or a strange but calm encounter | Love Sensuality Devotion | Sadness | Enigma | Ambiance | Wyrdmaster |
| Healing the Wounded after the Battle | Core | Creep | Stone Temple Pilots | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| Hero(es) Ambushing Villian(s)/Villian(s) getting thrashed by hero(es) | The Dark Knight Soundtrack | Introduce a little Anarchy | Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard | Soundtrack | Nasir6 |
| Heroic Uprising | The End Of All Things To Come | Not Falling | Mudvayne | Metal | Dossk Brokenhand |
| Horror. Very frightening and spooky. | The Outer Limit | John Van Tongeren | Ambiance | Clemmensen | |
| Humorous Villain’s Theme Music | Devil’s Bris | When You’re Evil | Voltaire | New Age | lil turtle |
| Hyborian Age Lore | The Black Opera | Act 1: The First Seal | Opera IX | Metal | Nasir6 |
| In a fight or at a club (cyberpunk/V:tM) | blade soundtracks | confusion | new order | Techno | Sorrow |
| In a tavern between battles. | Kings of Metal | The Crown and the Ring | Manowar | Rock | Helmut |
| In the temple | final fantasy x soundtrack | hymn of the fayth | – | Gospel | Sorrow |
| Large-scale battle | The Planets | Mars: The Bringer of War | Gustav Holst | Classical | Screaming_Bear |
| Many ! | Perils | Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses | Classical | Mortaeo | |
| Medieval/ any | Robin Hood Prince of Thieves | Wild Times | ? | Soundtrack | peanut |
| Mining For Gold | Harvest | Heart of Gold | Neil Young | Ambiance | DoppleGanger |
| Mobile Infantry orbital combat drop | Dirty Work | “One Hit to the Body | Rolling Stones | Rock | lordbasl |
| Modern Horror | In The Flat Field | Bauhaus | Rock | Harlequin565 | |
| Moody, Dark, and Depressing Scenes, Lost Hope | It’s Raining Today: The Scott Walker Story | The Seventh Seal | Scott Walker | Ambiance | Guildenstern |
| Mystic wiseman / fantasy romance | Cross of Changes | Return to Innocence | Enigma | Ambiance | Wyrdmaster |
| Old and ancient things lost | The Serpent’s Egg | The Host of Seraphim | Dead Can Dance | Ambiance | Wyrdmaster |
| piracy | Under the Jolly Roger | Under the Jolly Roger | Running Wild | Metal | praetorian |
| Poisoned | Desert Sessions | Don’t Drink Poison | QOTSA / KYUSS | Ambiance | DoppleGanger |
| Preparing for Battle | Sucking the ’70’s | Black Betty | Throttle Rod | Rock | Tek |
| Preparing for the final battle | Conan: the Barbarian Soundtrack | Anvil of Crom | Basil Poledouris | Ambiance | Nasir6 |
| Quiet, moody and tension -building music. Both calm and tense. Well suited for serious moods. Great for any genre! | Smilla’s sense of snow | Harry Gregson-Williams & Hans Zimmer | Classical | Clemmensen | |
| Raining | Sgt. Peppers | Fixing A Hole | The Beatles | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| Ravenloft undead | demanufacture | new breed | fearfactory | Metal | Elwyn Silvereyes |
| Riding in the badlands | Boomslang | The Last Ride | Johnny Marr + the Healers | Rock | Guildenstern |
| Running From Monsters | Help! | Help! | The Beatles | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| S**t hitting the fan in a Call of Cthulhu game | Let sleeping gods lie | 6 gun gorgan Dynamo | The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets | Rock | Kthulhu309 |
| Sadness | Ennio Morricone | Chi mai | Ennio Morricone | Soundtrack | Wyrdmaster |
| Sea Venture | Seventh son of the seventh son | rhyme of the ancient mariner | Iron Maiden | Metal | Elwyn Silvereyes |
| Sea Venture | Powerslave | rime of the ancient mariner | Iron Maiden | Metal | Elwyn Silvereyes |
| Shadowrun | We Came To Kill | Funker Vogt | Techno | TrueMarik | |
| Shadowrun | Fallen | Evanescence | Rock | TrueMarik | |
| Slaughtering and/or Pillaging | The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand | Before the Hangman’s Noose | Devildriver | Metal | lil turtle |
| Sneaking into a temple | The Interzone Mantras | Mantra | The Tea Party | Rock | Snow in August |
| Snowscape or a gentle seascape. | Escape From Television | Crockett’s theme | Jan Hammer | Ambiance | Wyrdmaster |
| Stranded in unknown wilderness of vast beauty | ??? | Endless Column | Blue Man Group | Ambiance | Snow in August |
| The Aftermath of a battle/Starting off on a journey | Avalon: A Celtic Legend | Guinerere’s Tears | David Arkenstone | Ambiance | Luinethondwen |
| The Appearance of a Demon- for a Medival or Renissnace setting | THe Phantom of the Opera | Overture | Instrumental | Soundtrack | PhantomBard00 |
| The End of The World | Sunn Amps & Smashed Guitars | Ripped on Facist Ideas | Earth | Ambiance | BeefcakeTheMity |
| Travelling Between Towns | Days Of Future Past | Tuesday Afternoon | Moody Blues | Rock | DoppleGanger |
| Vampire the Masquerade/D20 Modern setting setup | Anichrist Superstar | Angel With The Scabbed Wings | Marilyn Manson | Rock | Serai |
| Various creatures from horror stories | Horror Show | Iced Earth | Metal | praetorian | |
| Victory… at what cost? | The Contino Sessions | dirge | Death in Vegas | Ambiance | Wyrdmaster |
| Visiting an exotic, yet peaceful land | Civilization 4 Soundtrack | Baba Yetu | Christopher Tin | Ethnic | Nasir6 |
| Watching the dancing girl. | Brand new day | Desert Rose | Sting | New Age | C-Puff |
| Woodland & country side | Shadow of the moon | Blackmore Knight | Ethnic | gurgi | |
| World Of Darkness | The Downward Spiral | Hurt | Nine Inch Nails | Ambiance | BeefcakeTheMity |
Depending on genre, I've had success with using some of the above plus:
anything by Loreena McKennit
much by Enya or Clannad
Koyaanisqatsi and other works by Philip Glass
traditional music of the area eg. classical or folk Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Trouvere music
Ah! Philip Glass! That's the recommendation I was trying to remember. Thank you.
Hi all!
Try this for your rpg moments:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVeUrhbXgRvqNyjMRowIyFQ
Enjoy!