Sound For DMs 102 - Find Music That Doesn't Suck
Hi!
I'm Borja, I've been DMing for 4 years, and in this series of articles I want to share the keys that have leveled up how I use sound in my games.
If you're a DM and are not sure how to introduce sound into your games, this article series is for you!
Here are the previous articles in this series for you to catch up on:
I'll be using Bardic Tools to show the concepts and techniques I explain. That's why I built it, after all. To make impressive sound easy. However, these concepts should work with whatever you use for sound: A Spotify playlist, Syrinscape, Tabletop Audio, even a bunch of files in your laptop!
Without further ado, let's dive into...
What Does Great RPG Music Sound Like?
If you've read the previous installment in this series (if not, you can do it here: link), you'll remember that there are three kinds of sounds we care about when preparing a session: Ambience, sound effects, and music.
Today, we're focusing on the flashiest of all, the one that will get your party's hearts thumping: Music.
I said that we want to pick 3 or 4 great tracks for a scene, but what makes RPG music great?
Well, it's simple:
Great RPG sound should nudge the players towards a feeling, without distracting them from the game.
That's it. We're done. Good bye.
Just kidding! Just because it's simple, it doesn't mean it's easy.
Let's examine the sentence, starting from the end.
...without distracting them from the game.
Great RPG music is all about immersion. It's all about helping your players suspend their disbelief and start thinking with their hearts instead of their heads.
Lend me your imagination for a moment.
Have you ever been watching a movie, and suddenly you started realizing: "Hey, wait a minute. If Gandalf could essentially defeat a Balrog, why didn't he help the Dwarves in the Battle of the Five Armies?"
I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable in-world explanation, a piece of the canon that says that Gandalf is forbidden from that conflict because he was drinking with Morgoth one night and he lost a game of cards or something... but it doesn't matter because, by the time you ask that question, Tolkien has already lost you.
The moment your players start thinking with their heads, they stop seeing you as the powerful wizard NPC, and they start seeing you as a (really handsome) person doing a silly voice.
In storytelling, "seeing the wizard" is called "suspending your disbelief", whereas "seeing your friend pretending to be a wizard" is called "breaking your suspension of disbelief", or "utter failure" for short.
As GMs, we want them to believe we're the wizards, and they're the adventurers! We must suspend your party's disbelief and keep it suspended for as long as we can.
Distracting music is the fastest way to break that flow.
Let me say that again:
Distracting music will break your scene apart.
It's always better to have no music than distracting music.
As I've pored through the collections of the amazing composers that collaborate with Bardic Tools, I've developed a series of red flags that disqualify a song from being great RPG music. This doesn't mean that the song is bad! In fact, one of the benefits of listening through hundreds of songs is that I have a playlist with sounds that didn't make it to Bardic Tools, but are perfectly great to read with, or to listen to while working. They just failed one or more of these criteria.
So, here's how I decided whether a song will be distracting.
Music that changes midway through
When the music has been quiet this whole time but is suddenly loud, people will get surprised. This is bad. We don't want them to notice the music.
As an example, listen to this amazing piece by Alexander Nakarada (all of the songs here are by him, please check his music at https://creatorchords.com):
This is a great song. I listen to it on repeat. However, around minute 1:22 the drums kick in, making the song much more epic.
And that's a problem for a session.
The first minute of Fairy of the Forest is amazing for when the PCs are walking in the woods, having a chat, just thinking about all of the adventures they're about to have, maybe having some deliciously awkward interparty romance...
And then BAM! Drums.
Kind of kills the mood.
So, in the Bardic Tools version of Fairy of the Forest, I've removed the drums and just left he first part for a clean, infinite loop of walking in the forest:
Music With Lyrics
We can't help it.
We hear a human voice, and part of our attention gets diverted to it, trying to understand what it says.
This is bad. Their attention should be in the game, and what they're saying, not the singer.
In Bardic Tools, there are no songs with lyrics, on purpose. The most you'll hear is a chorus going "Ahhh" in sounds like these:
Now, there is an exception to this. Sometimes, the music is diegetic--it's coming from the world itself. When the bard signing in a tavern, it makes sense to prepare a song with them singing. In these cases, the players are meant to be listening to the song.
Or, for another example, imagine how cool it would be to hold a viking-style funeral for a PC with this song:
Really Loud Music
This one is simple:
It doesn't matter how epic a scene is--if people have to shout "DID YOU SAY INSIGHT OR INVESTIGATION?" over a booming orchestra, they're not in the scene.
This is especially bad for fight songs, which tend to be epic, loud, and full of drums.
My recommendation?
Play fight songs really loudly for 5-10 seconds while everyone rolls initiative to get their blood flowing, and then lower the volume a lot for the rest of the fight.
Recognizable Music
This one is debatable, but it's a preference I've developed with experience.
If someone stops the scene to ask "Isn't that The March of the Ring Wraiths?", they're not being their character.
Granted, there are some truly epic music pieces that are so good they overpower this rule, but just keep in mind that there is a cost to immersion if you play recognizable sounds.
In Conclusion
Those are just some of the things to avoid when picking music. The list keeps going, but you get the gist.
Right. We've seen what not to do.
But Borja, I hear you say. How do I pick the right music?
Just Use Bardic Tools
I know, I know. An ad? Here?
But really, this is where the "hand-picked" in "200+ hand-picked sounds" comes in. I've ran every single song in Bardic Tools through this filter. For each song that makes it, there are usually two that I discard because, while they are great songs, they are not great for RPGs.
Alright, now for some actual advice.
Great RPG sound should nudge the players towards a feeling...
You might be surprised to see that this section is much shorter than the previous one, but I think it makes sense: Great music is (1) music you love, that (2) nudges players towards a feeling, and (3) is not bad music.
So, to find great music, first define the purpose of the song. Do you want your players to be tense? Excited? Scared? Uplifted? Where does the song happen? In a tavern? In a cave? Is it a battle song?
I like to make a list of the tracks I need for the session before searching for the first track. This makes sure I don't get lost in the millions of songs out there.
Search your music library of choice for the answers to those questions. I guarantee you that "Uplifting Tavern Songs" and "Tense Castle Songs" both yield great results in Spotify, YouTube, and every other soundboard software. To make that easy, I've tried to tag every song in Bardic Tools with the feeling they evoke. Tags like "Piano" and "Creepy" make it really easy to find music for the feeling you're looking for:
Lastly, listen to the music. Make sure it's not bad. Does it change suddenly? Does it have lyrics? Is it too loud? Is it recognizable?
No?
Then you have a winner!
Repeat until you have 3 or 4 tracks.
That's It!
Phew! That was a lot!
As a special thank you for making it this far, here's a discount for Bardic Tools:
GREATMUSIC
You can apply it at checkout for 10% off your first purchase (that's on top of the 60% discount for Early Access!). It will be valid until September 30th, 2024.
If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, come on over to our Discord at https://bardic.tools/discord! I'm always happy to hear from you there.