Hello everyone! My name is Ian Dunn, I will be making this week\u2019s content for Music @ the Moment. I\u2019ll be showing how music combines with Dungeons and Dragons. Music is an excellent way to enhance my D&D sessions. Every session I have a Spotify playlist with songs for different situations and moods playing on a Bluetooth speaker. I often find songs from video games as music in games is designed to build atmosphere and to be repeated. Finding the right song in session can be a challenge. It only adds to the struggle that is running a game of Dungeons and Dragons. But if it adds extra work to an already busy job why do I do it? Because music adds so much! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine any movie, or TV series, or video game and remove the music. You notice it\u2019s gone. Music adds so much atmosphere and builds upon what is happening on screen. If you\u2019ve played D&D with music and then the person with the Bluetooth speaker can\u2019t come to session everyone notices it and misses them more. \u00a0It can be hard to provide an example but here\u2019s a small exert from my notes for a session I ran a few weeks ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou hear them before you see them. The rustling of leaves, breaking of foliage, the clank of metal armor and the call of a war horn. You and your allies draw your weapons and charge with the warriors emerging from the brush! But as you are about to clash blades you hear a strange clicking sound. All too late you realize your mistake as monstrous ant-like creatures emerge from the forest and from the ground spitting acid at the intruders to their nest!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This already intense description is enhanced when some music is thrown in the mix. Reread the passage with Volatile Reaction by MacLeod<\/a>. It\u2019s one of my favorite songs for ambushes and ads to the intensity. Music can also be used outside of combat. When my players enter a city I often play a song from the Pillars of Eternity soundtrack by Justin Bell, one of my personal favorites is Defiance Bay<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n