Music to play Traveller by?

[Shadowdancer]

I know this subject comes up frequently on the various D&D boards, so I was wondering, does anyone have any favorite music they use to help set the mood while playing Traveller?

It's been a while since my gaming group has played Traveller, but last time we did I would use Michael Oldfield for travel music. When it came time for combat, I would use the three M's: Metallica, Megadeath and Ministry. For bars, I would use music that I felt was appropriate for the bar/starport/world they were visiting -- this varied greatly.

When playing D&D, we use a lot of movie soundtracks. Anyone have any movie soundtrack suggestions for Traveller? The ones I would use were the soundtrack albums from The X-Files, both the movie and the TV series. These were great for building suspense.

 

[Nurd_boy]

steppenwolf comes to mind.....yah, you know the song I'm thinking....

on a classical note...'flight of the valkrie', 'mars, god of war'(see this one as the sound track for a nasa computer animation passover of the mars surface once and loved it)

western...willie nelson

 

[trader jim]

After a massive Striker battle and the Sun has gone down and the fog is rising, and a town is burning off in the distance and there are hundreds of dead Traveller bodies laying around --
out of the mist comes a....Piper....Bag Pipes...

What does he play.....Ill let you Brits handle this one......

 

[Shadowdancer]

Originally posted by Nurd_boy:
steppenwolf comes to mind.....yah, you know the song I'm thinking

Yeah, but that's soooo "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

 

[trader jim]

Hey - howa bout a grav tank with BIG speakers on it playing - i been working on the railroad!!! it comes thru a railroad tunnel playing this song....
then peoceeds to blow the rail yard apart while playing....hey - daja voo- this sound kinda familiar.....

 

[Vargas]

Haven't done it yet but I've always wanted to use Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Coming" myself

 

[Tarn]

Queen - "Another one bites the dust"
and
Leonard Cohen "Everybody Knows"

 

[GBoyett]

Almost anything from Babylon 5 would work for any Traveller Session.

Or is that too commercialised?

I mean you have every situation covered with that music.

</font>

• Regular background music - Just about any used during a nonaction scene.</font>
• Ship combat - The first combat sequence during the episode when B5 declared independence.</font>
• Big Ship Combat - The big fight between B5 and Clark's forces in the episode mentioned in item two.</font>
• A fleet emerging from jump/ambush - The Narn Fleet as it launch the attack on the Centauri supply depot, and the Shadows destroy them.</font>
• Orbital Bombardment - The bombing of Narn.</font>
• Narration of a hopeless cause - From the movie In the Beginning which start "The Earthers knew there were doom, but they fought on"</font>
• Last Stand - any of the Requim of the Line theme variants.</font>
• BIG Mistake- From the movie In the Beginning when the Prometheous fired upon the Minbari and killing thier leader.</font>
• Planetary Liberation and Salvation - the scene where all the League and Earthforce ship were fighting to prevent the battlesat from vaping the Earth.</font>

The last one would be perfect in the any recreation of the liberation of Capital, as it seems to be suggested in the TNE line MJD is heading.

Hey, the one reason I fell in love with B5 was the music!

 

[Nearside]

I just bought Peter Gabriel's album, Long Walk Home, which is a soundtrack from a movie called Rabbit Proof Fence, set in Australia. I've not see the film.

The music is sort of ethnic/tribal, yet it has a technological feel to it that seems to me to be a good mix for Traveller.

I like soundtracks, as songs with lyrics can be very distracting...

 

[Uncle Bob]

It seems like a good idea, but every time we tried it ended in, "What? Later. Did he just say...? Who is that? WHAT did you do? How much time is left? I said, HOW MUCH TIME IS LEFT? Murph, turn off that damn noise!"

 

[GBoyett]

Originally posted by Stephen Herron:
I like soundtracks, as songs with lyrics can be very distracting...

Quite right. And if you play low enough to be heard in the background.

 

[T. Foster]

I've never used music in a tabletop rpg, just as I've never used dramatic lighting, costumes, or props (other than an occasional paper handout). It's distracting, fouls up the organic flow and pacing of the session, and strikes me as just plain, well, extremely cheesy. Tastes vary, of course, and I can see how well-chosen and -placed musical cues might help build moods for 'drama club' type groups, but that was *never* the style of any game I ever ran.

 

[lisagb]

I kinda agree with Mr Foster but.....
Smack my bitch up by the prodigy for combat scenes.
Most of the Blade Runner sound track...Vangelis is a god.
For those creepy build ups...Angel by Massive Attack
Or Dirge by Death in Vegas.
An if ya playing with me...There she goes by the La's

 

[Hikaru Ichijo]

Star Trek: Generations, despite its plot, has some really epic sci-fi music. I'd recommend that, especially for tense space battles.

 

[doomhunk]

I like faded snatches of things, similar to the ambient background noise in the XCOM series of games, especially Interceptor (worst game but best sounds).

I use 'Rainforest Requiem' for alien planet jungles

The soundtrack to the film 'Pi' is good for urban mysteries.

I use elegant choral/operatic music for space battles.... Philip Glass' 'Satyagraya', Yehudi Menuhin conducting on Handel's 'Messiah', good old standby Holst's 'The Planets', Mozart's 'Requiem Mass' is great too. The best is Ricjard Wagner's 'Ring' cycle... 13 hours of epic soundtrack Blue Danube Waltz for tongue in cheek space encounters (come out all you Elite players... )

What do you use for alien planets? I use stuff like Ozric Tentacles, Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to the film 'The Passion'etc . I'm interested to know what you might use.

 

[djg_p]

Hi Steve,

Originally posted by Stephen Herron:
I just bought Peter Gabriel's album, Long Walk Home, which is a soundtrack from a movie called Rabbit Proof Fence, set in Australia. I've not see the film.

The music is sort of ethnic/tribal, yet it has a technological feel to it that seems to me to be a good mix for Traveller.

I like soundtracks, as songs with lyrics can be very distracting...

If you ever get the opprtunity to see the movie "Rabbit Proof Fence" I very much recoommend it. Especially if one has an understanding of indiginous Australians. Basically a story of children finding their way home to their native family using the RPF as their only guide.

 

[Nearside]

It does sound like an interesting film. I'll probably have to order it via Amazon at some point, I can't see my local Blockbuster getting it...

 

[T. Foster]

Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em:

For music to create a vaguely futuristic/sci-fi feel while not overpowering the play (Wagner? The Planets? Who can talk over that?!), try Ambient music -- best bets for starters being probably Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports or the Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (which sounds like it would be a greatest hits CD, but isn't).

Another fun place to look: Crippled Dick Hot Wax records. They're a German company that reissues soundtracks from long-forgotten 'Eurosleaze' movies from the 60s & 70s -- horror, erotica, spy-movies. Lots of very groovy, very spacey stuff, almost all instrumental. Bonus points for not being immediately familiar to your players (except for a couple tracks that have shown up in recent tv commercials). Titles to look for: Vampyros Lesbos, Beat at Cinecitta, vol. 1.

 

[tenntrav]

Some long forgotten and likely to cause players to pause,

Johnny Cash- I walked the line, The train is coming,

Junior Brown- Highway patrol, My wife thinks your dead,

????-Drive by shooting (a funky punk song from my college days a decade+ ago)

Arron Copeland- Ode to the common man

 

[N.I.C.E. Labs]

Get hold of the ablum "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis. If you remember the PBS show COSMOS, parts of it was used throughout. Past that, speaking of game musics, the soundtrack to MYST and Deus Ex are also really good choices.