2010-05-16 The Sound of Traveller
What music would you use for your Traveller?
_ I tried Star Wars_ and it was too weird. _ I tried the German Captain Future_ soundtrack by Christian Bruhn and it worked ok. _ GMĀ Harald used Macross_ it worked just fine. _ More Jazz? I have a small number of so-called Science Fiction Jazz_ CDs. I no longer like the music that much; I wonder whether it would work for Traveller. _ Maybe Ghost in the Shell_ has enough weirdness, Jazz, and Asian gibberish we donāt understand to work as a background? It would require better preparation. _ Vangelisā Bladerunner_ soundtrack? _ Cowboy Bebop_? Perhaps the sound of the future is not technoid after all.
Iāve seen DMĀ Peter a Computer RPGĀ game soundtrack for an entire campaign. There was our intro theme, our combat theme, and a small number of selected tracks for selected scenes. Perhaps picking a small number (three?) of tracks per session, and another small selection (two?) tracks per campaign would work?
ā#RPG ā#Traveller ā#Music
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Cowboy Bebob is actually what I would be going for in terms of style, also the soundtrack of Firefly. Both are kind of specific and might be a bit too weird in all situations, so basically I would go for some bluesy/jazzy feeling in city/tech surroundings and for country sounding music (maybe only instrumental) whenever you touch the wilderness (and with that I mean underdeveloped planets and stuff. The soundtrack of Deadwood comes to my mind for that.
Also: have you looked into Christopher Frankeās Perry Rhodan āsoundtrackā and the work he did for Babylon 5? Might be something.
And for more spacy feelings: why not put on some of the more experimental Prog Rock things. A few songs by Pink Floyd, Yes or Jethro Tull might work wonders. Although, that might give a very 70s-ish style of a soundtrack
ā G. Neuner 2010-05-17 00:38 UTC
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Good point. One of the reasons I think a retro soundtrack would work is that Traveller is in a way a Retro Future. We would get rid of all the William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Charles Stross influences.
Perry Rhodan... Damn it, I was subscribed for a while!
One problem I have with the prog rock is the lyrics. If people start singing in the background I cannot help but listen. āMother do you think theyāll drop the bomb?ā I must avoid that.
Deadwood & Firefly, two shows I havenāt seen, yet. š
Maybe Iāll start with a small collection of Jazz for cities and build it from there.
ā Alex Schroeder 2010-05-17 08:18 UTC
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Me, I recommend Philip Glass. For moderate pace, use something from Glassworks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imbwn6iVryQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imbwn6iVryQ
For driving fast, there is NOTHING like The Photographer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5t2SRCjLcs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5t2SRCjLcs
ā DanielMacKay 2010-05-17 11:35 UTC
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I actually had a mix of different styles of Music for different parts of the game:
- For the visit to the Drug Baronās Den I used Music from the Diva OST, Macross Plus OST and Gotan Project (all more quiet stuff with piano and/or female singers)
- For the space drift stuff, I had a mix of Swod/Gehen, Amon Tobin, Gotan, some more orchestral pieces from Diva and a smaller selection from the Macross Plus OST ā almost ephemeral, ambient at times
- For possible action scenes, I had The Tea Party, some more Amon Tobin, Diva, the Seventh Sign OST and again a smaller selection from the Macross Plus OST - more upbeat and loud stuff.
- for tension parts like the second space walk after the explosion, I had more Seventh Sign, other parts from Diva and Macross Plus - muted, choral parts
For next wednesdayās game, Iām still trying to find the right music, but I have some ideas. For the high king of Axaze I think brass heavy classical music may be good, with a dash of John Zorn for when the shit hits the fan. And then there are some other groups that deserve their own sound scape (without spoiling too much). Btw, I do this less for the game and more for me to have aural cues as to what kind of mood I want to convey. I hope it works.
ā Harald Wagener 2010-05-17 13:09 UTC