วีดีโอ

i'm happy someone made a video on Inside, good stuff !

Inside is one of the few truly 10/10 games out there: a literal perfection, in every way possible. And that I didn't even notice how the sound design works, it never distracting me from the immersive experience this game is is a testament to how good it is.

Terribly underrated video

This video is too high quality to have only 84 views, damn

I forgot there was music in the game until I watched this video, and you did a really good job talking about how well made it is alongisde the audio design, the sonic booms and mind-controlled corpses were my favorite parts of the game, right beind the ending and you really did it justice! I hope your videos get more attention

One of our party members died and the DM put on Barber's Adagio for Strings. Everyone was crying by the end of that scene

trying to do my first role game, this is gold! thanks pal

One of my hobbies is actually creating such playlists for my own games. The biggest I've compiled is a Star Wars megaplaylist I run using foobar during my FFG Star Wars RPG sessions. I've also made playlists for Avatar (the last airbender), Alien, Dead Space, The Dark Crystal, and my own general-purpose fantasy lists. How I circumvent the issue of tracks jumping in tone is I splice together parts of different tracks into a single piece. For example, one track from Lord of the Rings might go from a fond memory of the shire theme to a hurried rush of adrenaline. I split those two parts and combine them with other pieces of tracks that share the same theme or motif to make longer versions, and then slot them into the appropriate playlist. It's time consuming, but it's been worth it for my table.

I'm so glad your new release is on TH-cam Music too! I was worried when you only linked to spotify. Advice on playlist building is also solid. I'm going to rearrange my collection to match your 5 theme playlists. Plus maybe a boss fight list and an "underground mystery- list that's a bit more sparse with lots more reverb. Great stuff!

I don't have a premium Spotify, but I do have premium TH-cam. Do you mind uploading the tracks into a playlist on TH-cam?

Basically is have playlists for: music, ambience, battle, and some cinematic entrances that last 1-2 minutes that NEED this changing music maybe even a song. But it’s great to spread this terms in music for a session, that’s cool, I just find my self in a situation when one track is good for 2-3 playlists and I am just overcomplicating it adding “out of town” “in town” “mysterious” playlists, although the light combat and rough combat is not that different as other musics, so I think I will re-do this one turning one play list in two, thanks!

One that i cannot run some tables without is a playlist that conveys tension, but is not combat action or mysterious. The skullduggery and sneaking playlist

Precisely correct about needing static intensity. When I’m evaluating a song for playlist inclusion I put it on repeat while I work, and if I notice the intensity shift, it gets chucked into a “prepping for a session” playlist or booted entirely

This is perfectly timed, I just started putting together playlists for my upcoming gaslight inspired game. The playlists I had created for that were “Victorian ambiance” Victorian stealth/intense”, “Victorian combat,” Victorian chase,” “Victorian investigation,” and of course, “Victorian pub.” 90% of the music I took from Assassins Creed Syndicate and Unity.

Commenting to satiate the algorithm

In some cases (such as a multi stage boss fight) you might want to have several levels of intensity for the same song The best soundtracks I've found for this are Library of Ruina with the 3 levels of intensity for its battle themes, and NieR: Automata's layered soundtrack where each song has the base track, higher intensity instrument, and vocal layers

Woops, I don't make playlists, I search for hours for specific tracks for each scene I think my players will encounter and copy the youtube links in a word doc xD Least effective method but I can't use spotify, pocket bard and others when DMing online. And static music is still difficult to find, there are plenty of musics, a lot made by AI now, which makes the search even longer.. I wish there was a better tool to make my players hear sounds when we're not playing in the same room.

Amazing work Adam!

Oh my! Really thank you for this video. I've been trying to organize my playlists recently and I'm stuck with it. And your video so help me!

Thanks for the video, this was a really nice refresher to dive back down into some playlists I've had and curated for a little while, and clean them up a bit. 😄 Playlists that I could easily merge together into more concise moods and familiar themes, and one thing I hadn't given much before with having an action-centric playlist with relatively low stakes. I've had playlists for less tense conflicts and for tense situations generally. But kinda realising now that what I really need, is something for lower-stakes action and something for higher-stakes action. Already feeling a lot nicer to listen to as well.

I am really surprised, my music folder of 5gb is categorized exactly this way, down to the light and heavy combat ! I didn't know people did this too, usually they just plop down a random playlist on spotify. I personally add major biomes such as desert, asian (chinese and japanese), coastal, jungles and swamp and add the sub categories to each. I also have some joyful and a sad music folder at the ready for some improvised moments. I cannot stress the importance of having some characters and bosses have their own themes, or maybe some quests having their particular songs or albums as this can really elevate the session into something special and not your run of the mill dnd quest.

Another great piece of advice I've heard is to not play overly recognizable music. Don't want your players pointing out that you're using skyrim ambiance.

this nailed what im looking for in my playlists! you should definitely move those 5 to youtube at somepoint

This is so well done! Perfectly describes the journey I went on as well. Started with trailer/movie music, but quickly discovered that situational playlists with consistent soundtracks were the way to go. Personal, I have two more playliats that are essential to me: - Tension soundtracks: a bit similar to mysterious, but more intense. Often included things like heartbeats and ticking clocks. This is to make players nervous and stressed. Often used when they start to negotiate or interact with something ominous. - Sad/emotional: in case a player or npc dies, it's good to have something appropriate for the mood of the scene.

Engaging for the algorithm. I’m doing my part! I’d love to see a video about how you would modify these lists to fit different themes, especially a gothic fantasy horror setting like Curse of Strahd!

excellent, thanks so much for sharing your playlists! i'm excited to listen to your album as well. i made a list of songs with tags like "lively place" (for bustling towns), "quiet place" (for sleepy villages), "exploring" (for that classic epic overworld vibe), "pre-battle" (for the looming sense of tension and danger before a fight), "problem" (for when something evil or villainous happens), "peaceful" (for rest and tender moments), "tragedy" (for deaths and sad moments), "resolution" (for victorious post-battle heroism)... i've been going a bit overboard 😅 but having searchable tags has helped me dig through my big list of RPG songs and put together lists that match the vibe i need:)

I have always done this, i.e., having different playlists to alternate between the emotions that need to be conveyed throughout a session, it is really nice to see that others use the same/ similar stratagy. I personally have explored using a srteam deck, so I do not have to alternate the play lists with my phone

What about those of us that don't have/want Spotify? :/ Do you have a playlist for making stuff just feel "magical"?

Great video Adam! Definetly will be using these playlists during my first DND campaign soon!

Dragonbane mentioned 🦆🦆🦆

Typical nogames advice

plz do a part 2

2:55 and that is why for me, video game music is the best for dnd, it is literally meant to be background music that easily loops.

I would differentiate between mystery and stealth. Stealth comes up so often in my games. And I also try to have some emotional tracks handy. Just in case something sad or romantic happens. I made my group cry once with a romantic scene. All of them, including me. Without the right music this would have never happened.

good biceo

I wish I'd had this video 10 years ago. The notes about the songs themselves having their own narrative arcs alone will save new DMs experimenting with music some embarrassment. My one personal rule is obscurity. To paraphrase Matt Colville, you're only as good as the obscurity of the stuff you steal from. Steal from something well-known and you're derivative. Steal from something obscure and you're a genius. The first time a player identified that I was using a song that "sounded like a star wars track" (it wasn't, but it was John Williams) I wanted to vanish into the floor.

as a gm i've never found a playlist that i'm happy with so i always make my own. i don't like when there's music from popular media people will recognize, for me it breaks immersion and is distracting. i want my worlds to have its own soundtrack, that players don't associate with other media. so i spend many hours finding more obscure music, a lot of it is still from video games, but no skyrim, no witcher. i try to find stuff with a less typical fantasy sound however, for certain rpgs i break my own rules. for action movie romps i use some classic pop/rock bangers everyone can sing along to, because thats something that makes it feel like that kind of movie. and for cyberpunk i use a lot of master boot record music because it fits so well, even if my players know of the artist and listen to them regularly

I'd add playlists for wonder and tragedy.

I used to be the DM, but now i'm player with the official role of DJ. Your playlists are exactly what i was searching for. Thank you!

Glad to hear that the rules I set for myself pretty much line up with the ones you've outlined here too. I've been curating a set of playlists for a few years now and I quickly learned that music with dramatic shifts in tone were usually a bad call. I also tend to avoid vocals unless they are very, very subtle. My essential playlists are: Combat, Epic Combat, Suspense & Cities. I'd say these make up 80% of the music I play for most campaigns. That said, I also like to create playlists for more specific locations. I have a Mystical playlist for areas with strong themes of magic and mystery. I created 2 playlists for civilisation: Towns and Cities, to create a different tone between small farming towns and bustling cities. I also have Intrigue, for city-based sneaking/politicking, Horror for anything where Suspense/Intrigue isn't spooky enough and Jovial for things like carnivals. On top of that I have a lot of setting specific playlists such as a Nordic one I recently put together due to my party going to a viking inspired area. My playlists are split into 2 categories: Mood (intrigue, horror, suspense, mystical) and Setting (Nordic, Cities, Towns). I don't think music is discussed enough in the TTRPG spaces, it makes a huge difference to your games. Really enjoyed the video and I'll definitely be checking out your album and adding a few tracks to my playlists.

Thank you so much for the playlists! I look forward to giving them a listen. Another free resource that looks really cool is TableTopAudio, which the Dungeon Dudes use.

Does anyone know a service that I can play an mp3 on loop and then, when i want, crossfade into a different mp3 that is also looping? And i want it so that the looping mp3 does not, itself fade out and in when it loops. Does anyone know how to do this?

I totally agree to everything in this video. But I would add one thing. I think for most campaigns (not all offcorse) you should heve an emotionaly heavy playlist. For when players have a heart to heart conversation, there is a romantic szene or a PC dies for example.

Perfect ttrpg tip video! I've just played a game as a DM and I was struggling with music (as always). I was thinking about solution and bum! Your channel appeared. Thank you! I hope you'll make more videos like this, because you really sound like someone with a lot of knowledge about music and ttrpg. Answering your question about other scenario that could have their own playlist. Maybe playlists for a failure and victory. I think that it is important to emphasize situations like this, but im not sure if it needs a whole playlist

for a video game which has good music fitting for TTRPGs, I do reccomend Roadwarden, perfect for background music

Do you by chance have any music recomendations for "sad" scenes?

I have curated a "character death" playlist with very sad music. It hasn't happened yet but I am prepared to hit my players in the feels when it comes up 😈

Va sjukt att se dig dyka upp här! Snyggt komponerat Adam!

Great video, very insightful and helpful. Thank you!

This needs to go places. You've been able to verbalize some of the key issues I have with the constant use of Two Steps From Hell... While fighting goblins.