music to fight bandits to
November 5, 2019 4:58 AM Subscribe
I have a weekly boardgame night that's pretty recently turned into Gloomhaven Night. I'm looking for recommendations for background music and ambient sounds to go with our sessions.
Of the four of us it turns out that the least nerdy among us really perks up and feels included when we do a little set dressing. One scenario when we fought fire demons in a volcano, I joked about lighting a bunch of candles for the ambience and she was like "get the tealights!!!" and when her husband did so and also turned off a bunch of the other lights she was suddenly snapped into the game and became MVP. The other night she whipped out her phone and started playing a shuffled Zelda music playlist and was humming along while zapping ghost pirates. After a while the tone didn't match the scenario so well and I tried to pick up the slack but I couldn't find much on the fly. Gloomhaven as a whole seems a bit dirtier and more, like, ground-level than a lot of videogame soundtracks.
I'm not interested in obsessively curating soundtracks myself, both because we don't know what a scenario will involve until we choose it that night and because I am a great combination of perfectionist and extremely lazy. As a group we all enjoy a wide variety of musical styles, but I think no or very minimal lyrics is important for this. I really enjoy things like lofi loops and ambient textures but those don't always mesh with crossbowing and gut-stabbing enemies in a cave. It would be particularly excellent to have music with a variety of world influences - none of us are big on Eurocentric fantasy.
Yes! I know about Tabletop Audio! The loops are too short. A scenario is usually a couple of hours, and we're in the same environment the whole time. Also, Gloomhaven doesn't really have a GM and we don't know what will happen until we play it, and the game is pretty solidly combat with very minimal conversation, so Tabeltop Audio isn't really for this.
In an ideal world there'd be like a set of Spotify playlists labeled things like "sounds for when you're invading a hinox encampment" and "the lingering swamps but festive" where I could just pick one, put it on shuffle, and it would go for two hours. Is there anything at all approaching this? Something like a few very long playlists of instrumental adventuring and demon battling music?
I'd be playing this music on or at least via my Android phone, so no iOS-only applications, please.
Of the four of us it turns out that the least nerdy among us really perks up and feels included when we do a little set dressing. One scenario when we fought fire demons in a volcano, I joked about lighting a bunch of candles for the ambience and she was like "get the tealights!!!" and when her husband did so and also turned off a bunch of the other lights she was suddenly snapped into the game and became MVP. The other night she whipped out her phone and started playing a shuffled Zelda music playlist and was humming along while zapping ghost pirates. After a while the tone didn't match the scenario so well and I tried to pick up the slack but I couldn't find much on the fly. Gloomhaven as a whole seems a bit dirtier and more, like, ground-level than a lot of videogame soundtracks.
I'm not interested in obsessively curating soundtracks myself, both because we don't know what a scenario will involve until we choose it that night and because I am a great combination of perfectionist and extremely lazy. As a group we all enjoy a wide variety of musical styles, but I think no or very minimal lyrics is important for this. I really enjoy things like lofi loops and ambient textures but those don't always mesh with crossbowing and gut-stabbing enemies in a cave. It would be particularly excellent to have music with a variety of world influences - none of us are big on Eurocentric fantasy.
Yes! I know about Tabletop Audio! The loops are too short. A scenario is usually a couple of hours, and we're in the same environment the whole time. Also, Gloomhaven doesn't really have a GM and we don't know what will happen until we play it, and the game is pretty solidly combat with very minimal conversation, so Tabeltop Audio isn't really for this.
In an ideal world there'd be like a set of Spotify playlists labeled things like "sounds for when you're invading a hinox encampment" and "the lingering swamps but festive" where I could just pick one, put it on shuffle, and it would go for two hours. Is there anything at all approaching this? Something like a few very long playlists of instrumental adventuring and demon battling music?
I'd be playing this music on or at least via my Android phone, so no iOS-only applications, please.
I sent this question to my husband who has GM'd Gloomhaven many times. I received this Spotify playlist, this playlist curated specifically for Gloomhaven, and this other Spotify playlist
posted by crunchy potato at 6:24 AM on November 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by crunchy potato at 6:24 AM on November 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
And also this Youtube music video with thematic imagery
posted by crunchy potato at 6:26 AM on November 5, 2019
posted by crunchy potato at 6:26 AM on November 5, 2019
I am gonna blow. your. mind. (Okay someone did above, damn, but still...!) Dungeon Synth.
Dungeon Synth tag on bandcamp for all your playlist needs.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 6:56 AM on November 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
Dungeon Synth tag on bandcamp for all your playlist needs.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 6:56 AM on November 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
Well, whenever my Gloomhaven group is fighting drakes, I always put on an endless Drake playlist, which I find hilarious because I'm silly.
posted by zeusianfog at 4:00 PM on November 5, 2019
posted by zeusianfog at 4:00 PM on November 5, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
I like the first wave better eg here. One frustrating thing is it (by design ofc) is ambient and moves slowly, so the first two minutes don’t tell you much. I recommend skimming 15 second snippets throughout the piece to get a quick feel for it.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:31 AM on November 5, 2019 [2 favorites]