I was talking to my other half on our way home from the gym last night and he asked me a question.  Why am I talking about music on a site that’s obviously about gaming and sexy girls? Like usual, I answered with a question.  Why can’t I?

Most of my gaming career has involved music.  There’s been music playing in the background, music to set the mood.  Heck, Vampire: The Masquerade had an entire album written for it! That’s right, the Succubus Club CD! Dancing Ferret Discs put out an album where a bunch of their bands wrote songs about various works of Neil Gaiman.  I’ve also used lyrics from songs to set the mood in a table-top game or even base an entire character plot around it.  When it comes down to it, I really think music and role-playing goes hand in hand.

I know that this is the opinion of only one gamer, but music is real magic in this world.  It can capture moods, emotions, and imagination like nothing else on this earth.  For example, a Celtic sounding song like the Mummers Dance can set the mood for a possible mystical encounter with a forest full of fairies on a starry summers night…

And so they linked their hands and danced round in circles and in rows, and so the journey of the night descends when all the shades are gone.

Or how about setting the mood for an entrance of a kindred from Clan Tremere by using Diary of Dreams song Blind in Darkness (this is one that I’ve talked about that came from the Succubus Club album, Deception is another by the Cruxshadows).

I will plaster all you mortals with my dominating guts, I will torment revelations – I did never ask for much, I will taste the detonation while the geminis go wild, I’ll absorb the human sigh, eradicate your dormant lie…

When I was running Everquest d20 I had a half-orc bard who was at odd with the Goddess of Music.  The song the Eye of the Storm was played for her in a dream/visi0n.

There is no love untouched by hate, No unity without discord, There is no courage without fear, There is no peace without a war, There is no wisdom without regret, No admiration without scorn, There is strife within the tempest, But there is calm in the eye of the storm.

In the same game, I used Sophia off the Cruxshadow‘s Dreamcypher album (I wasn’t kidding about this being my favorite band!) for a lawful good paladin.  I can almost swear Rogue wrote this just for Toren!

Do not do injustice to another, defend the weak and innocent, let truth and honor always guide you, let courage find the light within.  Stand up when no one else is willing, act not in hatred or in spite, be to this world as a perfect knight, even if it means your life.

And finally, we can’t forget about epic love ballads for the bards! Once my bard “sang” Loreena Mckennitt‘s version of the poem called the Highwayman that she had put to song (funny enough, Cael had flaming red hair!).  This poem was a poem written in 1906 by Alfred Noyes.  It’s set in 18th century England and is about a highwayman who is in love with the landlord’s daughter named Bess.  However, another was jelous of Bess’s affection of the highwayman and he set up an ambush where the authorities waited for the highway man.  Unfortunately, for the highwayman and Bess it’s a Romeo and Juliet ending.  However, if you can roll a 20 you can bring tears to every single man, woman, child, and dwarfs’ eyes if your bard sings this epic song!

So, I’ll ask my question again.  Why doesn’t music belong with role-playing games? The answer of one Game Master? It does! Of course it does! And if you say it doesn’t, I won’t believe you!