Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Saturday, 15 December 2012

Bringing Your Campaign to Life: Leitmotif


In movies and video games, theme music goes hand in hand with individual iconic ideas. Most often a theme will be associated with a culture, a city, or a character. This musical technique is called a leitmotif. It's a way of reminding the listener of a particular character, announcing an entrance, or evoking a mood for a specific location.

As an example, in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, the elven theme music from the Lord of the Rings films starts playing before the elves even appear on screen, but the audience immediately recognizes what that means -- here come the elves! 

In RPGs, MMORPGs in particular, there is often a distinct musical theme for each city that you visit. You begin to associate the imagery of that city with the theme, and that allows you to develop an even greater familiarity with the location.

Try using a leitmotif in your campaign. The easiest thing to do would be to play a specific track each time the players visit a particular settlement. Over time, they'll begin to feel even more familiar with the location you've designed, and it will be easier to consistently reinvoke the mood, atmosphere and imagery you've envisioned for that place.

Friday, 7 December 2012

Mindscape: Cliffside Town


Another Mindscape for you. Cliffside towns. One of the cultures in our Xeria setting are the Morecians, and theirs is a culture somewhat of a cross between ancient Arabia and ancient Greece.


The music is by Gabriel Yared, from a rejected score composed for the movie Troy. This score far trumps the replacement score in my own opinion.  









Thursday, 29 November 2012

Mindscape: Desert Ruins





Since I'm so fond of music and art, I thought I'd put together a feature I call Mindscape. I post some landscape art and a soundtrack to go with it, and hopefully you get inspired for a cool location, character or adventure!

This is a desert Mindscape. It may have something to do with the setting I'm working on right now... The music is from the game Journey. Enjoy.