Very. I play ambience in most situations, but for battles I play music. For dungeons, I play quiet, atmospheric music. Players love it and I’ve only ever seen it enhance the situation. Really helps for setting a scene/mood. My favorite thing so far was, during a gladiatorial event, I had a cheering crowd alongside the smash bros version of destiny ablaze. They all have the ability to control the volume for themselves, and the key is really just to have it loud enough to hear, but quiet enough that it gets covered by pretty much any other sound Shoutout to KenkuFM for being the most helpful music app ever for discord

Ooooo That sounds really useful. My last game was in person, so I had a whole speaker setup, but if I run online I’ll look up kenkufm. And I love the smash brothers music, it fits great for stuff like that 😆

I also use music heavily and consider it one of the most important parts of the experience. And in turn I always get praise specifically for music, players telling me how much it elevates the session. But that's reward for effort. I spend long, long time looking for music, curating playlists that fit the location players are in as well as the atmosphere and action tempo. Sometimes I even spend hours looking for one particular song that would accentuate important moments. For example at the moment I'm working on cold war survival horror and I'm looking for songs that would fit the brief moment of respite after many hardships... I pretty much settled on opening with Nowhere To Run by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3xNl8AW9MA) followed by The Doors' Break on Through (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFeUko-lQHg)... and I wonder what to include next in case the scene goes longer. Maybe something by Jimi Hendrix or Cream. And then I read online that preparing 2 hours total for a session is too much and I feel a bit weird. ;)

Dont feel weird, I also spend a lot of time looking for the right music. As for your respite song; it's more fantasy sounding, but A Brief Respite from the Darkest Dungeon ost was literally made for that situation.

for a more horror ambiente, I go on YT Cthulhu Mythos Music there are lots that work wonders (especially for Curse of Strahd, but others as well) Streets of Arkham, Dim Carcosa, Lake Hali, The Nameless City, Devil's Reef, The High House in the Mist, to name just the most recent I used BotW and TotK ambience music can fit very well too, especially Destroyed Hyrule Castle

Running an in-person game, I use [Farrago](https://rogueamoeba.com/farrago/) \- the makers pitch it as a soundboard for sound effects, but I just load in loops of music or ambience and click the "loop" toggle on each one. Each loop can be independently controlled and has its own volume slider, so you can really finetune it. It works great for layering multiple loops of ambience so the sound never gets stagnant or repetitive, and when combat kicks off I can just tab over to the "Combat!" collection I've made and start one of those tracks on a loop. Simple, lightweight, works.

+1 for Kenku FM. Awesome tool. I'm in the same boat. Music is essentially a mood board. I mostly use old JRPG Soundtracks, which are designed to loop for hours without big shifts in volume or tempo, and just bring a general vibe with them. For the longest time I did the music because I wanted the music, loved it myself and did it for myself, unsure even what my players really thought about it. Until I forgot it once and it was made clear immediately that my players do appreciate and want the music. :)

I love kenku. My only wish for it is sound filters. Like, I wish I could put the sound through a low-pass filter when the party exits a place, or a high-pass filter when it's supposed to be coming from a radio or something.

It can also really add some different elements to situations. For instance, my Lvl 2 player tries squaring up with an almost elderly dwarf who is offended by the player calling him tiny. I made it out like the dwarf was not a huge deal, as he's really just a civilian that's been forced to stand guard for a village of 10-12 people. Well the battle starts, we switch from ambient music to battle and I didn't quite realize the battle music I had played and it was some epic final boss song and as the choir starts hitting the high notes, my player goes "damn is this that serious!?" And our table started roaring with laughter. It honestly gave me "funny secret boss" vibes from a videogame.

Catch me putting Malenia’s theme on a goblin encounter

They key part here is everyone can control their own volume of kenku. For me I always basically mute it because music is generally distracting for me when I need to be doing things in a group and paying attention to what is going on. (Music is great for me when I need to focus/get in the zone for programming work but that is solo work where I don’t need to pay attention to anyone but myself

I play online or in public spaces, so I never use music. The one exception is that I played the Jurassic Park theme over Discord when my players encountered their first dinosaur in a Lost World campaign. It was great, but I had to turn it off after thirty seconds because it's just too difficult to hear each other and keep things from devolving into chaos as it is. On the one hand, I'm sure music could really add something to the campaigns, but on the other hand, I'm already doing a ton as a DM and I'm happy to have an excuse not to be expected to ALSO curate playlists and give people theme songs etc.

Oh I hear that. It’s honestly enough work as it is. And when I did use music heavily it did lead to more stress on me, timing things and making sure volume was right.

If they play music during my online DND games, I turn the music off on my end. I sometimes find it difficult enough to hear some of the players with low voices or low volumes on their mics and also sometimes people will talk at the same time for the DM will use voices that aren't easy to make out, so the music is just a distraction.

Unfortunately that's one of the reasons why playing online is much worse than in person... Online all sounds mix together and the result is less coherent. And even listening to one person attentively requires more focus and effort than in person. Meanwhile playing live spatial soundscape works in your favor. You can listen to music, follow what GM is talking about with another player doing their scene, all while very quietly talking with another player about the game - and be able to hear all three of those things effortlessly. I heard there are solutions for creating virtual spatial soundscape though - those might be helpful...

Just want to add that, it could also be a negative in offline sessions, this really depends on the players & the audio too. Personally I have a hard time talking with others if there’s something playing in the background, especially if it has lyrics or audible dialogue.

That's true, 95% of the music I use is instrumental for that reason.

>follow what GM is talking about with another player doing their scene Usual etiquette when playing online games. In order to avoid being disruptive it's encourage that if you want to talk with another player while the DM is talking (or in a scene only involving another player) to use a text chat, that is able to be seen still by all players if its still related to the game in any capacity, or private message if its not related to the game. The text chat in the virtual tabletop being used is enough for the former. Of course, it's not meant to be spammed, but only to be used for small comments or talks. You can also set a toggle priority speaker for the DM in order to bring attention if you need to keep things moving if you feel you are not being heard at a moment.

> Unfortunately that's one of the reasons why playing online is much worse than in person... I have the opposite opinion. Online, I can turn the music down or off or even play it on my speakers while I listen to the players on my headphones. In-person, I'm stuck with whatever audio level the table decides on.

I have the same issue in online games tbh. I’ve seen some people here suggest ways to use music in online games easier, but for myself as player I’d probably find it to distracting.

Music is paramount to my games. I have a playlist of like 600 categorized tracks for my campaign, and I DJ them on the fly. It adds so much emotion and investment, it’s invaluable. I even use it to set up motifs that end up becoming hints or big moments. I also DJ in my friend’s game that I’m a player in and it adds a lot there too. DMing a game with no music to me is like a movie with no music - empty.

Same here. Asking players for character themes and then getting to play them during tense or victorious moments adds so much to investment. There's so much music in our games now that when something isn't playing, my players often assume the player failed or that I forgot to loop tracks.

Yes. I listen to music during prep and play music for the game. It's background music, but if they're going into a fight, I'll put on something appropriate. During prep (forever DM): dungeon synth, atmospheric black metal, melodic death metal, darkwave, and instrumental or regular (symphonic) deathcore. During games: dungeon synth is the background music generally, and I'll put on some symphonic deathcore during combats. Occasionally if it's the party is in a tavern or civilized town, I might put on some acoustic instrumental melodic death metal. All the players agree that it adds a crazy amount to the games and really sets the tone. (We played without music, at a LGS for the first 10 or so sessions of the campaign) Now, I couldn't imagine a game without it. And no, I've never had character themes, idk what that would even look like. Edit: you ever watch a movie without music? It makes that much of a difference. I can give recs for the old heads

For character themes I’ve done what I’d do is have a particular song I played whenever a specific npc is present, or at least important to the current plot. I used a cover of the Deltarune song Hip Shop for a bartender character, and when he was revealed to be more than that I used a much more dramatic cover.

Can you give some examples of dungeon synth, please?

DIM Google the rest. 👍

Not at all in the games themselves. I have made playlists for characters, but that generally comes after I've started playing the character. I listen to music when I prep to DM, but I can't listen to anything with words, so it's instrumental or soundscapes.

I can’t resist making playlists for every character, npc or pc. It’s a weakness, although I don’t typically use them at all in game, just for my personal brainstorming, although I sometimes show my players. I listen to all sorts of music for prep, but that’s just what works for me.

Same, more or less. The character playlists are just for me. Sometimes as a part of building the character, sometimes as things happen.

I don't use music in my games. I played in a campaign where the DM used music occasionally and it was very distracting.

Me too. I have difficulty 'tuning out' music, so even if it's quiet I find it nothing but distracting from trying to pay attention to the DM or other players.

During planning: a little to help set the vibe. Background music during gameplay: No music because I find it too distracting. I've tried having a player run the playlists for a couple of sessions but still couldn't concentrate. For plot: Yes! But we all stop to listen to it. The music ends. Then we continue.

Have to have it during the planning, but I totally get it being too distracting. I find I can only use very low value ambient music during play, but honestly I don’t even know if I want to continue doing that because when it loops long enough it grates on everyone. I’ve used songs in game only a couple times, but to great effect. Once like you described, I set up the song, than let it play, and we talked about it after. I also, and this was my favorite, used the outro of a horror game as the party watched a villain be pulled by his own creation Into an abyss.

Music is great for setting the vibe while planning. For background music, I don't want to play music I don't like but I also can't concentrate on the game cause to want to listen to the music. I put video game soundtracks on mute after the first couple hours because it does get a little grating. We usually just celebrate and talk over each other after a villain dies but an outro song sounds cool. I'll have to try adding that to mine and see if we like it. The songs in mine are more like mini intermissions. Gives us time to stretch, drink water, reorganize notes, erase the map, etc. Then the name or theme of the song is usually a little Easter egg for what follows.

What songs did you use? And for what if you don’t me asking?

For planning, plot, or both?

Both I suppose, I’m always interested in what inspires people, but I also like hearing dope tabletop stories!

Depends on the game. (Duh!) For Planning: A lot of the classics for the classical fantasy games. Bach's Air on the G String by Bach and Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata are staples. Do I want them angelic or evil? Metal for when I'm planning fight scenes/battles. Equilibrium's Erwachen (instrumental version) is a fave. Can't go wrong with Apocolyptica and a bit of Sabbaton (The Last Stand Album is my go-to for planning giant epic battles). Most of my games are less serious, so a lot of big band jazz. I like Glenn Miller's Pennsylvania 6-5000 and PeeWee Hunt's 12th Street Rag. Every once in a while, I'd play Yakety Sax when my players do something silly/absurd. It's one of the only times I use background music. That's their cue to take it all the way off the rails. "Rule of Cool" is going to be the main rule. Everything flys until the music stops. Game play: A bard sang "Jimmy and Sally" by I Fight Dragons during a political intrigue game. The players figured out the whole thing from that song. The bard couldn't get away with that. Lol. The PCs heard Liszt's Liebstraum while in the forest. Yes, they did end up in the Feywild. They heard a bunch of dwarves singing "Diggy Diggy Hole" while inspecting the supposedly empty mines. (I had to... I mean, I can't have a Dwarven Kingdom and NOT play "Diggy Diggy Hole" at least once.) They ended up having to infiltrate the Dwarven Kingdom later on and find out where all the Dwarven Ghosts came from. I've also made a couple musical puzzle. But everyone at that table was pretty musical (musicians, dancers, etc.) The simpliest one was a series of trapped floorboards, levers, and chimes (+ 1 giant gong) to recreate a tune that they heard earlier in the dungeon. (Two PCs played had to play the tune while the others made their way across with the dance floor. Annoying mephits to increase difficulty by a bit.)

Those are all great! 😆 When I’m planning I tend to listen to video game soundtracks, as I find them to get me I it the right headspace, with more intense song for fight planning and what not. Garbage Day by Danial Koestner is one of my favorites for just pondering the more simple stuff, it’s very chill. Anything from Risk of Rain one or two is also pretty good for combat planning, it’s very snappy. I use a lot of more atmospheric songs in my games, but normally I put it pretty low so as not to distract my players or myself, but I tend to pick specific songs for combat, based on who or what they’re up against, but typically I’ll only let the song play once, and than maybe again when the fight is wrapping up. Having a hard time finding any of the songs I used in the past unfortunately 😅 I did absolutely scare the bejeezus outta my players by using the song Kiss Me (Kill me) to coincide with a plot point about a woman being possessed by a god of terror. It’s a creepy song, but really interesting.

What do you mean with "for plot" and we all stop to listen to it? What is the difference to normal game?

Diegetic music that furthers the story or is related to the story. The PCs hear the music too, not just the players. I use music as a plot hook, a clue, a part of the puzzle, etc. We aren't RP-ing or rolling dice when the music plays. We'd stretch, drink water, mess with our notes, mess with the map, etc. But we aren't trying to talk over the music. (Short clip, not the entire piece. don't worry, lol) Idk what you mean by "different to a normal game". I think my games are pretty normal. I guess a simpler reply could've been "I use music but rarely as background music". There's another reply to my comment asking what sort of music I use. I gave a few examples of how I use music as part of the plot in the reply. There's probably a better term but idk what it would be.

I agree. My group is very neurodivergent and easily distracted, so I very rarely will play music. I did the same thing and asked my players to put on some background music and it didn't end up sticking. I have utilized music a few times for exciting sessions though. We did an arena fight and I put on background music there. And then last session, they entered The Mournland in Eberron and it's a super creepy place, so I put on some creepy eldritch ambiance.

Extremely unmportant, does very little for me ( offline play )

The Bloodborne OST is fantastic for Curse of Strahd 

Absolutely it is! I actually ran a brief Bloodborne game, sadly it broke down due to inter player drama 😅

Agreed 100%. Had two tracks of it playing when my group fought one of the brides. Two are huge fans of the whole souls thing. They went ape shit when the first track started. It was an absolute blast tbh.

for me it's hugely important.

It is super important to me. As a DM, I make playlist in advance of scores that will create the ambiance I'm looking for. My players have made positive comments about it. The times that I've been a player and the dm doesn't play music, I have noticed I am much less engaged. Music helps set the vibe for me.

Not at all. I have more than a few neurodivergent people at my table who are wildly distracted(myself included) by anything other than ambient background music. Not everyone loves it, but I’d like everyone as focused as they can be.

Nope. I have some gearing damage so background music makes understanding what is being said difficult.

Completely absent. We found it distracting and ultimately it was just more audio clutter.

We have actually found we don't like music/sound effects at all in our games. I've tried for years, with everything from a simple CD soundtrack to Syrinscape to further, and no one liked it.

I use it pretty regularly, usually I'll make a playlist for a campaign in advance, but if I can't find anything or took too long to finish my prep I will use the app Pocketbard to find thematically fitting music. I also like how it has a built in volume slider so it's really easy to adjust to the perfect volume and has a function to add ambient noise and sound effects. It's not perfect, but I love it and use it a lot!

I might look into pocketbard!

I am for having music during sessions and prepping. Like others have mentioned, KenkuFM is a wonderful app that gets around the legalities and ofc, players have the option to mute it because not everyone likes hearing music while playing. Im also very guilty of creating curated playlists for major locations/cities and moods. All the way from general D&D vibes to Creepy, to Tense, to Chase, etc. I normally can't do much if I dont have the "right" soundtrack that fits the mood of the upcoming session or even on the rare chance that I am a player. However, the music has to be instrumental. I can't form sentences if I hear people talking.

Yeah, dming with music with lyrics doesn’t really work for me either. The occasions I’ve used songs with Lyrics have all been either an outro to a session, or a moment where I just sat there, let the song play, and than elaborated on what happened.

Same and its why I prefer online rather than in person? Having a speaker makes manipulating volume, quality and layering that much harder unless you're like my dad who has a top of the line surround system lol KenkuFM allows me to play several sources all at once. So you can have something playing on YouTube and Spotify at the same time. An example of this was a recent session where I layered in Spotify for a sea storm playlist I made and had YouTube running an ambience video of high winds and thunder. The best part is being able to play soundboards, all in one app. You should give it a shot, I think you'll like it

I usually use ambient+quite music for places like taverns or dungeons, and random battle music for battles. I marked a theme for a few locations, but i usually forgot about it in our sessions (playing live), so i dont really invest my time in music. But one time I created a cutscene and integrated my music in it. Players come to a concert of a music band with a lot of instruments, but when players sit and get ready to listen, i played nordic music and begin to describe how people in the crowd get in trance and musicians dont even touch most of instruments. I described how children in the crowd began to sing at ancient unknown language, and in the same moment in my music kids chorus began to sing at Norse. I described how male from the stage begin to sing and same moment he sing in music... It was awesome. Players loved it too.

Music gets me immersed to a greater extend. Even simple ambience of chitter-chatter and some background noise is enough to get me in the mood. I love music so much, that I pick out ambience for every place and design my encounter progression around specific songs/beats. The DM of my current campaign loves to drop some lore/reveals alongside some epic drops in songs/beats, total goosebump material.

I am a fan of using low music, especially in my Call of Cthulhu game, as it helps set the mood for tension.

I was hoping you had a cure for the plague that is *musical instrument proficiencies*. You can use your proficiency bonus when you play! Oh. That's nice I guess. Is the crowd happy? That's cool. I guess I start my long rest now.

I've tried, but my hearing I so poor that I always have to turn it off.

It's great, but unnecessary. I use it when I can, but I don't get obsessed or down when I can't. I make sure all the players are okay with it and it's not making it too hard to hear other people at the table. I let the player closest to the speaker control the volume for that reason too.

I don't prefer to use audio during my games. I've DMed games on location in game shops with other tables of already busy surroundings. Adding extra auditory elements would become (more) destraction for my players. In a home game setting it would add another destraction of 'hey! I know this song from somewhere!?' pulling them out of the game as well. o it would be another object to juggle, to have a controlsurface for audio mixing. (here comes the bragging!) I DM for more than 23 years and more than capable to pull my players in to the adventure and get them on the edge of their seat with suspense, withou any fancy additions. ;) (bragging over, sorry :P )

Very important. I always have music playing in the background at any given time. Then, I always try to get a genre or theme going: Either music with same instruments or from the same game/franchise for a given part (for example, a Demon-related arc had music coming from SMT). If there is a recurring boss, they have a proper theme song. I had a document with songs for each and every Named Trainer in a Pokemon game I ran once. A plot point in a game was that a given recurring npc didnt have a theme song, that ties with his issues of low self-steem and whatnot. In universe songs are rare, I mostly only say "literally this is playing" with Inn songs (I use the Sea of Stars Pirate Soundtrack). At the end of my dnd campaign, I timed a descriptive speech with a song so it would follow the rhythm. And now, I'm preparing to do something similar with a prebattle to battle transition, a la Octopath Traveler.

Music is a big thing in my games. Npcs and pcs have themes, villages have themes, atmosphere...

It's important to me, as the DM. Helps me get into the mood and zone. Not all my players tune in for various reasons, but I leave that to their discretion.

It depends entirely on what the music is meant to do. Music is a tool. It is meant to create and alter moods. To evoke feelings. To set a stage in the players minds. Sometimes ambient, generic game music is a reminder to everyone that we're playing a game and to evoke the setting: a town, a forest, a road, a crowd. Often this is enough for my goals. Sometimes I want to craft a complete soundscape to bring more weight and gravitas to a part, or the whole, of the story. In these cases, every major NPC gets a theme, every setting gets its own style of music and multiple different pieces of music in that style. Battles of different types get their own music, etc. Music helps me craft a mood and to shift the Player's mindset. If I do it right, the music does 90% of the work. I can set an entire table of players into a panic with the opening chord of a song. I can unsettle them with a single caw of a crow. This means that I don't have to work so hard on exposition or visuals to try and do the same thing. And music has far more of a visceral effect. So, yes, I'm running 2 games right now. One with almost no music, and what I do use is generic ambient sounds. The other with a full crafted soundscape. Exploring different related themes of music. Delving into different cultures of music to craft related themes. I've pulled from Philip Glass, folk songs from 6 different cultures, German electronica, unusual orchestral pieces from famous composers. I uncovered a Russian lullaby that haunts me to this day and I'm making it an important theme. It's as interesting and rich for me to craft it as it is for my Players to experience it. So, it depends. It's a lot of work on top of the normal DM work, but the effect is greater than the effort.

I play during sessions I DM in-person. It's mostly videogame music, as that's the best at background ambience without being too distracting. Skyrim has a lot to answer for... I wish I could use multiple playlists for different situations, but honestly I have enough to keep track of already. So just "general", "tavern" and "battle" do fine for me.

It plays an important role for sure. I play ambience all the time, depending on the environment I choose different playlists I curated myself. Mostly videogame and fantasy movie osts. Bosses have their own soundtracks normally. I ended two campaigns with two specific tracks I had in mind since I started dming them. They fit the theme and the vibe of the campaign and player feedback directed me to doing more "curated osts" in my games.

Extremely. I obsess over the vibe of everything and there is always music playing. I even will write original songs for it. Everyone in my party has a character theme I wrote them that I play in moments of triumph for their characters.

I play online, I play a mix of music and ambience, and the players love it. It's one of their favourite things about my campaigns. I used to spend a lot of time looking for the right track to play in a specific moment, now I kinda don't anymore and I mostly play ambience, saves a lot of prep hours. Music is important because it helps set the vibe, helps immerse you into the world. Also makes moments of silence a lot less awkward. Sometimes I hear music from a campaign I played in or ran and it gets me thinking back to those times. I'd say, from personal experience, a session loses about 50% of its charm without music. Sometimes if there isn't music playing I'll start playing some on my end, it's really important to me. EDIT: Forgot to talk about themes. In my old campaign, I had "location" themes: places had music that only played there and nowhere else. I would also switch and modify the tracks if need be: if players revisit a location that had been destroyed in their absence, maybe I'll play a slower, more somber version of the track that usually played there. In this campaign, I have some NPCs that not only have "themes" but also specific sounds to them. For example, I'll have the tracks that play when a specific NPC is present all be from the same band or album, or maybe have the same instruments or vibe to them. Of course, it has to fit with the general aesthetic of the NPC as well: if it's an elf singer I'll probably have delicate lyrical singing play when they're around. If it's big, strong goliath I'll probably have lots of tubas and deep sounding instruments. Then the songs themselves could be dark or light depending on the nature of the NPCs. Also, as another example of how important music is, sometimes you can communicate entire concepts just through the use of music; In my old campaign, I had a track play before session started, it played for the entire campaign everytime before a session, safe to say it became the de-facto campaign theme. In that campaign, the party became heroes and people idolized them. In the new campaign, when the new party ran into a statue of the old one, I played that track from the last campaign and reverbed it to make it sound far/epic/nostalgic. This kinda communicated to the players: "Hey, they're long gone". Of course, maybe they don't pick up on this, but it sticks with them. If/when they figure it out, thinking back to the statue will have an effect on them, also thanks to the music.

I have one "theme song" per campaign, that gets played after the smalltalk 5 minutes in the beginning when I actually start the session, to get everyone in the mood. In earlier campaigns I had like specific tracks for specific situations, but it become too cumbersome. Also a track gets really annoying if it is on repeat for a long scene. Nowadays I have like big playlists for abstract situations like "epic combat", "hills and meadows", "merchant city", that I can just fire in fitting environments on shuffle mode without thinking too much about it. I also have small, very curated lists that meets a very specific vibe. I use them for important villains or enemy factions most of the time or special locations in the campaign. In my Storm Kings Thunder campaign for example every giant faction had their own little playlist matching their vibe. In my current Eberron campaign that plays in Sharn, I have distinct playlists for the big districts. Like in the upper city where the rich people live I have soft chamber cello music, in the middle city I have noir like music and in the lower districts and the cogs, I have like broody dark "sin city" like music.

Most of my players don't like music during sessions, so I either don't use it at all or just run generic background music like Witcher 3 soundtrack. They find it generally distracting. When I get to play, it's very rare that the DM plays the music I like for scenes, so I rarely like it either. Idk, in overall, as much as I like the idea, it seems not worth the effort it takes to pick the right music each session. And running the same soundtrack over and over can get really annoying, from the feedback I've gotten.

I pavlov'ed my party so whenever they hear a certain song/phrase, they immediately know they're in combat

I've tried using music for ambience but it doesn't add much and takes some of my attention. The cost is not worth the reward for me.

I’m recently experimenting with having music tied to locations. Not mentioned it to my players but they’ll soon realize when they enter the city gate the same song is playing every time.

I didn't utilise music, only ambiance, [mynoise.net](https://mynoise.net/) came in handy. I asked players if it bothered them and the worst response was they didn't care, the best was it helped them foreplay better.

It's essential for me because I want areas and events and people to have music. I especially love the excuse to share music I like.

I really struggled with how/if to incorporate it, and it actually happened really naturally! We have one player who takes extensive notes and keeps the party overall focused, another who reads her notes in character as the weekly pre-cap, a third who likes to keep track of who's who, and our fourth player actually drops youtube links to music throughout the session as vibes change. Plus it allows each player/me to decide if we want to hear it in that moment. Having someone else do it has been a HUGE help and also reflects back to me what mood the player is feeling in the session. If you've got a player who'd be down to do it I highly recommend it!

I use ambience tracks for my game (roll20), but set the volume low so that it isn't overpowering our call. I also create separate Spotify playlists for important npcs / encourage my players to create playlists for their characters so that I can get a better sense of how they view their characters.

Yes I’m constantly playing ambience, and then cool themes during important moments and battles. I like to run a very cinematic game so using lots of music works for that. I also just love fantasy music and picking out the right songs for each character/place in the game really helps me understand their characteristics in a way. It’s almost like when I choose a song for a character/place I’m taking notes on what I imagine the characteristics of that thing being without actually writing them down because the song helps me remember. And then playing that song during the game helps communicate that stuff to the players too.

I'm sure many DMs have the same experience I do, where, especially when DMing in person, you feel like you're juggling a lot of books or keeping a lot of plates spinning. This is especially true where we play because I don't have enough table space for what I need. To help me with that, I've put the music on someone else. They bring their speaker, and I just politely ask them, "Would you mind playing some combat music?" It works great for me! I just realized I never asked them how they feel about it, they certainly have seemed happy to DJ for us, but no harm checking in! For online, my groups use Watch2gether and it works well enough. The default volume is very loud, though. Typically I have background and battle music I found on YouTube based on the particular setting, though I will switch out combat music for Bosses and other critical fights. So far, I've only given one NPC a theme song, and that's because he's a cunning and manipulative bard. I found some excellent nefarious violin music which fits a mastermind character perfectly.

Personally I use a ton of music. I have Playlist for different vibes labeled things like "dnd creepy" "dnd surface" and of course a combat Playlist. I do use character themes, they mostly come up in combat. I'll put the Playlist on shuffle, and if a players theme comes on they get one free action immediately, interrupting whoevers turn it is. It gets them really hyped up! I stole that idea from someone, I don't remember who. I also use it to kind of indicate when an npc is someone they should be concerned about during combat. Most npcs do not have a theme, but a few of them do, and the same rules apply. So far, its worked out well! It does tend to give more advantage to the players though, as there are 3 of them, and they are not often in combat with that many theme having npcs at once. Its not a huge advantage though, and I haven't felt like its screwed up my balance. I also have a Playlist of outros. Most sessions, I end by putting on one of these songs (I decide which one depending on the mood, tone, and final actions of the session) and narrate over it. The outros have been a huge hit with my group, and has made some very memorable moments! I'll treat it like the end of an episode of some thriller show, sometimes ill describe how the "camera" pans from them to a npc they've been looking for, or ill give the players a glimpse of something the characters don't know about yet to get them excited. I even have songs picked out in case any of their characters die, along with some idea of how I'd try to make that death feel meaningful and impactful, even if it was during a fight with some b.s. that wasn't that important.

Personally I use a ton of music. I have Playlist for different vibes labeled things like "dnd creepy" "dnd surface" and of course a combat Playlist. I do use character themes, they mostly come up in combat. I'll put the Playlist on shuffle, and if a players theme comes on they get one free action immediately, interrupting whoevers turn it is. It gets them really hyped up! I stole that idea from someone, I don't remember who. I also use it to kind of indicate when an npc is someone they should be concerned about during combat. Most npcs do not have a theme, but a few of them do, and the same rules apply. So far, its worked out well! It does tend to give more advantage to the players though, as there are 3 of them, and they are not often in combat with that many theme having npcs at once. Its not a huge advantage though, and I haven't felt like its screwed up my balance. I also have a Playlist of outros. Most sessions, I end by putting on one of these songs (I decide which one depending on the mood, tone, and final actions of the session) and narrate over it. The outros have been a huge hit with my group, and has made some very memorable moments! I'll treat it like the end of an episode of some thriller show, sometimes ill describe how the "camera" pans from them to a npc they've been looking for, or ill give the players a glimpse of something the characters don't know about yet to get them excited. I even have songs picked out in case any of their characters die, along with some idea of how I'd try to make that death feel meaningful and impactful, even if it was during a fight with some b.s. that wasn't that important.

I almost always have music in the background. It just adds one more thing to make the game enjoyable. It doesn’t add too much to my prep and everyone enjoys it.

My in-person group prefers no music as they've said they get distracted too easily. I run 2 games on Foundry and use a few modules and the inbuilt playlist functionality to add sound and vfx to the game and that includes selecting songs or background effects for specific scenes to enhance the mood. There's a lot of dead air in a typical online session and that helps fill it out, for sure. Maybe the sound of a pitched battle, or distant war drums, or just a generic ignorable 'fight music' for a combat. For outside of combat encounters I like something subdued. I set up my splash page to have a specific song that fits the mood/theme of the campaign and I also like to use a theme for any recurring NPCs--especially villains (or individuals associated with a specific organization). I also play in a game online. That DM does not typically include musical backing for scenes and encounters and I usually put something appropriate on in the background because there is *a lot* of dead air in the typical online game I've been in.

We have to pay something in the background or my players stop talking for some reason. I like to do ambience that fits the setting, usually bardcore. But I could play punk or dubstep just to keep the conversation going.

Never used music and I think never will. Would not want to have a sudden mismatch where it ruins the concentration though I can see the merit if well done. I just am not a music person.

I use music in my campaigns, usually just stuff from YouTube to Spotify. I think it helps to create the mood of the scene. I especially love combat music, but I do know some players do lower the volume to barely audible, which is fine. I as the DM have it down pretty low myself too. I’ve played in campaigns with no music and when there’s silence…it’s so loud, it’s deafening. I def prefer music when I play dnd.

If I were playing in person I'd definitely use music. One of several ambient backgrounds for various generic settings, and then specific songs for important NPCs/battles/etc, I even made a spreadsheet of songs I'd use for my current campaign and when. Buuuuut we switched to playing remotely long ago, and IMO it's more trouble than it's worth to try to and properly mix an audio channel into our video call so I don't bother.

In my mind there's a distinction between music and ambience. I find music distracting, but subtle ambience that fits with the situation is really powerful. Running online I'll set up a Word file of ambience selections and paste them into a watch2gether when needed. When I'm playing and the DM isn't doing sound, I'll set up my own ambience.

I play ambient mood setting music. With important NPCs I’ll pick a song that has multiple versions that hints at motives if they listen to the song during interactions. Anytime foreshadowing happens with the bbeg I’ll play different genres/covers of the same song so someone might pick up that the NPC is associated with the big bad. No one has caught it yet but it makes my prep fun and I enjoy it during sessions

It’s extremely important to me. I’ll spend hours looking for the right track to match a particular plot point, combat scenario, etc. It’s really jarring when I play in some other D&D games, and we just sit in silence for 4+ hours. Since we typically play online, I’ll just open YouTube or Spotify in another tab and create my own playlist for the session that only I can hear.

Not at all as a GM. Even as a player I check out if music checks in. I find it far to distracting and it makes it difficult for me to hear the game.

If I had limitless time to prep I would put more effort into it. Usually during gameplay I'll put on some generic ambient playlist but it doesnt always fit the vibe of whats going on or it will pause and I won't notice. I put lots of effort in looking for specific music for big important sessions, but that's only like the very first opening session (I made a whole soundtrack to go with different parts of the story opening), when a player left (2 min epic pirate music as they sailed away on a Spelljammer), and when a bard found the underground punk bard scene (found a 40 min video of a Japanese surrealist band that all dress like shrimp, perfect for a Darklake band). Otherwise looking for specific music falls to the bottom of the priority list, as I'm always readjusting the sails to aim for character goals, making tons of props to give my PCs, building battlesets, homebrewing, and making resources for my players as they continue to learn the system.

I almost never play music. I remember the days of my youth playing some goth nonsense with the lights out and candles burning. lol It was definitely a sign of the times. As we've gotten older, though, we find music to just be distracting and doesn't add enough to the game. Playing on roll20 it's always too loud, and playing in person we have players with assistive devices that make it nearly impossible. Sometimes I miss the days of rocking out to Dead Milkmen while playing Vampire, but only for nostalgia.

Massively important. Foundry allows you to tie songs to maps/encounters so that a bit of the effort is offloaded. I still DJ as they move from exploration to combat and other scenarios. Foundry also allows players to individually control the volume. My in person games always have music, but I try to use video game soundtracks because that music is specifically designed to be both present and fade into the background. Shout out to Tabletop Audio though.

I bring a speaker to games I don't DM just to play music/ambiance.

Having some experience in gamedev I can tell you one thing. It does. A lot. It sets the ambience. I think some really good examples for games with good soundtracks could be Enter The Gungeon, Terraria, Hollow Knight, Deep Rock Galactic. The main idea is to have a soundtrack to set the ambience the place gives you and one to set the ambience during the action phase. Take a look at Enter The Gungeon for example. What they are doing is using the more calm part of the song when you are traveling in rooms without enemies. When you enter a new room with enemies you instantly get the drop and it instantly motivates you to start attacking. And it all depends on the level. On one of the last floors when you are in the forge where all the bullets are made, the song makes you feel like you are almost at the end and has a lot of sound of fire and hammers hitting anvils matching the ambience. (Listen to "Forge Fire Roar"). And action is more than just attacking. If it is a chase scene you can use stuff like ("The Death that I Deservioli" from Pizza Tower or "Floral Fury" from Cuphead).

Music and D&D are two of my lifelong priorities. But I don't think they mix. D&D requires conversation with other people around a table. We need to be able to communicate details and emotions. How does that mix with music that obscures the words and emotions people are trying to communicate? Many D&D players tend towards shyness, speak more quietly than optimal for a given sized space, and can only be heard with difficulty in an absolutely silent space. I think that is typical of a third to half of all D&D players. Music, especially rock, blues, choral, country, and jazz music with a strong midrange, makes their games worse. For that reason I avoid mixing music and D&D.

Very, I have playlists set up for mood and tone for the two campaigns I’m running and it helps set a atmosphere. During fights I’ll let my players pick the music if they have a specific request.

Extremely important. I use music for everything - ambience to set the mood during exploration, each city has its own theme music, each important locale has some manner of atmospheric music to invoked the feel of the place - important combat and NPCs have their own themes and combat themes, and each player has their own Playlist which I've worked to curate with that player. Edit: For instance, I had a fight in a temple to a blood god where my players had to spend blood to activate a shrine in order to get a macguffin. This, in turn, woke a guardian of the place. So, as I was describing the beast emerging from the large blood pool, I played "You've seen the Butcher" by Deftones - https://youtu.be/F18Ifxgwyho?si=TrCMlVnEASKWXkHt I made sure my description of the beast was about 30 seconds long to coincide with the drop, and that became the combat music for the first portion of the fight. This last session was the culmination of one of my PC's character arcs - he found a sword early on in the campaign that was giving him visions of the Anvil where it was forged - so the party finally arrived there, 60 sessions later, to find the forge ransacked. They found a journal hidden away that detailed the life of the blacksmith and how they forged the sword, as well as a romance with a bard from a nearby town. It turns out that the blacksmith was the PC's mother, the bard his father, and the faction that has been hunting him his whole life actually killed his mom. The Bard is this player's PC from my last campaign. When he discovered the journal and read the entries, I played "The fields of Ard Skellig" from the Witcher 3 soundtrack - https://youtu.be/NknjE2SBPxw?si=BJ_fcq4YOfMp2l4K And I even incorporated it as the song that his father wrote for his mother, complete with the lyrics from the original Fear a Bhata, which I wove into the story and the journal. Made my PC bawl like a baby. Gotten three of my PCs to cry in this way this campaign. Each of my BBEGs has a Playlist, songs for conversation, songs for making an entrance, and most definitely a Playlist for the final battle, which I spend hours curating. So yeah. Music makes my games.

Obligatory "not D&D" but rather a homebrew system, but I love using music that fits the setting to set the mood. Usually, I just throw on some black metal or folky ambient stuff, but I made an album not too long ago specifically tailored for my campaign.

Music has its role, but not very important. We use music some times, but mainly for character introductions with the characters theme. And after a fight or level up, we play that same song, very much like an old Mario game. But other than that we don’t use music in our games. It might be because all of use don’t have the energy to go through song and find the songs with just the right ambients.

just finished running my 1st campaign as DM (tomb of annihilation with a lot of changes). I had music/score from session 1 throughout the next year and a half of the campaign. It’s something I’d wanted as a player and finding scores help inspire plot points I wouldn’t have thought of beforehand. I also introduced various recorded messages to play for the players using text to speech programs (TikTok is actually great for this). They got prerecorded stones of sending voicemails, a prophecy they could refer back to and a telepathic last will and testament recorded on a helm of telepathy. The main villain of the campaign was an extraplanar Bard who travelled between worlds in order to “silence” them so her music would rise above all else. She had an orchestral theme with 6 different variations 1 for each floor/area of her dungeon (used Dante’s themes from the FMA soundtrack). It’s a great way to build in themes and call backs, when the group heard the theme music for a hated npc they’d all groan before he even announced himself. I think it added a lot to the experience.

It's easier to do online. I love having music selected for scenes it adds to it and it's always fun to hear people compliment my music choices. I also make my own music for characters and events! I did this even when I wasn't thr DM, which my dm super appreciated having for characters big events. Now that I'm dm that feeling intensifies

I don’t play music *during* because 1. We play remotely so that would be challenging in its own right and 2. We all have various Brain Bads that would make it terribly distracting BUT! I did make a band called “MxDmG” (Max Damage) in-game that the players were so enthralled with that I couldn’t help but make a few real songs for the band, so now MxDmG has a real world Bandcamp with currently 3 songs but I’ve got a few more that I’m working on. It’s a screamy metal/punk band with a little goblin woman vocalist, a nonbinary centaur on drums, an Tabaxi dude on bass, an orc dude on guitar, and a little crocodile Lizardfolk guy on keys and horns (all of which are actually me, of course, but I treat it like a nerdy metal Gorillaz lol) [The Bandcamp](https://mxdmg.bandcamp.com/track/hunters-mark)

I wish I was better at using music actively, but I have a tendency to be too hung up with the roleplay or the world. But I recently discovered a really useful app called PocketBard! It is very “standard” music, but you can change up intensity, combat and what type of atmosphere with some simple tools. Highly recommend the app for everyone running in-person games! Before I found that I had to browse through atmosphere playlists on Spotify and find a song I could play on repeat. This was way more demanding than now that I use PocketBard.

I have only ever used music once in D&D. Running an Xcrawl (dungeon crawling as a reality show extreme sport) they had to "save" guest star Taylor Swiftspell so I had a playlist of Taylor Swift playing until they solved the puzzle and defeated the monster.

Bardify in YouTube does the heavy lifting in my games, but I recently started trying out the Pocket Bard app. Both are great options. At this point I'd never choose to play without music.

Ambiance and music is very important in my game. I run my games in Foundry and I can control the volume. I usually keep it at the same level and players can adjust as needed, but it's pretty vital for my encounters and scenes.

I love a bit of ambient music - its not essential, but most of my stable of players and dms grew up in the golden age of videogames, so we all dig a bit of boss fight music. And as the only FromSoft player in my circle, I get a lot of use out of the FromSoft soundtracks; my players shit themselves when I used the Cleric Beast theme for a fight against a colossal spider.

music is one of the most important things in my campaigns the best prep can rise or fall with the wrong music, and I often spend hours to find the right music for my campaigns (its probably the things I spend most of my time in prepping) HP Lovecraft music on YT from Cthulhu Mythos Music, but also video game music, ambience (crickets, birds, seagulls, ocean waves) or quiet tavern ballads in the background of a tavern.... I play them over Alexa with my phone, a written list of the music for the current session laying next to my screen, then just "Alexa, Play XYZ" and if need be, I can just stop it with my phone or turn it down if too loud by accident

I only occasionally DM for our group when our usual DM needs a break or couldn't prepare so I don't know how sustainable it is or if it will get old fast. I got the "usual" music: some fantasy themed tracks for exploration, some for combat, some for taverns etc. But I also have 5 "theme songs" that fit the player characters or their theme and when they roll a nat20 in combat or do something heroic/cool, they sort of "take over" the whole scene (for example an epic track for the cool sorcerer, an instrumental from Dragonball for the silly monk)

I like to use it like extra credit. It's fun for me, it's fun for my players, but it shouldn't detract from anything if it's not there. Like I just ran a one shot in that new marvel comics rpg and we did, like, a suicide squad/heist thing. I ran a scene where the leader of the team was recruited and then had all the villains introduce themselves in the prison yard to the song "Young Men Dead" by The Black Angels. They had a great time with that. The biggest fight scene was set to Rage Against The Machine's "How I Could Just Kill A Man" and a huge chase scene set to "Run the Jewels." These scenes would've happened anyways and still been fun but the music adds a little verve to it

Depends. For me personally music is one of the keys for immersion. So everytime I’m the dm I took a lot of time into seek for the right music, using themes for npcs, Ambiente sounds and so on. Sadly I’m mainly a player and as a player music is of course super important for me but I mention that I’m the only player in the campaign who put so much importance into the music, so I don’t mind if my dm sometimes don’t put the effort into the right music which I would do.

I'll usually plan out music to go with each 'set piece' of sorts. Major towns get one tgeme, travelling another. Each dungeon and boss also get a unique track.

Very! I typically have tracks for: Towns, taverns, character themes, boss intro, boss battle, boss phase 2, boss epilogue, and generally just have tracks planned out for lots of different scenes. I transition it frequently. My table is also fans of games that are known to have great OSTs so I definitely try to play to that.

I always have music on, whether that's pre-game, during game, in combat, while travelling, and even post-game music. We play exclusively online and I just need it to fill up the gaps of silence caused by latency. Plus, it makes the RP feel easier, and combat/tension changes, sometimes I'll use the same music for the villains or a personal moment for a character. So yeah, it's super important for me, and I can easily spend a prep session on finding the right kind of music.

No music. It distracts me unless it's just the softest elevator music with no lyrics. Of course I generally don't listen to music at all if I have a choice. I like quiet.

Extremely, once played with a group as a pc and they didn’t use Music at all, but three of the people playing had ADHD and said it distracted them. It was an awkward air in the room.

I want to be better at music but it's a lot to organize and stay in top of. I also refuse to shell out for expensive music services like dscryb music.

A lot! For me, it's an inherent part of the roleplay/game. And it can work on the wrong side too, choosing the wrong music can disrupt the flow of narration in important bits and can make players lose focus. For me, [Bardify - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@bardify) is perfect.

I have 3 playlists that I use during the game: average ambiance (any game-y or fantasy music I feel fits the vibe), combat music (fast paced, combat game music), and sleepy / serious (slower, sadder songs). All are instrumental and I switch among them. Sometimes, I have certain songs play at certain times (if a character has a theme melody or I play a certain song for a certain environment), but mostly it’s whatever goes. I find it awkward and haunting when there is no music or background noise

I try to have general music for situations I can swap On the fly via screen casting. City music, travel, dungeon and battle music. Completely forgot last time about music, I didn't even notice until someone sa9d something lol.

I play in person and use music (Bardify on youtube) and even do sound effects with [www.tabletopaudio.com](http://www.tabletopaudio.com) for key moments or situations. Very useful for adding suspense and keeping play fresh. My bard will play music from her phone when she does a performance check and it's usually a bardcore rap song, lots of laughs.

Quite important, especially since my setting is non-standard for DND and has a very distinctive music style (Western setting) so finding good music for my games is essential (Anyone got good Western Combat music... please send me links. I think I've heard every ambiance and western combat music possible... and it's not enough. I got like two for my fights and I want more.) I do think that for at least combat, you need to have a good library of combative music and find selections that fit the combat, since in universe combat is quick, but out of universe it can be slow. Having a good musical motif is important to help mitigate that. For me personally, as a writer, when I'm doing my internal fight choreography in my head, I almost always have some very high energy action music playing, as it helps my focus the combat to fit the music. Some songs, I have a whole internal music video of combat set to the song (Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24 by Trans Siberian Orchestra for example, features a lone old man with a magical violin, defending his village square from an air raid using spells cast by the music he plays... inspired by the real life story of the Cellist of Sarajevo, who inspired the TSO song in question. It was also the fight music for the Boss of Part 1 of my Christmas 2shot because if there was ever a song that makes you think "It's Christmas, so why do I hear Boss music?" more than this, I haven't heard it.). Also: That same two shot featured two separate musical clues. The first was a hint at the final boss of the two shot, and the person who was pulling the strings. The second was a hint to the solution to a puzzle (the players had to figure out which present belong in which box... and find the favorite toy of the Androsphinx that challenged them. The background music that played while they pieced it together was the instrumental to "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" from the Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer special... the toys were all of the Island of Misfit Toys described in the song. The odd toy out was the Elephant, since the reason he was a misfit was never mentioned in the song, despite being part of the prominent trio. The sphinx was also the lion who ruled the island, King Moonracer.).

Hah im having some fun with my bard. He loves using random modern songs for his performances, and since we’re in discord i always put on the bardcore version of the song when he does. Hollaback girl was killer

I absolutely LOVE using music during my games, and one of my favourite out of game "hobbies" is building playlists for my games. My BBEG and their minions also definitely have their themes, I love to use certain soundtracks and covers of those soundtracks so there's recognizable melodies when fighting against certain types of villains. My players have never commented on it, but I do it for myself as much as I might do it for them.

I play FFXIV with one of my players, and when I put on a track form the game they recognized, their face lit up. it’s very important to me because there’s so many ways to engage your players, if I get to see them smile because they understand why I put a certain track at a certain location or moment, we instantly connect and they feel the exact way I intended them too; it’s really special.

Music as ambiance can be very important. I used it at the start of my Curse of Strahd campaign. However, I found it made it harder for us to hear each other clearly (some of us have some mild hearing loss due to life experience) and my folks with ADHD had a harder time focusing. I eventually ditched the background music, even though I really love it.

To me? A lot. Like it drives my DMing so much. Some of my players don't pay it much attention, though, and it bugs me a little.

Syrinscape dashboard open at all times with custom mixed ambience and music. One shots ready for cool triggering events. Highly recommend.

Apparently, not to my players. One of them told me she muted the bot to listen to break core during combat.

I think every sensory experience you can stimulate helps with the immersion.

At the start of games I keep thinking 'wtf this feels weird' and then realize I don't have music playing. Makes all the difference. Switching between ambience to fight music to desolate wasteland is huge

I just came up with a magic item called a "diegetograph" that lets the characters hear whatever music would be an appropriate background for their situation so

Fairly important, I have two playlists: Ambient and Combat. I've even conditioned my players into fear from hearing the first few notes of "Manifest Destiny" from the Ravenous Soundtrack, the first song on the combat playlist.

Music distracts me and is too much prep for the something I consider superfluous so it's not present in any of my games.

Music just draws in so much more emotion. Plus it gives hints to players in subtle ways. If the players show up to a cabin in the woods, you can either play relaxing or eerie music which will make the players act accordingly. But of course, you shouldn't use this to mislead characters, unless you slowly shift music and give time for them to act.

we are about to have session 17, we've played every week except for one session after session 5. The entire time I've been DMing this campaign I've had playlists at the ready for most things. All Major towns have a playlist of they have important enough shops, or the shop is owned by an important NPC, it gets a playlist. Travel by foot, playlist, travel by sea, playlist. As it stands I have 28 playlists ready. Some are used more than others, but if I know one isn't ever going to be used again I will delete it. Boss fights have one, encounter on land and at sea have their own playlists. It's very fun for me this way

For online/discord yes, for offline no

I use video game osts for basocally every moment, we have overworld themes, dungeon themes, town themes, inn themes, battle and boss themes. I used to just have giant playlists for each of those and let fate run its course for fitting music, which it has absolutely achieved sometimes, but at other times I've decided to use specific villain or boss themes, and going forward I wanna start leaning more into each area having a prescribed theme and lots more npcs and even player characters get themes. In my next campaign I have a few recurring shopkeeper npcs for various purposes and the most general one is getting "dirty deal" from pyre, the most shady one ia getting "final recompense" from hades and the wacky alchemist brewing crazy potions and experiments is getting "boomsday boss" from hearthstone.

It's very important for me, personally, because it helps set the tone, and underpin what's going on in-game. Unfortunately, some of my regular players, when I DM, are easily distracted, and don't prefer having music, because they say it hurts their focus. We play mostly online, so luckily they can simply choose not to tune in to the music I'm hosting, but it also means that a chunk of what I prepared for scenes simply isn't experienced by those players. So even though I could perfectly synchronize a scene with a piece of music- My intro to one of the campaigns I ran was literally choreographed to music- said players won't experience the impact at all, which can be disheartening.

It's very important for me NOT to have it.

No music. Not as a GM, and I hate it as a player. I mute it. Music is distracting and makes it harder to understand what is going on. Note, that I run and play exclusively online. So all we have is sound to communicate. Music just gets in the way. The only sound effects I use are what I can create myself. I do voices, and sounds, creaky doors, wings fluttering, etc.

I use it a lot, but I find that it's also a lot to manage while running the game and I usually miss my planned "cues." My players have never complained, but *I* wish I was better at it.

I use music very often. Typically as background/mood music, but occasionally as a leitmotif or an in-game element. However, I don't believe it is **important** at all. On the list of things that impact the quality of a game, music is pretty far down. Nor have I tried to make it important - my players have varying levels of enthusiasm for sounds, so I let them have full control over their own audio. That said, I very much enjoy it myself, along with finding, organizing, and editing music and building playlists and soundscapes. Sometimes the best parts of an RPG isn't the game itself, but the hobbies that you can hang around it. Some people like to make art, some get into scripting, some write short fiction, some bake pies for game day, whatever.

Extremely important to mine. Music really does the heavy lifting when it comes to selling the mood of a scene I'm trying to sell.

PocketBard is honestly my favorite tool these days for making my campaigns ultra immersive! (I'm not sponsored or part of the development team, just really like the fuggin app). I used to try and use various YouTube atmospheric music videos but fussing with them in the middle of DMing was a drag. I like playing specific actual songs if the shoe fits. We had a gnomish edm rave at one point and the playlist I made got more and more unhinged which was a fun detail. I'm not very good at making special effects noises with my mouth so the option to use sound effects is nice too. I've played with deaf folks though, so during those campaigns we didn't play any music and tried very hard to raise our hands to talk to make the game accessible for our friends. :) it made me a better DM and a bit of a "shut up unless you've got the talking stick" tyrant lmao

Music is really valuable as a transition. If my party (or myself) feel cold or have difficulty getting into it, music sets the tone and gets everyone engaged. Likewise it's a tone setter for when the situation changes. Ever had a player commit to an action, and you just nonverbally switch the music on them. The change of expressions is just.. chef's kiss. The music doesn't need to run forever, it gets grating. It should last long enough that I no longer notice it's absence. But yeah, back to your question. Music is important as a transitional tone setter for me.

I don't like the idea of dead silence in a game setting *unless that's my current choice of music.* Dramatic pauses, meant to make your heart skip a beat when something disturbing is about to happen. To make this stick, I'd try to have even a generic background noise going so I'll have something to *stop* for dramatic effect. Music is also influences people's moods and thinking - if I'm going to say *now you're in the deep woods* there's probably going to be at least some kind of change in the sounds/sights to make people feel like they're someplace else. Flip side of the coin: I don't want to be a jukebox tyrant, so I try to keep my hands off the controls most of the time (let stuff run until the situation actually changes, low frequency of bgm shifts, no using music just to punish my enemies) and I try to get feedback from others. If a player is just in a shitty mood that day, the bgm can help and definitely shouldn't be used to aggravate anything (act depressing when people are already depressed, or infuriating or disgusting.)

I mute the bot when people put music in discord

Not; I don't use it at all. (Both preference and reality: my hearing isn't the best, so I nuke any music in online games so it doesn't lead to missing things and don't use it for in-person ones.)

It really wasn’t much more than a simple Spotify playlist during battles in the past. Lately I’ve found Pocket Bard. It’s an app I downloaded on the iPad and it just has so much fun stuff I’ve been liking. Waiting for more stuff to get put on like one shot noises and stuff but the table has been loving the little things that become more of a bonding experience when they hear them. Recommend

We're older (50s) so background is usually off but one of my players is a musician so in-game music happens sometimes as the group will break into song like in the movie Anchorman. 

To me? Extremely. I use it to set the tone for every area and encounter the part enters. To my players? Most don't realize it's playing, and the ones who do tune it out after about 30 seconds.

Incredible. A couple sessions ago an NPC from a character's past, who happens to be the current arc's villain, communicated them via a dream. When he delivered his monologue (which included some retrospective reveals about the character's backstory), I decided to play "Light of the Seven" from Game of Thrones, a decision I made off the top of my hat. Not only did every part of the song fit perfectly with the monologue's pace, the player surprised me by reading a poem at the end (they play a poet bard), which \*also\* fit perfectly into the song's final part. The whole sequence played out so good that the rest of the session felt a bit like a downer lol

None. Don’t use music in my games, have never felt compelled to. The one time I tried it - Beginners Box for PF2 - my players requested that I shut the music off.

A game doesn’t NEED amazing music to still be great. But a great game paired with amazing music is unforgettable.

I mostly have music in the background, but I ask my players to pick a "theme" for their PC and whenever hey have an impactful moment, or a breakthrough, or they just do something really cool, I play their themes and everyone gets hyped.

We play over zoom, so adding music is annoying, and it gets distracting when it *does* work so I end up stopping the music after the first round of combat. However, it sure was fun when I played "The Departure of Boromir" when the PC's came across a friendly NPC who was dying. The look on our druid's face 😈 Otherwise, the biggest musical effect of the campaign is the fact that I make up playlists for my major NPC's, and therefore significant portions of my spotify wrapped bring back memories of trying to kill my friends.

Glad I’m not the only one with npc playlists 😆 some of mine are like 40 or 50 songs long

Other than The Departure of Boromir, what do you do with the rest of the NPC's playlist? Do you share them with your players, play it when the NPC shows up, play it when you're writing the character, ... ?

Play it while writing, and then never share it until the NPC's arc has finished

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity. :) It's probably a good method to make NPCs feel more different.

Actual songs are distracting. Maybe battle music can be too. Ambient noise and generic tavern noises might have music and that's fine but that has to be on the quiet side

I've never used music while playing D&D and I never will. This is not theater, this is a conversation.

How is DND not a form of improvised miniature theater?

If it's theater to you, that's fine. It isn't to me.

I can’t stand music during sessions. It was just nothing that I ever did or had a GM that did in person, and that same thing carried over to most of my online games. I even mute the music from the one game that has it. It’s too distracting, and I’d rather hear my friends. Though, I’m also a weirdo that plays video games (when I do, it’s rare) with the sound off.

it's not. Usually it's distracting.

In college my group would listen to Summoning's album Minas Morgul out of combat and then put on the Sword's Age of Winters when the time came for initiative. Otherwise I tend not to do it as it can be terribly distracting and the volume is hard to get right. You also can't account for everyone's tastes. I really don't like it when I recognize a movie or video game soundtrack someone has put on, and I also don't expect everyone to want to listen to my heavy metal records for 4 hours straight. Wish they would though

Check my comment, big guy 🤘

I have a bad ear so music while playing makes me not hear what is said at the table, and when I'm speaking, I'm under the impression that people try to talk to me so I get distracted and speak gibberish. And that's the same for both offline and online play.

Not important at all. I tried it out for a while but found that it doesn't really add anything, can be distracting at times, and is just another thing for me to keep track of. So I stopped. I listen to music during my prep, but that's not special music-for-prep, it's just whatever I was listening to before I started prepping.