Music

One item that I have had a number of GM's use in session but I've never really gotten the hang of is using background music to set the tone of a session.  I've noticed a number of upsides and downsides to this technique, so I'll talk a bit about that today.

The goal when using music in a game session to to help invoke an ambient effect, usually some emotional bias, to the scene that's being played out.  Doing this requires a number of preparations above and beyond the normal requirements.  First, you need some kind of device to play music on.  I've never heard of the GM playing the music live, and that would introduce a whole new set of logistical issues, so I'll overlook that option for the moment.  Fortunately, music-playing equipment usually isn't an enormous challenge to get your hands on.  Second, you need to determine what music you're going to associate with which scenes.  If you already have a piece in mind, this is usually pretty simple, but if not, music selection can be a huge chore.

In the few circumstances I've seen music used in a tabletop session, there has always been the issue of length.  An RPG tabletop session can last from 20 minutes to a few hours in most systems, and if you want the music to  make it all the way through, you generally need to take one of two approaches; first, create a playlist of similar songs so that they can rotate through without getting too repetitious or draw attention when they change tracks. Second, you might choose music that's intended to be played in long-running loops.  Music composed for video games, which often face a similar problem in terms of predicting timing, is often useful in this regard.

My personal experience with GM's using music in their session has been that most of the time it is a wash emotionally, but poor selection or volume management can cause the music to interfere with players hearing the GM or each other; the volume must be kept down.  Once or twice I've seen music really make a difference in a specific scene, but didn't particularly help the rest of the game.

I have, on occasion, used sound equipment to create other ambient sound; a thunderstorm or a river running to help set a scene.  The film and theatre tech in me really wants to adjust the lighting in the room, too, everytime I do something like that, but it simply isn't feasible most of the time.  Lighting is for another post, though.

All told, I've found music during session a dubious prospect; it is just as likely to distract as to engage, so I tend to leave that particular tool in the toolbox.  That said, I know that a few GM's have had excellent scenes enhanced by having music, so I expect having it on standby for a few moments across the campaign could work very well.  I leave those possibilities to your experimentation.