D&D Tense Music

Majestic/Magical Items

A collection of dramatic, eerie, and tension-building background music, mostly from Movie and Video Game OST.

Getting music and sound effects for your fantasy role playing group can be a headache. I got tired of the two spectrums. The first--having every little sound effect ready to go, with generic repetitive tavern/wilderness/dungeon noises in the background, usually from one phone app or another, and the second--saying "fuck it" and putting on "insert fantasy movie station here" on Pandora and cringing through ads and constant repeats during a 4-6 hour game. And what about all the different moods you want to help stir around the table? Joy, despair, anger, wonderment, hopelessness, etc... that can be a lot of micromanagement just for background noise.

My solution: three playlists--one for combat, one for dungeon delving, and another for everything else. Best when shuffled. (If you have any suggestions for tracks to add to this playlist, please DM me!)

Enjoy!

The Ultimate Fantasy Tabletop RPG Mood Music Collection (Dungeon Delving)

Wilderness

End Of The Battle

Darkest Dungeon II (Original Video Game Soundtrack)

The Winding Valley (Complete)

Relax, Enjoy the music its very interesting for a Video Game ^_^ 
(Artist - Matt Uelmen)

Love Life, Enjoy Life.
~Dev7

Zeryphesh Twilight

This album is free to download. Consider supporting me on www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator to support my future works!

Update 3/20/15 - Re EQ'ed, adjusted some of the piano tempo

After going through numerous tracks with more lighthearted tone and different genres, I was finally excited to return to a more traditional classical intense piece. Usually my version is slower, but in this instance I really ramped up the speed. After the first four dungeons, I treated the fifth as the start of a darker second act of the game. The theme is no longer a variation of the Caves melody.

In this dungeon, Link is under the sinister gaze of the skeleton warrior. You have to be on your toes for most of the first half because he could show up in any screen. However, by the end you realize that the warrior is actually afraid of you. You are the one actually chasing him down, and reclaiming the treasure. Whereas the first half of my arrangement is a faithful recreation of the original theme, the second half represents the raw emotion Link (hopefully) and the enemies display: dread, fear, determination, resignation. The rhythm is broken up, and the dungeon progression transitions from a chase to a slaughter.

Catfish's Maw - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Orchestral Arrangement

In the house, in a heartbeat - 28 days later OST by John Murphy

Official soundtrack for Croteam's game The Talos Principle

Available on Steam
http://store.steampowered.com/app/322020/

01 - Welcome To Heaven

This was work from July 2014 I was hired to do for an Oculus Rift Tech Demo by Massive Square. The pieces are meant to be highly atmospheric, evoking a sense of wonder and magic.

www.massivesquare.com/work.html

Used with permission from Massive Square

Forest Battle - Borealis Original Soundtrack

This album is free to download. Consider supporting me on www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator to support my future works!

Update 3/20/15 - Re EQ'ed

The color dungeon is a slightly slower version of the original Zelda dungeon theme with a soft section thrown in. It does not fit the rest of the soundtrack in my opinion. I originally did not want to arrange this piece because I would eventually do it when I tackle the original Zelda soundtrack (*hint *hint). I ultimately caved in so that the entire album will be thorough without any stray tracks to nag at the back of my head. That said, I will not be arranging the alternate select screen tunes from the European version.

A big thanks to everyone who has participated on this year long journey with me and all your encouraging comments. If this album accomplishes anything, it is that orchestrated music is nothing without a strong musical foundation. Taking iconic Zelda music and enhancing it with realistic instruments results in a "theoretical soundtrack" that is as good as if not better than most soundtracks today. I did not expect to get this far and am excited to move on to arranging other games!

Color Dungeon - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Orchestral Arrangement

Early MP3 and FLAC available for Patrons. ► https://www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator

RIP Satoru Iwata. He was a great inspiration to me and one of my role models.

The instance this theme plays when Samus lands on the planet really establishes the grand exploration the player is about to embark on. While the track is for the Tallon region, the theme is also used in the beginning of the NES Metroid and Super Metroid. As a result I interpret this as also a characterization of Samus Aran. Arrangement-wise, this is the first Sci-Fi music I've attempted, so it was also a learning experience for me.

The original track also includes some great atmospheric sounds fused into the music, which I did not try to emulate, so therefore ignored. As part of my challenge, I wanted to use only traditional orchestral instruments and play them normally to see if I could pull off the sci-fi mood. This is in part inspired by John Williams' purely orchestral Star Wars score, and Hans Zimmer's Inception/Interstellar. In an interview for Inception, Hans stated he wanted to use real instruments with minimal processing. Instead, he instructed the strings section to try to play the music in a "synthesized" way. What I did was keep the articulation of my instruments as flat as possible. I kept the original Tallon Overworld track's use of long harmonic chords, but to keep it from sounding boring and hollow, I faded in many other instruments in and out to add more texture. These include the horns, tremolo strings, clarinet, vocals, and the organ (Which sounds like more Interstellar copying, but the original track also has organs, so I'm good!).

All of this adds up to a piece that celebrates Samus' resourcefulness, adventurous spirit, and graceful movements.

Metroid Prime Orchestrated - Tallon Overworld

Dark Ambient Music Mix

Dead Melodies (UK) releases his Cryo Chamber debut with Legends of the Wood. A melancholic journey on the isle of mist. 

The hearth warms your bones as you peer out the crosshatch window. The damp morning dew forms translucent drops on the knee high grass. Whatever was out there last night seems gone but the birds are not yet singing and the animals still hiding. You pull your trekking boots on and head out the gnarled door, leaving the heat of the lonely cabin behind. 

Save the faint caw of a crow from up in the canopy, the forest lay silent; Devil's Hill looms in the distance. Through crooked trees you go as the headache hits you and flashes from last night come flooding back; Hooded figures. Blood. The sacrifice! Through clenched teeth you gaze down at the compass in your hand. The needle spinning faster and faster. Anxiously, you look back for the cabin, but it's gone. Gone! Devil's Hill dominates where it once stood, only one way to go. 

Lush field recordings, detailed soundscapes and melancholic melodies drench this album in atmosphere. For lovers of high fidelity dark ambient. 

Available in 24 bit FLAC on our bandcamp

Written, Produced, Performed - Tom Moore 
Artwork & Mastering - Simon Heath

Legends of the Wood

Bandcamp

Dead Melodies - A Trial of Crows and Blood

Ancients (Lord Of Destruction)

Original Game Soundtrack

Composed and produced by Kamil Orman-Janowski

For "Path of Exile" - video game by Grinding Gear Games

Path of Exile (Original Game Soundtrack)

Chamber of Sins

Diablo 2 - Act I - Wilderness

She's so goood to me.... When i smoke that skunky funky smelly weed shit... Puff alll night loooong as i take hits from the Boooooong... 



Zeryphesh Twilight

Devlin135