Bath Imaginable

I always listen to music when I play RPGs. There are many good reasons to use music in your games and I’m sure you’ve already heard them all so I’ll just tell you my reason: it’s fun to build playlists and imagine what kind of scenes could unfold in your setting.

I made this playlist with my Electric Bastionland setting in mind. It’s noisy as hell, but there’s a hidden structure to it if you’ll allow me to explain.

Music as Pacing

The playlist is about 3 hours long which is about how long I like to play with my friends. I don’t switch to a playlist for the game until after we’ve all had a chance to chat and catch up, eat something, etc. So the playlist only needs to last as long as we’re actually playing.

The Rising Action. Tracks 1-12 create a liminal space vibe (45 minutes). This is good for the recap, the early roleplay, the early exploration, the driving/sailing around, deciding where to go, etc.

*If you start the Players at the Balcony Cliffs and let them poke around, this music brings that staticky, echoey vibe of the collapsing structure.

The Action. Tracks 13-19 are for explosive action (33 minutes). It comes in like a jump scare. This is good for car chases, combat encounters, running from monsters, seeing something horrible happening and deciding what to do.

*Once things start to slow down you should jump ahead so the high-tension music doesn’t overstay its welcome.

The Dread. Tracks 20-23 are for when things get really bad (29 minutes). This is for when characters go down, when the odds are stacked against the Players, or when you want to reveal a monster that should inspire fear.

*Notice how if the action goes on too long, you’re going to get here anyway (fighting in Electric Bastionland should rarely be a wise choice).

The Familiar, Warped. Tracks 24-26 are for a return to safety. This is good for breaks, and for those times when the Players get away from the danger. It leads nicely into the next section.

*Go back to this section anytime your Players find a safe place to rest or have a moment to collect themselves. It should feel sort of like a Resident Evil safe room, over the length of a campaign your players might internalize this music as being a meta signal that you’re not going to surprise them (until, maybe, you do).

The Long Drive/Sail. Tracks 27-37 are for Player driven moments or low stakes exploration (45 minutes). After we’ve resolved some game-changing encounter in the middle of a session, I like to hand it over to the Players in the back half and let them explore freely so they can come up with what they want to do in the next session. It’s a rhythm that works for me.

*Not all of my sessions will have the same structure, obviously, so I might cycle through these parts of the playlist as I need to. The structure is just nice in case the music drifts into the background entirely, because the focus should be on what’s happening at the table above all.

The Credits. Tracks 38-40 are for wrapping things up (13 minutes). Here, you’re playing your characters off stage and signaling the session is wrapping up.

You can check out the playlist here. I hope you’ll dig this as much as I do.

***Shoutout to my good friend and a regular player who introduced me to many of the artists who made it onto this playlist. Love you, Zach.***