The First GM Inspiration: Good Music - Featuring Castle Rat
Any good GM will find that you want to have a decent environment in which to sit down and work out a good scenario or two, or develop a decent campaign. Sure you probably want some decent desk space, a laptop or notebooks, graph paper, rules handy in whatever medium you prefer (PDF, print, whatever)....but when you've got all that down, and some quiet time to focus, music may also prove truly inspirational. Music, if you can bring it to the game table, can also be very mood setting if done right.
To that end, I want to draw your attention to Castle Rat, a dark downtempo heavy metal music band founded by singer Riley Pinkerton, which has two albums out now that provide incredible backdrops to fantasy gaming, and sword & sorcery in particular. If you want to get right to seeing if this music works for you, check them out here on Bandcamp, featuring their two albums, Into The Realm and Bestiary. I have no particular favorite here, both are equally amazing productions.
If you only listen to the music of Castle Rat then you are missing their amazing videos. The Castle Rat Youtube channel is worth putting on in the background while crafting as a GM; the retro aesthetic of their videos feels like an imaginative "re-envisioning" of what I think many D&Ders might have held in their minds as teens and kids back in the 70's and 80's when listening to music for gaming, as opposed to the reality, which was mostly mired in the presentations of low budget films in that period. The videos are great though, worth a watch to see the Rat Queen battle the Rat Reaperess and many other lovely scenarios played out in metal ballad form.
Dagger Dagger remains my favorite:
Anyway, check them out!
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