Category: Gaming

I’m going to do something irritating here, and answer a question with another question, and a long-winded one at that.

I’ve been using music in my games since college. And by “using”, I mean “giving thought into use of music as a mood enhancement for specific scenes,” rather than “having the Heavy Metal soundtrack coincidentally playing in the room where we’re gaming.”

I’ve actually been giving a lot of thought recently to writing up tips, suggestions, reviews, etc. — as far as I know, nobody has given an in-depth look into how (and why) to use music in tabletop RPGs, so I’d love to give it a shot.

The question I have is this: Would this interest you? And if so, what format would you prefer to see? A regular series of blog posts? A podcast? An actual book? I want feedback on this. Talk to me.

 
 

The best compliment I’ve had while gaming is a silent insult.

One of my players in college, Matt Harrop, had taken to exclaiming “COCK!” whenever I’d throw something difficult at the group — an unexpected twist, a complication, etc.

Then, so as not to interrupt play, instead of shouting it, he started miming the action of putting a rubber stamp down on an ink pad, and then stamping on my forehead (or, rather, in the air, across the room, but at the level of my forehead). He referred to this as “the cock stamp.”

When I’d come up with situations that the players got so emotionally invested in that I’d earned “the cock stamp?” That was when I knew things were going well. This was the best compliment I’ve ever gotten.