TV shows benefit enormously from having an opening theme — it’s a powerful hook to draw you into the world of the show, and it triggers all sorts of associations with the world of the show, as well as useful assumptions about the way that world works.
That sounds pretty useful for gaming, too.
Don Mappin, who runs my group’s Stargate campaign, has used this technique on several occasions. He also plays Stargate SG-1 music throughout our sessions, which works well, too.
Along the lines of Ritualized Openings, an excellent post by Jeff Rients (previously linked here on TT), my idea is to formalize that a bit: Pick a song that fits your campaign, and play it at the start of every session.
If you wait until the pre-game chatter has started to die down, your game should enjoy many of the same benefits that TV shows derive from their opening themes. What do you think?
Sounds good, and could be just as focusing as a good recap.
This strikes me as a great idea! Besides music, how else would you establish the opening theme? I’m thinking of adding a short monologue such as what Law & Order does (you know – “In the criminal justice system . . .”). Maybe even a simple ritual such as having evryone roll the dice with the best roll being the PC we kick things off with.
Again, great idea! Thanks for sharing it!
Speaking from recent experience in my seagoing campaign, the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks have some excellent musical scores for this purpose. Savvy? 😉
When I ran Alderac’s Stargate SG-1 I always played the theme from the show at the starting of the game. It literally only takes a minute to bring the players into the game and focus them on it, very efficient use of time. Even if I never played any other music during the session that opening theme got the players’ heads right where they needed to be from the start.
Also, I’ve been a soundtrack junkie for years. It’s really cool when you can picture what action in a movie or TV show goes with the music you’re hearing. I’ve found this a good way to figure out which music works for my games and in which situations to use which music.
“In the criminal justice system, the People are represented by two seperate yet equally important groups: the police, who solve the crimes, and the district attorneys who prosecute them. These are there stories.” DUM-DUM!
Sorry if that’s wrong; it’s from memory. 😉
Anyway, if you’re going to do it, make sure it’s good. Like ask a friend how good it is good. Else your group will get sick of hearing it — or worse, make fun of it.
T
It is a modern horror game, so I’m thinking something along the lines of this –
“Humanity is at war. A secret war. A silent war. A struggle continues between the most ancient of evils and the few souls brave enough to face them. Today the battle takes place here . . .”
This would lead into a quick description of where we left off and a brief recap as to how we got there.
hello.
one of the things we do, immediately after the off game chatter fades away, is to put on the theme song (in most cases track 13 from the armageddon soundtrack)as the song plays NO ONE! speaks, and we all just kinda sit there while focusing and letting oneself immerse into the world and in character. this might seem ridicoulous and way too serious, but it’s actually a VERY good idea. as the song fades away the GM begins his recap and everyone is now completely focused.
I have done this, but my campaigns never last.
That said, if I ever get my cyberpunk campaign figured out, the theme song is gonna be “Kids In America” by Kim Wilde. No substitutes!
Combining the opening theme and the opening recitation (not quite the right word, but I can’t think of a better one) sounds like fun — the best of both worlds. Thinking about that combination, it would really get me in the mood to focus and play to the hilt.
Sorry for the long post slightly off topic
It sounds a bit hokey but I started using sounds and sound effects when I was running a wild west -cthulhu crossover game. Using the sounds of cattle lowing whilst reading out the spooky campfire stories really gripped the players, and then using old time piano music for the bar fights set the whole thing in a different light. The players liked it and it was a hoot.
But this got me started on using more media resources. I then ran an Unknown Armies campaign and used a convention scenario. It was very linear and was supposed to be an introduction to UA for the characters. Anyhow the up-shot of the linear style was that I was able to use power point to set up the opening to every scene, with images and photos and used the link sound file function to play suitable MP3 tracks at appropriate sections of the presentation, none of the power points ran over 2-3 minutes but for scene setting they worked really well.
The players loved it, especially as the opening PowerPoint was an introduction to each of the player’s new characters using Tony’s theme from Scarface. (I’d let the players chose from a huge gallery of portraits I’d built up)
The next session I was able to build a power point based, just on the actions of the party from the previous session, and it acted as a recap for our game and told the story from their perspective. Again music was a key factor and it helped to set the tone, I’d pre-plan some scenes. I.e. The meeting with the Possessed mobster, getting patched up by some back street doctor and I would have these ready to roll if the players went that way.
The effect was great I wanted Unknown Armies to have a Filmic appeal and the power points and music made the beginning of each session feel like the start of a new episode in an ongoing series. (So even though the theme tune might change the overall effect was a continuing saga…)
My only caveat about this process is that it worked extremely well for the modern games I was running due to the huge amount of resource available on the web. Any contemporary pictures or movie stills worked a treat. I suspect that a Fantasy campaign wouldn’t work so well, but would be happy to be proved wrong.
I love the idea of having canned themes, just as major characters would in a movie or play — that’s awesome, Andy!