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?