There have been a number of threads here on DSF about music which should accompany SR and people have often suggested various techno-ey type musics, and certainly I've suggested exclusively 80s music.

While listening to some Dragonforce, however, I began to wonder if maybe Dragonforce could also be appropriate for SR.

Immediately when someone listens to Dragonforce, of course, the first thing that comes to mind is D&D. If I went to play a D&D campaign for around 5 hours and the DM had a Dragonforce CD playing in an endless loop I'd consider that to be perfectly appropriate. It's also exactly what I'd have my PC playing if I were playing Planescape: Torment with the music muted.

However, after listening to Sonic Firestorm for sometime I began to wonder if Dragonforce might also be okay for Shadowrun. If you envisioned Shadowrun as more of a mohawk-and-leather-jacket rock opera than anything else the melodious guitar riffs and fantasy themed lyrics of Dragonforce might actually worked. I could see the game having to be less tactical and more about whaling on your guitar while mowing down hundreds of rock opera security guards who look like they crawled out of the old Dune movie, but I think it would work under those circumstances in any case.

What do you say? Could Dragonforce be appropriate background music for Shadowrun, or is combining Dragonforce with Shadowrun grounds for a cranial bomb?

I would say, if your campaign is the old cyberpunk style, with leather, mohawks, and Billy Idol wannabes, then Dragonforce would be perfect. However, the Shadowrun look from 3rd edition and beyond would deem Dragonforce to seem inappropriate. If all else fails, ask your players!

Don't feel restricted by any "genre" when picking atmospheric music for your games. You can make pieces from just about any genre fit, from 19th-century classical ("On the Beautiful Blue Danube" by J.S. Strauss makes pretty background music for the fancy charity ball the runners are crashing) to 1950s big band jazz ("Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darrin is a light and bouncy anthem for the cheery sociopath in all of us) to 1970s folk rock ("Stuck In The Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel is an obvious choice for Tarantino fans). Of course Dragonforce is "appropriate background music."

One of the things I've noticed over the last decade of following Shadowrun and my building interest in dystopias and cyberpunk, is that if you ask 10 people for a definition of cyberpunk you'll end up with 10 different responses. Everyone experiences the bleak future of decadent technology and renewed spirtuality, which stood at the center of almost all early cyberpunk works, differently, and the definition for cyberpunk has become very broad indeed. With this ecclectic collection of definition comes an ecclectic collection of cyberpunk-flavours, which is accompanied by an ecclectic collection of music. In the end, it all depends on what kind of game your running and what kind of definition you connect to cyberpunk, manapunk and Shadowrun. As said before, it's up to you and your players.

You poser, I mentioned Dragonforce months ago on a music thread!

No, it's too D&D to be Shadowrun-ish; I was thinking it was more metaplanar quest music.

D&D styled metaplanar quests.

And my favorite lyrics are "The sound of evil laughter falls across the world to-niiight!" and "Now we are defenseless in a land where dragons rule."

Just wanted to mention that Dragonforce is touring in the US. Also, that Emo likes to sing along to the theme song from Highlander, which is why I plan to work it into a campaign someday. Finally, that you know damn well that Dragonforce fits with what you have in mind. Why are you asking us our opinion?

If I had to listen to crap like DragonForce when playing, I'd probably shoot myself. With that said, I don't think power metal is good for Shadowrun anyways. When thinking of a soundtrack for Shadowrunning, I tend to gravitate on the electronic side of things on your average game of B&E or meeting at The Inferno. But I wouldn't mind soft jazz or classical music if your team is running protection on a high profile party or dirty thrash or death metal if you're gunning against a trog gang in the Barrens. It all depends on the context of the game at hand.

Dragonfroce are a horrible crappy power metal band - but that's my personal opinion, so I think the question is really silly. If you enjoy their music while playing SR, do so.

Imo there's nothing like "right" music for SR. People here listen to very different kinds of music and none of it seems to be the only one correct soundtrack for SR.

They're funny; that's why I listen to them.

If that would be important, I would be listen to Hamnerfall and Rhapsody.

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I've always liked the Hackers Soundtrack. I feel that it has a good mix of techno, tribal and rock to make for a good SR soundtrack.

Not to mention it reminds me of a hot, young, Angelina. Oh those lips!

I have a WinAmp playlist for writing SR stuff but one of my players will sulk if I try to use music. He won't leave, just get disruptive.

My playlist has the Deus Ex soundtrack (still the closest i have ever seen to a decent SR computer-game) and the Dark Side of Phobos (remixes of DooM tracks) album among others. Otherwise, it is classical for me. I do my best 'twisted' work when listeing to Chopin. Gets me in the evil-genius mood...

I listen to techno (and techno-type) music most when not playing SR so by default I (would) listen to that during the game. Anything that is fast, hard music. On XM radio, half the music on Squiz works well. I have play list on my iPod (and therefore my mac) that is very progressive/fast/hard rock music + hard core techno + some odd misc techno and that is what I listen to on the way to the game. On a side note, I listen to the same play list when I write perl/php code at the office. I dont program much but when I do, that music is great to get me in the coding mood.

But to answer you question, any music you like to listen to is the right music.


dog

He likes Mangas and Animes too?

The perfect geek, no matter his hair

You should listen Merzbow while playing Shadowrun.


Some others too...

I downloaded Dragonforce because I was getting interested in it, and it's so not what I expected. It's...really bad, and not at all Shadowrun or D&D-like.

I find that the best music for my campaigns mostly comes from viedo games. My favourite one to use is Killer7. I only use real bands when I want to create the effect of a concert or radio or some other sort of music playing device.

Dragonforce seems a bit hit and miss to me.