Music to Game to: Andrew Liles - The Dying Submariner: Complete Download Version

I listen to a lot of music (over 41 days worth in 2018 according to last.fm) and I find that few things help me keep the mood of a game foregrounded in my mind like a good soundtrack. Plus, I’ve discovered that when I’m playing music to a speaker via Bluetooth, I’m less likely to be on my phone, lest my players hear any stray sounds, letting me better model engagement during a game. To that end, I want to share some of my favorite music to game to; the albums that inspire and inflame my imagination and that I’ve found work well as background music for games as well. I’ll do a mini-review and cover the basics of what mood it helps me set.

Andrew Liles – The Dying Submariner: Complete Download Version

The original edition of The Dying Submariner was subtitled: A Concerto For Piano And Reverberation In Four Movements is extremely minimal in instrumentation but extremely effective at portraying a sinking, claustrophobic atmosphere of being lost at, or worse, below the sea.
Ghostly piano playing echoes through the tracks, recasting the familiar instrument as an eerie explorer diving deeper and deeper into pitch black water. Nearing a length of 3 hours, the album provides plenty of soundtrack, bordering on soundscape, for doomed maritime adventures.
The Aqualungs versions, making up the last seven tracks, expand the instrumentation of the album but retain a maritime theme.

Vocals?...No
Music Genre(s)… Experimental, Ambient
Perfect for… Pitch black, haunted sessions of slowly building tension and dread.
If you only grab one track, make it... The minimal, yet menacing “The Dying Submariner – Part II”, which features rumbling piano lines that emerge from the depths of the track.

Bag o' Gulls - Weird Magic Item #27

Inspired by the incredibly excellent Weird Magic Item generator over at Donjon.bin.sh, I've been coming up with a few of my own system agnostic weird magic items to put in the many games I run, be they 13th Age or Beyond the Wall...

Eventually I want to try and put them into a randomizer, but I need to generate a few first. I'm going to try and post one every other Wednesday. Please let me know if you end up using an item I've created in your own game. You can find the entire series here...

Antagonist Relations Weird Magic Item Generator Presents...

Bag o’ Gulls

Uncommon Wondrous Item

This filthy, off-white sack smells faintly of seabird guano and was created by the notoriously eccentric Dwarven sea-mage, Scant Muckbeard. Once per day, as an action, the holder of the bag can use a command word and open the bag to release 2d12+12 sea gulls (for 5e D&D, use the stats for a raven, without the mimicry trait). The individual who utters the command word can have the gulls perform one of the actions below:

• Seek Dry Land. The gulls fly in the direction of the nearest dry land, soaring at a speed that can be followed by a boat or ship. The gulls circle above the dry land until the individual who spoke the command word is within 300ft of the dry land or until 8 hours have passed, at which point the gulls disperse.
• Swarm. The gulls swarm and attack a single target you verbally designate as a free action, using the stats of a Raven Swarm (for 5e D&D) or other appropriate stat block for the system. The gulls attack only the target creature, dispersing if the target of their attacks falls unconscious or dead.
• Befoul. For 1d4+1 minutes the gulls befoul an area of huge size or smaller, eating any food, flapping their wings and squawking at any creatures present. If attacked or driven away, they do not fight back, instead they fly up and let loose a truly epic amount of guano, covering any creatures attacking them or attempting to drive them off. If left undisturbed, the gulls may still defecate before they depart but they do not focus their excretions on any single target, instead covering the area with their droppings.
• Communicate. For a number of minutes equal to the number of gulls released, the user gains the ability to speak and understand Auran (the language of Air elementals) and has the effect of the Speak with Animals spell but only for birds, allowing them to use the gulls to speak to any other avians present.

Additionally, the bag serves as the material component for a find familiar spell, but when cast only sea gulls arrive to serve as the caster’s familiar.

Once the Gulls complete the command of the user, they fly off as normal gulls, completely free of any lingering effects and the bag cannot be used again until the next day.

Music to Game to: Undersmile - Narwhal

I listen to a lot of music (over 41 days worth in 2018 according to last.fm) and I find that few things help me keep the mood of a game foregrounded in my mind like a good soundtrack. Plus, I’ve discovered that when I’m playing music to a speaker via Bluetooth, I’m less likely to be on my phone, lest my players hear any stray sounds, letting me better model engagement during a game. To that end, I want to share some of my favorite music to game to; the albums that inspire and inflame my imagination and that I’ve found work well as background music for games as well. I’ll do a mini-review and cover the basics of what mood it helps me set.

Undersmile – Narwhal

Sludgy, epic, female fronted doom metal, Narwhal has a maritime theme that makes it perfect for throwing on while you run Ghosts of Saltmarsh. The sprawling tracks feature thudding drums and guitar riffs that wash over listeners like crashing waves. The vocals provide a haunting atmosphere without being distracting.

Vocals?...Yes
Music Genre(s)… Doom Metal
Perfect for… Dark, maritime themed fantasy where you want to evoke epic storms, crashing waves and titanic monsters moving inexorably towards land.
If you only grab one track, make it... The massive and menacing track, “Berk”, which moves between roaring riffs and quieter haunting passages, provides a good taste of the heavy and inevitable sonic-scape of the album.

Maritime Items & Heroes of Wharves and Waves

With Ghosts of Saltmarsh coming out, Thomas asked me for assistance proofreading and updating his Heroes of Wharves and Waves supplement for the Dungeon Master's Guild. I ended up contributing some NPC spell lists and trinkets to the updated product, but I had some items that did not make it in due to space and a few trinket ideas that worked better as common magic items.

So I took a little time and took what didn't make the cut, revised a little and put them all together into a single page Martime Items document with GM Binder, it's completely free and available at the link below:

Antagonist Relations Maritime Items

If you like what is on the Maritime Items page, consider grabbing Heroes of Wharves and Waves. While I am admittedly biased, it has plenty of fantastic material, including a copy of Moby Dick written up as a trinket that I snuck in as well as...

• 4 new races: the deck-dwelling hadozee, shadowy malenti, proud locathah, and fey skinchangers (both selkie and swanmay).
• 5 class archetypes and one modification: charm, opportunity, wave, and wealth domains for clerics, undersea option for circle of the land druids, and elemental water arcane tradition for wizards.
• 6 weapons
• 2 feats to access water elemental and ship spells
• 61 spells and supporting options to portray scoundrels of the docks, shipboard adventures, and aquatic adventures to life
• 17 magic items
• 12 beasts for wild shaping druids, selkies and swanmays, and beast summoning spells
• A new trinket table
• Alternate spell lists for NPC stat blocks, including sample ritual books for PCs to find

If my warlock archaeologist dies in Tomb of Annihilation, I'm going to have my next PC be a Cleric of the Wealth Domain using the rules from Heroes of Wharves and Waves.

Music to Game to: Kristoffer Lo - The Black Meat

I listen to a lot of music (over 40 days worth in 2017 according to last.fm) and I find that few things help me keep the mood of a game foregrounded in my mind like a good soundtrack. Plus, I’ve discovered that when I’m playing music to a speaker via Bluetooth, I’m less likely to be on my phone, lest my players hear any stray sounds, letting me better model engagement during a game. To that end, I want to share some of my favorite music to game to; the albums that inspire and inflame my imagination and that I’ve found work well as background music for games as well. I’ll do a mini-review and cover the basics of what mood it helps me set.

KRISTOFFER LO - THE BLACK MEAT

I played tuba from 5th grade all through highschool, which instilled in me a deep and abiding love for the instrument, so when I saw this Quietus article about a drone album composed solely on Tuba and Flugabone I got it without a second thought… And I have been well-rewarded for my trust, The Black Meat is an album that evokes oceanic depths, vast echoing caverns haunted by melancholic spirits and the calm at the center of a storm that could roar back at any moment. While not for every game, it is a wonderful backdrop for a game that needs a bit of slow and portentous soundtrack to give it depth.

• Vocals?...No
• Music Genre(s)… Electronic, Jazz, Ambient, Abstract
• Perfect for… Any game where you want to add an understated but haunting and lugubrious backdrop.
• If you only grab one track, make it... The eerily wistful “Front Rows Gallows View”.

Music to Game to: Motorpsycho and Ståle Storløkken - The Death Defying Unicorn

I listen to a lot of music (over 40 days worth in 2017 according to last.fm) and I find that few things help me keep the mood of a game foregrounded in my mind like a good soundtrack. Plus, I’ve discovered that when I’m playing music to a speaker via Bluetooth, I’m less likely to be on my phone, lest my players hear any stray sounds, letting me better model engagement during a game. To that end, I want to share some of my favorite music to game to; the albums that inspire and inflame my imagination and that I’ve found work well as background music for games as well. I’ll do a mini-review and cover the basics of what mood it helps me set.

MOTORPSYCHO AND STÅLE STORLØKKEN – THE DEATH DEFYING UNICORN: “A FANCIFUL AND FAIRLY FAR-OUT MUSICAL FABLE”

A prog rock double length concept album about a criminal given a choice between hanging and joining the ship, the Death Defying Unicorn, as a cabin boy as they journey to the uncharted ‘Hollow Land’, The Death Defying Unicorn amply lives up to its subtitle as a “Fanciful and Fairly Far-Out Musical Fable”. The music surges and swells, recedes and swirls, oceanic in its psychedelic melodies. The nearly over-wrought prog grandeur makes this album perfect for any heroic high fantasy game, and the themes of doomed nautical exploration make it a fine fit pirate or other maritime games as well.

Vocals?...Yes
Music Genre(s)…Prog Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Perfect for…Epic High Fantasy Games, Games with a Pirate Flair
If you only grab one track, make it... “Through the Veil”, a 16 minute epic storm of cacophony and psychedelic chaos that makes incredible use of the many backing instruments provided by the string ensemble Trondheimsolistene and the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.

Music to Game to: The Gate - Island Virus

I listen to a lot of music (over 40 days worth in 2017 according to last.fm) and I find that few things help me keep the mood of a game foregrounded in my mind like a good soundtrack. Plus, I’ve discovered that when I’m playing music to a speaker via Bluetooth, I’m less likely to be on my phone, lest my players hear any stray sounds, letting me better model engagement during a game. To that end, I want to share some of my favorite music to game to; the albums that inspire and inflame my imagination and that I’ve found work well as background music for games as well. I’ll do a mini-review and cover the basics of what mood it helps me set.

THE GATE – ISLAND VIRUS

Right out of the gate, the first track of this album is titled “Black Bird of Death Spewing Death Puke,” to give you an idea of what you’re in for. This is deep, apocalyptic tuba rumbling, backed mostly by double bass and drums. Having been a high school marching band tuba player, I’ve a deep fondness for the instrument, and Dan Peck, who leads the The Gate and blows the horn, uses it to create skull-vibrating and sinister tones. With the double bass and more uptempo drumming, the album draws more on free jazz than doom metal, but it cannot help but be thunderously deep. While many doom jazz albums can tend towards the ethereal and haunting, Island Virus is grounded and sinister. Perfect for any game where unlucky investigators wander foggy seaside towns and face down horrid fish people.

• Vocals?...No
• Music Genre(s)…Doom, Tuba, Doom Jazz,
• Perfect for…Early 20th century horror games, any game where you want to add a rumbling darkness.
• If you only grab one track, make it... The doleful and deep, “Back to the Sea,” where the tuba functions as a bringer of mysterious doom and gloom like a mammoth reptilian creature plodding back to the oceanic depths.