"Music calms the savage breast." Well, it can also stir the breast. Music can set the tone for an adventure more quickly and effectively than any GM's description of the scene. Used judiciously, it can add to any gaming session. In fact, there's an oddity about human perception that works well for the GM (and for any Hollywood director): Players will notice a selection of music that reinforces a scene, but will generally be unaware of a selection that doesn't fit. So if you pop any of the recordings listed here into your stereo, the players will take notice as soon as a song comes up that fits the action. If the next piece is less appropriate for the scene, they probably won't even hear it playing.

The only time that I've found a particular piece of background music is not helpful is when it fails to stay in the background. If your music is too loud, or if it has readily recognizable lyrics and your players are singing along with it, the music has become a hindrance to gaming. But there are no hard and fast rules for what will work and what won't, so I encourage you to experiment.

Here are some pieces that I've found work particularly well for the various realities (genres) of Torg. Entries are listed alphabetically by primary suitability (explained later), then by name of the work. The determination of genre suitability and rating is, of course, entirely a matter of my opinion; your mileage may vary. If you have a suggestion for a piece of music I should include here, please e-mail me and let me know the specifics.

By the way, the manufacturer and catalog number that I list for each recording is taken from the recording label. In some instances, it was difficult to determine exactly who published the recording or which of the many numbers on the cover was the catalog number. I've done my best, but I can't guarantee everything here is 100% correct. If you find an error, please let me know.

Key to the Table
Primary Suitability: The reality or genre that the music fits best (IMO).
Secondary Suitability: Another reality or genre for which the music is well suited.
Ratings: OK, Good, Great
Realities are abbreviated as follows: Aysle, Cyberpapacy, Living Land, Nile Empire, Nippon Tech, Orrorsh, Space Gods, Tharkold
sdtk means "soundtrack"

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This page last updated 03/11/05 by Todd Furler