The Sound of It

A short curated playlist for the week before game night, for the players who want to walk in already in the right headspace.

Andreas will run the music at the table. This page is for the in-between — the Tuesday afternoon while you do the dishes, the Saturday-morning drive, the moment you want to put on something that feels like the world we're about to be in. It's all freely available. None of it costs anything. None of it spoils anything. Queue what grabs you, ignore the rest.

Below: five moods, each with a few specific tracks and where to find them. Drop your favorites into a single playlist on whatever app you use, hit shuffle, and there you go.

Where the music comes from

If you've played any of these games, the soundtracks will already feel like home. If you haven't, you're about to discover that video-game composers have been writing the best fantasy music for two decades and nobody told you.

• Baldur's Gate 3 — composer Borislav Slavov. Choral, big, modern. Available on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, all the usual.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim — composer Jeremy Soule. The platonic ideal of "high fantasy with a horn section." On every service.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — composers Marcin Przybyłowicz and Mikolai Stroinski. Folk-flavored, melancholy, gorgeous. Spotify and YouTube both work.
• Diablo II — composer Matt Uelmen. Twenty-three years old and still the high-water mark for dungeon-crawl atmosphere. The Tristram theme alone is worth the trip.
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice — composer David García Díaz. If you have headphones and want to sit with something heavy, this. Use sparingly.
• Tabletop Audio — tabletopaudio.com. Free, browser-based, built for D&D. Looping ambient pads with crowds, fires, rain, distant lutes. Open it in a tab and let it run.
• Michael Ghelfi — youtube.com/@MichaelGhelfi. A composer who makes 30+ minute looping fantasy ambience tracks specifically for tabletop. Free.
• Adrian von Ziegler — youtube.com/@AdrianvonZiegler. Celtic / Druidic / forest atmospheres. Also free, also generous.

Five Moods

The Road

For the early stretch of the night, when the party has just left wherever they were, and the world is opening up in front of them. Big strings, slow swells, a horn distant in the mix.

• "Far Horizons" — Skyrim. Jeremy Soule. The single most "we are going on an adventure" track ever recorded.
• "Down by the River" — Baldur's Gate 3 main menu theme. Borislav Slavov. The first 30 seconds will make you grin.
• "Tristram" — Diablo II. Matt Uelmen. The acoustic-guitar one. Loops 13 minutes, perfect for a long drive.

The Tavern

For the warm parts. Fire, mugs clinking, a fiddler nobody's really listening to in the corner. Low and friendly. This is the music you want playing while the party orders the second round.

• "Secunda" — Skyrim. Jeremy Soule. Two minutes of perfect lute-and-flute night-village.
• "The Fields of Ard Skellig" — Witcher 3. The melancholy folk-fiddle one. Best loop in the OST.
• "Tavern of the Twin Moons" — Tabletop Audio. Pure ambient — crowd murmur, fireplace, distant lute. Open in a browser tab and let it run.

The Fight

For when things get loud. Choral stabs, percussion, urgency. Trailer-music maximalism is not a sin.

• "Heart of Courage" — Two Steps from Hell. Yes, the trailer track. Yes, it works. Don't overthink it.
• "Hunt or Be Hunted" — Witcher 3. Marcin Przybyłowicz. Folk-flavored heavy combat that doesn't sound like every other generic battle track.
• "The Streets of Whiterun" (combat reprise) — Skyrim. The big horn-and-drum version, when you want it cinematic.

The Watching Wood

For the dread parts. Slow, low, the floor never quite settles. You're not sure what the bad thing is yet, but the bad thing is there.

• "Lut Gholein" — Diablo II. Matt Uelmen. The desert-sewers track. Best dungeon-crawl music ever scored, end of debate.
• "Firelink Shrine" — Dark Souls. The hushed, suspended one. Most atmospheric tracks from Dark Souls or Elden Ring also work — search "exploration" or "ambient."
• "Eerie Forest" or "Dark Forest" — Michael Ghelfi on YouTube. Built specifically for "the woods are watching." 30+ minute loops.

The Long Way Home

For the end. Bittersweet, big, the credits-are-rolling feeling. Whatever happened, you survived it. Save these for after the session, when the table is winding down and you don't want it to be over yet.

• "Geralt of Rivia" — Witcher 3. The "credits" track. Heavy strings, no narration needed.
• "Streets of Whiterun" (the quiet morning version) — Skyrim. Big strings, "we lived through it" energy.
• "Star Sky" — Two Steps from Hell. Choral and slow. Pretentious in the best way.

How to actually use this

• Build a single playlist. Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Tidal — pick whichever app is already on your phone. Drop these tracks in. Don't overthink the order; shuffle is fine.
• Listen while doing something else. Doing the dishes. Driving to work. Mowing the lawn. Music in the foreground is exhausting; music in the background does the work.
• You don't need all of it. Pick three tracks you actually like and ignore the rest. The point is the headspace, not the homework.
• Don't share with the others. Half the fun is everyone arriving Saturday with slightly different soundtracks already living in their heads. Compare notes at Oscar's the next week.

Andreas handles the music at the table. This page is just for the week before — vibes, not assignments.

A week before we play, a letter will arrive at your house. Open it alone. Do not compare notes with the others until you reach the Trade Way.