Well, the answer to that is "YES!"

Now, you're probably thinking "Please, elaborate!" So I'm thinking I will.

So, does music have a place in your D&D game? I think that it does. Now, that said, some of you might ask how one goes about getting that to work and with that, I would reply with a few solutions.

I think something like iTunes works best, if you have access to a computer and speakers (usually a laptop with some portable speakers works best). The bonus to this is that you have all of your music all in one place, you can create playlists that have all the music you want and you can even arrange them in an order that suits your needs. Other ways to integrate music would also be having a radio with a CD player nearby or some portable speakers for your personal MP3 player. Or having your own personal orchestra (but I know most of you can't afford those all the time, so we'll skip that).

So, more to the point, you want to have music because it can add a fantastic amount of atmosphere to your game. The major trick is picking music that will fit your scene but at the same time, not detract attention from the action.

Usually what you want is good ambiance. This can usually come from game soundtracks, classical music, movie soundtracks, etc. These (with the exception of some classical music) were usually made to accompany some kind of entertainment and provide atmosphere as well as increasing, emphasizing and sometimes just plain creating a mood desired by the creator (in this case, the DM).

The idea to this is pretty simple and I don't think it needs much explaining. I think what really merits mentioning is the idea of it at all. If you watch a small video clip of a man in a top hat walking down the street with no sound, and then watch it again with oboes and a pipe organ playing some dark funeral dirge, you'll get a certain feeling about that scene. Take that scene again and put some old western saloon piano behind it instead of the dark music. You'll get a different feel from that as well. Still the same visual though.

The point to all of this is to make clear that if you're not using music, you're ignoring an important story-telling medium that could enhance your game very very much. Below are some games that have some great music:

The Baldur's Gate series
Neverwinter Nights
Fable
World of Warcraft
Diablo
Age of Empires
Shadow of the Colossus
The Total War Series
Music by "Midnight Syndicate" (They actually made a Dungeons & Dragons soundtrack years ago)

Those are just some great ones. There are others out there but the point is that you should explore the medium. It's not for everyone but it can sometimes be the salt that a game needs to created just a little more mood. Creeping skeletons are more scary if you put some scary music behind it!

Well, thanks for reading and I hope this gave you all some ideas, if you hadn't had them already. Comment away and if you haven't, register and enjoy Take Talk!

~Andrew