Music & Storytelling Tips from The Black Ballad

Plus Ten Ton Slug & Weezer

Last year, I discussed a crowdfunding campaign for Storytellers Forge’s The Black Ballad, a 10 chapter campaign for Dungeons & Dragons 5E. What initially caught my attention was the way in which the project was created alongside an album by the band DiAmorte. DiAmorte is a theatrical act that blends “operatic performances with the raw energy of orchestral and metal music.”

The project was a funding success, and I just received my hardcover:

Mail call!

While perusing the book, I was struck by the following section about music and storytelling in RPGs:

“While we love the epic metal that DiAmorte has produced, in actual play, a single track on repeat would indeed get quite tedious. We suggest taking some prep time to plan each game session around enough music for three to four hours of play—music based on the Players’ characters, the tendencies and genre your group subscribes to, and your own musical preferences. Some recommendations to get you started building your thematical list are instrumental renditions of classic metal songs and bands like Apocalyptica, for instance. DiAmorte’s first album The Red Opera is already available for streaming in instrumental version as well. Truly, any metal band’s music rendered via string elements can help inspire proper smiting of the undead.”

DiAmorte has recorded tracks that serve as theme songs for each of the campaign’s ten chapters. You can listen to The Black Ballad soundtrack here.

Ten Ton Slug

Can someone please create a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure based on this album cover from the recent debut release Colossal Oppressor by Irish doom metal band Ten Ton Slug?

According to the credits, the wicked album cover features “original hand-painted artwork (acrylic on wood) by Adam Burke at Nightjar Illustration.” If you’re into well-played, riff-heavy sludge metal, you can preview and buy the album from the Ten Ton Slug Bandcamp page.

River Cuomo Interview

There is a brief mention of Weezer’s “nod to Dungeons & Dragons in the lyrics of ‘In The Garage’” in this Men’s Health interview with the band’s frontman Rivers Cuomo.

New Logo!

Thanks to Chris Zappa for helping me redesign the Critical Hit Parader logo. In addition to being a talented graphic designer, Chris also writes the informative Zappagram newsletter and podcast. I hope you like it!