Music Based RPs?

Yui

Yui

Active Member
This is something that's been on my mind for a while. A lot of the time, when I can't think of story or character ideas and backstories, I try and go to the music I listen to, hopping that the different lyrics and the way each song is sung can give me an idea. It doesn't work very often, and I've tried this with other rpers before, but they don't seem to like to idea of making an rp from the lyrics of a song.

So, what do you guys on here think? Do you think it'd be a good idea to try and make an rp based off of the lyrics of different songs?
 
This sounds like an interesting creative exercise. I find music can be creatively inspiring, too! However, there are some complications. Only some songs have a coherent story within the lyrics. It would have to be understood by the players that the plot is scripted and not completely freeform. In a less strict way, a song could inspire a setting or a particular character or even an emotional tone to a scene that could then develop in any number of ways.
 
I ran a Pathfinder campaign based on the lyrics of "Dragula" by Rob Zombie, and it went amazingly despite moving across the world in the middle of it (from Korea to California). I also just requested each of my players give me a song to use for "..something..." that I have coming up. My advice: don't tell the players what the song is until after the campaign is over, think about every set of lyrics from both a literal and abstract/metaphorical perspective before deciding how to manifest them into the game. I have hundreds of other pieces of advice about it, but I tend to drone on, so I'll stop now :3
 
Milo C said:
This sounds like an interesting creative exercise. I find music can be creatively inspiring, too! However, there are some complications. Only some songs have a coherent story within the lyrics. It would have to be understood by the players that the plot is scripted and not completely freeform. In a less strict way, a song could inspire a setting or a particular character or even an emotional tone to a scene that could then develop in any number of ways.
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Usually when I try and do this, I look at the Japanese bands Stack, EastNewSound and Draw The Emotional since they seem to do just that. It probably sounds weird, but I often have the English lyrics on the side to read while listening to the song itself.
 
Yui said:
Usually when I try and do this, I look at the Japanese bands Stack, EastNewSound and Draw The Emotional since they seem to do just that. It probably sounds weird, but I often have the English lyrics on the side to read while listening to the song itself.
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Trust me, that's not weird. Lots of people do that for metal that's in English :p
 
Jasonchu said:
Trust me, that's not weird. Lots of people do that for metal that's in English :p
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One of my favorites that I"ve tried using for creative inspiration the most is a song called The Color of Flowers. I tried putting this up in my last interest check for making a plot out of, but as far I can tell no one was interested. Lyrics are here if you want to see.
 
If I was trying to do that, then I wouldn't ever mention the song to anyone. I would just give them the setting and use the song to frame the game, setting, and plot. I'd tell them that they play in a strange stuck moment in time where they walk on top of the frozen waters of a lake, and although they can see a shore in the horizon they can never reach it if they walk in that direction. In the other direction they see a vast darkness, and all who traveled that way have never returned. Those who dwell in the middle try to pass the time with idle distractions, but one by one they are all disappearing into the black.

What I wouldn't tell them is that they are actually the spirits of a village that died in a calamity of some sort, and the place they are is a waypoint between life and death. The blackness is oblivion, the shores are Elysium/Heave/Nirvana that cannot be reached because they are not ready, but there's a third way out: if they can find meaning in this languishing emptiness then they will be reincarnated to live a new life.

I based everything off of the lyrics of the song, and would use it to guide my hand with decisions that I would make along the way, but I wouldn't tell anyone that I was using that song until the game was over. Especially because they could use it as OOC information and predict what's going on or what might happen.
 
Reading this I just thought of a musical roleplay. Each scene has a corresponding song and you can include your character's singing to it or thinking the lyrics without realizing they're in song... Maybe the story is about a world of song and the antagonist casts a spell ridding people of their voices or something. Sounds whimsical and fun!


I am totally willing to do this with someone.
 
Rainjay said:
Reading this I just thought of a musical roleplay. Each scene has a corresponding song and you can include your character's singing to it or thinking the lyrics without realizing they're in song... Maybe the story is about a world of song and the antagonist casts a spell ridding people of their voices or something. Sounds whimsical and fun!


I am totally willing to do this with someone.
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This reminded of an old story idea I once had. I think I forgot about it after a while, because I never did anything with it. I had characters done and everything...
 
Yui said:
This reminded of an old story idea I once had. I think I forgot about it after a while, because I never did anything with it. I had characters done and everything...
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Well, if ya ever happen to find it again...
 
Rainjay said:
Well, if ya ever happen to find it again...
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Ok, I think I remember it now. The idea was based off a rhythm game I'd playing on mobile for a while. The idea was that the world heavily relies on music to functions. It was pretty much the source of power and without it, the world would be under a colorless silence, and those who get caught in it's effect would be trapped in a monotone state. They become unaware of anything and anyone around them and it eventually leads to their death. To prevent this, beings known as Songsmiths and Conductors keep the world functioning with their music, wether it be through singing or just playing a single instrument. Songsmiths and Conductors often work together, with the Songsmiths creating the music for the Conductor to play.
One day, however, a mysterious force appeared and music began to die down and so did the world. Songsmiths and Conductors were hunted and killed off one by one. It drove people crazy as well, many of them believing that it was the Songsmiths and Conductors who were behind all of the madness and they began killing them off as well.
It had been many years since this happened. The world was trapped in it's empty, colorless state and there are few Songsmiths and Conductors left. A lone Conductor, who once a beautiful voice that could bring life back to anything and loved to play violin, had gone mute due to an unpleasant encounter with people who blamed them for the world's state months ago. Since then, the Conductor lived alone, never playing her violin for anyone but herself. The Conductor then meets a Songsmith who'd been traveling the world in search of what caused the madness in the first place. The Songsmith tries to get the Conductor to assist him, but she refused, having no interest in helping people. Eventually, he manages to convince her to join him and so began the story of an adventurous Songsmith, a Conductor who seems to refuse to play for him, and their journey to fix the world.
 
i think its possible, i recall i wrote a character loosely based on some of the lyrics from the arctic monkey's arabella a few years ago
 
A thousand years ago, I was part of a RP that was formed around a Stabbing Westward album. Each song was the start of a new "episode" for us. We let the music direct us, and it was pretty entertaining.
 
For something like what you were talking about with a world run by music, check out the game series Ar Tonelico. The composer invented an entire language to use in the music of the game, and spells are cast by singing songs in that language (called Hymnos).
 
Jasonchu said:
For something like what you were talking about with a world run by music, check out the game series Ar Tonelico. The composer invented an entire language to use in the music of the game, and spells are cast by singing songs in that language (called Hymnos).
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Well, there goes another series that catches my interest, but cannot have since I no longer own a PS2 and people on Amazon and Ebay sell them for way more than they should...
 
I love writing stories/fics/rps based on song lyrics. I actually have... I think two fics based off of songs but I want to do more, especially in an rp format because different people have different takes on songs and it's interesting to mash things up, I think.
 
That sounds interesting! I would like to at least read something like that. Good luck to you if you decide to do it.
 
SKaZer0 said:
That sounds interesting! I would like to at least read something like that. Good luck to you if you decide to do it.
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I remember going off two songs (One called Psycho Lily and the other called The 4th Act: Hell Choir) to make a villain character. I used Psycho Lily to convey her personality and The 4th Act: Hell Choir for her backstory while also adding some of my own elements to it.
 
Cool. Those also make for good titles too. I find myself having title block sometimes when it comes down to making roleplay titles. I'll have a solid idea, but just the title will have me stumped. It hasn't happened much lately.
 
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