Blocking Out Distractions

     One of the biggest things they don't tell you about being an adult, is just how distracting life is. As an adult gamer I am fully aware of just how much the world continues on while I sit down to enjoy my gaming time. Part of living in a noisy apartment is that a roommate may have a TV on, the neighbors kids have discovered that mysterious boing toy that sits behind the door, or that constant arguing coming from down the hall. When you get a group of easily distracted individuals together this atmosphere can spell disaster for even the best planned gaming session. In order to drown out the back ground noise, our group often uses low volume music. Choosing appropriate music greatly adds to the atmosphere, increasing enjoyment as well as drowning out the distractions. 

     Rather then spending time creating playlists that fit the players taste and the tempo of the campaign our group often chooses the much more convenient path of using online radio programs. The main program we use is Pandora Radio at Pandora.com. This website allows you to create custom radio stations that fit your individual tastes, and customizes the tracks played based on the songs you like and dislike. In order to fully utilize this program, and ignore more songs that you dislike, I highly recommend signing up for the Pandora One service. 

     Some of the stations we commonly use are "Midnight Syndicate" for our horror ambiance, "8 Bit Weapon" for our general gaming sessions, and of course various film score stations such as "Star Wars Film-score," "Lord of the Rings Film-Score," and others. 

What do you and your friends listen to keep the outside world at bay?