Friday, 28 November 2025

The Musical Alignments of D&D: the Metal-Classical-Jazz Triad

What is the best way to classify the tone of a campaign?

Sometimes campaigns are metal. They look like this:



And sound like this.

Sometimes campaigns are classical. They look like this:


And sound like this.

And sometimes campaigns are jazz. They look like this:


And sound like this.

From these basic types, there can be derived subtler subtypes.

Hence, metal-classical campaigns, which look like this:


And sound like this.

And hence metal-jazz campaigns, which look like this:

And sound like this.

And hence jazz-classical campaigns, which look like this:


And sound like this

One could if one wished get more technical and start experimenting with the inclusion of pop, hip-hop or even house music. I suppose one could even, if one really desired it, start mixing in D&D alignments of the classical type, to create metal-jazz-good campaigns (as opposed to metal-jazz evil ones), or classical-metal-chaotic, and so on. 

My own taste leans lately towards the classical-jazz end of the spectrum, tilting to classical-jazz-evil. This is how I would describe Yoon-Suin. I would also put Dark Sun in this category.

Spelljammer is classical-jazz-good. The Forgotten Realms are probably straight classical-metal, whereas Dragonlance is classical-metal-good. 

Greyhawk: classical-metal-chaotic.

Veins of the Earth: classical-metal-evil.

Bastionland: metal-jazz-evil.

But then of course it might be possible to spin existing campaign setttings in new and interesting ways through changing their musical alignments. What would Dark Sun look like if reinterpreted to be straight jazz-good? Or if Veins of the Earth was played more classical-good? How indeed would Yoon-Suin changed if given a stronger metal-evil dynamic? These are Great Matters requiring careful study of devoted scholars. 

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