Music to Game By

Yes, this was once a series that I attempted to write for Blood of Kittens and no, I was never able to fully realize it.  The idea was to put a soundtrack to each of the races and factions of 40K.  Overly ambitious- yes!  Crazy of me to think I could write for 3 or more blogs at once- certainly!  At any rate, I got through about a third of the races before real life took over and I had to unceremoniously let the project fall by the wayside.

Music, however, has always been and remains a very important part of my life and my games.  As such, I'm always interested in trying to figure out the perfect record to play during my games.  Would a selection of German cabaret music add that extra something special to my FoW games?  Should my pal Frank be forced to pump Sabbat every time he takes the field with his Chaos Marines?  Somehow, the answer to all of these questions and more seems to be yes.



For me, music is one of the best ways to help me fall into a game.  Back a million or so years ago, I used to make atmospheric mix tapes of gritty Industrial music to play in the background while GMing games of Shadowrun.  Throwing on a Big Electric Cat album was always a great way to get one in the mood for some masquerading as a Vampire. 

Fast forward to today and, while I don't have much time for roleplaying, music is still always a part of my hobby.  Any time you're in my basement, there will be music playing while we're gaming.  That is a fact you can count on.  It just really helps create the atmosphere of the game for me- whatever that means.  No matter what you're into, a good soundtrack is easily the best way to amp up the violence of, underscore the brutality in, heighten the sadness inherent in, explore the futility of, or even provide a counterpoint to the game you're playing.  Whatever the mood you're trying to create, music is a simple short cut to it.

So then, the question for you, dear readers is- what do you listen to while gaming and why?  Hit us up in the comments and for god's sake, don't forget to embed a video or at least provide a link to whatever you talking about.  And (now this is for SinnSynn) if you post a link to any of that dub step shit, you'll have me to answer to!  Bonus points do go to anybody who happens to mention my own band or goes to the trouble of creating an entire playlist in YouTube or Spotify or whatever you kids are using for music these days.


Submitted for your approval, here are some of my picks for gaming to at the moment, just for the hell of it and for reasons that are not entirely apparent even to myself-


Zola Jesus

Maurice Ravel

We Were Promised Jetpacks

Windir