Do you normally use music as a mood setter when playing RPGs? My D&D group does this with epic, fantasy inspired stuff (like Castlevania and God of War OSTs), but my 40K group doesn't as much. I'd like to suggest some music to our GM, but I don't know where to start.

tl;dr Do you use music with DW? If so, what?

Well, you could start by checking out the Dawn of War II soundtrack.

It's been released as a free download: http://www.darkreign40k.com/drjoomla/index.php/news/1-latest-news/1242-free-40k-soundtrack-from-dawn-of-war-ii

Chaos Gate features a lot of great Space Marine hymnals, although most of them are Ultramarines themed. In addition the soundtrack from both Mass effect games, while in most cases not gothic enough for the 40k theme, underlines the space setting nicely. Music from slow paced space games like Master of Orion, Galactic Civilisations, Sword of the Stars and even Sins of the Solar Empire and Homeworld can also provide nice, unobtrusive background sound.

Bolt Thrower !

I'm somewhat surprised and saddened that it was me that posted that...

-=Brother Praetus=-

Depends on whats on for the evening, lots of industrial is normally the way to go especially Heimataerde and Valravn are good for their mideaval soundscapes of flutes and so on mixed with electronic stuff.

Lots of Dead Can Dance, Corvus Corax, Ensiferum and so on.

Also yes the various DoW soundtracks are pretty good.

Check out "Immediate Music", especially the song lacrimosa. They also have song titles like Empyrean Mercenaries or Age of Discovery or Shield of Faith or Imperitum. All very fitting.

Also gregorian chants do work extremely well as the marines are warrior-monks.

Oh and of course selected works from Orff's Carmina Burana.

Alex

Celldweller - Soundtrack For The Voices In My Head. Not as much for Deathwatch, but Dark Heresy. Actually It works just fine for DW.

All great suggestions.

If you are going with Space Wolves, Amon Amarth is a must.

Some of the more martial tracks from the Battlestar Galactica soundtracks fit in rather nicely.

Also good are various japanese taiko groups like Ondekoza or Kodo, the drums do feel quite martial.

i find a bit of Dio sets me in the right mood to play every time, suitably epic, and many fantasy topics

Lessee now:

Ace Combat 5 soundtrack has some great stirring martial themes

The Red Army Choir for obvious reasons

Chaos Gate soundtrack

Dawn of War and Dawn of War 2 soundtracks

Braveheart, Kingdom of Heaven, all the Alien movie soundtracks, Thirteenth Warrior, Lord of the Rings soundtracks

Just about anything by Lustmore for those creepy Tyranid invasions and Space Hulk explorations

I'm also fortunate because I have a friend who's a musician and a professional studio audio engineer and he mixed up some pretty awesome custom tracks for my game.

Baradiel said:

This.

I lean toward industrail music, like Ministry. If you want full-on epic bloodletting music though, check out the Conan The Barbarian soundtrack by Basil Poledouris- it's probably better suited to Warhammer Fantasy , but sometimes killin' orks is killin' orks...

I made this playlist in iTunes and had the characters contribute songs as themes for their characters.

We decided on "A Way of Life" from Last Samurai OST as campaign theme,

Ain't no Grave, Platoon title theme and Fuel by Metallica (for the Techmarine" were chosen by the players.

Gattaca OST worked very well, I think.

As an aside, I had a musical scene in our starting session. The player characters, aboard a ship with lots of PDF from Calixis sector to Jericho Reaches, are asked to inspect the men. The PDF salute the PC, and together a sequence of songs are sung (made up, except for the last, didn't provide lyrics or anything, just described conten), "Faithful to the Emperor" (made that a well-known song, players decided their characters would sing, too), "Poor crusader" after that and finally, "Men of Harlech", which I stole from the movie "Zulu", but made it a song from a world from Calixis sector about defending your home, hinting to the PCs the PDF were ferried off to fight some other war, erroneously believing they are defending their homes.

Playlist:

God's Hands Michael Nyman Michael Nyman Gattaca

Attack Abigail Mead Abigail Mead Full Metal Jacket

Anon: Hymnus: Crux Fidelis Alberto Turco: Nova Schola Gregoriana

Swordplay Harry Gregson-Williams Harry Gregson-Williams Kingdom of Heaven

Allegro Bear McCreary Battlestar Galactica Season 2

Path Apocalyptica Eicca Toppinen Cult

Resident Evil Main Title Theme Marilyn Manson

A Way Of Life Hans Zimmer Hans Zimmer The Last Samurai

Cantate Domino The Choir of Westminster Cathedral/Stephen Cleobury/Andrew Wright

Mondoshawan Eric Serra Eric Serra 5th Element

Cleansing Marilyn Manson Resident Evil

The Thousandth Landing Bear McCreary Battlestar Galactica Season One

Volentieri Mediaeval Baebes Undrentide

Band Of Brothers Suite One Michael Kamen Band Of Brothers

The Doldrums Iva Davies Christopher Gordon/Ira Davies/Richard Tognetti Master and commander

Dance Of The Trolls Mediaeval Baebes Undrentide

God's Gonna Cut You Down Johnny Cash

The Morrow Michael Nyman Michael Nyman Gattaca

Struggle Apocalyptica Eicca Toppinen Cult

Anything Is Possible Don Davis Don Davis The Matrix

Brother Of The Cruciform Sword John Williams Indiana Jones and the last Crusade

Alba Mediaeval Baebes Worldes Blysse

Sniper Abigail Mead Abigail Mead Full Metal Jacket

My Face In Thine Eye Anne Dudley Tristan & Isolde OST

Mangalores Eric Serra Eric Serra 5th Element

Ain't No Grave Johnny Cash Composer/writer Unknown American VI: Ain't No Grave

The Other Side Michael Nyman Michael Nyman Gattaca

Spectres In The Fog Hans Zimmer Hans Zimmer The Last Samurai

Mantra Tool Tool Lateralus

Richard's Joust / Geoffrey's Battle City of Prague Philharmonic (Nic Raine) Barry, John/John Barry The Lion In Winter

Dowland: "...From Thenc I Went To The Landgrave Of Hessen..." Sting, Eden Karamazov John Dowland Songs From The Labyrinth

The Battle Iva Davies Christopher Gordon/Ira Davies/Richard Tognetti Master and commander - The far side of the world

Russian Ghost Ship Harald Kloser Harald Kloser The Day After Tomorrow

Burning the Past Harry Gregson-Williams Harry Gregson-Williams Kingdom of Heaven

Debussy: Suite Bergamasque - 3. Clair De Lune Peter Schmalfuss Claude Debussy

Galaxy Bounce The Chemical Brothers Tom Rowlands & Ed Simons Tomb Raider

Transition Abigail Mead Abigail Mead Full Metal Jacket

Antarctic Echoes Vangelis Antarctica

Scarborough Fayre Mediaeval Baebes Mirabilis

String Quintet In E, Op. 11/5, G 275 - 3. Minuet In A I Musici Luigi Boccherini

Strauss Jr. (J): Blue Danube, Op. 314 Peter Falk: Orchestra Of The Vienna Volksoper Johann Strauss Jr. New Year's Concert

Vivaldi: Violin Concerto In G Minor, Op. 8/2, RV 315, "The Four Seasons (Summer)" - 1. Allegro Non Molto Nigel Kennedy

Bin Kein Hauptmann, Bin Kein Grosses Tier The Comedian Harmonists Best of Comedian Harmonist

Eya, Eya, Nova Gaudia City of Prague Philharmonic (Nic Raine) Barry, John/John Barry The Lion In Winter

A Knife In The Dark Howard Shore Howard Shore The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring

The Steward Of Gondor Howard Shore & Billy Boyd Howard Shore The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

Yeah I second Bolt Thrower.

Geez we're old.

E

ejacobs said:

Yay! Bolt Thrower! I still have that CD somewhere....

For action scenes, I've found that Devil Driver is awesome and for dark moods I've found Thurisaz a brilliant band (the Belgian one, with the CD 'Circadian Rhythm')

I created this podcast a while ago, featuring mostly movie music:

gamejunks.podomatic.com

I hope some of you can enjoy it.

Brother Praetus said:

Keep the faith, Brother! They will come again...

Bad Birch said:

They have, five years ago with the album 'Those Once Loyal' from 2005!

I am slightly surprised no one suggested Sabaton...

Thank you, everyone, for all the suggestions.

In our first session we used the Dawn of War II OST and it was suitably epic. I'm trying to shy away from straight up metal because, while I am a big fan, most everyone else in the group is not. We also have the Mass Effect OSTs and actually the Blade Runner OST for the slow, creepy, investigation bits.