I’ll keep the first post updated as people add their suggestions. Hope to get lots of ideas, because many games get better with the right mood music. Typed this on IPad as computer is down so when computer is back up will make the lists better formatted and more detailed.
Movie themed games - just go with soundtrack to the movie! Ie. Star Wars X-wing miniatures, Lord of the Rings
Serious Fantasy - (D&D, Descent)
Light-Hearted Fantasy (Small World, Castle Panic)
Sci-Fi (Eclipse, Race for the Galaxy)
Future War Games (Fortress America)
Comic Games (Sentinels of the Multiverse, King of Tokyo)
Games circa World War I & II (Axis & Allies, Memoir '44)
Games circa 1700’s-1800’s
Games Medieval (Shadows over Camelot)
Games Roman Empire (Conquest of the Empire) - soundtrack to Ben-Hur
Civilization type Games (Civ)
Funny Group Games (Pictionary, Cards Against Humanity)
Worker Placement Euro Games (Agricola)
High stress Co-op Games (Pandemic)
Zombie Games
Cthulu & Horror Games (Eldritch Horror)
Gothic & Vampire games (Fury of Dracula)
Racing Games
Railroad Games (Ticket to Ride)
Mystery Games (Clue)
Business Games (Acquire, Panic on Wall Street)
Thinker Games (Mastermind, Chess)
Family Games (Life)
Kids Games (Candyland, Mousetrap) - Spongebob episodes with tv off,
There’s a cold war Spotify playlist I use for Twilight Struggle. Though I tend to put on the Apocalpyse Now or Full Metal Jacket soundtracks during the mid war.
I like curating Pandora stations. Even though I don’t get total control over what comes up, I don’t have to babysit it and often come across new interesting music which usually fits, thematically.
Some of my favorites:
Radio Ry’leh Odd mashups of ambient, scary orchestral, or gypsy jazz (for creepy games that might involve 1920s Arkham or losing your mind upon beholding some chthonic abomination)
Shields Down Radio Orchestral swells, especially from bombastic film scores (for games like BSG or Battleship Galaxies or Eclipse, when your superdreadnought is just about finished pulverizing the enemy orbital)
Root Hack Radio What is the difference between techno and electronica again? (keeping the dream of the '90s future cyberpunk dystopia alive)
Power Up Deutschland Minimalist anti-melodies. Destroy the individual! Exalt the society! (when you keep building power stations or placing workers as long as the tunes just keeps going and going and going. Based especially for the German side of Power Grid, but the station is not especially tuned yet.)
I don’t usually do background music, but we play the Red Alert Hell March at the beginning of every game of Fortress America. We’ve actually come up with a theoretical playlist for that game, though we haven’t actually done anything with it yet:
Hell March 1, 2, and 3
Star Spangled Banner
Soviet National Anthem
Danger Zone
Red Dawn soundtrack (theoretical; not sure what’s actually on it, but assuming sweeping vaguely patriotic-sounding stuff)
America (Fuck Yeah)
