Music to Game To: The Psychic Maelstrom Mixes

I listen to a lot of music (over 41 days worth in 2018 according to last.fm) and I find that few things help me keep the mood of a game foregrounded in my mind like a good soundtrack. Plus, I’ve discovered that when I’m playing music to a speaker via Bluetooth, I’m less likely to be on my phone, lest my players hear any stray sounds, letting me better model engagement during a game. To that end, I want to share some of my favorite music to game to; the albums that inspire and inflame my imagination and that I’ve found work well as background music for games as well. I’ll do a mini-review and cover the basics of what mood it helps me set.

The Psychic Maelstrom Mixes

So a few weeks ago, listening to the new <PIG> album, Candy, and thinking about running Apocalypse World again, and this happened...

1st, I was just going to pick a song ("The Power of Love") as a theme song for my new #ApocalypseWorld campaign-Then I got to thinkin' several of the tracks worked well in conjunction with the different playbooks https://t.co/2HDcSv67Kl #MusicToGameTo #AntagonistRelations 2/14

— Antagonist Relations (@antag_relations) June 28, 2019

then this happened...

Postscript... #psychicmaelstrom preserve me, I'm already contemplating how to repeat this but with Einstürzende Neubauten songs... #AntagonistRelations #MusicToGameTo

— Antagonist Relations (@antag_relations) June 28, 2019

Then I finally just made a playlist of 12 songs (for each playbook, plus the MC) for each playbook, plus the MC...

So, I present the Psychic Maelstrom Mixes... There were some arbitrary rules I invented for myself to craft each mix, but those won't be interesting to anyone else, so I'll skip listing them. Unlike most Music to Game To that I recommend, these are heavier on lyrics and cover songs. While normally, I wouldn't want players to get bogged down in recognizing songs, here I want the covers they catch to feel like echoes of the past rising up through the psychic maelstrom of Apocalypse World.

• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Angel
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Battlebabe
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Brainer
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Chopper
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Driver
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Gunlugger
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Hardholder
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Hocus
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Maestro D'
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Savvyhead
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Skinner
• Psychic Maelstrom Mix - The Master of Ceremonies

For my upcoming Apocalypse World Game, I plan on adding the mix for each playbook in play to a master list and playing it on shuffle during the game, which is easy for me since I have all the mp3s, but hopefully others can get good use from these mixes as inspiration for playing or running Apocalypse World too, or at least getting a peak into the psychic maelstrom inside my mind that drives me to put together 13+ hours of music for RPG games.