Looking for music for a Fallout game


Other RPGs

Shadow Lodge

So in the middle of setting up for a brand new fallout pen & paper set around my hometown of Cincinnati and I'm looking for good musical options that will help set the mood that my party may not have heard. I've already got the soundtracks for fallout 3 and New Vegas loaded up and am picking through it for songs I feel would fit the adventure but I'm also looking for stuff that might throw them off or and help really add some interesting new sounds to the game. One of the things I'm looking for are things like modern songs done up in jazz or period style like those in Bioshock: Infinite or modern bands that have done their own jazz, cruner, or other period style songs like Van Halen's Big Bad Will. I would actually really love to see if anyone can find some hip hop redone in a jazz or blues style if anyone knows any but anything would be greatly appreciated.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
doc the grey wrote:
So in the middle of setting up for a brand new fallout pen & paper set around my hometown of Cincinnati and I'm looking for good musical options that will help set the mood that my party may not have heard. I've already got the soundtracks for fallout 3 and New Vegas loaded up and am picking through it for songs I feel would fit the adventure but I'm also looking for stuff that might throw them off or and help really add some interesting new sounds to the game. One of the things I'm looking for are things like modern songs done up in jazz or period style like those in Bioshock: Infinite or modern bands that have done their own jazz, cruner, or other period style songs like Van Halen's Big Bad Will. I would actually really love to see if anyone can find some hip hop redone in a jazz or blues style if anyone knows any but anything would be greatly appreciated.

What system are you using for it? I would be interested in seeing what you put together. Who doesn't want to see post apocalyptic Cincinnati?

Shadow Lodge

Nim Folkor wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
So in the middle of setting up for a brand new fallout pen & paper set around my hometown of Cincinnati and I'm looking for good musical options that will help set the mood that my party may not have heard. I've already got the soundtracks for fallout 3 and New Vegas loaded up and am picking through it for songs I feel would fit the adventure but I'm also looking for stuff that might throw them off or and help really add some interesting new sounds to the game. One of the things I'm looking for are things like modern songs done up in jazz or period style like those in Bioshock: Infinite or modern bands that have done their own jazz, cruner, or other period style songs like Van Halen's Big Bad Will. I would actually really love to see if anyone can find some hip hop redone in a jazz or blues style if anyone knows any but anything would be greatly appreciated.
What system are you using for it? I would be interested in seeing what you put together. Who doesn't want to see post apocalyptic Cincinnati?

Lol yeah I'm actually using the CoC system for it. I wanted something that encourages and rewards options outside of straight combat, keeps actual combat scary, and leaves build and rules relatively simple once you get things explained so players and gm's can just focus on the game. I also like that advancement is a bit more arbitrary and focused on use and good rolls by players rather then just straight xp.

As for Cincy me and my friends have been having a blast putting together a post apocalypse version of life inside the 275 that's both interesting and injects the history of the area into the game which to me was always the cool part of the fallout universe.

As for information yeah I'd love to throw some of our work around, would just have to find people who are interested and would have to figure out where to start.

Dark Archive

Edward Ka'Spel's (Sometimes spelt Qa'Spel)music has a very unique and odd quality to it that I think fits fallout. His bands Legendary Pink Dots and Tear Garden are also good. You would have to cherry pick, but with things like Spotify and Pandora it is pretty easy to make a playlist. Here are some specific songs

Even Now
You and Me and the Rainbows
Romulus and Venus
Suicide Pact
A Crack in Melancholy Time
The Blessing

Dynamite Hack's version of Boyz in the Hood might be a good choice
Boyz in the Hood


The original soundtracks to Fallout 1 and 2 are amazing. Project Blue and a few other songs from The Stand soundtrack are good evocative tracks, not jazzy though.

Shadow Lodge

Gnartfunk wrote:
The original soundtracks to Fallout 1 and 2 are amazing. Project Blue and a few other songs from The Stand soundtrack are good evocative tracks, not jazzy though.

Yeah I've already started to raid those looking for things. My biggest issue though is that by fallout cannon the modern world doesn't end till like 2077 yet it seems everyone stopped putting out music after frank sinatra which feels off. Now I'm willing to admit that the genres may not have evolved it the same way as ours but they would have picked up new artists and songs as time moved on. Hell in my mind I've always thought that other modern artists existed in the fallout timeline but just sounded much more like the music of the fallout time like say Van Halen probably would have kept to Eddy's jazz roots and have sounded more like "Big Bad Will" rather then "Hot for Teacher".

The Exchange

doc the grey wrote:
Nim Folkor wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
So in the middle of setting up for a brand new fallout pen & paper set around my hometown of Cincinnati and I'm looking for good musical options that will help set the mood that my party may not have heard. I've already got the soundtracks for fallout 3 and New Vegas loaded up and am picking through it for songs I feel would fit the adventure but I'm also looking for stuff that might throw them off or and help really add some interesting new sounds to the game. One of the things I'm looking for are things like modern songs done up in jazz or period style like those in Bioshock: Infinite or modern bands that have done their own jazz, cruner, or other period style songs like Van Halen's Big Bad Will. I would actually really love to see if anyone can find some hip hop redone in a jazz or blues style if anyone knows any but anything would be greatly appreciated.
What system are you using for it? I would be interested in seeing what you put together. Who doesn't want to see post apocalyptic Cincinnati?

Lol yeah I'm actually using the CoC system for it. I wanted something that encourages and rewards options outside of straight combat, keeps actual combat scary, and leaves build and rules relatively simple once you get things explained so players and gm's can just focus on the game. I also like that advancement is a bit more arbitrary and focused on use and good rolls by players rather then just straight xp.

As for Cincy me and my friends have been having a blast putting together a post apocalypse version of life inside the 275 that's both interesting and injects the history of the area into the game which to me was always the cool part of the fallout universe.

As for information yeah I'd love to throw some of our work around, would just have to find people who are interested and would have to figure out where to start.

I forget, what is CoC? Is that the Call of Cuthulu game? Doesn't that have insanity and such?

Shadow Lodge

Fake Healer wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
Nim Folkor wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
So in the middle of setting up for a brand new fallout pen & paper set around my hometown of Cincinnati and I'm looking for good musical options that will help set the mood that my party may not have heard. I've already got the soundtracks for fallout 3 and New Vegas loaded up and am picking through it for songs I feel would fit the adventure but I'm also looking for stuff that might throw them off or and help really add some interesting new sounds to the game. One of the things I'm looking for are things like modern songs done up in jazz or period style like those in Bioshock: Infinite or modern bands that have done their own jazz, cruner, or other period style songs like Van Halen's Big Bad Will. I would actually really love to see if anyone can find some hip hop redone in a jazz or blues style if anyone knows any but anything would be greatly appreciated.
What system are you using for it? I would be interested in seeing what you put together. Who doesn't want to see post apocalyptic Cincinnati?

Lol yeah I'm actually using the CoC system for it. I wanted something that encourages and rewards options outside of straight combat, keeps actual combat scary, and leaves build and rules relatively simple once you get things explained so players and gm's can just focus on the game. I also like that advancement is a bit more arbitrary and focused on use and good rolls by players rather then just straight xp.

As for Cincy me and my friends have been having a blast putting together a post apocalypse version of life inside the 275 that's both interesting and injects the history of the area into the game which to me was always the cool part of the fallout universe.

As for information yeah I'd love to throw some of our work around, would just have to find people who are interested and would have to figure out where to start.

I forget, what is CoC? Is that the Call of Cuthulu game? Doesn't that have insanity and...

Yeah, I plan to use it a bit as time goes on for things that might truly undo someones mind. The bigger thing though is that the insanity system presents an easy way to match and recreate a system for rad resistance.

Grand Lodge

doc the grey wrote:
Yeah, I plan to use it a bit as time goes on for things that might truly undo someones mind. The bigger thing though is that the insanity system presents an easy way to match and recreate a system for rad resistance.

You might look at Chaosium's "Basic Roleplaying Game", it is still the same system that CoC uses (because all of Chaosium's games, both past and present, use basically the same system), but it is a more "generic" system than that used for CoC specifically, and it actually has rules for running a post apocalyptic game...


The Bad Plus - Everybody Wants to Rule the World

They do a lot of dissonance in their music, which can be off-putting to some people, but they've done a lot of covers of familiar songs of various genres (Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Pink Floyd). Plus lots of original works as well.

Shadow Lodge

Digitalelf wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
Yeah, I plan to use it a bit as time goes on for things that might truly undo someones mind. The bigger thing though is that the insanity system presents an easy way to match and recreate a system for rad resistance.
You might look at Chaosium's "Basic Roleplaying Game", it is still the same system that CoC uses (because all of Chaosium's games, both past and present, use basically the same system), but it is a more "generic" system than that used for CoC specifically, and it actually has rules for running a post apocalyptic game...

Maybe. Currently we've already started running and I enjoy the breadth of skill options that CoC gives me and I worry that the vanilla system might have removed some of those options in favor of simplicity. Now do you know if they have an srd for the standard system anywhere I could check out?

Shadow Lodge

Irontruth wrote:

The Bad Plus - Everybody Wants to Rule the World

They do a lot of dissonance in their music, which can be off-putting to some people, but they've done a lot of covers of familiar songs of various genres (Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Pink Floyd). Plus lots of original works as well.

Hmm... It sounds okay but not quite on target. Do they do anything that isn't just instrumental?


They have an album with a singer, I wouldn't recommend it though. Their stuff grows on you, but I would agree it doesn't quite meld in with the Fallout 3 and NV soundtracks, very different style, so it would work if you want more variety in style, but not for a homogeneous one.

I didn't quite like some of their stuff right away, but a few more listens and I got hooked. They're also from my hometown, and I go see them for their Christmas day show every year.

Grand Lodge

doc the grey wrote:
Maybe. Currently we've already started running and I enjoy the breadth of skill options that CoC gives me and I worry that the vanilla system might have removed some of those options in favor of simplicity. Now do you know if they have an srd for the standard system anywhere I could check out?

Well, since you know the rules of CoC, then you already know the rules for all of Chaosium's games (Elfquest, Stormbringer, Pendragon, etc.). So the "Basic Roleplaing Game" is just a compilation of all of their game worlds in one place...

The basic system assumes that CoC is just one "setting" used for the "basic rules" (kind of like Golarion is a setting for the Pathfinder rules)... So for example, anything that is not used for the more "vanilla" basic rules that are used for CoC can be easily added...

The reverse is also true, so that any rule from the Basic Roleplaying system (like the post apocalyptic rules, and statistics for futuristic weapons) can be added to CoC with ease...

That being said...

Chaosium offers the "Quick-Start" rules on PDF for free. You have to create a free account with them in order to download the rules however.

Here is a direct link to the PDF download page: Quick Start Rules

Scarab Sages

Look for 'moregnr' on the fallout nexus (I think there is something related for New Vegas - tons of mp3s of new songs.

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