garama:

Sorry for taking so long to reply! And for the long reply…

I’ve been thinking this for a good while (how to keep my answer short and relevant, and not get judged that hard because of my taste, haha!)

• It depends how much immersion I need at the moment when creating
  something.
• Last few years I’ve mostly listened to Nordic pagan inspired music, as I’ve been more interested of Finnish culture’s origins, mythology and it’s ancient religion.
• Not Finnish bands nor are the subject matter related to Finnish paganism, but examples of the genre:

1. Wardruna – Odal
   
2. Corvus Corax – Havfrue
3. 
   Heilung – Krigsgaldr
   

• I’ve recently been into music with vampire, bloodborne and dark souls vibes, too. Examples:

1. Elend Silent Slumber – A God That Breeds Pestilence
   
2. Soap&Skin – Me And The Devil
3. 
   Night of the Hunt – Dance of the Blood-Drunk

• If I need more cheerful music, Capsule is the stuff!

• I create playlists for characters, settings, milieus they’re in, or for a imaginary scenes. Sometimes I spend days just for those, doing nothing else in my free time, than searching for fitting music.

• For d&d and tabletop related characters and stuff I like to use cinematic music, and/or musical like songs, which sounds rich and dramatic to me. They inspire me a lot..! Examples:

1. The Devil’s Carnival – Trust Me
2. Hidden Citizen – It’s A Sin
3. 
   Repo! The Genetic Opera

   –
   Zydrate Anatomy
   

• The only organized character playlist I currently have is Lempo’s  that I made last year. But these are really thrilling (and really, really time consuming for me at least) to make. Helps me to build personality and backgrounds for the characters.