Ep 61: The Sounds of D&D

Battlebards makes amazing content. I threw in on their kickstarter mostly to get my hands on their mixer tool. They make amazing audio, but a lot of other folks do too (not disparaging anyone, just sayin'). The mixer tool allows a GM to layer and crop tracks. So, you can have a music score in the background, then layer monster noises over that. Or combine spell sounds to make unique sound effects. Things like that. Its an amazing tool to provide for GM's using audio at the table!

As far as using sound at the table, I still have mixed feelings about it. If you run a pretty scripted campaign, you can prep up soundtracks for various parts of the story, or for various locations/encounters. I run a very improvised campaign; the action of the players determine a lot of what happens. So I have to be spontaneous in my music prep as well.

I never use sound effects. Meaning weapon hits, spell sounds, etc. I've made great use of music and soundscapes. They can really enhance the mood at the table and give cues and clues to your players without verbally telegraphing your intent.

For example, the PCs are approaching a door in a dungeon. As the GM, you know there is a very dangerous and threatening monster in there. A potential TPK. As the you narrate the PCs approach to the door, making sure to describe the corridor and door in exquisite detail (another great way to telegraph threat, btw), you surreptitiously press play on the track you have cued. This track is a soundscape or music score that starts quiet and menacing, but builds to a tense and threatening climax. The PCs open the door, and you stop the music. All is quiet, then as you describe the hulking horror that slumps out of the shadows of the room, you start the next track you have cued, this one is a tense intro leading into a fast and threatening action music score. Roll Initiative!

This requires that you've listened to the songs before hand and have them cued into your sound software of choice in a way that makes them quickly accessible. I've found that a lot of the same skills I used as a DJ (yup, imagine Friar Took in super baggy Kikwear pants and a baggy T-Shirt, behind a set of Technics 1200s, awkwardly dancing and avoiding eye contact with the crowd, while he pulls Drum & Bass white labels out one after another and the multi-colored stage lights flash. That happened, but only in my living room...and the crowd was my roommates and GF...); one has to know the tracks well, their breaks and starts, where they crescendo and where they get quiet. You have to know which tracks will fit what mood, and how they will segue into one another. What does this all mean? Listen to the tracks you think you'll use before you get to the table. Preferably over and over until they are as memorized as your favorite Taylor Swift song.

On the subject of my mixed feelings: I loved using audio at the table. It helped with immersion and to set the mood for a scene. What I didn't love was having another thing to think about as the GM. I found that sometimes I could get the tracks up right away, while the players were discussing something, but all too often, I was asking the table to pause while I cued up my audio. I've stopped using it entirely now, because I now have one player who joins via Google Hangouts, and excess background noise is already a problem. There's likely a way to pipe music and sound effects into a Hangout, but I haven't taken the time to do this as, like I said, there's already an excess of background noise for the conditions of our table.

You would have to use something that will allow you to pipe in Audio.  Maybe Hangouts or Skype will do that, I have honestly never tried.  Something like Teamspeak will though.  

Thanks for this post (yes, I know it's old) but I want to try incorporating music this week and these sources are a great start.

PS..thanks especially for the advice about listening through the entire track. I had a few picked out that I thought would be amazing until I discovered that halfway through they took dramatic turns - it would have really messed with my battle scene to have a sudden slow mournful bit.