What is Reddit's opinion of
Tabletop Audio?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
100 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
That's an awesome lamp, I love lamp. I've just started using https://tabletopaudio.com/ to make custom D&D soundboards that I use in combination with atmospheric or combat-y music to create atmosphere too. I highly recommend it. my preferred combat track is the Witcher 3 combat music ;)
This list is DEFINITELY not complete without tabletop audio, it has ambient sounds for tons of situations. Seriously, throwing on "dino forest" when the players go to the feywild improves immersion immensely.
I use it every game without fail
There’s a really cool website:
That I use to find ambient noise to put in the back of my tracks, and it recently got a new sound pad feature. Could be what you’re looking for.
Good portable bluetooth speaker and cut loose with Tabletop Audio.
Background music makes a HUGE difference.
---
Instead of 3d printing figures, I've wanted to try Printable Heroes for a different take on it.
Some enterprising dude has started offering them laser-cut, printed both sides, and ready to go.
A few hours of prep and you have a very stylish, completely different game.
​
Have you thought about, or even discussed a colab with https://tabletopaudio.com
There is such amazing audio content for running games there, and an integration in Foundry would be amazing! Figured with the updates coming in v8.0 now is the time to ask :)
Yes
Base unarmed damage is 1. Unless otherwise states in the monster stat block.
I have them roll their damage. And it tends to be a separate roll for each hit.
If you and your players are having fun and are enjoying what you’re doing, you’re already doing what you need.
I've been trying to get my DM to use this website that specifically caters to tabletop sound effects. We're all pretty new so I think it's too much to handle at the moment for us.
TableTop Audio - Great for ambience and atmosphere
MyNoise Generator - Another great one for ambience, try opening a few together to mix and match
I've had some luck with video game soundtracks for Numenera - a particular stand-out for me being the Endless Legend ST by FlybyNo.
Or you could try some of the spacier Synthwave stuff - like Star Citizen 426 by Ellen Replay (for example)
https://ellenreplay.bandcamp.com/releases
For moodier, city-based RPing I really like Bohren & der Club of Gore and other darkjazz stuff (Heroin and Your Veins, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, etc.)
I've not used this personally, but there's also https://tabletopaudio.com - which provides ambient sounds for all kinds of settings.
tabletopaudio.com has solid effects boards for different situations. For music, I pay for a spotify subscription for personal use (I got hooked after expensing one for work use at an old job and using it on my own time). I make my own playlists through passive and active searching.
I started with the Cantina Band music from the Star Wars Soundtrack and prompted Spotify to suggest similar music. Randy Newman penned songs from Disney soundtracks were surprisingly overrepresented, but their similarity to John Williams' Cantina Band/2 is notable. I added a few more like Henry Mancini's Baby Elephant Walk and some big band music, early rock n roll w/ Sax like Lee Allen, and even some Soul and Surf Rock - all heavily instrumental. Now my Cantina playlist is far longer than any Cantina encounter, and has different styles to represent different bands or locales.
Music I found that fit different moods was filtered towards other or new playlists. Most of which have a John Williams Star Wars song or two. I have playlists for Victory, Scoundrels/Heist, Empire/Doom, Showdown/Duel, and Mood/traveling (upbeat/fortune and down/misfortune). I also have Kevin Kiner's music from Clone Wars and Rebels in their own playlists - there's a lot of music there, else I'd have sorted them into mine.
I'm doing the same thing with old world style music and instrumentals in new playlists I'm working on for my current/upcoming Genesys rpg fantasy campaign. Spotify likes to suggest music from period TV series and video games for these lists.
I like to listen to the WoT music I copied from the 1998 PC game's CDs. (Music by Robert Berry and Leif Sorbye).
Also cool: anything non-vocal medieval sounding, such as many of the background tracks I use for my D&D table, provided by https://tabletopaudio.com/ or the like.
Ambient sounds and music. Some people treat them as if they are interchangeable but they aren't.
​
Ambient sounds are what you'd expect from an open world videogame. Sounds of a forest, rain, wind, etc. These are fire and forget. They fade into the background. If your party is in a graveyard, you can fire up some graveyard sounds from https://tabletopaudio.com/ and never touch it. Let it run at a low volume while they traverse the dungeon.
​
"Epic" music should be shorter and begin to play when a significant event happens. These tend to be less than 3 minutes and serves to punctuate a moment. The BBEG appears to taunt the party? Play his scary theme. The contrast between atmospheric sounds and full on music will add an extra layer of importance to what is happening.
​
Some people let orchestra music run on repeat during combat and that becomes exhausting to listen to after about 10 minutes of combat. Play the epic orchestra music as you describe the horrible monster and then let it end as you transition into the encounter.
other useful tools.
https://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder https://tabletopaudio.com/ https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/
Most of this is available in books, but the calculators are really nice, and sometimes it's easier to look something up with a search bar than it is to flip through pages. And i second, third and however many others recommend it agree completely, if you have never world built before, go with the starter kit, or pre-existing modules. even as someone who has built worlds before, I wanna play CoS because of all the things i hear about from reddit.
Nice, I came here to post this too!
And if anyone misses this bit of the amazing collab they did - don't forget to use the great track Tarrasque Interior by Tabletop Audio!
Honestly, I try to stay away from music playlists from movies and videogames. My main issue being it will hop suddenly to epic music in the middle of mundane RPing.
I like to use Tabletop Audio: https://tabletopaudio.com/
and ask for feedback from the team. I like to encourage a lot of communication from my players, and so they often will chime in when they want music.
My best arrangement was back with my previous DnD group I DMed for; My friend who was into theatre managed the music using operatic playlists from spotify while I DMed so I could focus on storytelling.
To quote Samwise Gamgee:
"Share the load"
I use Tabletop Audio website for my RPG music, ambience and sounds.
[Before I would use instrumental soundtracks from movies or video games for background music on low volume settings during a game session.]
This is very relevant to my interests. I purchased a copy!
It'll be a while until I'll need it, I think (currently going through CoS via R20, which at my group's pace will take a year), but I may certainly switch over to using this if it works better!
For audio I've been using https://tabletopaudio.com/ played through a bluetooth speaker.
Similarly you could look at the tracks at Tabletop Audio . I love using them for background soundscapes while playing board games. They produce tracks for many different themes.
I find video game soundtracks to be non-intrusive and works well to be background music. I like the Bastion, Transistor, FTL and Zelda soundtracks.
For some reason, soundtracks from the movie Garden State, Scrubs and Chuck works for our group too.
If you want ambient music - https://tabletopaudio.com/
Absolutely! I'm trying a new thing to make the game as immersive as possible. To that end:
I bought the Harrow deck and actually spent the time to learn what the cards mean so I can do the readings -.-
After each session, I send my players a "news clipping" with summaries of what we've just done, any backstory they may have missed, and a bunch of random/funny side information that may or may not lead to side quests.
I use the crap out of Tabletop Audio and Spotify to add atmosphere and game noise.
Its the first time I've run a Paizo adventure path, and I have to say, compared to the WotC adventures, these things just kick so much butt.
I think it takes a bit more than just a link to the The Tavern Soundboard.
Try the following go to the main https://tabletopaudio.com/ site.
I'd suggest opening a tab and get the Colosseum ambiance (under the Historical list) going.
Then open the Custom SoundPad in a new tab https://tabletopaudio.com/custom_sp.html
add Cheers and Jeers from The Tavern,
From Combat select the Lg Group Fight, and Sm Group Fight, Blade on Blade, Club Attack, Blade Attack, Shield Block, Shield Bash. don't get Roar x 4 (although one sounds like a lion the rest sound a bit to fantasy imho).
From Old Town add Large Crowd
You want a Lion use the following. From Dungeon add Roar From Dark Forest add Snarl
Tabletop Audio: https://tabletopaudio.com .
It is free. You can select from a range of soundtracks (some with ambient music) to build a playlist that fits your setting. It is easy to use.
Rule of Cool. If your player has an idea that bends or breaks rules, facilitate it if the result will be something really really cool.
Tabletop Audio for ambiance.
Don't be afraid to get a bit silly with NPC voices. Weird accents or ridiculous cadences can make for very entertaining interactions.
Describe scenes using multiple senses wherever you can. Is that marketplace dry and dusty? Does that dungeon smell moldy and damp? Is there a loud chorus of birdsong as the sun sets?
Have each of your players create a 1-page written backstory, which includes people or events from their past which you can bring up in the story later. It should also include fears, dreams, habits, or anything else you might want to play with.
I prefer Tabletop Audio. It's free and has an ton of different settings and tones that are perfect for various board or role-playing games.
Twilight Struggle (which it was developed for) or other Cold War games will benefit greatly from Cold War Soundtrack which mixes Western and Eastern Bloc songs and speeches from the relevant time periods, slowly moving forward in history.
Ive got the SWTOR soundtrack, and have renamed each track with its “feeling” so I can pull it up if desired. I regularly do the same with each new Star Wars film or game soundtrack, though not all of each one is appropriate for gaming. I’ve also used Tabletop Audio for background sound in the past. They didn’t have many “sci-fi” tracks last time I set up to use it, but that was a long while ago, so it may have changed. Other sources can come from anywhere; I’ve used Mass Effect’s Afterlife Club music before.
Only thing to keep in mind; keep the sounds low. They’re called “background tracks” for a reason. You don’t want to obscure gameplay or make the sounds distracting.
I find that this is a really nice resource. I spend a great deal of time getting the ambiance right. Like making a city (which they have) but not the exact way I want it. Or a cliff side village, crafted by hand.
Completely agree- I used https://tabletopaudio.com/ for my in-person D&D and it made the sessions far more tense. Now my online groups just play a youtube video of ambient sounds on Cytube which is only a poor imitation.
Big fan of Russian Winter on Tabletop Audio to set the mood at the start of every session.
Prewrite or at least plan the horror scene descriptions. Whether it's a lake monster, a ghost, a frozen body, or that dwarven cultist dying... plan that out to feel cinematic.
Use white. I could cite Herman Melville but whiteness is the color of terror. White table cloth, white dice, you get the idea.
Depends on the campaign/location/session/moment but just like u/poorbred I have a subscription to Syrinscape that gives me a MASSIVE selection of ambient sounds/music/sound effects and so on. Fairly easy to set stuff up the way I like and run it as needed, plus all the official modules have their own sound sets that can be tapped into easily if I am running a module or the module has elements I am incorporating into my homebrew.
I also use TableTop Audio at times too (free): Table Top Audio
I always use Tabletopaudio.com. Given that we record remotely, I just tell me players which track I'm listening to and they choose what they want. There's a huge variety of tracks and they are incredible. If you want to see how it looks, check out our podcast, they're virtually always running in the background https://anchor.fm/god-dicks--puns
I have a large TV that I'll throw this Rohan music and video on. It can be incredibly distracting with the visuals and a bit repetitive. Still the best way I've found to immerse myself in the world and have a backdrop for my own stories instead of scenes from the movies.
I've tried table top audio, but found it hit or miss right now.
I love these suggestions! Thanks for posting them, I'll try em out tonight!
When I first started playing the "Dungeons & Dragons" game, my friends and I would listen to music by Black Sabbath on vinyl. Later, it was mostly "Heavy Metal" music when playing other RPGs and board games throughout the 1980s and early 1990s until Danzig's album, "Black Aria," which influenced us to listen to more "instrumental" music.
Today, I use Tabletop Audio for music, sounds and ambience needs during a game session.
[ I still listen to "Heavy Metal" albums that is fitting for the game. ]
Have you checked out Tabletop Audio?? They have one that's specifically called The Feywild, but I'm pretty sure that's not what you're looking for. Try the track that's called Dark Continent. I believe you can find it towards the bottom of the page.
Get some music.
​
Just have a computer nearby with a browser pointing towards 3 or 4 tabs. A few for https://tabletopaudio.com/ for some environmental stuff, but then find a few youtube playlists for battle music or creepy music, maybe some general fantasy flute shit. When it's time to ramp up the intensity, hit play. Make sure you turn it off after the players have moved from a situation.
​
soundtrack for Shadow of the colossus is always great for battles.
​
Soundtrack for Myst (especially the original game and the first sequel) are great for creepy. just listen to "swing vines".
What time period is your adventure?
My go-to for game audio is https://tabletopaudio.com/ There are plenty of sound effects and ambient sounds here for any situation. I don't like to overdo it, but I think even playing some of these at a lower volume can add to the setting.
Make sure to provide opportunities for players to do something heroic or cool-looking before they die!
Seconded.
Also a lot of https://tabletopaudio.com/ when I'm looking for specifics.
And sometimes just a power metal station on Pandora, depending on the mood of the game.
I would avoid videos, you'll want the visual focus on the players and yourself. https://tabletopaudio.com/soundpad.html is a great site to actually create some cool ambient sound and noise right there at the table!
I often put Yugioh on in the background. It's thematically appropriate, really doen't require you to pay attention, gives people something to enjoy while Timmy spends 6 minutes figuring out his turn, and the Yugioh dub is a fucking treasure.
Or sometimes I'll use https://tabletopaudio.com, my favorite was using some spooky castle theme for Ravenloft and on two separate occasions a random bat or rat squeak synced up perfectly with the game.
Here's one I use for general Ambiance...lots of options available. https://tabletopaudio.com/
As for mood music I use Spotify playlists that others have made, search for D&D there and I think they will come up.
Do some google searches for cave animals - lots of albino, hairless, blind versions of normal creatures. You could also have creatures twisted into strange versions of themselves or having unusual (harmless) powers due to proximity to the faezress (if your game is in FR, or if your underdark has the same energies). Like a teleporting critter for example would certainly be tough to catch.
If you want to really set the mood, what I did for my underdark arc was I have a TV in the same room as I run games, and I put this artist's stuff on shuffle as a background along with quiet cave noises (like Goblin Cave from Tabletop Audio. Very atmospheric!
If you want good background music/sounds for D&D, check out:
He/she has some steampunk related tracks and its atmospheric so it adds to the campaign and is not distracting like real music can be.
Also, since you have a sound system I recommend getting some ambient music/sounds to set the environment. Tabletop Audio and Melodice are good places to start. This geeklist on BGG is also great.
Streams classic old schlock horror films 24/7 for free
For amazing audio accompaniment for your board/role playing games
Fun music maker
I'm a big fan of Tabletop Audio (https://tabletopaudio.com/) - which is already built-in to Roll20 - and for Castle Ravenloft I planned to use "Defiled Temple". It's creepy AF... I also used it when my PCs discovered and read through the Tome when they first found it.
Freesound has a lot of individual sound effects that are free
Tabletop Audio has various ambience and music recordings that are free
Creating your own by layering together sounds like work, but Audacity can do this and it is free. Some seem to think that Audacity now comes with spyware, so do your own research if you are not sure.
This one is sorted by type, should be useful: [112 Spotify Lists](/r/DnD/comments/d12q2x/112_spotify_playlists_to_run_your_game/)
Other links to check out:
[15 Spotify Lists](/r/DnD/comments/p18wg9/some_carefully_crafted_spotify_music_playlists/)
[9 Spotify Lists](/r/DnD/comments/hmfawp/painstakingly_edited_spotify_playlists_that_will/)
Music for D&D campaigns by u/AudioBard
I use tabletopaudio.com . There's a wide range of scenes, like docks, temples, etc., and even a lot of genres to choose from. Each entry is a ten-minute clip, and you can even build a playlist.
TablestopAudio is a good place to start. At least for background noise while things are happening.
If you're down for a Deep Dive, then may I recommend whatever the hell this is. You'll have to sift through way more, but I've found plenty to use there.
Unfortunately no. It would be possible to include the controls in foundry, but Syrinscape afaik refused any attempt to integrate their tool in a way that doesn't require their player to be installed and running on every player's computer.
Which is unfortunate, their soundsets are really great. But without an option to stream them to my players I won't buy any of their stuff.
If you're looking for nice ambient soundtracks I'd recommend to look for Michaël Ghelfis albums, he even has ready-to-use foundry modules (https://michaelghelfi.com/). Sword Coast Soundscapes on Bandcamp also have some very nice tracks. (https://swordcoastsoundscapes.bandcamp.com/).
And of course tabletop audio is also great https://tabletopaudio.com/ .
I'm a big GoS fan. I have run GoS campaigns using Tabletop Audio https://tabletopaudio.com to generate atmosphere. Highly recommended. You could easily put together a playlist that sets the tone for Sinister Secrets using some of the haunted house, caves, coast, and ship tracks.
To be honest, though, spoken scene descriptions are the real key here.
Ex:
This is an old fishing town. The buildings are a bit run-down, and the people seem sullen.
vs.
Crossing the bridge, you enter the town of Saltmarsh. Rain falls from a leaden sky. The buildings are worn and weathered. You get the impression that they are huddled together, seeking shelter from the cold, salty spray of the ocean. The streets are sandy and damp. You see a crew of fishermen unloading their catch near the docks. They are singing a slow sea shanty while transferring fish into barrels. Gulls watch hungrily from barnacle-encrusted posts on the docks.
That said, I think that one of the great things about GoS is that you can easily swap out the tone and flavour of the town and campaign. You could go with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' instead of 'Shadow Over Innsmouth' without changing the mechanics of the adventures.
https://tabletopaudio.com/soundpad.html
it has really awesome sounds with repeating options etc. and other people can "connect" so that the sounds are synchronized. You can also create custom soundboards if the predefined are not enough.
If you can share PC audio I'd recommend using this: https://tabletopaudio.com/alien_starship_sp.html
mixed with Alien Isolation and Alien Covenant soundtracks and ambience.
Not technically copyright free, but you're free to use everything on a not-for-profit stream. If you do monetize your videos or streams, it's still pretty friendly:
> I know a lot of you monetize your videos and here's my basic position: If you're making a little bit of extra money on the side to pay for hosting or bandwidth, buy the occasional game, or purchase refreshments for game night, then I'm fine with you using the 10 minute ambiences in your videos. If you're making more than that, (you decide where this line is drawn) then it doesn't seem unreasonable that we discuss some sort of licensing fee arrangement.
Best focus advice I’ve ever gotten- set a timer. Tell yourself you just have to focus ten or fifteen minutes. If you’re working the whole time, the timer goes off, and you’re totally lost in the sauce? Keep writing! If not, give yourself a break (set another timer) then come back to it.
Also, if you need audio stimulation, try some white noise, calm music, or even some sounds that go with your story! (Here’s alink to a great resource for ambient music for writers)
I usually read in silence (with earplugs in) but there are certain exceptions. For example, when reading a non-fiction book and the author starts talking about a specific song/artist/album, sometimes I'll put it on. Last week I was reading Wild and Cheryl was describing the day that Jerry Garcia died and how everyone was mourning, so I put on some Grateful Dead to listen to for awhile. I had never really listened to them before, so it was nice to feel that connection to the story and also to hear something new.
​
I also, while reading through A Song of Ice and Fire a few years ago, would open sites such as https://tabletopaudio.com/ and try to match up the ambient sounds with the settings in the books. Characters are camping? Fire crackling sounds. On a ship? Stormy waves. In battle? Swords clashing. You get the idea. I wasn't able to keep up with it all the time, as you can imagine, but I definitely felt more cosy and engaged with the story when it worked out.
I use Tabletopaudio.com for general background music/sound effects and only use specific songs from YouTube if I find something that I know I want to use for boss battles, major plot reveals, or PC deaths.
I always forget to properly manage YouTube songs so my group ends up fighting demons and dragons to some weird folkmetal version of Nordic cow calling songs...
So far for 'non-spooky' background tracks I've been using https://tabletopaudio.com/
For straight-up horror I've been alternating between videogame music (Silent Hill, the REmakes and the like) and Graham Plowman 's youtube channel
[112 Spotify Lists](/r/DnD/comments/d12q2x/112_spotify_playlists_to_run_your_game/)
[9 Spotify Lists](/r/DnD/comments/hmfawp/painstakingly_edited_spotify_playlists_that_will/)
YouTube channel of u/ArchmageDemetrian
Music for D&D campaigns by u/AudioBard
The music on Roll20 is good, you just need to search a lot. You can check out https://tabletopaudio.com/ which is the music you can get for free. Using the website allows you to get a better idea of the music. Then setup your playlist in Roll20. The songs are about 10 mins long each. Like others said there is so much free content. Check Reddit, Pintrest, Imgur, and free stuff on Patreon.
​
I'm a new GM/DM also, while the job is fun. It requires tons of research.
There's an incredible website called https://tabletopaudio.com/ with amazing ambiance sounds (for free!) that cover just about every genre and detail I can think of.
For visualising where characters are in a scene and their surroundings - this is somewhat embarrassing, but I use dolls. Specifically, I like the Polly Pocket dolls that I collected obsessively as a kid and I usually pair them with LEGO / PlayMobile guns and swords from my brothers' collections. It works surprisingly well!
[112 Spotify Lists](/r/DnD/comments/d12q2x/112_spotify_playlists_to_run_your_game/)
Oh neat! I like it. I turned on "café" and it felt oddly familiar :-)
I will add tabletopaudio.com as another option. This one has all kinds of strange ambient sounds: space ship hum, gothic graveyard, stables, cyberpunk city, etc etc. Lots of interesting background sounds.
I'm a big fan of Tabletop Audio myself and will load up a few of the nature track - Frozen Wastes, Woodland Campsite, Mountain Pass and Winter Woods and go from there.
Music and sound effects! :D
There are a bunch of cool playlists on Spotify, but if you want to create an atmosphere for your game and have sudden sounds like, a dragon roaring or people drinking in a tavern, you could check out https://tabletopaudio.com/soundpad.html (free) or https://rpg.ambient-mixer.com/ (free). There's also https://syrinscape.com/ (trial/paid subscription), which is simply amazing!
There are some ambient sounds on YouTube as well, if you don't really care for mixers, but really, being able to play the sound of a volley of arrows rushing towards the party while you're describing an ambush is SOOO NICE, especially since I can't really make the arrow sounds that Matt Mercer can. I might even end up spitting on people. Let's avoid that... xD
I usually use https://tabletopaudio.com/ for games I'm running. There's so many ambiances there, you can likely find something that works for you. You can also build your own ambiance with the soundpad. Plus, being able to tell Alexa to play Dwarven City to all the speakers in the house makes for some amazing immersion.
I think Tabletop Audio has pretty much anything I will ever need.
Except maybe a combat music that doesn't sound over the top / superheroic. But then I can probably find that over at Incompetech
For music in general, check out tabletopaudio.com or the YouTube channel of u/ArchmageDemetrian.
For your bard, I'm sure you could find a fitting tune from this playlist: Bard Songs for D&D - Violin and Harp
The way I set up my first campaign was really just an extension on the the basic dungeon layout. So in an average dungeon you will have three to five rooms and a boss and/or puzzle to overcome and then some treasure or accomplishment at the end. A small campaign can be written similarly.
Establish a small play area and set up three to five major encounters that are mission specific. Then just let your players feel out the world you have created while subtlety guiding them towards some kind of objective. Throw in a few minor encounters or side quests that don’t affect your main story but keep the atmosphere interesting.
Be prepared to improvise to suit your players. Most people are cooperative and will try to go along with a story line but if you have a group that really wants to test the limits of being able to do anything they can think up in a fantasy world you will have to work a little harder. So starting them off in a small town on the outskirts or civilization, where travel outside the area you want them to focus on is very difficult, or in an island that they can’t escape until they complete your quest are a few ways to create hard limits on your play area but leave the players feeling like they have freedom of movement.
Ive had a lot of success with a story line where the adventuring party has just arrived in a small rural town where old ruins have recently been discovered nearby and there are rumors of a great treasure hidden inside. You can add puzzles, traps, and enemies to suit you liking. I also add groups of other adventurers/treasure hunters that arrive seeking the treasure to keep my players on their toes and focused on completing the quest.
I hope this gives you a few ideas and that you all have a great experience! Check out tabletopaudio for some free background ambiance sounds and music. Have fun and let us know how it goes.
As Dungeon Master, it is suggested to give the best description of locations and encounters to the players (you are the narrator of the story the Players' characters are involved in, details are important to enable immersion for the Players).
[ It is recommended to give as much information as needed, but don't make the descriptions too vague.]
Tell the players what their characters see, hear, smell, and feel (have each player make a "reaction" roll or in some cases a "Saving Throw" vs Paralysis).
[Most Characters may not have seen or experienced unnatural locations or encounters before, but may have heard stories from the few who survived or ran in terror from.]
Explaining in detail and in-depth enables Players to visualize the location and the world they are adventuring in.
For an example:
>{ The Players walk inside the Gallery Room.}
Dungeon Master:
"Double doors of ornately carved mahogany swing wide to allow your entrance into the Gallery. This elegant room is paved in the same black and white checkerboard as the entrance hall. But its walls are lined with velvet drapes, the color of mulberries. As you enter the gallery you are startled to find a cluster of knightly statues frozen in battle. Their faces are contorted in horror, as if making a last futile stand against an unseen and unknown enemy. "
​
Using music, ambience and sound effects may also provide immersion for the Players to enjoy too.
​
Good luck & have fun!
A quick search gets me this site that you can check out. The question has also been asked before. There's some answers there to get you going.
https://tabletopaudio.com/ FTW it's a web-based alternative to syrinscape. Might find what you need there.
What you actually want to achieve this is procedural/scripted music generation, think of like in comuter games when enemies are about the audio changes.
I know you're mostly asking about things other than audio, but if you want to go beyond soundtracks to ambient audio, Tabletop Audio has a lot of different thematic ambiance, some with music or minimal music. They also have a soundpad that you can customize to have sound effects ready to go.
There are some neat collections of d&d playlists out there which can cover some of the general moods/situations, the one by bezoing is quite popular.
There're also sites like https://www.epidemicsound.com/browse/ which has a collection of music which can be filtered by genres/moods/movement/places/energy/tempo/length.
I haven't tried it myself nor looked into if there are other similar sites like epidemicsound which offer similar services, but it seems to work well for the ones I've seen using it on streams.
https://tabletopaudio.com has a lot of ambient music you can mix together (it may be neat for specific locations, but may require more attention to use).
Oh that's cool! Awesome, that should work. Do you know of anything I could do for stuff not on Youtube? I found Tabletop Audio from the sidebar on one of the DM subs and I'm hoping to use it since it's also got sound effects and whatnot.
Sound! If you play in person, check out Tabletop Audio for ambient horror music/noises or make your own horror sound pad. If you play online, suggest music or playlists for the players to run in their headphones while you play. Having the right music and ambiance and sound effects can take a horror campaign to a whole new level.
I would stick to maybe 10 songs that you can flip through. You could also go to your phone's ringtone store and play those since they usually play the chorus of the song. (So, if you have an iPhone, you'd wanna go into iTunes I believe)
Anything more than 10 would start to be overwhelming.
As a DM, I use Spotify for the background sounds, or I use Tabletop Audio for some ambiance.
Check out https://tabletopaudio.com. You can build a SoundPad out of all the sound effects he has on the site, but there's no way to add your own.
https://soundplant.org is another great soundboard choice if you don't mind converting your sound files to one of the supported file types (.wav, probably).
https://tabletopaudio.com/ is a good source for any sort of ambiance you may be looking for when playing tabletop games. It's got a good collection of ambient noises, non-intrusive soundtracks, and combinations of the two.
Tabletop audio has indeed a broadcast option.
It generates a link which you give to your players, and when you play something they hear it.
https://tabletopaudio.com/monsters_sp.html
This is an example of the monster sound effects. There are plenty more and you can create your own sets.
Background depth: XGtE this is your life tables Settings: there are tons of settings out there. Search on this subreddit or on DMs guild and season to taste Themed music: https://tabletopaudio.com/ is awesome.
There are sites like RPG Ambient Mixer where you can fine tune ambient noises and noise levels from a library.
There's a much more polished one than this I've come across in the past, but that name is escaping me.
EDIT: I think SoundPad is what I was thinking of.
I use tabletop audio. It has a bunch of preset sounds and specific (dungeon, forest, at sea, etc) sound boards. Plus you can mix-and-match and build (and save) your own sound board.
I am a huge fan of playing ambient sounds over music. We've had success with Soundpad by Tabletop Audio, (the broadcast feature has been really cool during our online games). Other than that we just put one of our players in charge of music and they use spotify/youtube to select playlists as needed.
If you want to get technical, we have a raspberry pi connected to a good set of speakers that we control remotely.
Have you perused Tabletop Audio? They've got a great selection of background music specifically for tabletop games. They're all 10 minutes in length and loopable, meaning it's very hard to tell when the track ends and restarts.
This is sweet, I'm going to add this to my soundboard app (Farrago). I've also had good reactions using this as well for Coruscant/Corellia/<generic city planet>: https://tabletopaudio.com/future_city_sp.html
I've used https://tabletopaudio.com/ before and it's pretty nice, especially if you make your own soundboards. It's cool because you can send the online players the link, and any changes you make to the audio will immediately apply to them in the same audio quality as it comes out of your speakers (rather than speaker into microphone).
Don't make it all about writing or books. Books are great, but fuck me they can be boring as hell, especially if that's all you talk about and half the people haven't read the book yet. Why limit yourself to old media like books when SciFi is about the future.
Watch an episode of Star Trek or other SciFi, you can call it Trek Tuesdays. Try Building models, there are a lot of great kits available. (/r/SciFiModels). Model building contest. You could even go for something cheap like, best spaceship model made entirely from hot glue and 100 Popsicle sticks.
Play Games like D&D but set it in space, or as someone else said play Stars Without Number as it is free. Don't forget the ambient audio
Perhaps don't limit yourself entirely to SciFi, throw in some fantasy as well just to mix things up.
One thing I would do is to stay away from graphic novels or comic books. They are very expensive and are not available in most libraries. To be inclusive you need to think about everyone's budget and when some people wont get dinner, you can't expect them to buy a $30 book every week.
Starting a group like this can be hard. You will need to bug people, lots. Remind them when the meeting is, where it is and do it ALL the time. Its up to you and your friends to stir up interest. Don't limit yourself to one social group. Go bug other groups too. Go interrupt other classes to sell the club (with teacher permission). A sign in the cafeteria is not enough, you need to be excited so others get excited.
Edit: Also, and possibly the most critical. Bring food. Seriously. Bring food.
Tabletop Audio is my go-to for background sounds.
If you're wanting just music then there are a ton of YouTube videos with loops of popular video game sounds.
Someone recommended Tabletop Audio on here not too long ago and that has been really cool for me. Queue up several 10 minute tracks and they repeat and transition between them easily. I just put my tablet/phone next to the board and had that playing and worked great. Props to the guy who suggested it although I don't remember who...
That's my go-to for a lot of stuff. It covers a ton of different themes, ambiences, etc. I'll sometimes find stuff in YouTube to play as well. It all depends on what I need for that particular session.
If it's music you want I usually find soundtracks from movies and videogames that fits the mood. Spotify playlist are great for quick-use but if you want to know exactly what music you're using I'd make my own playlist(s).
If you want ambience I'd recommend this awesome website: https://tabletopaudio.com/.
It has both premade audio and a SoundPad for creating your own ambience.
I've never liked Syrinscape, personally.
Check out https://tabletopaudio.com
It is 100% free. It has a bunch of ambience tracks for all settings. There are over two dozen sound pads with sound fx and music, also for multiple settings.
It’s a free resource, can be shared through links so everyone is hearing the same thing, and works pretty well for creating a good soundscape
TableTopAudio it’s got all kinds of ambience and music tracks that you can use on a custom playlist. It’s great for dnd or just some background noise. I’ve been using it for years and they update every now and then.
Maybe it's because you think you need them.
I've began to GM in 1995, we don't use any digital tool nor Excel sheet or random name generators. We have some scratch paper, we put on our ideas and notes during game, and we makes advantage or our imagination memory. And that worked very well.
Consider using a website like notion.so for taking notes (after the session!), a website like tabletopaudio.com for having some sounds for ambiant, but no computer in front of you when you play! A screen is an imagination killer, same for pictures of landscapes/characters/etc. Free yourself of that, and you'll probably less stressed. :)
I think the opposite of many gamers here about digital tools. Less is best. Why? Because digital tools need more prep, and they are slower to use then physical tools.
For example, drawing a quick schema on a whiteboard is quicker than finding the right battlemap and choosing/placing the right tokens (and configure them) and eventually doing line of sight wall/stuff for the VTT works correctly. Just hand drawn on a white board. You can draw anything, erase, modify as you wish. A character destroy a wall for entering ? Okay, erase a portion of the wall with your finger. Job done.
I use Notion.so for tracking all the relevant campaign information (because it's quick and easy to organize) ; I use tabletopaudio.com for all the sounds (with the soundpad for immersive sound on the flight) ; and I use owlbear.rodeo for battlemaps when online (or a physical whiteboard when I'm not). For online play, we use paper character sheets (or what the player wants), and eventually real dices because I trust my players :)
I do that because there is no prep time, I can running totally improvised scenarios without taking time during the session for setting up things. And it's important for me because I'm free, I can do anything with no prep. ^^
But... if you I to go full automated/prep scenarios, FoundryVTT will be my choice. The next month, Let's Role will be in open beta, and It's apparently a nice VTT, with less fuss than FoundryVTT, less automation, but easy to prep and GM. We will see. :)
I like tabletop audio. You broadcast it on your browser, post a link and your players can listen in on their own browser. Haven't had issues with lagging so far and they have a good variety of settings to choose from.
I use Syrinscape , Tabletop Audio , and sometimes youtube with tabs for the specific tracks I intend to use during sessions. I have a list with descriptions and just open up tabs for the ones that would best fit.
Syrinscape gives me music, sound effects, nat sounds for a plethora of needs, all accessible at the touch of a button, and I can customize and organize. They also have a lot of resources designed for specific campaigns.
I am literally in the exact same same same shoes you are. I have a group of 9 people this weekend. Basically my group of six had such a good time last time (first time DMing and first time playing D&D) that they decided to have everyone on. My plan is very similar to your except i already had some house rules that simplified combat.
My exact next encounter which is part of a bigger plot was two bugbears and one hobgoblin. I thought about having one big monster but i didn't want to bog them down in combat and make it more story and opportunity driven as it seems that is what they enjoyed the most.
I promise to come back here next week and tell you my failures so hopefully you don't make the same one lol.
I'm using owlbear rodeo and tabletop audio since last time it was just over teams without any real visuals. Both are free and super simple to use, but we all know all plans fail when they meet combat. I will let you know how it goes.