Audio Cues and Initiative

[jedavis]

I finally got around to watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly last night. One of the things that struck me was the use of audio cues; whenever one of the three main characters was about to arrive on the scene, a short sound (kind of a modulated bird call) played, with the tone indicating which character was incoming. It's an interesting notion, and I think it could be applied to D&D (and other games with fairly fixed, looped linear initiative systems) using a laptop as follows:

1. For each PC, find a track of music. Cut it down to a certain length, leave the first couple of seconds strong and then fade the rest of it out slowly (nothing Audacity can't handle). Also do one for the monsters (I tend to just have all the monsters act simultaneously, except for named notable villains (who probably warrant their own theme tracks anyways)).
2. Queue the cue tracks in a music player of your choice (probably WinAmp for me) and set it to loop. When initiative is rolled, order the songs by initiative and fire up the first track.
3. When a PC's turn ends, skip to the next track. The fact that track length is limited also imposes a mechanically-enforced time restriction on PC turns (this could be good or bad. On the other hand, track length can be tailored individually, so if a new player needs more time, he might warrant a longer track).

So we end up with a combination initiative tracker, turn timer, and audio cue system.

Thoughts? Has anybody here seen or tried something similar before?

 

[OnlineDM]

It sounds like an awful lot of work, but I imagine that it would feel pretty awesome for the players when their "theme song" kicks in. They would have to choose their songs carefully, though, since they're going to hear the song a LOT. I worry that it would be cool once or twice, and then it might get annoying.

I'd suggest maybe trying it as a one-off thing for a big, epic battle and see how it goes. It feels too special to be used for every ordinary fight, but that's just my opinion.

Of course, God help you if anyone delays their turn or readies an action.

 

[jedavis]

Eh, the audio editing takes maybe a minute per song. It's choosing that takes the time. But yeah, good points about repetition, special usage, and readies. I'll probably wait until my campaign is better established (read: no longer in planning) and try it out as a means of spicing up combat if things start to get dull.

 

[Asmor]

That's a neat idea! And I agree, once you get over the initial learning curve I suspect these audio queues could be pretty quick and easy to generate.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I like the idea, but am concerned about execution. I think it will become too much during combat to keep hearing it each time it is their turn.

I realize you were thinking about this in context with initiative, but it might be better used as it is in the movies; when a scene first cuts to them. Have the party choose a theme, rather than individuals, then choose some theme bits for recurring NPCs and of course the BBEG and play those as they first enter an encounter. It might be especially useful for reminding players about recurring NPCs if they end up associating them with their theme song. For the BBEG, you can play a short bit when encountering his flunkies, but a longer version when they meet the BBEG himself.