Using sound effects at the table?

[colonelthread]

I've had good luck using a portable CD "boom box" style player (made by Sony, but that doesn'tt matter) that has a remote control and the ability to repeat a single track endlessly, until I've select the next track to be played. I simply keep a cheat sheet in my notebook that tells me which track is for each different situation.

My problem is, I mostly used it with sci-fi roleplay, which I have lots of audio for, but now I'm running a D&D game and need something more fantasy-ish. It looks like the WAV and MP3 files from Neverwinter Nights will do nicely, I just need to put them on a CD.

 

[Hockeyman]

A recent banner ad at enworld featured a CD specifically designed to accompany these games. The first set is generic enough to provide an appropriate background for a wide variety of situations. They are designed with care to allow you to loop them without a distracting startup sound. The ad indicated a link at http://www.palefacesound.com/store/environ.html
Hope this helps.... The Dad

 

[Ashy]

I actually find quite the opposite to be true. I just started using a laptop while DM'ing about 3 weeks ago and I love it. I've actually found that it lets me focus more on the players and speeds up the game because I don't have to fumble through a stack of books to find stuff and I have everything organized using Excel. I now spend less time book-keeping and more time actually playing.

Plus, I can show them pics of monsters and NPC's on the screen as well as play mp3's and such (which I haven't done much of yet but I might start).

I agree with glassjaw here - I use my laptop in all my games and it actually helps me play more - the players love it and I've just started adding SFX to the games, as well as digitially recording the sessions!

 

[colonelthread]

A recent banner ad at enworld featured a CD specifically designed to accompany these games.
http://www.palefacesound.com/store/environ.html

I saw that too, but had reservations ordering from a business that has not been verified at Paypal (see this thread here). I was going to wait until someone else buys from them first.

 

[Warden]

I have a device from a company called Conair (the maker of hair dryers), but can't find the original package, so forgive me if I can't say what it's called exactly. It plays environmental background sounds such as birds chirping, waterfalls, rain, thunder, and others intended to help you sleep. Many of them easily work in my game and allow me to keep the computer free for playing various sound effects I can download for free off this site. If you have Windows, use the Sound Recorder program to mix various sound effects together into one file and avoid having 12 different WAV files open at the same time.

For example, one of our last games had the PCs enter a deserted village on the border of a desert. To provide a eerie feeling of abandonment, I mix the sound of a chilling wind, wind chimes, doors/windows creeking open and banging shut, but sand blowing across wood. No music required and it really did a nice job that took nothing more than five minutes to set up.

 

[Hockeyman]

Colonel,
We in Vermont are always a bit reserved when it comes to allowing PayPal, or any company direct access to our bank account. My son, Shaun... er Minuit... has responded to this very understandable concern in the aforementioned thread. I hope it satisfies your reservations and that you get a chance to use the CD.
Dad

 

[Templeton580]

*

 

[Jeff Wilder]

You mean aside from fumbling through a stack of books

Don't do that. If I don't know the rule and can't find it in 30 seconds, I make one up and move on. (But I know most of the rules.)

a scratchpad to keep track of everyone's initiatives and hp's

Don't do that. Use cards to track initiative, track monster HP right on the battlemat, and my players track their own HP.

a bag of dice

One set of oversized, easy-to-read dice.

pages of statblocks and adventure notes, and maps?

Yeah, I use that. Now, what was your point?

Just because you've never seen it doesn't mean it can't be done.

Nope. But I've also never seen Bigfoot, and while that doesn't prove it doesn't exist, I'll believe it when I see it. Most DMs that use laptops think it works great. And it might ... for them. Now if only it weren't for those pesky players ...