Survey & Results: Audio & Art in your group

[Thrar]

Hi everyone,

I've been looking for ways to increase immersion for my group by using audio and/or illustrations. I'm a software developer during the day, so when I didn't find any tools I really liked, I started thinking about building something myself.

If anyone else is looking for tools, here are a few I've used before:

* Tabletop Audio (http://tabletopaudio.com/)
* Syrinscape (https://syrinscape.com/)
* Youtube video search for things like forest or rain sounds
* DeviantArt search
* Google image search

Before I throw a lot of effort into what might ultimately just be for myself and my group, I would like to know what others think about the topic.

I've drawn up a simple survey form: http://goo.gl/forms/P5iFhGkSU7tFReqq1

I'll post the survey results in a day or two. I would greatly appreciate your input!

[Recherché]

For the "how often do you play" question it would be nice to have options for erratic, PbP and/ other.

[MrStabby]

So the issue for me is that i want a nice easy way to edit and combine sounds on the fly. I never know what my players are going to do, and being able to add sound with only a couple of seconds notice would be good. I suspect that this is where there would be a challenge as there would need to be a pretty extensive library of clearly labled sound effects and a grouping system to naturally and quickly navigate to just what you want.

That is a pretty tough ask.

[Thrar]

For the "how often do you play" question it would be nice to have options for erratic, PbP and/ other.

Good point. I was looking at this from a "group that meets at a semi-regular schedule" perspective. I've added an explanation asking for an approximation in other cases.


So the issue for me is that i want a nice easy way to edit and combine sounds on the fly.

Have you tried using Syrinscape? They have a pretty large number of sound effects, although I'm not sure if the grouping and labeling fits your needs.
Tabletop Audio has a thing called SoundPad that gives you individual sounds from a specific environment.

There's also an Android app called High Fantasy Soundboard (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.highfantasysoundboard) that I tried for a short time. It has a pretty good number of sounds, but again I'm not sure if the grouping and labeling would suit you.

Are you looking for individual sound effects like a sword swing or a wolf howl or for ambient sounds like battle or tavern chatter?

[Thrar]

Thank you to everyone who participated so far!

Here are the current results: http://imgur.com/a/7CQgc

Brief summary:

About half the respondents use music at the game table. Only a small number uses ambience and an even smaller number uses sound effects.
2/3 of respondents think audio improves or would improve their session. However, the effort especially during the session is too large to use audio more frequently.
Almost all respondents use visual art at least occasionally. The most popular source is image search, far ahead of images from other sources.
Effort to find and manage visual art can be a problem. It's less problematic than with audio, however.


The survey is still open (http://goo.gl/forms/P5iFhGkSU7tFReqq1) - if you haven't taken it yet, it would be great to hear your opinion as well!

[No-Kill Cleric]

My DM has a house rule that if there is a bard, they have partial control over the music. It keeps things lively and sets the tone.

I tend to be the group's artist. I favor character art, but I've done some scenery for an exploration campaign. Being the artist is an awesome position because everyone reacts positively to seeing their character drawn out.

[Thrar]

That's a very cool idea. How do you organize it? Does the player bring a playlist on their phone?

I wish we had an artist in our group. Drawings of characters and sometimes key encounters make things feel a lot more tangible.
Do you draw by hand or electronically? If electronically, what device/software do you recommend?

[No-Kill Cleric]

That's a very cool idea. How do you organize it? Does the player bring a playlist on their phone?

I wish we had an artist in our group. Drawings of characters and sometimes key encounters make things feel a lot more tangible.
Do you draw by hand or electronically? If electronically, what device/software do you recommend?

Its between having your laptop in your bag or suggesting something for the DM to look up on YouTube.

I do a mix of hand drawing and electronically. I use Sketchbook Pro on my iPad when I do digital, since I've had the iPad for a long time and the app was only a few dollars compared to at least $100 and up. If you have an iPad or other tablet, there are solid apps available.

[Dawgmoah]

Filled out your survey. Thing is on the counts of art and audio both answers to that would be: it depends on the group. I run games for five different groups at the moment and what some people really like others hate. Sounds and music set the stage for some while others find it distracting. Just like voice changing software. Then there is the use of props: a leather bag of coins, a working lantern, a variety of weapons, etc.