nezzir
September 30th, 2006, 23:30
Ambiance for Fantasy Grounds
I’ve been experimenting lately with adding some sound elements to Fantasy Grounds. While I really love the client, it can be a bit dull sometimes during player exchanges that don’t involve you.
A couple of years ago I helped a German developer translate his documentation from German to English. The program is called RPG Sound Mixer.
https://www.rpgsoundmixer.com
RPG Sound mixer has the capability to create “Sound Scenarios”. That means that you can play music and add in sound effects as well. The sound effects can be automated. You can set them to occur at random times, randomly selected from a pool, for random durations. You can also take away the random element and declare them. You can alter the sounds in frequency, duration, volume level, or any number of other settings. It is a dream GM tool.
Example:
I’m playtesting a new campaign that I plan on running when Fantasy Ground 2.0 comes out. The campaign involves an Inn where all games begin and end. I have set up a “Sound Scenario” for the Inn. I have a variety of instrumental music, string stuff that sounds like something a bard would play. I have added to that a low key roaring fire sound and a low crowd rumble that plays constantly in the background. I then added several sound effects such as laughter (several different types), cheering, booing, a girl laughing, etc. These are played at random times with random pauses between them. It is possible that the sounds overlap. I then added some chained effects, such as a randomly occurring breaking dish followed by cheers from the crowd. Strung together it is a very lively sound scenario and breathes life into the Inn. The random elements ensure that it is never repetitive. I have similar sound scapes for towns, combat, travel, suspense, chase scenes, etc.
RPG Sound Mixer does not play across the net. For this I use another tool, Ventrilo.
https://www.ventrilo.com/
I basically set the output to be “wav” and set it to “voice activate”. Configured like this, any time something is played through my speakers it is transmitted through Ventrilo to all connected clients.
Combined, this allows my players to connect to Ventrilo before starting the Fantasy Grounds client and I can pipe the game soundtrack to them across the net. It works very well. I must note that I like the text flavor of Fantasy Grounds so I do not allow voice communication in the soundtrack channel. It is just there for ambiance. The rest is classic Fantasy Grounds action.
Tales from the Blind Cyclops Inn
With that said I will be starting a new Fantasy Ground campaign in the near future. I am simply waiting for the general release of Fantasy Grounds 2.0 and the update of my “Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay” ruleset. I will begin updating the ruleset and adding current materials to it as soon as the conversion information is available.
As stated above, the games will begin and end in the “Blind Cyclops Inn”. It is a series of short games designed to last 1 – 2 sessions that begin and end in the Inn. There will be pre-generated characters and each game will be played more than once to let anyone that’s interested participate. Players will be able to connect to my dedicated Ventrilo server for sound and music. No knowledge of the system is required, simply connect to Ventrilo (optional), connect to the game, pick a character, and do what you do best – roleplay.
The Blind Cyclops Inn and the adventure locations are fully realized models in real life. I built the models using molds from Hirst Arts molds for my RL pen and paper RPG group.
https://www.hirstarts.com/
I am in the progress of photographing the models now for use in game. All in game maps will be photos of actual models. All Fantasy Ground figures will be photographs of actual painted miniatures in my collection shot from a top down angle and edited in photoshop. I’ve been working on this for a long time and I’m pretty excited about it!
Here is one of the photos of the Inn:
https://www.shadowmyth.com/pics/blindcyclopsinn1.jpg
I should have a webpage dedicated to the campaign soon. Keep an eye on this post if this sounds interesting to you.
NezziR
I’ve been experimenting lately with adding some sound elements to Fantasy Grounds. While I really love the client, it can be a bit dull sometimes during player exchanges that don’t involve you.
A couple of years ago I helped a German developer translate his documentation from German to English. The program is called RPG Sound Mixer.
https://www.rpgsoundmixer.com
RPG Sound mixer has the capability to create “Sound Scenarios”. That means that you can play music and add in sound effects as well. The sound effects can be automated. You can set them to occur at random times, randomly selected from a pool, for random durations. You can also take away the random element and declare them. You can alter the sounds in frequency, duration, volume level, or any number of other settings. It is a dream GM tool.
Example:
I’m playtesting a new campaign that I plan on running when Fantasy Ground 2.0 comes out. The campaign involves an Inn where all games begin and end. I have set up a “Sound Scenario” for the Inn. I have a variety of instrumental music, string stuff that sounds like something a bard would play. I have added to that a low key roaring fire sound and a low crowd rumble that plays constantly in the background. I then added several sound effects such as laughter (several different types), cheering, booing, a girl laughing, etc. These are played at random times with random pauses between them. It is possible that the sounds overlap. I then added some chained effects, such as a randomly occurring breaking dish followed by cheers from the crowd. Strung together it is a very lively sound scenario and breathes life into the Inn. The random elements ensure that it is never repetitive. I have similar sound scapes for towns, combat, travel, suspense, chase scenes, etc.
RPG Sound Mixer does not play across the net. For this I use another tool, Ventrilo.
https://www.ventrilo.com/
I basically set the output to be “wav” and set it to “voice activate”. Configured like this, any time something is played through my speakers it is transmitted through Ventrilo to all connected clients.
Combined, this allows my players to connect to Ventrilo before starting the Fantasy Grounds client and I can pipe the game soundtrack to them across the net. It works very well. I must note that I like the text flavor of Fantasy Grounds so I do not allow voice communication in the soundtrack channel. It is just there for ambiance. The rest is classic Fantasy Grounds action.
Tales from the Blind Cyclops Inn
With that said I will be starting a new Fantasy Ground campaign in the near future. I am simply waiting for the general release of Fantasy Grounds 2.0 and the update of my “Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay” ruleset. I will begin updating the ruleset and adding current materials to it as soon as the conversion information is available.
As stated above, the games will begin and end in the “Blind Cyclops Inn”. It is a series of short games designed to last 1 – 2 sessions that begin and end in the Inn. There will be pre-generated characters and each game will be played more than once to let anyone that’s interested participate. Players will be able to connect to my dedicated Ventrilo server for sound and music. No knowledge of the system is required, simply connect to Ventrilo (optional), connect to the game, pick a character, and do what you do best – roleplay.
The Blind Cyclops Inn and the adventure locations are fully realized models in real life. I built the models using molds from Hirst Arts molds for my RL pen and paper RPG group.
https://www.hirstarts.com/
I am in the progress of photographing the models now for use in game. All in game maps will be photos of actual models. All Fantasy Ground figures will be photographs of actual painted miniatures in my collection shot from a top down angle and edited in photoshop. I’ve been working on this for a long time and I’m pretty excited about it!
Here is one of the photos of the Inn:
https://www.shadowmyth.com/pics/blindcyclopsinn1.jpg
I should have a webpage dedicated to the campaign soon. Keep an eye on this post if this sounds interesting to you.
NezziR