I created a thread about music and soundeffects and how I would love to see this implemented as a GM tool in D&Dbeyond. The thread turned turned into a thread full of recommendations of third party programs to use for this very purpose, which is fantastic in itself but not what I was after when I created the thread. I didn't post it in this specific feedback part of the forum though so I'll post it here as well in hope to get some traction.
I create my own music and sound stuff and I'd love to be able to use it in an integrated jukebox-o-matic type part of D&Dbeyond. Roll20 had soundcloud, now it has fanburst. Which is cool, so if you can manage something similar - great! If not, just a suggestion, why not have a platform that users can upload things too? Like part of the Homebrew section or something. Music, sfx, visual stuff or whatever you can think of. Stuff to enhance the D&Dbeyond experience. Whether or not that turns into a marketplace is something entirely different and not something I've thought about.
It might be cool to see automatic inclusion in whatever they provide but the details of game management for phase 3 seem a little unclear and I am not sure what they intend to do exactly.
As I'm sure some folks probably already mentioned in your other thread, Battle Bards is out there specifically for this.
While I do consistently use sound (mainly music) during my games, I think that having a sound/music player might take away from the focus of what D&D Beyond really is about. Right now this is a service that allows you access to WotC created content in the most convenient way we have seen yet. Adding too many other features that do not adhear to the clean, minimal simplicity might mire their service and spread the staff efforts thin.
So, even though I love to use sound and music for games, I personally don't think it would be helpful to integrate that into D&D Beyond.
There are two points to consider as to why a feature like this isn't a great fit for D&D Beyond (I'm not saying it doesn't fit at all, but it has a lot of downsides and I'd much rather see developer time devoted to other things first).
1. For an in-person game, what can DDB offer that any other program or streaming site does not offer? You have the full power of pretty much anything at your fingertips to blast for your players, whether that is just playing normal songs on iTunes or Spotify, or using specialized programs like Syrinscape. What sort of features does DDB need to offer in order to surpass that myriad other options for in-person games to be at least somewhat compelling to use? What niche can DDB fit into sound-wise?
2. For an online game, DDB is not a Virtual Tabletop (VTT). Your players aren't necessarily all on DDB at the same time you are, and they may be jumping around or have multiple tabs open. Streaming music through the site to all of the players needs to consider this, and have some way of mitigating that. A VTT nearly guarantees everyone is already there and doesn't have multiple tabs open to the map page of the VTT (as there would be little point to doing so), and therefore does not have these disadvantages. It would also be competing against the sound/jukebox features of whatever VTT you use, so it would again need a compelling use-case or feature that the VTTs do not offer.
In both cases, there is a fair amount of development work to position this as a useful feature; development work that could instead be applied to unique features and offerings that an officially licensed D&D toolset can offer which other sites/services cannot. As such, I do not agree that D&D Beyond needs any sort of music/sound integration, and you would be better served looking into those alternatives that were mentioned to you in your other thread.
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Hey folks!
I created a thread about music and soundeffects and how I would love to see this implemented as a GM tool in D&Dbeyond. The thread turned turned into a thread full of recommendations of third party programs to use for this very purpose, which is fantastic in itself but not what I was after when I created the thread. I didn't post it in this specific feedback part of the forum though so I'll post it here as well in hope to get some traction.
I create my own music and sound stuff and I'd love to be able to use it in an integrated jukebox-o-matic type part of D&Dbeyond. Roll20 had soundcloud, now it has fanburst. Which is cool, so if you can manage something similar - great! If not, just a suggestion, why not have a platform that users can upload things too? Like part of the Homebrew section or something. Music, sfx, visual stuff or whatever you can think of. Stuff to enhance the D&Dbeyond experience. Whether or not that turns into a marketplace is something entirely different and not something I've thought about.
Have a dice day!
/Magnus
It sounds like this would be something for Phase 3 of D&D Beyond.
I think the best free resource I've seen is http://tabletopaudio.com/.
It might be cool to see automatic inclusion in whatever they provide but the details of game management for phase 3 seem a little unclear and I am not sure what they intend to do exactly.
Natural 20 Charisma
It would be great if DM's could DJ our playlists off of Spotify or Apple Music while in game. I am partial towards using movie scores.
As I'm sure some folks probably already mentioned in your other thread, Battle Bards is out there specifically for this.
While I do consistently use sound (mainly music) during my games, I think that having a sound/music player might take away from the focus of what D&D Beyond really is about. Right now this is a service that allows you access to WotC created content in the most convenient way we have seen yet. Adding too many other features that do not adhear to the clean, minimal simplicity might mire their service and spread the staff efforts thin.
So, even though I love to use sound and music for games, I personally don't think it would be helpful to integrate that into D&D Beyond.
"What you saw belongs to you. A story doesn't live until it is imagined in someone's mind."
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings
There are two points to consider as to why a feature like this isn't a great fit for D&D Beyond (I'm not saying it doesn't fit at all, but it has a lot of downsides and I'd much rather see developer time devoted to other things first).
1. For an in-person game, what can DDB offer that any other program or streaming site does not offer? You have the full power of pretty much anything at your fingertips to blast for your players, whether that is just playing normal songs on iTunes or Spotify, or using specialized programs like Syrinscape. What sort of features does DDB need to offer in order to surpass that myriad other options for in-person games to be at least somewhat compelling to use? What niche can DDB fit into sound-wise?
2. For an online game, DDB is not a Virtual Tabletop (VTT). Your players aren't necessarily all on DDB at the same time you are, and they may be jumping around or have multiple tabs open. Streaming music through the site to all of the players needs to consider this, and have some way of mitigating that. A VTT nearly guarantees everyone is already there and doesn't have multiple tabs open to the map page of the VTT (as there would be little point to doing so), and therefore does not have these disadvantages. It would also be competing against the sound/jukebox features of whatever VTT you use, so it would again need a compelling use-case or feature that the VTTs do not offer.
In both cases, there is a fair amount of development work to position this as a useful feature; development work that could instead be applied to unique features and offerings that an officially licensed D&D toolset can offer which other sites/services cannot. As such, I do not agree that D&D Beyond needs any sort of music/sound integration, and you would be better served looking into those alternatives that were mentioned to you in your other thread.