Words and music, for me, because we're a bunch of friends playing over discord as opposed to at a table where we could have minis and maps and the like.
We use mostly words, I do have a dry eraseable battle map so when I need to set a specific scene then we use that and some lego miniatures to depict it. I would much rather a digital medium, and I will be (in the DND offseason for us, ala NFL season) be building a table for the group that has a TV display in the middle. At that point I may begin to incorporate music and sound effects as well.
I use words, I act and over act to tell the tale. I also have a dry erase board with a map or setting drawn out in the underside. Which I grandly reveal.
I used to use those dry erase dungeon tiles. I loved them with minis. But for the last two sessions I've used a tv laying flat with an image of the map zoomed in so the grid matches with the minis. My players love it. I also try to use accents a lot when I speak as different NPCs, I'm terrible at some of them, and my players love it
Words and music - definitely music. We use maps / minis for more complex fights or boss battles, but mostly use TotM for run-of-the-mill combat. I also use Syrinscape for a lot of background ambience.
I've been using music in all my games (Pathfinder, D&D, Cthulhu, Star Wars, Traveller) for years now, and find it really helps with the immersion, providing you follow a few basic rules-of-thumb:
Don't use "famous" music inappropriately. For example, Star Wars soundtracks for a Star Wars game is 100% great...but when "The Imperial March" comes on in the middle of a D&D game, it just pulls everyone out.
Don't use music with lyrics*. It's usually distracting and the lyrics rarely match the mood.
* having said that, lyrics in a language none of the players understand is usually fine. And example is my use of part of the "Kingdom of Heaven" soundtrack during our "Mummy's Mask" Pathfinder campaign. A scene in a tavern, with a local bard playing, was nicely supported by an up-tempo song with lyrics in Arabic. It had a nice middle-eastern feel to it, but nobody tried to understand the lyrics.
Don't have the music too loud. It's distracting.
Ambient sound effects are usually okay (such as the background conversation in a tavern), but specific stuff gets distracting (eg: clanging swords and goblin shouts).
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How do you set the scene in your games? Words, Music, Table mini's and 3D maps?
I've always relied on the power of my words.
https://dmdungeon.wordpress.com/2017/06/09/setting-the-scene/
JT " You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
Words and music, for me, because we're a bunch of friends playing over discord as opposed to at a table where we could have minis and maps and the like.
I use music, sound effects, maps minis, and words.
We use mostly words, I do have a dry eraseable battle map so when I need to set a specific scene then we use that and some lego miniatures to depict it. I would much rather a digital medium, and I will be (in the DND offseason for us, ala NFL season) be building a table for the group that has a TV display in the middle. At that point I may begin to incorporate music and sound effects as well.
I use words, I act and over act to tell the tale. I also have a dry erase board with a map or setting drawn out in the underside. Which I grandly reveal.
I used to use those dry erase dungeon tiles. I loved them with minis. But for the last two sessions I've used a tv laying flat with an image of the map zoomed in so the grid matches with the minis. My players love it. I also try to use accents a lot when I speak as different NPCs, I'm terrible at some of them, and my players love it
it could be worse, you could be on fire.
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Words and music - definitely music. We use maps / minis for more complex fights or boss battles, but mostly use TotM for run-of-the-mill combat. I also use Syrinscape for a lot of background ambience.
I've been using music in all my games (Pathfinder, D&D, Cthulhu, Star Wars, Traveller) for years now, and find it really helps with the immersion, providing you follow a few basic rules-of-thumb:
Don't use "famous" music inappropriately. For example, Star Wars soundtracks for a Star Wars game is 100% great...but when "The Imperial March" comes on in the middle of a D&D game, it just pulls everyone out.
Don't use music with lyrics*. It's usually distracting and the lyrics rarely match the mood.
* having said that, lyrics in a language none of the players understand is usually fine. And example is my use of part of the "Kingdom of Heaven" soundtrack during our "Mummy's Mask" Pathfinder campaign. A scene in a tavern, with a local bard playing, was nicely supported by an up-tempo song with lyrics in Arabic. It had a nice middle-eastern feel to it, but nobody tried to understand the lyrics.
Don't have the music too loud. It's distracting.
Ambient sound effects are usually okay (such as the background conversation in a tavern), but specific stuff gets distracting (eg: clanging swords and goblin shouts).