I'm DMing my first D&D campaign in two weeks and I need some advice. (I'm an online DM btw) Should I use music to get my players into spirit? We will be on a phone call because we don't all have discord. Thanks in advance.
If you have players who can't manage discord, I think adding music will not go all that well.
If you decide to try, keep checking in with your players. Some player setups may not get the audio clearly as you intend. Some players may find that the additional audio processing they have to do, especially if there are multiple people talking, is distracting to them.
Be aware that some software (both transmit and play) will try to remove the audio track in an attempt to create audio clarity which can create curious dropouts and other surprises. It may be helpful to troubleshoot and test any audio you want to play with maybe your least connected player out of session to make sure it works as you intend for them.
Also - maybe you know this but just in case - IME if you have a mix of landlines and cellular phones, either through a true phone call or a digital service - the audio quality can get weird on a conference call even just for voice. Depending upon your various preferences and time constraints, you may want to test that ahead also, to see if you want to try to talk your players into installing Discord or zoom or some other shared platform, which should be available for any device they use. I just find that those have better audio quality in the current environment, and it can be exhausting to try to be a on a long conversation with degraded audio.
In a home game? Absolutely I use music it sets the mood and can be fun for everyone. In a remote game where we use discord? Nope. Too much trouble trying to balance things so everyone can hear it easily without causing trouble hearing other conversations. Can it be done? Sure! But you almost want person dedicated to audio production, which can be hard if you are just enjoying the hobby.
My question is not whether to use music, but how? I am trying to setup music off of You TUBE (some excellent channels, Celtic forest music, Ravenloft-Hp Lovecraft stuff) ... attempting to use VoiceMeeter (banana or Potato) and would lto know how to pipe the music into Guilded Voice channel (which we use for voice chat). Anybody familiar with these apps, please let me know.
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Long time D&D, AD&D enthusiast. First played in 1981, the Tom Moldvay Basic Box set.
If I were running a game over the phone, I wouldn't use music. That said, if I felt it was essential to set the mood, I might send my players a playlist via text/email and encourage them to have it playing softly in the background, or maybe listen to it (if they wanted to) to get hyped before the session.
As a Discord DM, I use music every week with a bot one of my players wrote for me after YouTube cracked down a few years ago. It's janky, so when it breaks, I just send the link for the music selection in a text channel and let them handle it on their own computers, similar to above. Works well enough for us. I know there are apps that integrate with Discord and other gaming platforms; one of my friends uses one (don't know the name) and likes it well enough. I'm sure you can find posts on Reddit with helpful insights into those options.
Over phone, or other VoIP service, no I wouldn't advise using music. Sound balance and clarity are extremely difficult to ensure. I'd tend to suggest that people be supplied with a playlist if they're interested, but even then unless the players are using headphones/earbuds again you risk sacrificing sound clarity.
As much as I can understand not wanting to force people to sign up to yet another service, discord is fairly harmless an account. While Discord itself can be somewhat janky, it is the better of all the solutions I've found and is extremely available across countries, platforms, and operating systems. I literally have players all across Europe, five states of the US, Turkey, South Africa, and even one in Brazil. We've tried collectively a lot of solutions. The best we've found for voice chat is Discord.
Across price, availability and usability, Discord is a pretty good solution. In which case Kenku FM is about the best solution I've found. It runs as a bot on your discord channel, and you can play music from local storage, or through Kenku's browser (Youtube, Spotify etc). For me with access to many artists on Bandcamp and Youtube Premium it's a great solution. It's pretty well designed, and only really a problem if one of your players has a janky wifi connection.
These are just a few. My past in theatre means I have a massive personal sound library, but yeah a simple google for Ambiance Music will find you what you need.
I'm DMing my first D&D campaign in two weeks and I need some advice. (I'm an online DM btw) Should I use music to get my players into spirit? We will be on a phone call because we don't all have discord. Thanks in advance.
For that sort of set-up, I'd skip it, unless you have some really good idea of what you want and why as well as a method to make it worth the effort.
ok thanks
If you have players who can't manage discord, I think adding music will not go all that well.
If you decide to try, keep checking in with your players. Some player setups may not get the audio clearly as you intend. Some players may find that the additional audio processing they have to do, especially if there are multiple people talking, is distracting to them.
Be aware that some software (both transmit and play) will try to remove the audio track in an attempt to create audio clarity which can create curious dropouts and other surprises. It may be helpful to troubleshoot and test any audio you want to play with maybe your least connected player out of session to make sure it works as you intend for them.
Also - maybe you know this but just in case - IME if you have a mix of landlines and cellular phones, either through a true phone call or a digital service - the audio quality can get weird on a conference call even just for voice. Depending upon your various preferences and time constraints, you may want to test that ahead also, to see if you want to try to talk your players into installing Discord or zoom or some other shared platform, which should be available for any device they use. I just find that those have better audio quality in the current environment, and it can be exhausting to try to be a on a long conversation with degraded audio.
In a home game? Absolutely I use music it sets the mood and can be fun for everyone. In a remote game where we use discord? Nope. Too much trouble trying to balance things so everyone can hear it easily without causing trouble hearing other conversations. Can it be done? Sure! But you almost want person dedicated to audio production, which can be hard if you are just enjoying the hobby.
Ok thank you very much
My question is not whether to use music, but how? I am trying to setup music off of You TUBE (some excellent channels, Celtic forest music, Ravenloft-Hp Lovecraft stuff) ... attempting to use VoiceMeeter (banana or Potato) and would lto know how to pipe the music into Guilded Voice channel (which we use for voice chat). Anybody familiar with these apps, please let me know.
Long time D&D, AD&D enthusiast. First played in 1981, the Tom Moldvay Basic Box set.
If I were running a game over the phone, I wouldn't use music. That said, if I felt it was essential to set the mood, I might send my players a playlist via text/email and encourage them to have it playing softly in the background, or maybe listen to it (if they wanted to) to get hyped before the session.
As a Discord DM, I use music every week with a bot one of my players wrote for me after YouTube cracked down a few years ago. It's janky, so when it breaks, I just send the link for the music selection in a text channel and let them handle it on their own computers, similar to above. Works well enough for us. I know there are apps that integrate with Discord and other gaming platforms; one of my friends uses one (don't know the name) and likes it well enough. I'm sure you can find posts on Reddit with helpful insights into those options.
Over phone, or other VoIP service, no I wouldn't advise using music. Sound balance and clarity are extremely difficult to ensure. I'd tend to suggest that people be supplied with a playlist if they're interested, but even then unless the players are using headphones/earbuds again you risk sacrificing sound clarity.
As much as I can understand not wanting to force people to sign up to yet another service, discord is fairly harmless an account. While Discord itself can be somewhat janky, it is the better of all the solutions I've found and is extremely available across countries, platforms, and operating systems. I literally have players all across Europe, five states of the US, Turkey, South Africa, and even one in Brazil. We've tried collectively a lot of solutions. The best we've found for voice chat is Discord.
Across price, availability and usability, Discord is a pretty good solution. In which case Kenku FM is about the best solution I've found. It runs as a bot on your discord channel, and you can play music from local storage, or through Kenku's browser (Youtube, Spotify etc). For me with access to many artists on Bandcamp and Youtube Premium it's a great solution. It's pretty well designed, and only really a problem if one of your players has a janky wifi connection.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
So, there is a website on google you just search free D&D music
Book of music - https://www.youtube.com/@BookofMusic88
Bardify - https://www.youtube.com/@bardify
Tabletop Audio - Ambiences and Music for Tabletop Role Playing Games
Sound Effects & Ambient Music for RPGs | Syrinscape
These are just a few. My past in theatre means I have a massive personal sound library, but yeah a simple google for Ambiance Music will find you what you need.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
I use the third one