Hail adventurers and Game Masters alike!
I bought an old-fashioned style lantern from Wal*Mart for $16 the other day.
http://www.shrubs.co.uk/ekmps/shops/shrubscouk/images/zanzibar-3-tea-light- candle-lantern-set-18187-gm-13768-p.gif
I turn-off the lights and hand the lantern to whichever player bought it from the local market. Whenever the players delve deep into the Underdark or some forgotten ruins, it adds more ambiance.
I'm also a fan of playing creepy or dungeon crawl music I come across from soundtracks or whatever. These are just a few small examples of what I use to add atmosphere to a gaming session, what are yours? Until then, Happy Gaming!
I like to bring a loaded gun to the table. Then, if one of the PCs fall to neg HP, I shoot him.
Brings on a whole new meaning to "fumble". lol Remind me to play Russian Roulette with you if things ever go badly.
After viewing this post repeatedly for a response, I've concluded that no one quite understands my question (I think). What do you guys bring to the game to add mood and/or atmosphere to gameplay? RAY instills fear, so I can only assume he's either playing Post Apocolyptic games, a Cuthulu game, or is just crazy.
So far, I've only been using mood music. However, since my group is running through the Age of Worms campaign, I've had my eye out for completely green Gummy Worms (they always seem to be sold in multi-colors) to put in a bowl and throw at the players at key moments...
How could you?! lol That's genius!
Bala dash malanore! I've been interested in the use of Black-lights for added effect in magical areas, or deep in Drow territory in the Underdark. Any other ideas in terms of lighting?
Another thing I love to do is slam my fist into the table (when an NPC is making a point, or something loud and thunderous has occured). Shaking the table happens when there is an earthquake, or something to that effect.
Hmm, not sure if this counts but.... My players sometimes find swords and daggers in unusual places while playing like under the sofa, inside the cocktail table, in the drawer of my end table. Oh and in the corners of the room, atop the mantle, by my desk, or hanging on the walls.
There's quite a bit of framed fantasy artwork on the walls too.
As for effects, I usually try to remember what accents/voices I've thought up for each NPC and try to speak as them. Also (when I remember it and can pull a sly one), I'll leave my vocal effects processor turned on and my pic in a convenient position. Nothing like hearing the voice of God or Darth Vader suddenly boom out when the DM speaks. >:D
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My first thought was you were braver than I handing out oil lanterns like that, but I see that you actually meant a candle lantern. We use old fashioned glass oil lamps whenever the power goes out and my experience is that electric light is much easier to read by. Which is why, I've only tried the dim lights thing once in gaming and found it too difficult for the players and myself alike to read the necessary rules. What would be best I think is an electric dimmer with a remote switch at the table but thats not going to happen soon.
I've started using instrumental mood music lately. Keep the volume low and it can help.
Probably the best thing I've used props wise though was the 3 dimensional paper dungeon for the crypt in "Howl of the Carrion King." Making the dungeon however is pretty time consuming and I wouldn't want to do it for every game.
Greetings! I just re-watched an interview with Vin Diesel and he talked about using canvas for maps. Sounds interesting; I'll have to try it.
I have a fairly large library of video game BGM so I can simply fire one of those up for the appropriate mood. After about five sessions it's usually easy to start setting up a soundtrack for the campaign.
Normal music - with lyrics - is also available as appropriate, if I don't have it on-hand I can usually get it fairly quickly.
Unfortunately now that we game over Ventrilo/Maptool this isn't as easy to do as before, and cool stuff like dimming the lights or passing around a prop won't work anymore. I can link YouTube videos of various songs via Maptool so the players still get the mood music, though it doesn't have the convenience of auto-loop that WinAmp does ;)
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Greetings! I just re-watched an interview with Vin Diesel and he talked about using canvas for maps. Sounds interesting; I'll have to try it.
If you want to be cheap, paper bags you get from the store work well too. Rip the edges instead of cutting, and then scorch them (use a candle - get close to the flame enough to scorch the paper but not light on fire.) You can even rough them up some on the driveway before OR after mapping on them (great for aging and worn spots.) Another good way to rough them up is repeated folds until the paper gets weak - I love handing over an ancient map that is practically in pieces.
Greetings! I just re-watched an interview with Vin Diesel and he talked about using canvas for maps. Sounds interesting; I'll have to try it.If you want to be cheap, paper bags you get from the store work well too. Rip the edges instead of cutting, and then scorch them (use a candle - get close to the flame enough to scorch the paper but not light on fire.) You can even rough them up some on the driveway before OR after mapping on them (great for aging and worn spots.) Another good way to rough them up is repeated folds until the paper gets weak - I love handing over an ancient map that is practically in pieces.
You can also draw the map or whatever else on normal white paper, then soak it in a mix of wood glue and water. Sometimes i add a touch of die to the mix if i want it darker. Then when you let that dry you can use the same scorch the edges technique.
As for ambiance I think there is a certain point where it causes a problem. If the players cant read their character sheets it isnt worth it. Unless your players memorize everything on their sheets and dont need notes i would never recommend the lantern approach.
Wow, we've done so many things over the years. Some examples:
In a Cyberpunk 2020 game (which I am NOT endorsing...I was a teenager then), we used fluorescent highlighters and a black light for the maps/minis. Also, I think a lot of us used them to color our nails, so it turned out to be a pretty cool effect. We used to use tons of colored lights (mostly red and green) which gave it a futuristic feel,with only a small white light for my notes.
Music is a given, but since I run long distance now, it garbles the web cam, so I can't even enjoy that... It worked wonders in a Star Wars game, but I also used a similar set-up in a D&D game. I gave major villains (and heroes) their own theme music, so that every time the PCs heard THAT tune, they'd associate it with that villain. In fact, it was so bad, that one time, I slipped and played the Sith Lord's song, and they freaked out!
Probably my favorite gimmick, though, was a Ravenloft game where we turned out all the lights and used a ton of tea candles...and a good twenty pounds or more of dry ice in the bathtub. The floor was covered in mist, and these little flickering lights created little pools of light. Just awesome. Plus, that was a lot of dry ice...I never got it to work quite the same way again.
We NEVER played Vampire: The Dark Ages with anything except candle light. My neighbors probably thought there was some weird occult thing going on every Thursday... lots of people, no lights except candles...
Oh, I'm 6'10", and they had a major antagonist (not a villain, per se, just an ancient with a different agenda) that was supposed to be wizened and very short. So, when, at long last, they finally got to meet him to talk to him, I went into a bathroom, threw on an old graduation robe with an oversized black hood, used a cane as a staff and came out on my knees, with the hood pulled so far over my face, that I had to look out through the fabric. Oh, howdy, that was great. Everyone was put off by the change, and they actually stayed IN CHARACTER throughout the entire meeting.
Don't underestimate the power of making a character special through affectation... I've also stood on chairs to talk to sitting players when running a giant, and one time I used myself as a 'to-scale' miniature of an enormous BBEG. It was a campaign that was ending, and I just rolled randomly to see where my 'strikes' would fall.
In one game, there was a greasy merchant that was described with a comb-over, so every time he talked to a female PC, I would (dryly) lick my hand and nervously push my hair over...I got more laughs from that than anything.
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In some cases, we would have the players mimic specific actions from the characters;
In GURPS Fantasy, certain spells could be 'held,' such as flame jet or fireball, precast and left waiting to throw, or gouting forth from the finger in a dangerous meter long (or longer) jet of fire. The player would hold his hand up (or finger pointed away) to symbolize that a spell was held at the ready in this manner, as a 'reminder' that this was dangerous and ill-advised, as one could trip and 'drop' the explosive fireball, or point at someone and shoot them with the flame jet by accident. Occasionally there would be jokes about trying to catch a sneeze and burning one's face off, but it was just a visual reminder, not a way to 'gotcha' the players.
We'd do the same thing with loaded crossbows, holding a 'gun-hand' up to act as a visual reminder that the character was walking around with a readied missile weapon. (Not so much with bows, which were vastly less effective than crossbows in GURPS, and would have taken both hands anyway... Convenience wins out!)
In Vampire, whenever a player wanted his character to Dominate another PC (generally to harmless effect, pranking each other), he had to make eye contact with the *player.* It was always fun when the eye contact would finally happen, and the player who was trying to avoid eye contact was 'gotten' and would say, 'Oh no!' We used the same mechanic for the Eye of the Serpent power (or whatever it was called) from the Followers of the Set, which I remember being pretty tense when the other PC was a raging Garou, the two players with their gazes locked across the table, knowing that somebody was gonna be writing up a new character in a few minutes...
Greetings!
I love the parchment idea, but I buy mine every year at the Colorado Renaissance Fair and they're pre-hole punched for quite cheap. I've only used a few for personal religious reasons and to test a few out, but they're quite amazing, especially with a quill. (Honestly, I'm so old-school I use an ink well, a quill, and parchment while wearing a robe.)
I've just made a small .gif of me holding a lantern in the dark looking around and it actually was well made for such a slapped-together piece. I'm not too worried about using candles because enough can produce a lot of light, and there wouldn't be much writing on the players' part. Black-lights and neon colors would be a tough feat for me, due to the fact that I have a halogen lamp on one side and a 4-bulb ceiling fan on the other, so the effects would be a bit off, and it would drive my wife nuts if we had to change the bulb every time.
While typing all of this, I'm enjoying the CD's "Angel Voices:Libera in Concert" and [my favorite] ♥Celtic Mystique by Howard Baer♥. Along with a dozen OST's and some lighting, I can create quite the ambiance for my players.
I use miniatures and thrift-store figurines for visual effect. THRIFT STORES are amazing, given the Game Master's perspective. An old shirt slashed and torn for a few bucks with some red food dye makes for a bloody visual, and I'm not against dressing my part when a memorable character appears in game. Who knows? Perhaps one of us will find a +6 Vorpal that's priceless!
♠Thank you all thus far for contributing to that spark that makes {D&D} so fun and memorable to us all!
My all time best was I had an amazingly annoying, appallingly loud, and deceptively small alarm clock. It was indescribable. So, one night, while playing Traveller, I set it for an hour or so into the game and began to play. The game's going on, the adventure's progressing, when the moment hits, this incredibly loud klaxon sounds, and I shout "Hull breach! Hull breach! Emergency stations! Hull breach!" and proceeded to inject in the midst of the overall adventure a crisis situation.
I have also set a clock on the table when there's a game where time is of the essence, not necessarily representing time in game, but just to keep the idea of time fresh in people's minds.
Apropos of the loaded gun, I did know of a ... well, it was basically Vampire, but heavily modified in setting and rules so that it was much more like Call of Cthulu meets Vampire, where, as opposed to making what amounted to a fright check whenever called for, a player could pick up the straight razor sitting on the table and cut himself for an automatic pass.
I have a small drawstring bag I have filled with gems obtained from a local rock shop. I toss it out when the party finds some.
Similarly the bag filled with coins makes an impressive sound when tossed on the table.
Another variant on the parchment: scorch regular paper using an iron. Draw your map using water soluble ink and smear sections with water--looks like an authentic damaged map and can frustrate the players (often desirable).
I have a hat I don when acting as a specific NPC. Similarly I hold a rod when acting as a different one. Can get amusing when the two are conversing with each other.