Create a Homebrew Campaign | #15: Tools I Recommend
So we’ve built our world, we’ve written our story, our homebrew campaign is ready… but are we? In this post, I’ll be talking about the tools that I recommend you have as a game master for your tabletop campaign. These won’t be specific to D&D, though that’s the game that I typically run. Instead, these are just general suggestions for making your tabletop roleplaying game experience the best that it can possibly be. Some of it is software, some of it is hardware, but all of it combines to make an absolutely phenomenal tabletop experience.
Syrinscape
Music and sound effects are huge for the tabletop gaming experience. After running my gains with carefully curated atmospheres, I don’t think I can ever go back again. I used to just use YouTube videos that had atmospheric sounds and music, which was fine, but it was hard to get things exactly how I wanted and they rarely had effective surround sound. With Syrinscape (and a SuperSyrin membership), I’m able to cast my audio from my phone to a Google Home Group that features a couple of surround speakers and a Google Home Max. This makes the atmosphere really immersive, which is huge, especially for horror scenes. Having creaking wood, random footsteps, maddening whispers, and whistling wind makes my eerie scenes far more believable. I cannot recommend this enough; in fact, it’s the first thing I’m listing because it’s so important. Get Syrinscape, you won’t regret it.
Click Here to visit Syrinscape’s download page!
DungeonFog
Battle maps were something I struggled with for a long time with my home games. I don’t have the budget to invest in a bunch of Dwarven Forge tiles, though I wish that I did. So I started off hand-drawing maps on a washable grid. However, that just didn’t work, especially when the party inevitably wound up veering so far off course that I needed to make an entirely different map, which meant erasing the map I’d drawn and creating a fresh one, slowing the game down considerably. After a lot of trial and error, I settled on using a TV, flat on the table, to display where the party is located. From there, I project a map onto the screen through DungeonFog, which has player view tools that make this incredibly easy.
Creating maps with DungeonFog is also a lot of fun, so I have no problem with spending an hour or two each week throwing together a few “just in case” maps, in the event that the party goes somewhere that isn’t quite expected. My favorite feature of the tool, though, is that you can upload your own assets! This means tokens, tiles, props, textures, whatever you want. You can also create collections, which has been really handy for some of my campaigns. And if you’re worried about the asset styles, don’t worry, it isn’t just fantasy! I used DungeonFog to create maps for Call of Cthulhu, Cyberpunk Red, and even the Alien RPG!
If you’re someone who’s on a budget but doesn’t want to hand draw a bunch of maps all the time, DungeonFog is the tool for you. It’s a lot cheaper and more dynamic than Dwarven Forge. Maybe if I ever strike it rich, I’ll invest in some Dwarven Forge components, but for now, DungeonFog is doing just fine.
Click Here to check out DungeonFog!
Dynamic Lighting
This goes in conjunction with Syrinscape, but I consider lighting second to sound when it comes to atmosphere. Adding dynamic lighting in particular, where you can set certain atmospheres, is especially useful. This doesn’t have to be too intense, just make it something that will help immerse your players a little more than a few orange lamps or flickering fluorescents will. There are tons of options that you can use for this based on your budget. Personally, I use Philips Hue and an Android app called HueDynamic. However, I use this because I already have Philips Hue integration at home, so it made sense to stick with that system. There are plenty of more affordable options out there for just running a home game! I’ll even link one down below.
Hero Forge
If you haven’t heard of Hero Forge, you’ve probably been living under a rock. Hero Forge is an online tool (although I think that they have an app now, too) that you can use to construct minis. At this time, you can’t effectively use it to build monsters, but the overall quality of the minis is great. I personally just use this for hero minis and maybe a few NPCs, preferring to purchase more detailed and meticulously-crafted minis for more important entities.
I find Hero Forge is especially useful if you have a party that tends to change, be it through death, character retirement, or just character progression. I like to change up the minis of my party every once in a while, usually after a major arc, and Hero Forge is a terrific way to do that. They also allow you to have multiple delivery options for your minis, whether you want a file to print yourself or you want it sent to you. They even let you export the minis for digital tables!
Click Here to visit the Hero Forge website!
Conclusion
There you have it! Those are four tools I recommend that anyone running a tabletop roleplaying game have in the toolbox. Lighting and sound help build an incredible atmosphere while battle maps and custom minis help make combat more engaging and seamless than it otherwise would be. How you prioritize these will depend on your own group’s needs. Some may care more about combat precision than the atmosphere, whereas I greatly prioritize my atmosphere above everything else. It all depends on your preference!
Thanks so much for checking out this post and for being here for my Homebrew Campaign Creation series. I hope that it’s been helpful to you so far! We have just one more part left, which is hard to believe. Next week, I’ll be giving you a few final tips and tricks. From there… who knows what’s next for me when it comes to my advice posts? I think I’ll focus on some writing tips or something along those lines. I guess we’ll see!
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Until next time… bye!