Atmosphere

[Grey Seer]

OK. I have thought about this a bit and I really feel like having the right atmosphere can really draw you into a game. Heck, when I run Star Wars, having an opening crawl and Star Wars themed music takes you halfway there.

With TOR though, I feel like so much can be done. I have several ideas on this, but I've yet to try anything. I've listed my ideas below and I'd love to know what you think will work and what you think won't. Have you tried any of these things? How did it go. Do you have any ideas of your own?

• music - you could easily have a whole thread on this. I've purchased all the soundtracks for The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies (minus The Battle of the Five Armies)

• maps - I want some larger maps for the players and maybe even the table could be be a large map of Middle Earth. Maybe a tapestry?

• props - Elvish rings, notes on old paper, Thorin's key?

• lighting - I think if it is done well and subtly, lighting can have a huge effect on games. I always wanted some sort of realistic torches powered by led

• food - have it in wooden bowls/plates with metal steins. I always wanted a set of Dwarven steins.

Anyone have other ideas?

[Stormcrow]

music - you could easily have a whole thread on this. I've purchased all the soundtracks for The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies (minus The Battle of the Five Armies)

I personally find music during a game distracting. But lots of gamers like it.

lighting - I think if it is done well and subtly, lighting can have a huge effect on games. I always wanted some sort of realistic torches powered by led

You end up squinting, trying to make out your notes or books.

food - have it in wooden bowls/plates with metal steins. I always wanted a set of Dwarven steins.

I tried something like this once. The players nearly revolted, not being allowed to shove their hands into crinkly plastic bags and having to pour their drinks into cups. If you're going to do this, make sure before the game that all your players are willing to participate in the atmosphere you're trying to create.

[kdresser]

I recommend sound effects over music. Like swamp or snowstorm background noise. You can find a lot of that stuff online.

I also like images of current scenery and creatures as a visual aid to help players visualize.

[Kirppu]

I tried props like a wooden table with goblets and wooden bowls etc once, it worked really well. I dont want to have to do it every week and anyway we play through roll20 now we are all allegedly adults.

On roll20 I like to have a period of easing into game mode by chatting and socialising about real life stuff for a bit. During that bit I used to have intro atmosphere music softly in the background, again it went down well. Usually during play the music is off though with occasional sound effects if needed.

I have done aged maps and the like, and again my players have tended towards liking that kind of thing. I think really its down to personal taste like many things relating to gaming. Some players find certain things distracting and others relish the same thing.

Edit - Replica swords were distracting though, Ive just remembered! Yeah keep those away from players! I seem to remember a big iron Key on the table for decorative purposes, I wish I still had that, no idea where it went.

[Majestic]

I always put on appropriate music, and feel it adds tremendously to the atmosphere. But make sure it's down fairly low, so that it doesn't make people difficult to be heard over.

[Rich H]

I've tried numerous things including music (at low volume) and slide shows on the TV of appropriate art. They are all a bit gimmicky in my experience.

One of the most effective ways of maintaining and building atmosphere is to keep players engaged and the best way of doing this is not to have any distractions at the table; so, tablets turned off and mobile phones on silent, thanks.

[Glorelendil]

Have your neighbor come knock on the door halfway through the game, acting all scared and describing how earlier in the day a man dressed in black came by looking for you...

[Falenthal]

I've never managed to get it right with the music or sound effects. I *think* it can help if done properly, but if I have to take care of changing tracks depending on the situation, it is an extra effort for me. And if I let a soundtrack play on the background, it sometimes gets too high, sometimes too low or sometimes it doesn't fit the atmosphere of the moment: an elven Lament starts the moment the group enters the tavern, or a hobbitesque fanfarre sounds when Ghosts rise from the ground at nightcamp .

I also prefer for people to be able to see their character sheets, maps, etc properly, so dim light doesn't work for me (maybe if I was playing Vampire I'd do that).

Only thing I use is to look for drawins and illustrations of people, enemies, scenes, places, etc that illustrate what the players have found or whom they're meeting with. I have them in my tablet, for example, and can easily create a folder with the ones I'll use for that adventure, ordered by order of appareance. I just show them the picture when describing the situation, and then keep the tablet away from the table.
When using the published adventures, that already have illustrations for them, it's an easy task to collect them.

[Definitelynotheaps]

72 cans of Carling eh Mica?

[Majestic]

I've never managed to get it right with the music or sound effects. I *think* it can help if done properly, but if I have to take care of changing tracks depending on the situation, it is an extra effort for me. And if I let a soundtrack play on the background, it sometimes gets too high, sometimes too low or sometimes it doesn't fit the atmosphere of the moment: an elven Lament starts the moment the group enters the tavern, or a hobbitesque fanfarre sounds when Ghosts rise from the ground at nightcamp

This can be a problem, so what I've done is get a 6-disc CD player (which in general are getting rarer and harder to find), which is hooked into my surround sound system. I then put in six discs (in this case, one each for each of the LotR and Hobbit movies) and then I put it on 'random', so it bounces around. It is uncanny how often the music syncs up appropriately (and sometimes the players will comment), but there is the problem you mention, of completely inappropriate music at a crucial juncture. When that happens, I simply hit the 'next' button on the small remote that I keep at the table, and it solves the problem instantly!