Discord Archives - The Virtual DM

In last week’s article, I discussed how you can add music and sound effects to your RPG virtual tabletop sessions. This week, I am going to discuss how to play music and sound effects on Discord along with your regular voice chat.

As you can probably guess, I use Discord as my voice chat of choice for my RPG virtual tabletop sessions. I am happy with the results, and more importantly, my group is happy with the results as well.

Now I am a bit of an old school guy when it comes to audio, so I haven’t yet gotten into the use of Discord Bots for music and sound effects. I have read lots of great reviews on their use, so I do plan to try them at some point. This will be more for curiosity than necessity, but I am a “give-it-try” kind of person when it comes to new technology.

So, without further ado, here the current setup that I run on my PC.

My Music and Sound Effects Setup

The signal chain for my current Discord setup is as follows:

Source → Virtual Audio Cable → Input Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Output Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Virtual Audio Cable → Input Channel on Discord.

Output Channel on Discord → Virtual Audio Cable → Input Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Output Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Headphones

Here is some additional detail on the various components:

My Sources

• Channel 1 > Microphone. I am currently using an old Samson CO1U USB microphone that I have been using for over ten years. It is a great microphone, but I use it now more out of nostalgia than anything else. There are lots of great USB microphones available these days. I would suggest looking at Blue’s lineup including the Blue Yeti, and Blue Snowball. I own a Blue Yeti, and it sounds great. My brother just purchased a Blue Snowball, and it sounds great.

• Channel 2 > Syrinscape. I will begin by saying that I LOVE this application. The quality and variety of music and sound effects make it worth every copper piece. This channel of Syrinscape is triggered from inside of Fantasy Grounds using the Dulux-OZ DOE: Sound Extension. This extension is no longer available which is a shame. There are two new updated options available from the DMs Guild which I plan to switch to in the coming months as they make things much easier than the DOE: Sound Extension. The first is the Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Sound Links extension, and the second is the Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Sound Chat Triggers.

• Channel 3 > Chrome browser where I have Tabletop Audio, Ambient Mixer, YouTube, and Spotify loaded on various tabs depending on my music and sound effect requirements for the session.

• Channel 4 > I use this channel for a line-in from my iPad. I run the iPad primarily to access my iTunes music library as iTunes is a big resource drain on my PC. I also use this channel for Jingle Pallete when I need it.

• Channel 5 > Input from Discord. This is the voice chat coming from my players during our session. It is very nice having this on a separate channel as it allows me to easily turn the player’s voice chat up or down.

• Virtual Channel 1 > Audio for my auxiliary PCs. In addition to my main PC, I run two additional PCs. One for recording/streaming, and the other for my session notes and reference material. Yes, this is a luxury, but I had the PCs available.

• Virtual Channel 2 > Audio for my Local PC. It is great having the audio from my local PC on a separate channel as it allows me to mute it during our sessions so that no unexpected computer-related sounds play.

My Virtual Audio Cables

To get the various sources that I use routed to the correct inputs on the audio mixer requires the use of virtual audio cables. I have been using the Voicemeeter VB-Cables for some time, but I have recently added in the Muzychenko Virtual Audio Cables. The Muxychenko Virtual Audio Cables are pretty much the grandfather of all virtual audio cables, so the technology is very solid. These virtual audio cables allow you to use up to 256 cables which makes it very easy to configure different applications to use a different virtual audio cable.

My Audio Mixer Application

The most important part of my music and sound effects setup is the use of an audio mixer application. My current product of choice is the Voicemeeter Potato Ultimate Mixer. It is an incredible little audio mixer and one that I have enjoyed using. The “Potato” has 8 inputs and 8 outputs which gives you an incredible amount of flexibility in your setup.

My Voice Chat – Discord

The final part of this setup is Discord itself. I use Discord because it is an easy product to understand, has a great support community, and gives me easy access to other Dungeons and Dragons and RPG Virtual Tabletop communities on their servers. I hear lots of great things about other voice chat options such as Team Speak, Mumble, and Overtone, but I am going to stick with Discord. It is a bonus that they have now nicely integrated video chat as well.

Using Music and Sound Effect in Your RPG Virtual Tabletop Sessions

My main RPG virtual tabletop is Fantasy Grounds, and I REALLY love it. Unfortunately, Fantasy Grounds does not have a building audio player like Roll20 or Astral. Luckily, there are some great options to work around this, and I believe that the end product is even better. I have had great success in using my above-mentioned setup so far. I am a huge fan of how using music and sound effects can help to pull your players into the moment and the story. But it must be done right. The technology must add to the experience instead of getting in the way. I have never felt that this current setup has ever done that.

How do you deliver music and sound effects to your RPG virtual tabletop sessions? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading.

EDIT: I now have a video available that explains step-by-step how to get the above setup working on your PC. I have changed my configuration a little since this article. I will update the article as soon as I can. In the meantime, check out “How to Add Your Voice, Sound FX and Music to Discord and Zoom“.

I will begin by saying that I believe that playing tabletop RPGs online has gotten very accessible, very affordable and very easy. The abundance of video/voice chat services, online tools and virtual tabletops mean that you can create a gaming environment that is as good as, if not better than, sitting around a physical table. Now I know that I am a little bias in this area, as I truly enjoy DMing on a virtual tabletop, but it really can be a fantastic experience.

With the recent isolation caused by the virus pandemic throughout the world, I have noticed lots of discussion on how to play tabletop RPGs online. In this article, I will take you through some options to help you get started.

A Simple Start

If your chosen RPG and gaming method does not require map and token use, you can get yourself started very quickly and easily. You will most likely just require a voice chat service, a dice roller, and possibility, a way to share files.

There are plenty of voice chat services out there, but the one that I would recommend is Discord. I recommend it for three reasons. It is easy to set up, it works well, and it is free. Those are three really good reasons to use it. Get started using Discord. As a bonus, Discord has a text chat feature that will allow you to speak directly to all or just one of the group. Learn how to send a private message.

For most RPGs, you will need to roll dice to determine the outcomes of situations in your game. I know that some folks like to roll their own dice and let the group know the results. If you would prefer to use virtual dice, there is no shortage of options. Just do a Google search for virtual or online dice, and there will be pages to choose from. One virtual dice option that I think is a good choice is Roll Dice with Friends. This site allows everyone to join a single room and see each other’s rolls. This removes the possibility of “fudging” the results and allows for an instant reaction from the group. Get started using Roll Dice with Friends.

At some point, you will likely need to share a file of some type with the group; be it a map, an image, a note or similar. If you are using Discord, this is as easy as dragging the file into the text chat window. This will allow everyone to access it.

Discord | Roll Dice with Friends | Zoom | Skype | World Anvil | Kanka | Fantasy Grounds | Roll20

Adding to the Experience

Now that you have a start, let’s look at some of the additions you can add to your online tabletop experience.

The first option is to add a video chat service. Once again, there are plenty of options available, but I would suggest using one of these two popular free video conferencing options. They are Zoom and Skype. Both services are simple to set up and simple to use. As a bonus, these options have text chat, file sharing, and screen sharing. Get started using Zoom. Get started using Skype.

The next option is to start using an online campaign manager. These services allow you to create the campaign components you need such as maps, images, NPCs, storylines, character sheets, ETC. You get your players to log into the campaign manager then share the campaign components as they are revealed during gameplay. There are lots of choices in this area as well, but I will warn you that there is a steep learning curve with most of these options. Two of the best that I have used are World Anvil and Kanka. World Anvil is considerably more complex than Kanka, but they both have their place depending on how you want to use them. Although it is not a quick or easy addition to your online RPG play, it can greatly add to the experience once you get the hang of it. Get started using World Anvil. Get started using Kanka.

The final option is to move into a virtual tabletop. This is the granddaddy option for playing tabletop RPGs online. Sometimes referred to as VTTs, virtual tabletops give you everything you could need to play your favourite RPG online. Features include map views with moveable tokens, image sharing, character sheets, virtual dice, and built-in compendiums and modules. Some virtual tabletops include audio/video/text chat services, music/sound effects players and map builders as well. Like campaign managers, these have a steep learning curve. Know that once you get the hang of it, you will wonder why you tried to play RPGs online without one. The two giants in the RPG virtual tabletop world right now are Fantasy Grounds and Roll20. I wrote an article comparing the two that you can read here. Get started with Fantasy Grounds. Get started with Roll20.

So there you have it, everything you need to start playing your favourite RPGs online. Give it a try. I know that you will love it.

Discord

How to Play Music and Sound Effects on Discord