Anyone using Syrinscape?
 

In today's monthly e-mail newsletter, RW announced they have a partnership with Syrinscape and will release an update after Gen Can that will allow you to play Syrinscape sounds from RW if you have Syrinscape installed on your computer:

While I'm not a fan adding more tech complexity to the table, I could see how GMs who already use soundscapes in their would find this handy. I a bought a canned adventure from the CM that used Syrinscape soundscapes, I could see giving it a whirl.

Listening to some of the Syrinscape samples, I have to say I could see using the musical background, but as high-quality as the sound effects are, I'm don't think that I would use the battle effects.

Anyone using Syrinscape right now at the table?

I've just started using Syrinscape. My Players aren't convinced yet, but I kinda like the ambient sounds...

Looking Forward to being able to add it to Realm Works. That will Speed up My GMing.

Not a fan of Syrinscape or really any sort of "ambient sound" stuff.

In our home games we sometimes play music, but quietly. For things like Syrinscape to work you have to turn the sound up much louder than I find comfortable in order for everyone to hear it. This will vary greatly between groups, locations, music/sfx choice, and sound hardware, but that's my experience.

Similarly, though, Syrinscape was used at one of the PFS Specials at last year's Gen Con and they had to turn it up so loud that it made it hard for people in the room to hear their GMs. (I asked around the next day and then back home about how the Special went and it was something that came up multiple times.)

So my advice is pretty simple: make sure it fits with your group before you commit too much time or money to it.

I don't think the volume should be turned up loud enough "to hear it". Keeping the volume low adds the sounds as a general background feeling to the room to subtly influence the players, rather than expecting them to actively listen to the sounds.

I've tried syrinscape, I'm not convinced.
While it's doing its job, I find the sound packages to be quite expensive.

Especially regarding free alternatives like tabletopaudio.

Maybe the full integration of synrinscape in RW will make it worth.

I like that LWD is moving forward with integrating outside applications with RW. I'm hoping this is their proof of concept and that they start to extend to VTT's and other much more useful applications soon.

On topic, at $6.50/month or $5-$20/pack Syrinscape is IMNSHO a ridiculously pricey add-on.... The interface looks strong. And their pending SoundSet creator appears to allow use of external sound files which may make this more appealing depending on what the pricing will be. I wish them luck but I think they are pricing themselves out of existence.

I'm confident that if I made the investment into quality speakers, properly located around the game room, I could get a good, audible sound that isn't distracting. I would never try to use it in a convention, large open room, etc. But in my gaming area, it wouldn't be too hard to rig something up that works. I just need to determine if spending the money is worth it.

I don't think that the cost is that terrible. I'm impressed with the quality and it isn't cheap to create near-theatrical quality soundscapes. If I gamed enough, and if the variety of soundscapes are large enough, and if the quality is consistent, I don't think that $6.50/mo. is terrible.

But I am still skeptical for two reasons:

1. It is another thing to manage. I have to remember to trigger the sounds at the right time. It is another application that has to be open on my computer during the game. I fear it would inject too much fiddling with technology at the table and become more of a distraction than a mood builder. For it to work for me, there would need to be an ability to automatcially trigger the sounds. E.g. I open an adventure area or scene topic in RW and a sound scape automatically starts playing. That would be pretty cool. It'll be interesting to see how the integration with RW works.

2. My biggest concern is that it is trying to turn table-top RPG into an IRL video game. I would rather use my imagination. For example, I was listing to Syrinscape's free Bugbear Battle. It was good quality, but it isn't really how I heard bugbears in my head. There is nothing wrong with Syrinscape's interpretation. It was well done...but it took away my freedom to imagine the sounds for myself.

That said, music can powerfully influence our moods and I do think that well-selected background music could really add to the game. But I would probably pass on the battle sounds and vocalizations. I certainly would not use the spell sounds. I have enough work to do managing battles in a game to not want to worry about hitting the fireball spell sound every time one is cast. Even if I could assign that duty to a player to act as the game DJ, I think—for me—it would detract more than add to the game.

Still, I'm interested in seeing how RW includes designs this functionality. I never planned to share maps and use Fog of World at the game table when I bought realm works, but now I use it at every game.

The integration (looking at the current version of Syrinscape) lets you create a link that is like clicking a button in the Syrinscape application. So while it works a little quirky behind the scenes (described below), at a minimum all LWD has to do is allow the Syrinscape URI schemes and it would work. (If I were using it, though, I'd hope for something with a button.)


The way Syrinscape implemented it is based on a custom URI scheme and a watched folder. Here's a sample link:

If you have Syrinscape Fantasy Player installed and you pasted that into Internet Explorer, IE would (after a bunch of warning dialogs) fire up an application that removes the scheme, writes the rest to a temp file in a watched folder, and starts Syrinscape Fantasy. The Syrinscape app then reads that file, starts the linked asset, and deletes the temp file.

You could sidestep it if you wanted, but since you can't identify anything by name anyway (you can't say 'play "set=Witchwood" item="Raining Again"' or "syrinscape-fantasy:play//Witchwood/Raining%20Again/") you might as well let their app write the file for you.

Since my players are all loud enough on their own to drown out a horde of crying babies on an airplane, I'm pretty sure that I won't be using it either. Neat idea though, but it's just not for me.

Okay, I'll be perfectly honest and say that my first reaction to that sentence in the email was:

They're talking about limited coding resources, and too much to do, and they spend time adding hooks for an uber-expensive soundboard thingy that I'd be amazed if 1% of their users will use?

There are so many major features that are incomplete and they are announcing this.

Sorry, I felt that this was totally tone-deaf to the community and a bit of a kick in the ass.

I've resigned myself to sitting and waiting for this program to be more useful, but that caused my expectations to take a step backwards, not forwards.