[MNBlockHead]

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.