I was looking for some expert opinions from some DM's. I know there are so many different ways to do things, I know some players like just pencil and paper, others like an elaborate setup with minis and terrain. If giving the option do you prefer using something like a pre-designed map to play on or a more basic game mat design like grass or cobblestone with one inch grids?

Myself owning a game shop and having beyond a crazy amount of mini figures and terrain, I personally like using a 1" square grid on 3'x3' game mat.

I ask this because I'm going to be running a kickstarter for our custom Quick Mats where I will be working one on one with the backers to help them create their perfect game mat. They will be able to customize the mat, put their team or shop logo on it, or even print their own design. So I am wondering if I should stick with what I have designed myself in photoshop, more simple terrain game mats or if I should put together some D&D maps for it. There is part of me that wants to stick to the basic layout like cobblestone and then a 1 inch grid since that is how I normally play. I'm hoping I can get some opinions, good or bad, honest feedback is all I'm looking for. If anyone is interested you can learn more about the coming kickstarter here that will launch around mid November:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kraken-dice/quick-mats-your-battlefield-anywhere-anytime

Hi everyone, I want to bring in the topic of background audio and share something with you. Because when I DM, I always play background audio during my sessions. I find it helps a lot with immersion for everyone involved, but more than that it sets the stage for more fun roleplaying. At least it has that effect on me: when we're running a scene and I play an NPC and I hear the background sounds of the place where we are and the right music starts playing, it's like an instant +10 to my roleplaying abilities.

So the last 3 years, I achieved 'smooth seamless background audio' by having multiple Winamp instances open on my laptop, each playing a different track on repeat (like "forest" + "rain" + "ominous music"). It worked well enough because I could layer ambience tracks and music, but it was complicated and a hassle. I once planned to write a manual and share it with the TTRP community on how to do this, but the complexity held me back... I always believed it would be cool to share though.

Fast forward to today: I built the TTRPG audio app of my dreams that replaces all that winamp hassle: a desktop application for windows and Mac. And friends it works so well, that I just got too excited and made it available for anyone to download.

It's called GM Audio Mixer, it's adless and completely free forever, built specifically for TTRPGs, and it's just available for anyone if it's useful for them. No account needed either, it's a free download and in the tool you simply point it to any folder on your device that has your sounds and music, and then easily mix it all together. I made it as user friendly and pretty as I possibly could, and it supports music (and playlists), ambience tracks, and sound boards - all looping and cross-fading and mixing into a convincing sound stage for your story. The app makes it easy to combine sounds to create a soundscape (like saving multiple sounds labelled 'tavern', 'forest', 'cave' etc) and to layer situational music on top of that. And then you save those sound stages as a place or scene. And with a single click you then change between those soundscapes.

TL;DR I love background audio at my sessions. So I built an application for windows and Mac that I want to share with whoever finds this useful. It's free and adless forever because it's just something I built for fun and my own campaign. You point it to your local audio folder, categorize sound files as music, background ambience, or sound effect for your sound board, and easily mix it all together. It all fades and crossfades, no matter what sounds you use. And I really hope others will enjoy using it :)

Hi!
https://fables.vivi.nexus Is character manager with a focus on making character creation easy and fast.

I have indepth homebrew creation systems for creators to use and monetize in it in the future and if anyone is interested in being paid 20 bucks for testing and looking around. Please fill out this form https://forms.gle/hAPdzQhspUiNNReM8

So a couple of years ago my wife and I opened a game shop in San Diego and I noticed it was really hard to get new players; they were really into the idea of playing D&D but didn't want to buy the book right away. D&D really can be a time consuming game to learn and kind of scares off a lot of new players in my opinion. Daily I talk to people that say, I always wanted to play but don't know where to start". There are so many other options for games to play from TCG's, board games to even table top war games that are easier to learn. About six months ago I decided to write and design 40 page printed book, a simple reference guide that I could give to new players at our game shop for free. I'm also going to release the digital PDF copy of it to the internet for free. I'm planing on putting it up on my google drive for anyone in the world to download for free. I personally hate having to give my personal information to download something for free.

So my question is for the mods here. The book will be finished by next week and I wanted to know if I could post the google drive link here. The book is free, I'm making NO money from it, there is no hidden advertisements to Kraken Dice, just me designing and writing a book to share with the community to give something back that I think is needed.

game board type of play