Game Masters iPad app update

We’re pleased to announce that version 2.3 of our Game Masters Collection app for the iPad is now available at the Apple Store.  The new version includes in-app purchase access to several of our recent soundpacks, including:

 

Eldritch Horror: Cult Ceremonies is a collection of 9 different mystical cult ceremonies. Now you can let your players hear that pesky cult eagerly summoning their icky dark lord to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world.

Fantasy: Dragons: a collection of 20 growls, hisses, roars and breath attacks. Now you can let your players hear one of the most iconic creatures of the fantasy genre!

Fantasy: Traps: a collection of eleven sinister traps for you to install into you perilous fantasy campaigns.

Horror #2 – EVP: Electronic Voice Phenomena. These mysterious recordings are believed by some to represent the voices of the dead. Now Toxic Bag introduces a collection of creepy EVP phrases for you to use in your modern horror game.

Sci-Fi: Blasters & Deflector Shields: a collection of 16 energy weapons and shields for you to equip your party as they enter your Galactic Sci-Fi Operas.

 

Changes and fixes –
Optimized for iOS 7.
Changed the iPhone main view to a tableview menu.
Fixed scrubber to resize properly after rotating.
Resized main tableview icons to line up the text.
Cleaned up the startup screens.
Cleaned up actions when app goes into background.
Added a microphone access request for iOS 7 devices.

 

The Game Masters app is a free download; additional sounds are available via in-app purchase.

New sounds: Drones and Atmospherics

We have a new soundpack! Drones and Atmospherics Volume One consists of two six-minute ambient drone sounds that GMs can use to underscore unsettling, creepy or otherwise dramatic scenes in their adventures. You can hear and download our new drones at toxicbag.com or drivethrurpg.com.

A blasted heath. An alien planet. Cyberspace. A distant moon orbiting a dead world. The End of Time.

Sometimes you don’t need a specific ambience. Sometimes you just want there to be something…ambient. A background, an atmosphere, a drone.

Whether you’re running a horror campaign, sci-fi opera, fantasy epic or anything in between, the Drones and Atmospherics series gives you a variety of creepy, mysterious sounds to underscore your most unsettling locations.  Each drone is six minutes long. We’ve given them names, because “Drone 1” and “Drone 2” wouldn’t be very evocative. But don’t just take our titles as gospel – use them for whatever you like!

Drones & Atmospherics Volume One includes two six-minute creepy mood-setting drones.

Haunted Drone: an electronic hum supports random bursts of mystic energy that drift back and forth across an unearthly abyss.

The Ruins Drone: A wasted land? A devastated planet? The slow song of a dead people drifts across the shattered sky.

Game Masters Collection CD Clearance

Have you been wanting to pick up our critically-acclaimed Game Masters Collection sound effects for role playing, but couldn’t quite scare up the extra dough? We feel your pain, and due to tight space in our warehouse you’re in luck. We’ve got a limited supply of Game Masters (and BATTLES) compact discs left in stock, and we’re blowing them out at $1.50 per disc. The Game Masters Complete Collection –over 200 sounds on 4 CDs– is available for $5.00! While supplies last; we won’t be re-pressing these CDs, so get them while you can!

Volume One: The Twentieth Century CD: $1.50
Volume Two: Monsters CD: $1.50
Volume Three: Fantasy CD: $1.50
Volume Four: Strange Places CD: $1.50
The Game Masters Complete Collection 4-CD set: $5.00

“Are you one of those DMs who can mimic a fabulous array of voices and make convincing sound effects during the game? Me, neither. For those of us with a limited vocal range, Toxic Bag Productions has come to the rescue with a series of sound effects for your roleplaying campaign.”
–Dragon #284

“The discs feed the imagination by providing the auditory equivalent of flavor text, those long passages of description found in almost every Dungeons & Dragons module. The Game Masters Collection …provide[s] GMs with just the right sound for just the right moment. Diehard game masters…are going to love this collection.” –Kenneth Newquist, Scifi.com

“A pretty creepy collection…made the hair on my neck stand on end…a must have!” –Brian’s Small Press Picks, Knights of the Dinner Table

Battles CD: $1.50

“While I’ve obviously never been in the middle of a sword and sorcery melee or a Civil War battle, [BATTLES] sounds pretty much like I imagine it would.” –Kenneth Newquist, Nuketown

“One of the best…BATTLES is a top notch game aid. This one CD has so many uses, it’s really a shame not to own it.” –Brian’s Small Press Picks, Knights of the Dinner Table

“…all the war ambience you need.” –Sorting the Loot, Nodwick

*prices apply to physical CDs only. Downloads are still at the regular price.

New Soundpack: Dragons

Our new soundpack, Fantasy: Dragons is now available for download! Continuing in the proud tradition of our Game Masters Collection “Fantasy” sounds, we’re offering 20 dragon vocalizations and breath attacks for 99¢.

Sounds include:

• Dragon breathes fire
• Dragon breathes ice
• Ancient Dragon guards its treasure
• 16 assorted hisses, snarls, roars and growls

You can buy “Fantasy: Dragons” at toxicbag.com or DrivethruRPG.

Xmas in July sale at DriveThruRPG

Time for a sale! This week, Toxic Bag products at DrivethruRPG will be 25% off!

The 2012 X-Mas in July Sale at DrivethruRPG will start 7/23 at 10am and run until 7/30 at 10am.

Battles- individual track downloads

Battles is our collection of combat sound scenes featuring the sounds of the American Civil War, World War Two, a Fantasy battle against an Orc army, and a Science Fiction battle with space marines and robots. Originally, Battles was available as a single CD or download.

But wait, you say. I only play D&D. I only need the Fantasy battle, and will likely never use the other three. Or, I’d love the Sci-Fi battle to run while I’m playing Warhammer, but have no need for the Fantasy or historical scenes.

We’ve got you covered. All four of the battles are now available for individual download from Drivethrurpg.com, so if you only need the American Civil War battle, you can just grab that one!

Fantasy
American Civil War
World War Two
Science Fiction

They’ll soon be available from toxicbag.com as well!

Downloadable December: sounds sale

Happy Holidays! During December, all of our downloadable sound effects collections* are 20% off.

The Game Masters Complete Collection reg. $29.99 now $23.99
Individual Game Masters and Battles volumes reg. $9.99 now $7.99
Soundpacks reg. 99¢ now 79¢

* does not include physical product or individual track downloads

New Soundpack: Traps!

This month’s soundpack is a great collection of vicious traps for your Fantasy campaigns. The Fantasy: Traps soundpack includes 11 trap sounds:

• Room Trap – Stone Walls Compact: Sealed inside a stone chamber, the walls begin inching closer. One thing is clear–the party is going to be a lot taller.
• Room Trap – Short fall: A classic trap door leading to a nine foot drop onto a hard stone floor.
• Room Trap – Short fall into spike pit: This trap opens above a bunch of spikes…shish kebab anyone?
• Room Trap – Fall into liquid: This trap starts with a 35 foot drop into a body of liquid. What kind of liquid and what’s in it, we leave up to you…and say, is that a giant fin???
• Room Trap – Fall into Monster pit: As if falling 9 feet and landing in a heap wasn’t bad enough, now there is a large beastie joining the party for lunch. Ooops! We meant to say “eating” instead of “joining.”
• Room Trap – Ceiling collapses: First you stick them in a dank, dark cave. Second, you seal the tunnel exit. And C, now it appears that the ceiling is coming down! Talk about a lousy afternoon.
• Chest Trap – Acid spray: The good news is, the party just found a treasure chest. The bad news is, that “runny” nose the elf just got is not from a cold…
• Floor Trap – Crossbow bolt fired: A stone pressure plate fires a crossbow bolt into the room. Perfect for temple defense!
• Floor Trap – Multiple Crossbow bolts fired: The same as above, but with many, many bolts being fired. Just let them try to steal the idol now!
• Trap Trigger – Stone: Just like it says – a stone trigger you can use for any trap you want!
• Trap Trigger – Latch: Same as the stone trigger, but this time it’s a metal latch. Enjoy!

In usual Toxic Bag fashion, we’ve left off the “result” part of many of these traps. Who knows? Your players might just get out of them alive! Fantasy: Traps is available now at DriveThruRPG for 99¢.

Also, be sure to grab our Free Sound for this month. It’s another nasty Trap – the Bottomless pit!

Toxic Bag at I-Con 2011

This weekend, Sept. 10-11, 2011, we’ll be attending the I-Con Game Fair in Springfield, IL. In addition to being at our vendor booth from time to time, we’ll also be running demos of our new board game, Space Monster. We hope to see you there!

5 more suggestions for using sound in your role-playing game

Here’s a follow-up from last week’s post about using sound in your RPG. This batch of suggestions comes from Steve.

1) Use your sounds to keep the game moving forward. I know it’s role playing, and the players love to make a fancy plan every time, but really, do they think that the pack of skeletons that just charged into the cave are gonna wait while the party huddles up and draws a play in the dirt? No, and you shouldn’t either! Playing the skeleton screech to signal that the fight is on can keep the action moving. Side note: our 5-minute “Self-Destruct Sequence” track from the Strange Places disc was conceived specifically for this purpose. They say they’re gonna blow up the ship on a 5-minute timer, give ‘em exactly 5 minutes to figure out their escape.

2) Don’t be afraid to replay your sounds. Gaming tables are noisy places, and some of the more subtle things can be missed. It’s not unreasonable to replay a sound (particularly the shorter ones) a time or two. On the other hand, if your party is just too noisy to hear that group of Deep Ones waddling up behind them…too bad for them.

3) Deception is key. Throughout the game, randomly take each player aside and let them listen to a sound in the headphones. These sounds can have little or nothing to do with the story (the wind blowing, or a coyote howling in the distance). This way they can grow accustomed to the headphones, but they will think that the soundfiles are just going to be a small part of the game. Then you can hit one of the players with the ghostly message or dream sequence and blow their minds – kinda like it would do in real life!

4) Volume is your friend. Beasties have indoor voices too, so don’t be afraid to play the quiet parts quiet and the loud parts loud.

5) Have fun with it. Remember, this is your story. You’re the one who spent the last few months crafting it. The soundfiles are just another tool to help you tell it. Not every sound will work exactly like you imagined it would. (in this regard they’re just like any other prop, supplement, old yellowed photo, ancient document…) All you can do is enjoy the sounds that worked well, and learn from the ones that don’t for next time.

For over 200 sounds to use in your RPG, go to toxicbag.com.