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Pro RPG Audio: Steampunk Zeppelin
Publisher: Plate Mail Games
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/29/2014 12:47:28

I'm not altogether sure how you'd know this soundscape was supposed to evoke a zeppelin if not for the title. But maybe that's actually a strength in this case, because it means that the loop isn't locked into just one use. There is a steady background thrum that does sound vaguely like a propellor; otherwise, the ambience consists mainly of ticking clockworks. That makes it useful for many different types of situations where the adventures are in or near any number of clockwork contraptions. (If you're not familiar with this series of background loops, be forewarned that by design there is no music here, just sound effects.) Finally, a quick proofreading note to Plate Mail Games, the "P" in "steampunk" shouldn't be capitalized.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Pro RPG Audio: Steampunk Zeppelin
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Abandoned Carnival - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/22/2014 12:37:58

A noticeable but unobtrusive sound of wind, as if from a fan, sits at the base of this track, as it does so often when Gil Luna wants to convey a sense of abandonment or desolation. The sounds of creaking metal and rhythmic thumps suggest the “carnival” atmosphere. I was already “primed” to envision a carnival by the title, but those sounds really do make me think of an empty roller coaster, Ferris wheel, or similar ride—empty and stuck in an endless loop. Which means there’s either live electricity or some kind of mystical motive force around here somewhere. Soundscapes like this one inspire me to want to set RPG encounters in the locations they suggest, thereby earning my highest ratings.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Abandoned Carnival - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Ghost Town - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/22/2014 12:26:12

What would you expect a ghost town to sound like? Wouldn’t it be practically silent, since it has been abandoned? This track somehow manages to make that desolation audible. The track consists essentially of the dull sound of a constant wind, lightly accented with an occasional low “thrum” or breathy “moan” and crackly/chittery sound that makes me think of tumbleweeds, but that’s probably the track name imposing itself on my imagination. It’s spooky and nonintrusive, setting the mood without drawing attention to itself.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Ghost Town   - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Haunted Forest - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/22/2014 11:21:45

This track should probably bear the title “Outdoors in a Thunderstorm” instead of “Haunted Forest.” The cries of ravens (or a similar bird) punctuate the sounds of a thunderstorm throughout the soundscape. Only the ravens, though, imply any kind of “haunting” or, for that matter, any kind of “forest.” This could just as easily be a thunderstorm in a prairie wheatfield. If you’re looking for sounds of ghosts or spirits or whatever, look elsewhere. But if you reframe your expectations, you can put this track to great effect under a scene where travelers are caught in a thunderstorm in a desolate area frequented mostly by scavenger birds.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Haunted Forest   - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Zombie Lab Outbreak - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/20/2014 16:20:21

I’m really not much into zombies, but I could definitely imagine using this track during an RPG where zombies, genetically-engineered monstrosities, overly intelligent chimpanzees, or whatever escape from a high-security biocontainment facility. Any kind of modern horror game might find a use for this soundscape. Be forewarned, though: it’s noisy. A claxon sounds throughout, glass shatters, trapped people (?) pound on metal doors, and the zombies or demons (Buffy) or whatevers occasionally growl, grunt, or screech. The screams are presumably the zombies’ victims. I think there are even some fire extinguishers being fired off about halfway through. But that’s what happens in a zombie lab outbreak, isn’t it? One relatively minor technical complaint: the track name was encoded in the MP3 as “ZedLabOutbreak” rather than “Zombie Lab Outbreak.”



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Zombie Lab Outbreak - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Haunted Mansion - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/20/2014 16:05:54

It’s raining when you enter this haunted mansion, judging by the crashes of lightning. Breathy sounds, spooky near-voices, creaky floorboards, rattling chains, and a scream or two punctuate the rain. The track is great for any haunted house scene. That scream I mentioned keeps it from being near-perfect, though. Distracting and it might come at just the wrong time at the gaming table. Otherwise, fantastic.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Haunted Mansion   - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Evil Laboratory - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/20/2014 15:56:26

Get your Frankenstein on with this well-crafted soundscape! From the opening crash of lightning through the heavy footfalls (is that Igor or the monster?), arcs of electricity climbing parallel electrodes, and strange breathy noises, you’ll find yourself in the titular “evil laboratory.” The mad scientist may have stepped out of the room for a moment, but he left plenty of equipment and maybe one or two of his experiments behind. Great mood-setter.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Evil Laboratory   - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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City in Ruin (modern) - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/20/2014 14:47:00

This track consists mainly of a dull roar, like the sound of a fan or a heavy, steady wind, along with rainfall. If it’s raining in the city by the bay (a hard rain), this is a good soundscape for your scene. Especially if the city is pretty much abandoned, or as title says “in ruins,” since there is no sound of any other activity. This city is not a post-apocalyptic population center, but a bombed-out husk of its former self. The track is good for what it does; it meets its goal but doesn’t inspire.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
City in Ruin (modern) - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Riot! - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/19/2014 00:05:26

Guns and screams, screams and guns, plus the occasional scream, shattering of a window, and that sort of thing. Whether the PCs are trying to bring down the government, squelch the uprising, or just get off the blood-soaked streets, this track can provide an appropriate background. It is maybe a bit intrusive and slightly hard on the ears, so you might not want to have it running too long, or you may want to keep the volume fairly low. In any case, it will do its job nicely if you take steps to keep it in the background.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Riot! - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Abandoned Building - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/18/2014 22:58:36

Maybe the recording level on this track is too low, or maybe I have my volume turned down to low, but this track boils down to near-silence punctuated by footsteps and the occasional slamming door. I won’t say that it’s useless, but I can say that it doesn’t do much for me. I cannot really see myself using this track. But please don’t let that reflect poorly on Gil’s work in general; I really like most Ambient Environments offerings.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Abandoned Building - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Creator Reply:
Thanks Chris. I\'ll review this track and see if I can resolve the level issues. ~g
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City Under Martial Law - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/18/2014 22:51:28

I normally love Gil Luna’s soundscapes, but this one commits what to me is a cardinal sin of RPG background tracks: it features recognizable speech. Thematically, it fits; you have a guy giving commands to a distressed town through a bullhorn. But this invites players to pay more attention to the background track, so that they can understand the words he’s saying, distracting them from the actual gaming scene at hand. And this is otherwise a very noisy track, too, as would be quite expected with a rioting crowd, sirens, even gunfire. The soundscape is of high quality and fits its title very well (although the sirens put me more in mind of a police crackdown than a military takeover), but I think it would be too distracting in actual play.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
City Under Martial Law - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Apocalyptic Sewer - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/18/2014 22:43:06

The water in this apocalyptic sewer runs pretty rapidly, it seems—or else the dripping water sounds almost like a heavy rain. I almost expect a canoe to come floating down the corridor. I think I hear rats scrabbling around, and maybe something even more threatening. The track is skillfully executed, but I have a slight concern that it might be too distracting. A GM using this soundscape should keep that in mind and monitor the volume carefully. But other than that, it’s got a wide range of applications, and would work just fine not only in the post-apocalyptic setting suggested in the title, but in any adventure that takes the characters into the sewers.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Apocalyptic Sewer - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Radioactive Wasteland - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/18/2014 22:25:57

Bleak, depressing, godforsaken—that’s what I expect from a “radioactive wasteland,” and that’s what I got from this track. I picture this playing under a scene like, say, the one where Charlton Heston discovers the bomb-worshiping cult in “Beneath the Planet of the Apes.” Although the name suggests a post-apocalyptic setting, there’s no overt technology level embedded in the track except for a crackling that I associate with a Geiger counter, so I could even imagine this being used for visiting a mad scientist’s lab in a Cthulhu game.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Radioactive Wasteland   - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Summoning Circle (encounter) - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/13/2014 17:55:00

I like most of the "Adventurer's Soundtrack" pieces quite a lot—but not this one. Part of the reason is just that the track implies too much of a storyline that might fit poorly with the pacing of a summoning scene during gameplay. A larger part of the reason is all the screaming in the first half of the track, and the very quiet chanting about 3/4 of the way through. The ups and downs in the volume and "body" of the piece draw attention to themselves, at least for me, and this diminishes the track's usefulness as RPG background music.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Summoning Circle (encounter) - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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Elven City (with music) - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
Publisher: Ambient Environments
by Chris H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/13/2014 17:43:47

The musical line in this track has a peaceful, almost lullaby-like quality to it. The light and airy vocals and sounds of songbirds add beautifully to the ambience. The occasional sequences of more distinct dialogue in some kind of Elvish dialect, however, beckon listeners to try to focus on them and understand the words, which could be very distracting at the gaming table.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Elven City (with music)  - from the RPG & TableTop Audio Experts
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