Bardic Tools Update - July 2026

Yes, hello, fellow flesh-beings! I too am in possession of the squishy parts, and therefore am part of your species friend group! Pleased to make your acquain-- Sorry, the AI bots get between the cracks sometimes. He's gone now, we can talk like people :D Anyway, how is

Bardic Tools Update - June 2026

Lend me your ear, and I'll make you chuckle. I turned 31 last weekend. Not only that, it makes around a year that I decided to go out on my own as a freelancer. As with any milestones in any person's life, this is a time

Bardic Tools Update - May 2026

HP is red, mana is blue, I'm happier than a goblin, when I work on Bardic Tools. * Yours Truly, a.k.a. Borja "Shakespeare byt make it Kvothe" Lorente It's been almost a month since I resumed active development on Bardic Tools, and two

Bardic Tools Update - April 2026

In the words of Vecna, the immortal lich who haunts games all across the Forgotten Realms and beyond... We are so back Hello everyone, this is Borja, and contrary to what the Discord suggests, I'm not dead. Although I kind of feel like it. It's been

Bardic Tools Update - January 2026

Hello, and happy trip around the Sun! I wasn't sure I was going to have time to write this update, but I woke up really early today, so here we are! I'm happy to say that, while I haven't been able to do much

Bardic Tools Update - 2026 Plans

Hello, folks! This month I bring you a slightly different update. But before... Have you noticed how you can be "disheveled", but not "sheveled", or "eveled"? Also, if being "disgruntled" is definitely bad, is being "gruntled" a good thing? It

Bardic Tools Update - October 2025

Gooooooooooooooooooo-- See, here's the thing about the English language. Until you get to the end of that word, you don't know whether you should pronounce it as a very long "Go", or a very long "Good". Isn't that weird? This

Bardic Tools Update - September 2025

Greetings, Chosen of the Fracture. It's me again. Hope you're having a magical Autumn, full of steaming drinks and just-warm-enough blankets. Or lots of sun and beach if you're living on the other end of the globe :D How was your month? My September

Prepping For A Session With Bardic Tools - By Unknown Peal

Borja's Note: This was written by Unknown Peal, a community member who kindly documented his experiences using Bardic Tools for their games. I'm eternally grateful to them, hope it's useful for you! Ambience is a pretty big part of cultivating an atmosphere, a mystique

Bardic Tools Update - July 2025

Hey folks! Borja here, coming from once-again-rainy London. After the sweltering July, everything is right again in Old Blighty. I honestly thought this month was going to be quiet, and that nothing much would happen in Bardic Tools. I was wrong. So wrong. Here's the tea: * Two new

Bardic Tools Update - May & June 2025

Hey folks! Borja here, coming from sunny London (I know, I can't believe it either. It's currently 33 Celsius). After a long recovery from the UK Games Expo, I'm so back and ready to share the exciting things that have been happening. In this

Bardic Tools Update - March & April 2025

Hello folks! Borja here. I apologize for the late update, but very exciting things happened in April, and I decided to bundle them all in a big ol' newsletter. In this update: * 🧭 Collaboration with Tom Cartos: Enter the Lagoon Palace. * 🎵 Alexander Nakarada is the foundation upon which The Library

Bardic Tools Update - February 2025

Hello, hello! Borja here. February has (luckily) been a bit more quiet than last month. No big, dramatic announcement removing 1/3 of The Library. Sorry! But that doesn't mean I've been idle! In this update: * ✨ Shiny new tutorial! * 🎵 RPG Audio Vault is great and you

Bardic Tools Update - January 2025

Hey! Borja here. I hope you've had a great start to 2025. It's been an... interesting couple of months, hasn't it? In this email: * How is The Library doing? (spoilers: Very well 🚀 ) * New scenes by an awesome community member. * The most requested feature is

Unfortunate News for Bardic Tools

Hello folks! I have unfortunate news. As you may know, a lot of the sound effects from The Library come from Pixabay, a repository of sounds. It has recently come to my attention that Bardic Tools may be in breach of their Licensing agreement. I thought I understood the licensing

New Calculator! Skill Check DC Creator

Hey! Borja here. Thank you for signing up to learn about new DM tools! Just an FYI, I've just released a new calculator: A Skill Check DC Creator. As a DM, I want to present challenges to my players. I want control over how much or how little

Bardic Tools Update - November 2024

Borja here. Another month, another batch of really cool stuff to share with you! I've added amazing new features (thank you everyone in the Discord for your inspiration bardic.tools/discord!), and I'm so happy to announce our first partnership with a D&D publisher!

The Bloodwood Beckons: A Chilling Collaboration with Crow and Crown

We are beyond excited to share some epic news: Bardic Tools is teaming up with the talented storytellers at Crow and Crown, creators of premium 5e adventures, to bring their immersive campaign, Bloodwood, to life like never before! The Bloodwood Comes Alive In this collaboration, we’ve crafted five fully

How To Redeem A Bardic Tools Gift Card

Congratulations! Someone just gifted you a subscription to Bardic Tools. Perhaps one of your players is expressing their gratitude. Perhaps your DM is sending you a signal to maybe try your hand at it. Whatever it is, you are now seeing a screen like this: What do you with it?

Bardic Tools Update - October 2024

Hey folks! Borja here. It's been a full few months of exciting developments in Bardic Tools. With the feedback from our wonderful Discord (https://bardic.tools/discord), Bardic Tools is really shaping up to be the sleekest, easiest to use TTRPG soundboard out there. So, what's

Sound For DMs 102 - Find Music That Doesn't Suck

Hi! I'm Borja, I've been DMing for 4 years, and in this series of articles I want to share the keys that have leveled up how I use sound in my games. If you're a DM and are not sure how to introduce sound

Sound For DMs 101 - RPG Sound is Like Being a Master Chef Contestant

Hi! I'm Borja, I've been DMing for 4 years, and in this series of articles I want to share the keys that have leveled up the sound in my games. If you're a DM and are not sure how to introduce sound into your

New Composers! New Scenes! New Features! Oh, my!

Hello! It's been a busy few days! Unfortunately, this week I've started at my new full time job, so I haven't had as much time as I'd like to work on Bardic Tools. But don't despair! I still have a

Your Boss Fights Are Tiny Stories

This is going to be a living article. I will keep adding to it and refining it as I develop this idea further. I love "The Monsters Know What They're Doing", by Keith Ammann. I love it because it gives a relatively static piece of text

I Put a Bloodborne Fight in My Curse of Strahd Campaign

Don't worry, everybody survived... at least eventually. Let me explain. While DMing our Curse of Strahd campaign I discovered that nothing evokes real, actual horror like a fight with a boss that (1) you don't think you can escape, and (2) you're pretty sure