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 here.
• Francis Bonin is amazing and we should all use his songs in our games (and now you can!).

"Dear Library... How Are You Doing?"

I'm sure you have read my previous email, about The Library. TL;DR: I misunderstood the Pixabay license terms, and as a result I had to remove 93 sounds from The Library (mostly sound effects), as well as remove all premade scenes.

That's not ideal.

However! Hope is not lost!

Over the last week or so, I've been hard at work. Through a combination of finding talented artists, scouring the internets, and learning to do some sound effects myself, I've added 164 new sounds to The Library.

That's almost double what we lost.

They're higher quality too, with most of the lost sound effects being replaced with professionally-made assets (more on that later), and tons of new epic music loops added.

So, I'm beyond happy to say: The Library is back 🎉, and stronger than ever.

One more good thing that came from this: I met some very talented SFX artists, that are willing to create custom sounds for us. So, if you have a sound request, just click "reply" and let me know!

Oh, and I've also re-enabled scenes. There's only four for now, but know that I'm actively working on re-examining each one of them, both to remove Pixabay sounds, and to make sure they make full use of the new sounds. They're better than ever.

A reminder: You can still claim this code to get three months free, on me: https://bardic.tools/gift/LIBRARY.

It'll be active until February 28th. You should use it.

Thank you for your patience through this whole ordeal. Now let's stop beating this dead Kobold and move on.

Speaking of scenes...

New Scenes! Brought To You By Not-Me!

So, community member @Kris and I have been chatting about Bardic Tools and other things for a while. One day, he expressed interest in collaborating on making Bardic Tools better. Of course, I couldn't be more stoked. Before this whole Pixabay thing, I asked him to design two scenes of his choosing to put in The Library, and boy-oh-boy did he deliver.

Listen to this beauty:

I don't think my recording does it justice, you'll have to check it out for yourself.

The gorgeous scenes he created are based on Pathfinder 2nd Edition's intro adventure:

They're available right now. Kris has been an absolute pleasure to work with, even through (especially through) the Pixabay thing, and I can't wait to collaborate more in the future.

By the way--did you know that he's just launched a supplement for GMs? It contains a ton of items for your players to find in their games (and for you to get lost in while prepping your sessions, the book is so damned beautiful).

He didn't ask me to say this, but this book is the culmination of a ton of love and care, and I think it deserves the loudest of shoutouts.

Check it out here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/508929/kris-s-compendium-of-trade-goods

Oh and did I mention that he's an artist as well? Look at this cool rework he did of our frontpage illustration!

Right! What next?

New Features!

It's been a while, and tons of little features and tweaks have happened to Bardic Tools.

Too many to mention, actually. You'll have to go to the Discord for an up-to-date list.

Anyway, here's the important bit:

The Library Got A Facelift

Late 2024, I had a problem: You folks were suggesting a lot of cool features. Far too many. So many in fact, that they literally didn't fit in The Library. Like, physically.

So I did what any sane person would do, and rewrote the entire thing. It now sits at the bottom half of the screen, with tons of glorious space for the features we've planned (don't worry, if you liked the portrait layout, it's still here):

In addition to looking spiffy as all heck, if I do say so myself, I've changed a bunch of things behind the scenes to allow me to add features so much faster.

In fact, here's one! You can now upload sounds to The Library directly! You can even change their names:

I've also improved a hundred tiny usability details on the way. See if you can spot them all.

That's it for The Library. I really want to thank the Discord community of Bardic Tools for looking at early designs, suggesting feedback, and in general being awesome at helping me make Bardic Tools more awesome.

Right! What next?

Artist Spotlight: Francis Bonin is an amazing composer and not enough people know that

I thought I'd bring some attention to the amazing artists I've discovered during this whole Bardic Tools adventure.

I found Francis on Spotify last autumn, while I was searching to Fantasy music to listen to while I work... since then I've listened to it so much that my Spotify wrapped called me out on it.

Think about it.

Think about how much I have to listen to someone so that 3 months outweigh the other 9.

All of this is to say: Francis Bonin is an undiscovered gem. He produces music that is perfect for any kind of fantasy TTRPG. Just listen to this track:

This track, to use current words, slaps.

Not only because it's epic (so epic!), but it also maintains perfectly the core principle of TTRPG music: Don't distract the players.

Notice how the intensity is the same through the whole track?

Notice how, the the first time you hear it, you hear all these little cool details, but then the more you listen to it, the more it kind of blends together, and the only thing that leaves is just the strong, consistent epic emotion, without any of the ups and downs of, say, Two Steps from Hell?

Notice how IT LOOPS PERFECTLY?

This track slaps so hard.

And he's got plenty of styles as well! Listen to this one:

That's why it fills me with so much joy to announce that the entire (current) discography of Francis Bonin is available in Bardic Tools.

Not only is he a great musician, but he's also a very kind person. We chatted, and he agreed on a collaboration with BT. As a result, you can use all the music he has out today, in your games, from Bardic Tools.

And you should because, I can't stress this enough, it slaps.

I'm beyond excited for this. Look forward to plenty of his tracks in the new scenes.

If you want to support this amazing musician to keep producing music, please check out his Bandcamp. He's just released an album full of calm night ambiences called "Nightfall".

https://francisbonin.bandcamp.com/

I listened to it yesterday while I was adding his songs to The Library, and guess what?

It slaps.

That's It!

I'm... honestly a little bit tired and delirious, if you couldn't tell. So, if you'll excuse me, I'll just curl up with this blanket to sip hot chocolate and do some cross-stitching while we watch some Elden Ring lore videos.

Here's to a 2025 filled with critical successes.

Thank you for reading. Your continued support makes all of this worthwhile.

• Borja