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 is built.
- 🎪 Bardic Tools IRL at UK Games Expo!
- 🎠Dev Update: Tests!
- 🥹 Personal Update: Big News.
Collab with Tom Cartos: Enter The Lagoon Palace
I said it before, and I'll say it again: One of the coolest parts of building Bardic Tools is getting to meet amazing creators in the TTRPG community.
And I have to say, Tom Cartos is pretty amazing. He's a masterful fantasy cartographer, creating super detailed maps for your campaigns. And his maps are really cool, but you know what's coolest?
They're customizable.
He publishes unfurnished maps and furniture packs, so that you can customize the rooms to fit whatever shenanigans are going on in your particular campaign. This aligns so well with the Bardic Tools philosophy around resources for TTRPGs:
- Have 30 seconds and need something quick? Grab a full, multi-level map from Tom and a premade scene from Bardic Tools. Boom! Good to go.
- Want to hand-craft the perfect experience for your table? The unfurnished maps and the Bardic Tools Library allow you to spend as much time as you want getting the scene just right!
Anyway, I'm rambling. That's not why I brought Tom up.
He's releasing a new map pack of The Lagoon Palace, a mysterious, dangerous place set deep in the jungle, beside a waterfall.
And wouldn't you know it, we have made scenes for it!
Tom and I have collaborated in crafting soundscapes to bring this place to life, through immersive sound to complement his gorgeous maps. I'll be honest, it was a lot of fun to chat about what kinds of animals there would be inside the palace (spoilers: There are snakes).
Learn more at bardic.tools/tomcartos, get the map on Tom's Patreon, or check out www.tomcartos.com for all things Tom!
For now, I'll just leave you with this:
Do you dare enter the Jungle?
If you can brave the wilderness, you might make it to the palace.
If you enter the palace, Queen Salmissra might grant you audience.
If she likes you, you might even survive.
Creepy.
Again, you can get the map here.
Moving on!
Artist Spotlight: Alexander Nakarada
I have to admit: It's taken me too long to sing the praises for Alexander Nakarada. I'll talk about his music first, but stick around 'till the end if you want to know why Bardic Tools would probably not exist without Alex's generosity.
So, Alex does everything.
Want an epic track for a final boss fight?
A lively song to dance by the bonfire?
A funny track to break the tension after a session having dinner with the BBEG?
More funny?
MORE FUNNY?
You get the gist. He's got a sound for most occasions, and in so many styles! I particularly like his viking-style songs, they evoke big, remote mountains full of deadly, natural beauty.
Close your eyes, listen to this, and tell me if it doesn't transport you to the top of a snowy cliff, overlooking a raging sea:
I also love, love his heavy metal tracks. Most of them are too niche to be in The Library, but you bet I'm building a secret playlist for a Mad Max-style adventure in Avernus!
I'm talking a lot about Alex's work, but you know the funniest thing? You've probably already listened to lots of his tracks! His work is heavily featured in the YouTube sound library, and many creators use them!
In fact, that's how I discovered his work: YouTube.
His work takes a significant portion of The Library, and I've still only looked to about 2/3 of his collection! This man is a beast.
You can find more of his works in his website, Spotify, and YouTube.
Alright, now for the story I promised.
Very early in Bardic Tools, there was no Library. I had the nice, drag-and-drop UI that suited me fine, but the early feedback was definitive -- If I wanted the app to be useful for anyone, it needed to add music to it.
I spent so much time searching composers and sending them emails, to see if we could come to an agreement about how to use their music. For more than a month, I only got back silence.
Enter: Alex.
On a rainy day, in Nottingham, UK, I got one of the happiest emails I've ever gotten: Not only did Alex agree to let me use his music, but he liked the project, and was excited to try it!
As we've already talked about, Alex has an incredibly broad collection. And here he was, allowing me to use his music! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect outcome.
After this, The Library went from being a pipe dream, to a very real possibility. He was one of the first people to believe in the project and collaborate with me.
So, if you're reading this, thank you very much, Alexander. And, for the rest of you, I'll leave his links again:
Only a fraction of his huge collection is in The Library, so there's tons to discover! Most of the songs are free to download, with extended paid options only if you really need them.
Next!
Bardic Tools Live at the UK Games Expo!
Last year, we set up a booth at the Rift Faire, a local mini-con for independent TTRPG creators. We put in a lot of effort in the booth, but it paid off in spades! Everyone had a great time, and we were able to build on the amazing decoration of The Arcanist to immerse everyone trying out Bardic Tools.
We want to go bigger.
The UK Games Expo is the biggest board game and TTRPG convention in the UK. It's... really big. As in "you couldn't see all of it if you tried" big.
And we're going to be there!
I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that the booth is going to be like nothing else in the convention. If we can pull it off, it'll be an amazing, immersive experience for folks to try Bardic Tools in the coolest setting possible.
That's where most of our March (and February) has gone-- trying to pull it off. Turns out that shipping furniture to a convention and making sure everything is on time is not trivial, and there are so many little things that have to be in place.
But it's going to be worth it! I'm so excited to see the booth assembled in the convention, and be able to show it to people.
So, if you're coming to UKGE, please say hi! We'll be on Hall 3, stand 3-367.
Moving on!
Dev Update: Playwright Tests!
In the previous newsletter, I said that I wanted to focus on making the app stable for a little bit.
Well, as part of that effort, I decided to learn about automated browser testing. You see, as Bardic Tools grows in features, it becomes harder and harder to test all of it, in every browser, before releasing a new version. As a result, sometimes I fix something on Firefox, only to break it on Safari in subtle ways.
I don't want that to be the case (and I'm sure neither do you).
So, I've spent a considerable amount of time learning about Playwright, a fantastic piece of technology that will run automated tests in every browser. With it, I can write tests like: "when you open the library and click on 'Music', you should only see the songs tagged with 'Music'".
It's a little time-consuming to write these tests, but it's worth it tenfold! I hope that, with them, I'll be able to ship more features for Bardic Tools, faster, and with more confidence.
Enough nitty-gritty. Next!
The Big News
You may have noticed that this newsletter doesn't include any new features. Yes, there is a lot of exciting stuff going on with BT, but not nearly as much as you or I would like.
That's mostly down to me: I work a full time job, and some months it gets very busy.
So...
I don't work a full time job anymore.
Yup.
Tuesday, April 15th was my last day at the company I was working at. I resigned to do Bardic Tools full-time.
It's... scary, not going to lie! Bardic Tools doesn't cover my bills yet (not even close). I have a limited amount of money, roughly a year's worth of expenses, that I'm ready to burn on this crazy adventure. While that lasts, I'll do everything in my power to make Bardic Tools awesome.
This is also incredibly exciting!
There are so many things that I want to do with Bardic Tools, that might not be possible without a big leap like this (VTT integration, I'm looking at you). But now, hopefully, I'll have enough time to truly build the best tool for audio in TTRPGs.
This is all thanks to you. Your support and enthusiasm gave me the wings to take this mighty leap, and the confidence that I can build something that is useful and valuable to people.
What will the future hold for Bardic Tools? I don't know, but it sure is exciting!
Thank you for reading,
- Borja