Bardic Tools Update - September 2026
You have heard of legendary Faerûn wizard Elminster, but have you heard of his Spanish cousin, El Míster? He's not as famous. And also not a wizard. He must be more of a cleric, actually, now that I think about it, because his owlbear paella is divine.
bad-dum tss.
Hey how are you doing. I'm Borja, and in case you're new here, this isn't the weirdest way we've opened the Bardic Tools newsletter.
Actually, speaking of wizards. Did you know that another famous wizard reeeeally loved his dogs? Like, to an unhealthy degree. Almost like they were his family. Almost like they were... More-than-canines.
(Mordenkainen? Get it?)
bad-dum tss.
And Tash-a good set of jokes!
That Joke Made You Take Sanity Damage?
Well, why not pair that with these new sounds we've added to The Library! We've been working on a Starter Kit for Edge of Night, the Call of Cthulhu beginner box.
While the scenes are not quite done yet, I wanted to give you a tour of the more than 20 brand-new sounds we've added.
It's raining cats and dogs outside...
... so we better stay in, let the hours go by...
... so why don't you pull up a seat...
... and let me tell you a story.
It begins, in a hospital.
With an old man, who was very ill...
You like it? I think they came out great! You can find the new sounds under the Cthulhu tab in The Library!
Other Sounds
Besides this Eldritch cacophony, we have a few more sounds that users have requested! They are:
- Heartbeat (Clear and Muffled)
- Thud
- Sword Being Drawn
- Ghost Arrow Being Fired (very specific that one, hope we nailed it!)
Thank you for suggesting sounds! If you suggested one, but it's not here, fear not! I haven't forgotten, we're just at capacity with creating new sounds, so it may take some time! If you need it for an upcoming campaign, let me know!
But what if we already have the sound you want, you just haven't found it yet? Until now, sounds were very difficult to discover in The Library.
No more!
Introducing: (Experimental) Smart Search!
It is so experimental in fact, that I haven't settled on that name. So please forgive me if I slip and call it "Magic Search" or "Semantic Search". It all means the same thing:
You can now describe what you want in English, and we'll try to match it to sounds in The Library.
Here's a quick video on how to get started:
Some important points:
- It works even with new sounds that you upload. No need to do anything. However, a sound with a name that matches the contents will be easier to find.
- The music never leaves Bardic Tools servers. Nothing is shipped to places like OpenAI or Anthropic or whatever.
- Credit where credit is due: This is not my idea. As far as I can tell, dScryb were the first to implement this type of search that mixes audio and text. I use the same techniques they mention in the article (though, the actual implementations can be wildly different!).
- The search is still very experimental! I've added these thumbs up and thumbs down buttons to the cards, so that you can leave feedback on which results are useful, and which aren't! The more data I have, the better results I can give in the future! (And don't worry, clicking on a thumbs-up or -down won't hide the song in future searches or anything. It's just feedback for that one search)
Try it out, and let me know what you think!
Artist Spotlight: Chloe Mandel
This is a bit of an oddball shoutout, but I hope you can forgive me because she's so damn cool.
Today we're shining a spotlight on Chloe Mandel! She's an excellent writer, that has just put her first book up for preorder:
Now, why are we shouting out a writer, in a newsletter about a music app? Good question!
Chloe is a very close friend of mine. So close, in fact, that we've been playing D&D together forever! She played in my Curse of Strahd campaign for the whole 4 years it lasted. And, while we were playing, she started compiling the story from her character Nohvan's perspective. She noted it down in a journal style, and let me read it as it went. It was a privilege to see the character evolve in response to the story we were creating. It was also wonderful to giggle in secret whenever I read Nohvan fall straight into one of my traps, and think "oh my sweet Summer child. If only you knew what fresh hell awaits you in 3 sessions." As a GM, you gotta take the little pleasures when they come.
When the campaign ended and the party-- wait, I'm not going to tell you what the party did. It has nothing to do with the Curse of Strahd manual, we went very off the rails, so I don't want to spoil the surprise.
Anyway, when the campaign ended, Chloe took all her notes and journal entries and spent years editing, revising and rewriting it into a cohesive series of novels. And Curse of Nohvan is the result!
Now. I'm not allowed to read it until it's out (I want to be surprised myself), but I did read the early versions of the journal, as it was being recorded, and even those were very well written, extremely funny, and hard to put down. I've already preordered my copy, and here's the link in case you want to do the same:
GM Tips From The Community!
Yes that's right, we're reviving this segment! Just as I was drafting this newsletter, new Discord member @TingTong dropped this banger in the DM Tips channel:
Use Per-Character (Musical) Themes
As TingTong says, this is something videogames do all the time. They'll have a piece of a melody, maybe even 4 or 5 notes, that always plays in some form or another when a character is on screen, or about to come. Quick! What movie (and characters within that movie) is this piece of music associated with?
If Gandalf, or Aragorn, or Frodo popped into your head, you're right! This is the "Fellowship" music. This melody pops up whenever they do something... fellow-y. In musical theater, this is called a motif. Over time, your players will associate that melody with that character, and that's when you can start having some fun.
TingTong follows this topic with:
I recommend selecting classical music when possible for this, since it makes it easier to find different versions of the same song. This is a major priority, since you want to tie the NPC to a single unchanging melody while preparing a variant of the theme for future use.
And it makes sense, right? If your players associate "this melody" with "this character", then the context of the melody (the instruments, how fast or slow it's played) gets associated with the context of the character.A
Perhaps you intend to have an NPC turn into a twist villain/boss battle later down the line. In that case, you could give them a distinctive relaxed single-instrument soundtrack to connect that character to safety. If you like, you can manipulate the track in audacity to change the pitch or speed of the track.
See what happens when we add horns and faint drums, to the Fellowship theme:
Or when we slow right down, after Boromir dies:
So that's a motif, and how to use it. But how do we translate it from movies and videogames, to things like D&D where we have to react quickly? TingTong again with the save:
At the same time, select another version of the same track that feels more chaotic or moving, perhaps with more instruments or different instruments altogether. Once again, you could manipulate this in audacity to really amplify the weight of the change.
Now, you have two tracks; an "inactive" and an "active" version. Every time the players visit the NPC, play the track's inactive version. Over time, your players should come to intuitively associate the track with the NPC. The more playtime it gets, the better.
Later in the game, when the big twist or betrayal hits, you play the active version. If you've given the inactive version enough playtime, your players will recognize the track, making the change feel even more distinctive.
Through this technique, you can subtly prove that a twist has been planned in advance, amplify the emotional weight of a significant moment, and create distinctive motifs that make your NPCs more memorable.
There you go! Have a couple of variations of a track ready, and have fun messing with your players!
Oh, one more tip I'll add myself: You can play the motif even when the NPC is not there, just to put your players on edge, or to plant suspicion in them. Used sparingly, it can lead to some really cool "wait a minute..." moments.
All sound bites from this section are from this fantastic article: https://www.woodzie.org/lotr/
Personal Update
I don't have much to say here. I'm extremely busy with freelance work and wedding preparations.
So, instead of prattling on, I'll leave you with this silly video Nayla took of me:
I tried watching it. Didn't make it to the end.
But thank you for making it to the end of the newsletter! Let me know whether you made it to the end of the video before the cringe was too much!
May your rolls be epic,
~ Borja