Portable speakers for Adventure Guides
The speakers fit easily in my gaming case.
The adventure I’m currently working on—The House of Lisport—has a couple of short audio files among the props I’m making for it. Nothing special, but they should make the adventure more fun. The problem is, how to play them? Managing a stereo remote and a CD, or getting up and walking over to the stereo, does not make the adventure more fun.
Enter portable speakers designed for MP3 players. I bought these Logitech speakers for traveling, but the moment I unpacked them and plugged them in, I realized they were perfect for tabletop gaming.
These aren’t the only option. There are a whole bunch of really nice, inexpensive (around $20) portable speaker systems. I chose the mm28 over the more beautiful Audio Source DB5 speakers because they were somewhat less expensive, and because they came with an AC power adaptor.
The mm28 box claims a whopping “over 45 hours” of battery life; it takes four AA batteries. I haven’t had the opportunity to test that yet. But it definitely works for game purposes, and it has a plastic shield for its speakers to keep them safe from cheese and tomato sauce (the plastic cover is really meant to be used as a stand, mind you).
It turns an iPod or other MP3 player into a game accessory, as long as the player has a 3.5mm input jack. All I have to do on my old 1G Shuffle is make sure my game tracks are at the beginning of the playlist, and triple-click the play button to move to the beginning when I’m ready to play them.
Sound quality, at least at the levels needed for tabletop gaming, is great. It’s very clear even at very low volumes. It also maintains clarity even at very high volumes—volumes higher than I’d normally want to use in my apartment.
It’s a very simple setup. There are no volume controls: volume is controlled through the MP3 player. It has an on/off button, and it turns itself off after about eight minutes of inactivity. Note that some people have had problems with the auto shut-off feature when listening at low volume or to quiet passages of music.
Owning this makes me want to add a soundtrack to my next adventure!
- The House of Lisport
- “Melly Lisport took an axe, and gave her mother forty wacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.”
- Logitech mm28 Portable Speakers
- These portable speakers easily fit inside whatever you carry your gaming books in, and play for hours—or even days—on a single set of batteries.
- Audio Source DB5 Portable Powered Speaker System
- These speakers look like a beautiful addition to any nicely-designed MP3 players.
More gaming tools
- Constructing encounter tables using Nisus
- Here’s a Nisus Writer macro that makes it a little easier to create encounter tables.
- How to use hex maps
- Rob Conley describes the benefits and tricks of using hex maps.
- Online die roller
- In need of a quick die roll to pass the time? Look no further!
- New character sheets, maps, and reference sheets
- The character sheets and reference sheets have been converted to Scribus, and new map grids are availble in Inkscape. All are also made available as PDF files.
- Cover image source files
- Today’s release of The Vale of the Azure Sun includes the Persistence of Vision scene files necessary to create the cover.
- Nine more pages with the topic gaming tools, and other related pages