Microphone etiquette

When chatting with people through a headset, whether it’s a group chat, a video-game or a D&D session, there are several things to take into consideration. This is a MUST in order to maintain a good feeling for everyone involved. If you are finding yourself frequently in such a situation, please, invest in at least decent equipment. Good headsets are expensive, but changing your microphone habits is free of charge. Here’s a couple of tips that you might not know of, that can improve the experience of chatting with you.

Plug in, THEN connect

This is a really, really small thing, but please, PLEASE, plug in your microphone and head-set BEFORE you connect to the group chat. Connecting to the chat before you plug your audio-set in, cause the audio to crackle and pop. Now, that might not sound bad when you’re reading it, but in this case, it’s usually right into people’s ears (as they, likely, are wearing headphones). The closest comparison is at a concert, where the guitarist plugs his guitar into the amplifier, but instead of the speakers, it is right into your headset.

Microphone distance

Microphone distance is the distance between your mouth and the microphone. Depending on the microphone type, this distance can make a big difference. If you’re using a headset with a microphone arm (that you slide down in front of your mouth), you can’t really do much about this, so look through the other tips here, and see if there’s something else that you can do. If you are using an ear-phone headset (typically like the ones that you get when you buy a new phone) this distance is crucial, as these microphones are typically not of that great quality, and aren’t really designed for much more than a short phone call. So if you’re looking to play a +3 hour D&D session, you might want to reconsider your choice of microphone (of course, if this is the only microphone that you have, then it is better than nothing). Ear-phone microphones are usually attached to your shirt with a clamp, this typically means that the microphone distance has limited edit-ability. A part of the microphone distance is also if there is anything between you and the microphone, this is often the case with ear-phone microphones, as cloth can fold and move and block sound-waves to the microphone.

If you are using a tri-pod microphone (or other self-standing microphone, that isn’t connected to your headphones/speakers) getting the right distance can be a little more tricky. Blue, the creator of the Yeti Microphone, generally advice you to be around 40 cm (15.7 inches) away from the microphone, but it can often be hard to maintain this range, if you are to sit/stand at the same distance for longer periods of time. This distance also depends on your general volume of speech. If you’re in doubt about this, try reading the same 5-10 lines of text at different distances and/or volumes. The right volume and distance can be a bit hard to determine, but if you have a way of listening back to what you just read out loud, for example an audio-recording program, you can test how you sound. A general rule of thumb is; if you think you’re too loud, others probably agree.

You can use Audacity, which you can download for free here: https://www.audacityteam.org/
if you don’t have an audio-recorder to sit in your current computer.

Behind the scenes

When we go behind the scenes, people use microphones in, roughly, two ways; push-to-talk and just leaving the microphone on the entire time. Whether you use either is completely up to you, both work just fine. Push-to-talk often requires you to set a specific button, which, when pressed turns access to the microphone on, and until you press that one button, your microphone is considered as “muted”. The other options means that you just have to keep quiet, and this tip is for those of you who does this, in particular.

Depending on the type of microphone you’re using, the microphone will have it’s own set sensitivity, typically the higher quality of microphone, the higher the sensitivity. A high sensitivity means that the microphone is great for speech or even music, as it makes your voice sound closer to “the real you”. This in turn also means that your microphone is surprisingly better at picking up noises, even if they aren’t that close to the microphone. Keep this in mind, if you have to do other stuff while in the chat. You microphone is on, so things like eating and drinking can, potentially be picked up. The common courtesy is to actively mute yourself, so that no unwanted sounds sneak into your important business meeting, or your DnD session. If the chat have got a text format as well, you can always excuse yourself. This of course requires some understanding of when to leave the chat; timing is key.

When to talk (and when NOT to)

In a group chat you are not alone, this means that knowing when to talk (and when not to talk) is alpha and omega. Some people can naturally go off and talk for hours on end, some people just love to hear themselves talk and some people can be quite shy. This is why most group chats have some kind of moderator or chat “leader” (in DnD, it SHOULD be the GM). If that person is you, try and give everyone room and time to talk, some shy people remain shy throughout the entire thing, while others may “warm up” and get more into it after a while. Also make sure to keep people on track.

If you feel that the chat moderator isn’t giving someone enough time to speak, let them know in private after, if the overheard person is going to appear in ongoing chats, it could be important to make them feel more comfortable. In the same turn, if you are the moderator, listen to the people taking part both before and after, and take their requests into consideration.

Behind the scenes, part 2

Almost none of the people you’ll meet, have the perfect background setting (like an audio recording studio), and expecting people to have the perfect background for recording is unreasonable. Many streamers (on Twitch, for example) have sound-proofed their walls, which can help with noise reduction from other sources (if you live in an apartment-complex, or have thin walls). This can however prove to be a rather expensive (and even unnecessary) upgrade, and as I started this post off with; changing your microphone habits is free, I will try and give recommendations that won’t cost you a dime.

There are however a couple of things that you can at least consider. You can’t change how you live, obviously, but you can take some steps towards making the ordeal less of a bother for everyone else. For example, if you live with room-mates or someone else, and they are present, you need to tell them to quiet down. The most obvious solution would be to have different rooms, preferably with doors that are at least somewhat sound-proof, but again that isn’t always an option. In that scenario having an agreement with your room-mate(s) can make it a much more agreeable time for everyone involved.

Another thing that you can do is, depending on where you live, making sure that you can block sounds coming from the outside. Some people live near a busy street, some in an area with lots of grass-mowers. These are amongst the most common background noises when chatting with other people. Notice that microphone quality comes into play here as well, a “good” microphone will have a higher sensitivity, and thus be able to pick more sounds up.

The Food & Drink issue

We all know the problem; you’re set for a, possibly, several hour long meeting via head-set, it goes through one of your regular scheduled meal-times. So what to do? In general, food and eating does not go well with using a microphone, in particular a tripod microphone with a sensitivity. Using push-to-talk can, in this instance, be a temporary solution, but try and keep your mouthfuls small. Or, ask if the meeting can take a short break (you probably won’t get the time to cook and dine, but it gives an opportunity for a light meal, like a sandwich), after all, the others taking part in the meeting are human too. Some people can eat silently, but not everyone has that gift. Unfortunately a lot of people are, rightly so, triggered (read, annoyed) by the sound of someone slurping or sloppy eating. As mentioned a couple of times now; remember to think of the other people that you’re chatting with.

Drinks are a bit of a grey area, because while it is admittedly easier to drink quietly, than eating most types of foods, it is generally advised to, if possible, keep it away from the microphone. Some people, again, just can’t take sustenance in a quiet manner.

Do you have advise or situations that you wish to share regarding chatting through microphones? Let me know.

Starting your custom DnD campaign – goblin encounters

For DM’s who wish for a smooth start to a new campaign

There’s nothing quite like starting up a new D&D campaign, getting together with new or old friends. But especially for new DM’s setting the balance for the difficulty of the first encounters, can be a bit tricky.

The classic starting foe, is to many campaigns, the regular Goblin. Please note that there’s nothing wrong with using the classic monsters, but to more experienced players, this choice might be a bit boring. As a DM, you are the one telling the story, whether that is an official Wizards of the Coast story, that have been told thousand of times before, or if it’s a custom campaign, where you’ve meticulously written down why birds fly and how grass is green. If a monster makes sense in regards to the story, then you can be pretty sure you won’t get many complaints.

But let’s take a closer look at why Goblins are a preferred foe to start with. First off, we’re looking at their Hit-Points (HP). Here the standard Goblin clocks in with 7 (as per standard Monster Manual). 7 HP is enough to survive a hit from most one-handed melee weapons and ranged weapons, and usually it’s enough to survive the starting cantrips as well. Already here, the Goblin is a good choice. Because while the players can see their attacks hit and do damage, the Goblin still provides enough of a challenge, that all enemies aren’t just one-shot-kills which would ruin most of the idea about an encounter.

Goblins are versatile in their standard choice of weaponry; a scimitar and shield for melee and a short-bow for ranged. Seeing as both of these weapons rely on the DEX modifier, Goblins have a +4 to hit. This is where Goblins are a bit of a handful, especially if the party is small, or doesn’t have more than one semi-tank character. While their damage output isn’t amazing, they more often than not, hit the target they are fighting.

When looking at a Goblin’s armor, it have a leather armor and a shield, totaling up to an AC of 15. Most magic users, bards and rogues are usually below this, at level 1. Here it’s important to notice that the Goblins, just like anyone else, requires two hands to use a short-bow. If the general rule is to be followed, this means that they cannot be using a shield effectively, while shooting or rather between shooting. As such a good balanced encounter with Goblins can go as following:

4 player characters (PCs)

4 Goblins

“Three Goblins have their scimitars at hand, two up front, ready to engage, one slightly behind, looking how the fight is turning. The fourth Goblin is even further back with it’s short-bow loaded.”

If the two in front engages, the third will likely have time to decide (through you as the DM) if he wants to get in close or begin to change weapons into a ranged. The ranged Goblins might have their shield on their backs, or right beside them, but they are not using it, so remember to remove 2 from their total AC, bringing them down to 13.

While the ranged Goblins might seem the bigger threat, because the party’s melee-focused characters can’t get to them straight away, the biggest threat to the players is actually in the Goblins that you decide go for melee. With the combination of an AC 15 and a +4 to hit, not even a Fighter in Chain-mail and a shield (for an effective 18 AC) can feel at ease. Whereto the lower AC of the ranged Goblins means that they can be taken down fairly quickly.

If you want to make a Goblin encounter harder, you can make use of the Goblins’ ability “Nimble Escape”, which allows them to not only disengage, but also to dash or hide, just the like the Rogue of the party would at level 2. This makes the ranged Goblins even more dangerous, as they can use the Hide action to essentially, unless in fully open terrain, vanish and make themselves a lot harder to hit.

World Building 1-0-1: Tiers of location-creation

An easy way

When making locations for your story, the balance between how much detail to put into each one, for the story to still flow naturally, can be a tricky obstacle. When I write, I consider all locations as part of a tier-based system.

Without thinking about it, you can end up with a lot of locations for a story. To some people, the amount of detail for each location comes naturally. But if that is not the case for you, here is the way I help myself when creating locations for a story.

First tier
Second tier
Third tier
Fourth tier
Fifth tier

Each location falls into one of these, making a note of how much detail I should pour into the description of each place. Even when I don’t know the name of a place yet, if I know what part of the story a location is going to be, I can start out by thinking it into the tier-system. Naturally the tier system is fluid, a location isn’t locked into a tier once placed; in fact, it often makes for a very good idea to have a location appear as being of minor importance at first, and then later on, move it up to another tier.

The tiers can also be used in a setting that isn’t made up, though obviously you need to keep the locations true to the reality of their original story.

First tier

As you can probably guess, the first tier is the most important one to the story. However this doesn’t mean that it is crowded with locations. First tier locations require as much detail as possible, the reader practically needs to, through your story, “live” in that location in that very moment. This means that the first tier locations can break the flow of the story entirely, something that’s normally considered as a “no-go” within writing, but do not be fooled; first tier locations requires attention when writing. Any lengthier story will have at least three first tier locations: The introduction, the point-of-no-return and the ending. Adding more can work, but you risk breaking the story where it should be flowing. A first tier location needs to not only tell the writer of the time of day (if relevant), small things like smells, how the air feels, sounds, anything. I will go as far as arguing that a first tier location can NEVER have too much detail.

A description of a first tier location needs to tell the reader the size of the location. You also need to convey lighting, smells, moisture, sounds, colours, plant-life, and the texture of surfaces.

Second tier

Second tier locations are similar to first tier locations, in that they need to be thoroughly described. However where first tier locations cannot have too much detail, the second tier can. As such it is important to consider the flow of the story, when plotting these locations down. They are still important to the story, but where first tier locations set the frame of the story, second tier locations works more like a helpful road-sign, leading the reader in the direction of the story, or telling the reader to stop and look in a different direction for a moment. Second tier locations can often be reoccurring in a story, this means that you don’t have to describe everything from the start. This can also help creating suspence in the story, by bringing the reader back to a place already known to them.

A second tier location needs to be immersive enough, to let the reader feel that this is important, but not so overly detailed, that the story comes to a complete halt. An example of a second tier location could be the police station in a detective story; a lot of time is spent in and around this place, but the story doesn’t start, end, or have the most important event in this location. The reader in this example needs to feel the bustle of a busy police station, through reading your story.

Second tier locations also include landmarks or other eye-catching details, even if they aren’t actually part of the story. This helps building the world up, giving the reader a momentary sense of immersion. In such moments, perspective is very important. Are you standing on a glass-framed balcony, looking out and down over a bristling night-time city, or are you walking along the pavement, shadowed by towering, grey skyscrapers on either side of the road.

Third tier

Depending on how you want to tell a story, chances are that the third tier locations are going to be the most numerous. Where both first and second tier locations aim to break, or slow, the story for the sake of immersion, third tier locations are there to move the story along. For this reason I like to nickname third tier locations as “transition locations”. A transition location’s most prominent detail is how long the story “moves” within it. Obviously the longer it takes to “move” through a location, the more details needs to be added to it’s description.

An example could be a long, tiled subway hallway below the streets of Berlin. A couple of the lights flicker unsteadily, and the clicking of the journalist’s high heels against the floor echo down, only to be cut of by the distant rumble of an arriving train. Her sweet-scented parfume mixes with the smell of old cigarette buds and dried urine. She quickens her pacing till she gets to the stairs leading down to the tracks, looking over her shoulder, she lets out a sigh of relief.

In the example used here, I’ve given the reader a vague idea of the location itself, without actually describing the location very much at all. Yet, hopefully, the reader gets the idea of being with this nondescript journalist, in this walkway tunnel leading down to a subway. So despite this being just a short example, we’ve still added immersion to it. If you add immersion to pieces like this, throughout the story, your reader will be more inclined to keep reading. Immersion is a word that you’ll find me mentioning a lot through my posts, because it, to me, is perhaps THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of any story.

Third tier locations also encompasses moving through a bland environment, regardless of it being a dark fir-tree forest, or a rainy day in a small outback town. Here the mayor part of the surrounding scene is non-descript, anything that stands out should be described, but in a way to fit the story’s pacing at that moment; are your characters walking through it slowly, trying to lose a persuer, or maybe slowly driving through at night? Obviously in night, or other darkened, situations, the description of light, if any, is of great importance.

Fourth tier

A fourth tier location is mostly undefined, it doesn’t play a major role in the story as a whole, but it is still being interacted with by characters or events in the story. A fourth tier location is the one location that can hold the smallest “area”. However, any fourth tier location must not be overly detailed, at least not if they are to remain a fourth tier location. Where a third tier location doesn’t break the pace of the story, it may alter the pacing slightly, only for the pacing to return to “normal” after the characters are done moving “through” it. In opposition to that, a fourth tier location should barely be noticed.

Fourth tier location includes furniture, doors, windows and so on. Where a nondescript door is just told as, example: “He nervously reloaded two slugs into his shotgun, and entered the house.” In this example the door may not be there at all, it doesn’t change the story or the scene, if there is a door or not. This is what I like to call a “negative location”. By this I’m refering to the fact that it’s a location that’s in “use” in the story, however as a reader we have absolutely no idea of the door’s condition, colour, or if there’s only some badly bent hinges left of it. Negative locations CAN be changed into a fourth tier location, but you should not see a negative location as a bad thing; it depends on the environment in which the location is taking place. Using the example from before, if the door looked like any other door, and there where several doors to chose from, you would need to describe how the character, in this case the man with the shotgun, chose that specific door. However, if the man with the shotgun is entering the only house for miles, it’s fairly obvious, and thus doesn’t need a description of the door. A negative location can be a good way of speeding the pace of the story up a bit; if you’re looking for a place to hide, your character probably won’t notice the colouring of a door. Of course, if you’re in a concrete basement, and there’s a long, straight walkway to a red fire-escape, it’s always a good idea to mention anything that would catch a person’s eye.

Typically, as a rule for fourth tier locations; you can see them, the level of interaction with them is minimal, and the amount of detail is thus limited.

Fifth tier

Obviously the fifth tier locations must be vague, as a fourth tier location can be as brief as a glance through a window. In fact, fifth tier locations aren’t even a part of the story at all. But still, a story without any fifth tier locations, would be hard to immerse yourself in. A fifth tier location is only mentioned in passing, and never more than that. So why even include it?

Well, fifth tier locations, just like the closer second and third tiers, helps with world building in the sense that it gives the reader a feeling of world’s overall size. Naturally, fifth tier locations in a story based in the real world, can easy throw the name of a city, country or even the ocean, into the story, without any characters ever actually going there. For example: “Carmen looked out through the scratched glass of her bus window; Boston looked no different through it, on this stormy Thursday in October. She thought about how her parents where doing back in New York.” In the example, New York is our fifth tier location. Despite even the name giving images in the mind of the reader, if the story never reaches New York, it serves as a fifth tier location. It gives us a sense of distance and time, which in turn helps to make the non-fictional world come to life in this fictional story.

If you’re dealing with a completely fictional setting, it can be a little harder to fully understand the “size” of your world. For example, would you be able to tell how far Pomfornob is away from Orchella Shore? Most likely not. Here it can help adding a little more detail. This can be done by having a character (or a sign-post) say that “Pomfornob is about six hours on horseback from Orchella Shore.” Even without putting numbers down, we’ve created an idea in the mind of a reader, about the distance between these two named locations.

But both of these examples have been with a fairly large, and rather distant locations. A fifth tier location can be, potentially, any space or area, as long as the story doesn’t actually enter them. Example: “Billy knows that the girls’ locker room is on the first floor of the dorm, but Billy never goes in there, and because Billy is a goldfish, he probably doesn’t fantasize about how it looks in there.” Here the locker room is the fifth tier location. To one of the girls in there, the fifth tier location could be one the lockers that isn’t her own. She knows of the locker, but not what it contains. And she was the one that messed up the girls’ cheerleading practice that day, so her thoughts aren’t going about what could be in that one locker, even if she have seen it.

So with these tiers of locations, you should be able to create your story in a way that immerses your readers as much as you want.