What about a Podcast of the fights?

Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:45 am

I know that at the FTF the fights are often read aloud. What if this was done online, with appropriate music and fanfare, sound effects, etc.?

I’d like to suggest an additional format — keep the mail-only turns, but offer a podcast of the fights. You know, with sound effects?? Have a radio announcer read the fights for the arena, have the sound of blades, panting, shuffling in the sand, oohs and aahs from the crowd, along with cheers and bloodthirsty comments (“Kill that louse! Stab him! Stab him!”) in the background. It would be very cool, and could be on-line prior to the mail getting to the players, but only (obviously) after the fights were run.

This would take a few bits of technology — mostly for the special effects, the sounds being layered so that they sound as if you were in the arena, and having some key bits — but I believe it’s a very good idea, and it would make all the fights a lot more interesting and (more importantly) bring in a huge new audience! Imagine hearing other fights being relayed to you — like listening to the radio back in the 30’s and 40’s.

You hear the announcer call out the fighters and their gear and their styles. You make notes and pay attention to their fight. You might run into them later! You pay special attention when YOUR guy comes up to bat. You hear the clang of weapons, shields, and the crowd! The sounds of certain wounds, the little mutterings and pantings from the gladiators…. it would be a VERY entertaining thing, and would probably take less than about two minutes for a one minute fight. For the longer, TP vs TP fights an announcer could come on in minute three and tell the audience that they went ahead and skipped on to minute 22… then read the last minute, along with plenty of cat-calls from the audience! The sounds of rotting vegetables and rancid meat chunks being thrown at the gladiators (with impact noise and grunts of pain from the gladiators) would also be appreciated.

Yeah, this idea has been percolating in my head for awhile. It doesn’t take a large investment (though some additional technology would be necessary) and it would take a good bit of prep. You’d need at least a dozen different voices, or five or six people who could make three or four different voices would be fine. (You might even put out a script and have D-2 players record themselves and send in their efforts. Then RSI could pick from them, or throw them into a 'crowd scene' for background.) You’d need to come up with dozens of cat-calls and categorize them. The same with weapon sounds (different for some) and the sounds they make when they impact shields vs flesh vs different kinds of armor. All this would have to be on a sound board so that the operator can put all these together into a whole. The sounds then have to be arranged in a stereo format and put out on a podcast.

Hhhmmm. I would think that the best way to do it is to offer it as a Premium service for just a couple of the arenas. People who really like that would then flock to those arenas. Shadowspire would definitely be one of them, as it’s one of the larger ones. An extra $5.00 a month to have access to the podcast would be a blast! I’d pay for it. If you had a good announcer and played up a huge variety of sounds (easier to do than you would think, with the current level of tech out there) I’m sure most of the current players would pay for it. This way, RSI builds up its audience, increases interest in the PBM game, but keeps it PBM.

What do you guys think? Cool

Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2014 2:10 pm

Sounds like a different game to me! Perhaps we should created it?!?

btw, I like the idea overall!

Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 11:15 am

Btw, A semi-live FtF podcast would be great for people not at the FtF.

Site Admin Joined: Jun 20, 2002 Posts: 1344

We should all turn our cams on and stream live to the world in a couple of weeks.

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:32 pm

Yeah, I heard that you guys read your fights aloud at the FTF. Have some guys be the audience (cat calls and favorite chants, etc) while an announcer does the fight ala Yellow Press style!

All you really need is the sound; the cam would be a distraction, I think. I'd rather create a mental picture of rows of guys in torn leather jerkins and togas stained with ale, rather than watch a bunch of questionable reprobates waving sheets of paper around and yelling out drunken encouragement to imaginary gladiators... but either way it would be a blast. Cool