I am GMing a campaign , and my players are in a mental asylum. I wanted to do some props that has some codes, so they can in real life decode a message, but dont know where to start. If somebody knows any site or program for doing this kind of props, or for doing codes , please tell me.

My goal is that they find some notes in the asylum, full of incoherences, but if they crack the code, they can find a hidden message. Just dont know how to make the code, or if there is any program that can help

Also , i am searching music for this kind of setting, any tip´or info will be most welcome. The asylum is a dark, old place, full of mysteries and secrets. In my campaign, the main doctor there is doing some experiments with the patients, and they are just discovering it

Any music that can be applied there?

dosan said:

Also , i am searching music for this kind of setting, any tip´or info will be most welcome. The asylum is a dark, old place, full of mysteries and secrets. In my campaign, the main doctor there is doing some experiments with the patients, and they are just discovering it

Any music that can be applied there?

I'm a big advocate for using music in my sessions. I'd recommend the soundtrack from the computer game Sanitarium - you can get the whole game (including the soundtrack as MP3s) from www.gog.com/, or you may be able to find it esewhere. Also, some of the tracks from the Silent Hill games are very good - check www.silenthillmemories.net

dosan said:

Try http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/gaming-music for gaming music. It's an incredible resource. I found the sight reading http://dailyempire.guildredemund.net/ who I found through http://recklessdice.rorschach.net/

All good resources. I highly recommend the Reckless Dice Podcasts.

Also check out: http://www.gitzmansgallery.com/ for more maps than you'll ever be able to use in a lifetime!

Thanks for the links! Any info is welcome.

Hey! Great ideas. I use lots of music and sound effects in my games, too. I tend to think about films I've seen that have the right atmosphere, then scare up the soundtracks on iTunes; the incidental music to major movies is often not "recognizable" to the PCs (so that they stop the action to talk about the movie because they recognize the music,) but it can add just the right touch.

I did a blog post about sound effects (as opposed to music) awhile back. You can find it here.

If you're looking for a good cipher maker, this one might help you out. I've used it before with good results.

Good luck!

Midnight Syndicate http://www.midnightsyndicate.com makes fantastic evocative dark gothic (primarily) instrumental music that is designed with roleplaying in mind.

Gates of Delirium is a CD of theirs that evokes the mood of an asylum (including confused screaming (not loud)) and is great for what you propose.

Arrival - 1:45
Welcome - 2:31
Haverghast Asylum - 3:34
Halls of Insurrection - 2:42
Cage of Solitude - 2:36
Residents Past - 4:08
Adelaide - 1:11
Phantom Sentinels - 2:34
Gates of Delirium - 3:37
Non Compos Mentis - 0:56
Procession of the Damned - 3:14
Infestation - 1:00
Room 47 - 2:55
Dark Discovery - 3:53
Morbid Fascination - 2:45
Dead of Night - 1:31
Alternative Therapy - 3:06
Crimson Door - 1:09
Unrest in the East Wing - 2:48
Ebony Shroud - 4:13
Sleep Tight* - 4:35

You guys also may want to check out RPG Sound Mixer.

It has a bunch of loopable sounds that you can play, and even layer on top of eachother. So for instance you could play "Roudy Tavern" and get a good vibe. But then if a fight breaks out and then it starts to rain, you could also add, "Rain" and "Bar Fight" to the mix and they would all play at once allowing for a lot of interesting combinations.

Its a purchasable product, but there is a free demo which is very fun to play with. Its not too expensive, i think i was 20 bucks.

Gitzman.

Gitzman said:

There is a free sound mixer out there too, called Softrope softrope.net/, which is free and very simple to use. I've had a lot of fun with that, for example you can play "rain" and then add "thunder" which can be set to go off at random intervalls.

I got RPG Sound Mixer too, but found that Softrope covered all my mixing needs.

For this setting I would vote for

The Cell Soundtrack

k7e9 said:

Excellent, thanks for the link to Softrope!

RPG Soundmixer is good, but it doesn't work fully in Vista or Windows 7, I have to run it in a Virtual Box Windows XP session - which isn't great (extra resource use and doesn't allow use of cable mixers such as Virtual Audio Cable (VAC)).

Wow, thanks for the amazing ideas! Definetely i will check the RPG sound mixer. I have the midnight sindicate music now, gates of delirium is really good.