How it works — seven minutes, start to finish: hearing sounds, building an environment and what every dial does, saving it, building boards, and running a game with chapters. transcript.
Environments — generative ambience
Layers that build a place out of sound. Every layer is one sound from the library: a loop plays the whole time — rain, a drone, a crowd — and a random sound drops in now and then on a cadence — drips, footsteps, distant thunder, a scream every minute or so. Dials for how often, how random, how far away, how much room. Everything changes live, and it never loops the same way twice. Ninety built-in places to start from — caves and dungeons, waterfalls and storms at sea, mountain passes, frozen lakes, deserts, lava fields, the Nine Hells and the celestial halls, forests, campfires, taverns, markets, castles, crypts and the Underdark — every one editable.
Boards — a soundboard for the GM
Grids of big buttons for the moments: sword hits, doors, spells, alarms. Build your own from the library, name each button, add a note only you see, pick which takes it uses, or start from the built-ins: Combat, Magic, Doors & Traps, Alarms & Signals, and a board for every class — Barbarian to Wizard — with its spells and weapons ready to tap. Buttons can loop until tapped again.
Chapters — whole scenes, one tap
An environment plus the boards for it, saved as one thing. The goblin warrens, the tavern, the boss fight. Tap a chapter and the scene comes up, the boards come with it, the sound crossfades, and the environment starts on its own. Make as many as your night needs.
Environments you can build tonight
Every one of these is a few layers from the library. Start from a built-in, or from nothing.
- Cave ambience — dripping water, resonant drips with echo, cavern rumble, a deep cave wind.
- Dungeon ambience — a dark drone, chains dragged somewhere, prisoners moaning, a cell door, distant screams.
- Prison block — hall voices, chain clinks, iron doors, a whip.
- Castle and keep — footsteps on stone, doors and latches, a bell, a fire in the grate.
- Tavern — coins on the bar, glasses, voices down the hall, a crowd that swells and settles.
- Storm and weather — light or heavy rain, rain on a roof, wind in the trees, thunder near or distant, a howling winter storm.
- Forest, meadow and lake — birds, crickets, a campfire, waves lapping, wind on the mountain.
- Battlefield — a war drone, an army marching, horns, the mob waking up.
- Haunted corridor — creaking wood, wails and cries far off, a door that shouldn't open.
Made for the table
- Phone-first at the table. Three buttons across, a stop button under your thumb, layers that collapse to a line.
- Sounds are ready before you need them. Whatever is in play is loaded in the background, so the first tap is instant.
- Your library, your names. Rename any button, keep only the takes you like, put a sound on as many boards as you want.
- An account is optional. Everything works signed out. Sign in with an email and a link — no password — to sync environments, boards and chapters across devices.
Works with any tabletop RPG
Thaumaturgy is about the place, not the rules. Game masters use it for Dungeons & Dragons (5e and older editions), Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, Daggerheart, Shadowdark, Blades in the Dark, Savage Worlds, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Vampire: The Masquerade, Mörk Borg, Old-School Essentials, Dungeon World, Cyberpunk RED, Fate and GURPS — a dripping cave sounds the same in all of them. Horror tables lean on the haunted and dungeon families; sci-fi and modern tables on weather, crowds and the boards.
How to use it at the table
Short walkthroughs for the things game masters actually ask — what to play, how loud, and how to build a place from scratch.
- How to add ambient sound to a D&D gameWhat to play, when to play it, and how to keep it from becoming a distraction.
- How to build a tavern soundscapeA worked example: crowd, fire and the occasional mug, built from scratch in about five minutes.
- How to build a dungeon soundscapeDrips, air and distance — how to make stone feel like stone without putting players to sleep.
- How to run sound during combatBoards, buttons and notes — keeping up with a fight without losing the thread.
- How to run game sound from your phoneSetting up a phone as the table's sound desk, including what to do about Bluetooth and battery.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. The app, the sound library and accounts are free. The sounds are CC0 / free-license recordings, credited on the app's footer and in the docs.
Do I need to download anything?
No. It runs in the browser on a phone, tablet or laptop. On iPhone the first sound needs a tap — pressing PLAY or a chapter counts.
Can I use my own sounds?
The environment and boards use the built-in library. There's also a "Your own tracks" section on the Session screen that loops any MP3, OGG or WAV from your device without uploading it anywhere.
What systems is it for?
Any tabletop RPG — D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, Daggerheart, Shadowdark, Blades in the Dark, Savage Worlds, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Vampire: The Masquerade, Mörk Borg, Old-School Essentials and the rest. Nothing in it is tied to a rules system; it's the sound of the place, not the mechanics.