Introducing smell into a campaign

[HurinSmite]

Somewhere I've read it can be helpful to describe as many senses as possible when describing a room/area/location to get more flavour across to your players. The sound of wet mud under their boots, seeing light reflecting off the muddy ground and the glowing statue ahead, feeling vapor on their skin, tasting the earthy tones on their tongue... smelling... old water.

Alright question time. Have anyone tried actually having smelly props in their games? I haven't, but I am considering it.
Say your party is in a volcano. Maybe some sort of slow burning coal in an ashtray? Yay inside fires and second hand smoking!
Maybe you can take some grass from outside, smush it in a mortar to get the smell out?
Pines for the smell of nordic forest.

Any other ideas or experiences?

[Rynjin]

Yeah, people don't tend to have adverse physical reactions to sights or sounds, but smells are an entirely different matter my man.

[Lemmy]

I don't see how this could be done in a way that doesn't conpletely halt the flow of the game... "Hey, guys... Just wait 5 min while I light some embers just for this scene. Then we gotta wait another 20 for the smell to dissipate so that I can pull the pine cone for the next scene!".

[Tawmis]

While I wholeheartedly agree with using outside sources for immersion... typically your tone (as the DM) and some good mood music (might I recommend TableTopAudio.com if you've never heard of it) are enough to pull a character into it. TableTopAudio, aside from music, has a mess of sounds you can use for your campaign (just open multiple tabs and be ready to hit that sound song)

I don't see how this could be done in a way that doesn't conpletely halt the flow of the game... "Hey, guys... Just wait 5 min while I light some embers just for this scene. Then we gotta wait another 20 for the smell to dissipate so that I can pull the pine cone for the next scene!".

This made me laugh.

[Mastikator]

It might work if all the scenes smelled close enough that your scented candle or whatever matched it closely enough. IMO if there are unpleasant smells then please no, the extra bit of immersion is not worth the price.

[HurinSmite]

While I wholeheartedly agree with using outside sources for immersion... typically your tone (as the DM) and some good mood music (might I recommend TableTopAudio.com if you've never heard of it) are enough to pull a character into it. TableTopAudio, aside from music, has a mess of sounds you can use for your campaign (just open multiple tabs and be ready to hit that sound song)

I know of it :) I use the program Scene Sound to prepare scenes. It has looping function, chaining sounds and a random fx box among other things. So you can have the sound of a torch on loop, a song playing and have different "lightning strikes"-sound files in the random fx box.

Also I guess switching the smell would be strange. but if a particular session is in the forest.. pines for everyone!

[Beleriphon]

A scented candle for an appropriate odour is okay, I its a whole session. So you're traveling through the pine forest, sure bust out those pine/fir scented candles you'll never use otherwise.

Playing a pirate game, there's probably a "sea water"/"ocean mineral" scent you can use.

I'd use it as an overall theme element, but be mindful of that fact that scents can and do cause allergies or worse conditions.

[Knaight]

It's probably better to stick to describing smells. That said, if you want to be extra and a whole session is likely to have a commonality to the smell (the forest and ocean examples, a sterile spaceship with a hint of metallic odor), sure, go for it. Don't do it for a session in the sewers or something, take scent susceptibility into account, but it's potentially a viable prop.

Also I've definitely heard a lot of stories about people gaming in spaces where taking smell into account would be helpful, usually where the desirable smell is just not-cat-piss.

[Imbalance]

<imagines an overzealous grognard DM somewhere with decades worth of collected jars of various scents, ie. a rotting hunk of liver, burnt thatch, fancy perfume, and one particularly menacing cannister with a compression lid containing what can best be described as bumpy, curved cylinders suspended in a reddish brine, each with a patently brief label affixed, denoting "lich's lair," "razed village," "succubus boudoir," and "koolickles," respectively.

[Scripten]

If you intend to stay in one area for the entirety of a session or are running a one shot, I've found that burning scented candles actually does get good feedback from my table, at least. Although, that being said, they may just be being nice because I have anosmia and can't tell in most cases. :P

[Feddlefew]

This could be interesting, but please ask your group about allergies and the like before doing this!

[Altair_the_Vexed]

This could be interesting, but please ask your group about allergies and the like before doing this!

Yeah, and not just allergies - I have pretty severe asthma, and any kind of smoke can set me off. There are a few other gamers I know with similar health issues.
I wouldn't enjoy having to go to hospital for the sake of a game, however well intentioned!

EDIT- let me try be a bit more constructive: if you really want scent props, and it does seem like an interesting idea - then try having an item to pass around that has an appropriate localised smell, so your players can sniff at it. The scent will trigger the evocative senses, but it won't overwhelm anyone.

So for the burning coal - unburnt coal has a smell of its own, which isn't a million miles away. For the forest, some moss and pine - and even pencil shavings (I've often noticed how woodland smells like pencil shavings while I'm out in the countryside).

[Feddlefew]

If you're feeling crafty and can your hands on get some small, resealable, air tight vials, you can put a little piece of cotton swab in the bottom and then add a few drops of whatever scent you want. This way you can pass around the scent instead of flooding the room with it.

I would avoid using concentrated essential oils for this, personally, because 1) your workspace will smell like them for days and 2) some of them will give you chemical burns, or are toxic to pets and smaller humans. And some of them are just strait up toxic. Just use candle scent stuff.

Edit: To reiterate, make sure you label these with exactly whats in them and talk to your players about it first.

[Knaight]

These localized scents are sounding increasingly like passing a vape pen around - which is fine, in the right group, but will be off putting to a lot of people. For all that I'm basically suggesting it right now I kind of hate the idea deep down; I just know people who would be there for it.

[Feddlefew]

These localized scents are sounding increasingly like passing a vape pen around - which is fine, in the right group, but will be off putting to a lot of people. For all that I'm basically suggesting it right now I kind of hate the idea deep down; I just know people who would be there for it.

It's a perfume sample vial? I really don't understand how that would read as a vape pen.

I mean if we're getting technical, it's actually based on a volatile sample collection vial, just using cotton swabs instead of activated charcoal or resin.

Edit: Think of it like a very small, contained reed defuser and you'd be spot on.

[Knaight]

It's a perfume sample vial? I really don't understand how that would read as a vape pen.

I mean if we're getting technical, it's actually based on a volatile sample collection vial, just using cotton swabs instead of activated charcoal or resin.

Edit: Think of it like a very small, contained reed defuser and you'd be spot on.

I'm familiar with it - but it's an obvious jump from one to the other, and I know a lot of people who'd jump at the opportunity to introduce a vape pen like this if it was ever suggested.

[Feddlefew]

I'm familiar with it - but it's an obvious jump from one to the other, and I know a lot of people who'd jump at the opportunity to introduce a vape pen like this if it was ever suggested.

I see where you're coming from, but I think anyone who'd try to bring their vape pen to game night would do it regardless of what you're doing on your end.

I'd be slightly more worried that someone would bring in their collection of chakra-aligning incenses in my game group, personally, so it really depends on who you play with!

[sktarq]

To set the feel of an entire session perhaps...even had it work in two cases, Tropical Fruit in a modern Miami, a certain spice blend for an Arabic themed all day one-shot.
But its a general mood setter not a scene setter.

[Jay R]

The game is played in the imagination, so you just need to remember to describe the smells. A tomb just opened should smell musty. An old pool underground should smell like stagnant water.

And don't use it just for flavor. A Ranger might recognize the smell of the monster before it can be seen. Perhaps a wizard can tell what spell was recently cast by the smell of the material components -- or the lack of such smell might be evidence that the caster was using a wand.