Accents

[Jacob the Impaler]

How many of you try to use accents when you're roleplaying characters or NPC's? I do it just because it amuses the hell out of my players when they run into a lizardman druid who sounds like a Jamacian dockworker. Here's some of the accents I use:

Dwarves: Scottish or German
Elves: Educated-sounding, but otherwise accentless
Halflings: Straight-up Lord of the Rings hobbits
Gnomes: Squeaky, nasal, stereotypical "midget" voice
Orcs: Talk through closed teeth
Gnolls: Whoopi Goldberg (Lion King had a profound impact on my view of hyenas)
Goblins: Mean New Yorkers
Kobolds: Vaguely cockney
Lizardmen: Jamacian or Creole
Ogres: Butthead, without the huh huh huh's
Dragons: British aristocrats

Are accents helpful and amusing? Or just plain stupid and distracting?

 

[Nifft]

Cool thread!

My world has three primary Human nations, each of them a remnant of the First Empire (which spoke Latin). Luxoria speaks French, the Free Isles speak Spanish, and Valyria speaks Italian. This helps with Human accents quite a bit.

Dwarves speak in a bad Scottish accent (of course), Elves are accentless. There are no more Halflings or Gnomes.

Goblins speak in cackling little voices, Kobolds speak in squeaky little voices.

Free Orcs speak with an "East Asian" accent (and I rip off Japanese for their names). IMC, they have a strongly feudal honor-based society, and are typically not Barbarians. They're more like samurai klingons... except for the ninja klingons, of course!

Cheers, -- N

 

[Simm]

I try accent my charecters as their homlend and upbringing would call for. As a DM I find it hard enough to think of things for people to say on the fly as is so I keep accents to a minimum. I find that altering speech patterns is a more effective method of identifying characters in play.

 

[Aaron L]

I've tried, and it just comes across as silly and contrived whenever I do. The characters arent speaking English anyway, so I just don't bother with it. I once had a character I wanted desperately to have a hard bitten Cockney guttersnipe type accent, but when I tried to do it just came across as comical and not at all what I wanted. I dropped it after 2 minutes of painful trying.

If it helps other peoples games to be more fun for them, though, then it's a great idea I just can't pull it off with a straight face.


As an aside, I do get a bit fed up with people making too much use of "aye" for "yes" (and other similar "gamerisms") in certain gaming groups Ive been in. These are people who give every character they play a bad parody of a Scottish accent in a misplaced attempt at characterization. It just grates on my nerves sometimes. I don't like Scottish dwarves

But thats just a personal peeve of mine.


(PS Klingons are essentially Samurai Vikings. Saying "Samurai Klingon" is like saying PIN Number )

 

[Ranger REG]

Free Orcs speak with an "East Asian" accent (and I rip off Japanese for their names). IMC, they have a strongly feudal honor-based society, and are typically not Barbarians. They're more like samurai klingons... except for the ninja klingons, of course!

Cheers, -- N

If you're referring to the TOS Klingon, go with Mongolian (Genghis Khan and whatnot).

 

[Ranger REG]

As an aside, I do get a bit fed up with people making too much use of "aye" for "yes" (and other similar "gamerisms") in certain gaming groups Ive been in. These are people who give every character they play a bad parody of a Scottish accent in a misplaced attempt at characterization. It just grates on my nerves sometimes. I don't like Scottish dwarves

Better "aye" than "a'ight," yo.

 

[Nifft]

If you're referring to the TOS Klingon, go with Mongolian (Genghis Khan and whatnot).

Mongolian isn't one of my stronger languages. Any pointers on accent?

Thanks, -- N

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Most of my characters have speaking mannerisms. For a paladin I was working on, I took an irish accent, then dialed it down until it was just barely there. It definately showed, and it colored my speech patterns. It was funny that as I got excited, the accent would thicken (it's hard for me to have a little accent).

I also had an orcish warrior who didn't really have an accent, but his voice was very much different. I'd describe it as a wider, full tone, and kind of mouthy in how his words were formed.

I have others too. I pull out the pesant accent from time to time, which is a weird blend of the workers from warcraft II and a southern accent. I also get into my sherriff drawl, or generic 'shakesphereian' accent.

Mostly though, I use gesture, tone, and word choice (in that order) to make characters feel different.

Edit: What always gets me though is that the really cool voices are too good to use as I'm playing a game. Sure, I could do my 'Phantom of the Opera' voice, but really, using a deep, rough, sinister and commanding voice to say things like "Excuse me sir, but I'd like a room for the night," or "Woah! did you see that barmaid?" just doesn't work for me. I'd be laughing way too hard.

 

[Shadowslayer]

I don't worry too much about accents...but fortunately I can do voices without embarassing myself too badly. My major NPCs are all secretly modeled after movie and or TV characters. For minor NPCs I don't much bother. Orcs talk like Lt Worf when he's mad. Elves speak quietly and do not use contractions. My dwarves somehow end up sounding like Yosemete Sam. (I hate Scottish Dwarves too) Actually, my last Dwarf's speech was modeled after Quint, the crusty old sailor in Jaws.

And yeah, both Miracle Max and the outrageous French taunter turn up from time to time. I'm not proud.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It depends upon how I feel.

I used the French taunter for the "language of burrowing animals" as spoken by anthropomorphic porcupines, badgers, etc in my last campaign (featuring regular PCs trapped in a world of all anthros).

Rocky the Flying squirrel was, of course, used for the squirell people.

Elvis became the voice of the awakened companion for that campaign's PC Druid.

In another campaign, I used an Austrian accent for my PC Minotaur Tuu-Maa Ghostwalker. I was doubly blessed when someone mispronounced his first name as Atumaa...to which he said "Its not Atumaa!" (Yes, that did happen.)

But more often than not, I use my own speaking voice.