Character voices

[Gentlegamer]

I'm a huge ham, so my characters, both as judge and player, have distinct speaking voices/cadences.

 

[Hypersmurf]

My biggest problem with voices is keeping Scottish and Irish straight...

Danny Bhoy explains...

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Wouldn't a game with Robin Williams or Jim Carey as DM be a blast?

There was a thread called "Celebrity DM" a few years ago, where people submitted examples of Monte Cook's The Orc and the Pie as a session DM'd by somebody famous.

From memory, the Christopher Walken was a thing of beauty.

-Hyp.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

Klingon Half-Ogres

I ran a 2nd ed. game in which some players had half-ogre characters which they used Klingon voices and threw in bits and pieces of Klingon vocabulary. To make matters worse, they blatantly used names like Duras and Garon. At least there wasn't a Worf…

While it was funny it also added a lot to the game. To bad none of the players knew one of the Tolkein Elvish languages.


Having said that, one time I had a game with two French speakers who both played Elves. I encouraged them to speak French at the table when in character. It was fun for a while, but then the other players got annoyed at not knowing what the Elves were talking about. Maybe it became a little too realistic!

 

[Jeff Wilder]

When I'm in character as my dwarf, I drop my voice into the lowest register I can maintain while speaking otherwise normally.

I just started playing a half-ogre with a 5 INT, and I make his voice (also low) kinda mushy. I also use an extremely limited vocabulary.

I hate "silly" voices -- it's one of the few things that will drive me out of a game -- but if someone can pull off using a distinctive voice, I think that's cool. If nothing else, it helps end the confusion of "Did you say that in character?!"

 

[pawsplay]

I once did Poseidon, posing as a fish monger, as Dustin Hoffman. "Whadda you know, anyway? Huh? Huh?"

Two of my best realized PCs of all time were very much "voice" characters. First, there was Brodacyn, an axe-wielding evoker specialist. He had a 6 Charisma, so I played him as an acidic, self-deprecating curmudgeon wearing wolf skins and encrusted with droppings from his falcon familiar. I used a slightly rasping, low, sulking voice, tinged with a Darth Vader like impatience. His response to "You'll know suffering as you have never endured before," was "I am already the most miserable person I know, so you'll have to do better than that." The Beast from Beauty and the Beast was also somewhat of an inspiration. He was a hateful, pessimistic creature who could foil attempt at diplomacy by his mere presence, and my group just loved him.

Another of my favorites was Cobin, a NG bard who served as the paladin's pragmatic-minded squire. His backstory was that he was a useless, poetry writing dandy, who one day, seemingly on a whim, became a devoted chronicler and squire of a grim fighter turned questing paladin. I used the most mincing, droll voice I could come up with, equal parts Rupert Everrett, John Cleese, and Cary Elwes. I appropriate the vocabulary of a WWI era British aristocrat. He was basically a twit, but if he drew unexpected ire, he had a polite, ingratiating patter that would do a prince's valet proud.

 

[taliesin15]

I've been using Borat (you know, from the new movie, from Da Ali G Show) as the model for most of the Goblin/Orc/Kobold NPCs IMC lately...at one time I used Andy Kaufman's "Latka" character...

...also I usually have Gnomes use silly voices...

...then there's the time I had Bunnymen threateningly growl by puffing at their lips with their big front teeth...I guess Monty Python is pretty cliche by now...

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'm a big fan of voices, especially when I DM, but as a player also.

The only 'silly' voice I've used as a player (that I recall, at any rate!) was a halfling paladin based on Sir Didymus from Labyrinth. Ha ha! Have at thee, foul wrrrretch!

Hey, I'm playing that character at the moment!

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Every significant NPC I use and every PC I play has a different voice (combination of accent, cadence, vocabulary, and even body language), although sometimes the voices for NPCs overlap across campaigns.

Most aren't 'silly,' though.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I once did Poseidon, posing as a fish monger, as Dustin Hoffman. "Whadda you know, anyway? Huh? Huh?"

A lot of my NPCs have a character or actor name beside them. 'Clint Eastwood', 'Judi Dench as M', 'Basil Fawlty', 'Peter Firth as Captain Fitzgerald'. It gives me an immediate reminder of the cadence and pitch of their speech, some mannerisms, a feel for how they react to people, some useful phrases, etc.

Sometimes the inspiration is obvious to the players (they picked the potion-merchant wizard as Fawlty the moment he greeted their entry to his shop with a harried "Yes? Yes? Well, what do you want?"), sometimes not... but it helps me to keep the various NPCs distinct and recognisable.

-Hyp.