Do you use accents/"funny voices" when playing your PC?

[takyris]

As a DM, sometimes, if it's funny and if it's not going to mess stuff up too much -- although my players have given me a "no, seriously" rule. If I have a character talk in a funny way, he has to continue. The captain of their scientific research vessel in my d20M game spoke in a Cockney falsetto for a long time. It was awful.

As a player, always. Life's too short. And I'm decent with accents. My dwarves tend to sound like Sean Connery, which is always a hoot.

 

[Malin Genie]

I think each character (PC or NPC) should have a 'voice'. And if that 'voice' just happens to sound exactly like mine, when I'm the DM and kind of tired, well that's just a complete coincidence.

 

[Oryan77]

At least when it comes to Planescape it's fairly well supported by the setting: the accent is British semi-Cockney.

I agree, for some reason it seems to fit for Sigilians. It's still odd that we need a British accent to feel more like we're in a fantasy setting. PS is the campaign I DM and it took me a few years until I noticed that the PS Cant is almost 100% British slang. It kind of spoiled it when I realized this because it took the originality out of the setting a bit. I thought the writers made all of the PS slang up. Oh well, I still love the setting.

 

[kingamy]

Accents? Not really.

Mannerisms? Always.

My halfling paladin always has his eyes open really wide, and he is constantly fidgeting, and he paces around the room whenever things get boring (I do all of these things as well). He bounces up and down in his saddle when he is excited, and I bounce up and down in my seat. Get some funny looks from people who don't know me (he's an RPGA character, so I play with a lot of different people).

My half-orc druid is always confusedly furrowing his brows, which I do all the time. He doesn't have an accent, but he doesn't speak Common very well, so I don't speak English for him very well.

I try to do the same for NPCs when I am GMing. I find that without the skill to maintain an accent, it still gets the job done of differentiating characters from each other.

kingamy

 

[reveal]

In one campaign, a PC indicated that he was speaking in Goblin by adopting an exaggerated Swedish accent (which sparked off a long discussion about mapping D&D languages to real-world languages).

"Oh, no! Zis deer, it iz too large to fit in ze cave! Someone, come out and help me cut it up!"

Two goblins come out, get killed.

"Oh, zis bison, it iz still too big!"

I'm amazed it worked.

I read your post and thought of a picture I took a couple of years ago of my son. I still picture him saying something like "Zis bison does not amuse me."

 

[Silver Moon]

I would if I could but I can't so I won't.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Of course! Heck when creating NPCs sometimes I note what actor or tv/movie character I want to imitate when I play him. Other times I make notes on turns of phrase, pacing of speech, etc. (Otherwise I might forget.) So, a note that the aristocrat is Bertie Wooster can do a world of good, wouldn't you say old chap?

The Auld Grump

 

[Talon5]

I try to use voices when I set them up. The gruff NPC presently running with thte group.

Mannerisms are why cool. Methods of voice use.

The annoyed ranger Grayson that dislikes authority speaks low and easy.

And my all time favorite NPC- Grandpa, he speaks with a terrible southern accent, even thou he's from NY state, people notice that and ask- "hell boy, I'm crazy an' your asking me?"

Coyote6's NPCs are easy to tell apart because they have different approuches to speaking- calm and polite, or brash and angry, lots of differing. He runs between 2-4 NPCs and I can 90% of the time tell you who said what in a running conversation between NPCs.

If your considering using voices and mannerisms and such for your characters then do it all the time, it makes the character more solid in your minds eye. Its like "getting into character" for an actor.

Peace.

 

[Mighty Halfling]

I ran two druids (at seperate times) and each had different voices:
The human druid/fighter had a thick German accent. I imagined him to speak a bit like Siegfried & Roy or Marvel Comics' Nightcrawler. He was a snake specialist and it worked really well. Nobody ever really picked up that I was doing an accent though.
The halfling druid I ran had a straight hillbilly accent. He had a riding dog as an animal companion, so it fit well enough. My fellow players always had a hoot with him, and wanted to know if I was planning on going to race my dog ala NASCAR.
Anyway, I think accents/inflections/attitudes are key to rounding out your character or NPCs. You don't have to do all three, mind you.

 

[diaglo]

i try to use a voice in character. right now in 3.11ed for Workgroups i'm playing a hin in a FR campaign. so i use a slightly higher pitch and excited voice. he babbles alot too.

not terribly different from my own. but distinct enough from my former half-elf barbarian... who just grunted mostly.