Do you use NPC "voices"?

[SpiralBound]

To clarify: When GMing, do you find yourself using a different voice or different accents than your regular speaking voice/accent? If so, do you keep notes on which npcs have which style of voice? If you're from a place with a "world-famous" accent, (ex: Louisiana, London's East End, Paris, etc.), do you ever use super-exaggeratted versions of your stereotyped accent? If not, what accents do you use?

Since I'm asking so many questions, I'll go first and describe what I do.

In the real world, I live in Newfoundland, Canada. A place with a very distinctive accent (actually many different sub-accents, but non-locals don't usually hear the distinctions) and sometimes I use "cartoonized" versions of them to distinguish specific npcs. However much of our linguistic heritage is a blend of Irish, Welsh, and English with smatterings of Scottish, so all of those accents are very easy for me as well. Then, just for variety I'll sometimes do horribly mangled versions of french, russion, or indian accents. Used in conjunction with different types and strengths of accents, I will also vary my voice too. Thin and wavery for and old man, deep and growling for the Bugbear bouncer, harsh and almost nasel for the officious city guard, soft and wheedling for the crooked noble, etc. I find that accents and "funny" voices help greatly in distinguishing an NPC. Especially if I'm running a campaign with the party regularly interacting with a set group of contacts. I sometimes can even create a red herring with nothing more than deliberately using the "wrong" voice for an npc. Using a sterotypical "evil overlord" voice for a helpful priest patron, etc.

So, what do others do?

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I'm actually a decent+ voice actor and an absolute whiz with accents. I use a wide variety of accents and voice types when I DM, usually assigning those accents I do well and with a lot of range (English, American and Scottish) to particular regions or races. Others that I do either cheesily or without much range usually get dumped on nations or races rarely encountered by the PCs.

Generic NPCs usually end up with a sort of generic British accent, on the same principle that all English-language historical movies should cast English actors.

My biggest problem is doing female voices. I can do an almost okay upper class English female, and that's IT. Which is one reason why female NPCs show up but rarely in my games, and are usually from the upper class of the English-accented nation.

 

[Crothian]

not different voices exactly. I try to use different approaches to the language and vocab, with some slight intonations but not actually different voices.

 

[NiTessine]

Not too many accents in Finland to draw from, and they all get ridiculed by my group... When I DM in Finnish, I tend to just vary in speech style, tone and slang to different between the NPCs.

When I DM in English, which doesn't happen too much outside the net, I do use different fake accents, occasionally with voices. You know, deep voice with a Scottish accent for dwarves, Legolas imitations for the elves...

 

[DarrenGMiller]

I am not sure that I qualify as using different voices for NPC's, and certainly not a different one for each NPC (if I did, I could be famous, having DM'ed for so long and in so many different campaigns), but I do try to use different approaches, as others have stated.

I am decent with some accents and horrible with others, but since I am a singer, I do attempt to create a variety of vocal timbres for various NPC's. My male voices are obviously better than my female voices (being a male with a relatively deep voice). I also try to incorporate vocal tics, colloquialisms, various vocal cadences/rhythms/tempos, and a host of other things.

I have experimented with accents and tend to go Scottish for Dwarves (stereotype... probably from Warcraft), soft and sinsong and almost a hint of Irish for Elves, a slight French inflection for Gnomes (not too obvious though), some barbarous peoples get a touch of Ahhhnold (not to imply anything except that Conan is the default barbarian, and halflings get my best Frodo or Samwise (a la movie trilogy) impresssions (which are not that good). Serpents and lizards get a lissssssthpy long "s" timbre, while creatures like Drow that are just evil and pretty intelligent tend to speak more slowly than the more flighty and short-lived races. Treants speak ex - ceeeeed - innnnnggg - lyyyyyy slooooooooooooow - lyyyyyyyyy and small faeries races like brownies and such speaksoquickylthattheirwordsalmostruntogether.

Those are all I can think of at the moment.

DM

 

[Napftor]

I try to give voice personality to every NPC. Females get higher-pitched voices, dwarves get abrasive, deep voices, etc. Even these stereotypical "accents" can help PCs get into the swing of things. For more important NPCs, I'll use different vocabulary, inflections, and mannerisms.

Example: For my assassin NPC, I accentuate sarcastic observations with a pause before the snide word and then say that word with a sneer--"This is a quaint little...[sneer]area[/sneer] you have here."

 

[Wombat]

All the major NPCs in our game have very much known voices -- in fact, if I just start talking, they know who it is, which I feel really helps to make the game.

Then there are "stock character voices" -- The Tough, The Idiot, The Sleazeball, The Guy In Trouble, The Woman In Trouble, The Snooty Guy, The Wheedling Merchant, etc. Can't tell one from another until they become important

And, of course, there is vocabulary and word choice. Two NPCs might have nearly the same accent, but speak so differently that they are discernible very quickly.

This is a big reason I like rpgs.

(...listening to the voices in his head for nearly 30 years...)

 

[BlueBlackRed]

My goblins are high pitched and frenetic in their speech.

My orcs are low pitched and dry sounding.

My dwarves start with a Scottish accent...then I slip into an Irish one. Very irritating to me. (And I doubt the dwarf likes it)

Then there's the arrogant guy with the haughty, fake laugh.

 

[Desdichado]

I'm much more likely to do an accent than a "voice", i.e., try to talk like Buddy Hackett, or in a high pitched "female" voice, or anything like that. For one thing, I can passably pull off some accents. For another, I think it gets really old trying to pull off a voice as opposed to an accent; it gets tiring both for the GM and the players, most of the time.

Accents, on the other hand, once I get rolling, I can do without thinking.

 

[Fynn]

Actually I find that if you want to add flavour to a particular NPC nothing beets inventive expletives. Expletives are present in every language and many of them have religious references (tsk tsk), with the large number of deities in D&D the list is endless. It also can be used to give hints about a particular character, and there are many situations in which they are used other than combat.

"Hmmm, I'll offer you five gold for it"

*cough* cough splutter* "By Torm's defunct third nipple, you've got to be kidding me!"

you get the idea.