Do you use "voice acting" when you play?

[schneeland]

I think "voice acting" would oversell it, but, similar to others here, I try to be clear about when I'm speaking IC and when it's OOC, and I also try to adjust tone and vocabulary a bit based on the character I'm playing / the NPC I'm currently representing. It's only a handful of really distinct voices, but it also helps me a bit to get into my character and into the game world.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Never.

And 99% of the time it annoys me when other people do.

 

[zarionofarabel]

And 99% of the time it annoys me when other people do.

Why? I know that a couple other posters commented this as well and I never asked but for some reason I'm gonna ask you...and anyone else that reads this...

Why does it annoy you, or why don't you like it?

I mean, I can see someone not wanting to do it themselves, or not feeling comfortable, or even being unable somehow...but the idea that someone else doing it being annoying makes me wonder...

EDIT: Additional question!

Without the "funny voice" or prefacing everything the PC says with "PC says" how do you keep OOC speech and IC speech distinct without regular moments of confusion about which is which?

I'm curious about this cause I have watched a few more AP videos I really really do find the groups that don't regularly use "funny voice" can be really hard to follow at times cause I routinely find myself unable to discern between OOC narration and things PCs say IC.

 

[Umbran]

Nope. For me, role-playing is not about amateur dramatics. Unwelcome take I expect.

Unwelcome only in how it implies that other things at the table aren't "amateur".

Gamers are, broadly, amateur dramatics, amateur historians, amateur tacticians, amateur storytellers... all of it is amateur. So being down on one aspect of it for being amateur is... a bit weird.

 

[Professor Murder]

I had an evil grandma/gangster/Deep one voice that my wife proptly banned me from ever using again after the game.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I had an evil grandma/gangster/Deep one voice that my wife proptly banned me from ever using again after the game.

Except very quietly, right near her ear, when she's asleep at night ...

 

[el-remmen]

I don't really do voices as a regular thing. I give examples to make an NPC stand out and occasionally pepper it in to maintain that sense of immersion, but definitely not constantly and not over the top. I take this approach both as a player and a DM. I think intonation and word choice do a lot of the necessary distinction between characters.

I will sometimes describe a voice, esp. if I cannot do it even as a brief example. When the party had an encounter with clockwork sphinx I described its voice as coming from deep within its body, "a scratchy cracking thing that emerges from its open mouth even as its lips do not move, nor does it seem to have a tongue. The voice is detached and distant and has a flat affect." And then, I added as an aside using a comparison the players would get even though their characters wouldn't, that is sounded like an haunted speak n' spell played through a gramophone.

 

[Deset Gled]

Nope. For me, role-playing is not about amateur dramatics.

And 99% of the time it annoys me when other people do.

To expand on what @zarionofarabel asked: how much voice change does it take to annoy you? So, funny voices are right out. Are accents a problem? Does it annoy you when someone talks in a more projected stage voice? A (fake) lisp?

Even as someone who takes part in a certain amount of voice acting, I agree that over-the-top theatrics are bad. And sometimes it just gets old. I had a fellow player once ask me to tone down the stuttering on a character I had because it grated on them how much time it took me to talk. I'm curious if there are certain things that people find worse than others.

 

[DragonLancer]

Gamers are, broadly, amateur dramatics, amateur historians, amateur tacticians, amateur storytellers... all of it is amateur. So being down on one aspect of it for being amateur is... a bit weird.

I say amateur dramatics, which fair enough is probably not the right way to describe it, because they aren't doing it in the style of a professional actor or local theatre performer. It's generally over the top and it gets irritating real fast. I get the same reaction from the likes of the actors on Critical Roll (another reason I don't generally watch their videos) when they put on voices and they are professional voice actors.

If that is how a gaming group perform their role-play that's great. Power to them. I'm not trying to say groups out there shouldn't. But it's probably not a group that I could stay with for long, but that is on me.

how much voice change does it take to annoy you? So, funny voices are right out. Are accents a problem? Does it annoy you when someone talks in a more projected stage voice? A (fake) lisp?

Funny silly voices are right out. Accents can be okay if it sounds genuine and not a caricature. I've never had anyone do the projected voice or try to mimic a lisp, so I don't know to be honest. I do think that the older I have become the more it bothers me. It probably wouldn't have done so much twenty years ago when I was in my thirties.

I currently play in a fortnightly game of The One Ring and four out of five of us went with dwarves. These were Peter Jackson dwarves so we all had Scottish accents, naturally. Probably a session and a half in, we collectively dropped the accents because it was getting tired quickly. But that's probably the closest that my group has ever come to incorporating voices/accents in our games.