Roleplaying dialogue styles

[Li Shenron]

At least in our current group it is totally left to each player to do as they wish... some players like to change voice or slang with different characters they play, and other are too shy or non-interested and prefer to speak in strict 3rd person. It has worked fine to leave freedom to the players... IMO the only annoying thing is when someone is pretended to play in a way she doesn't feel like...

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Pretty much casual modern speech here, and I like it that way.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

When you game, how do people speak? Do you synopsize conversations, like, "I ask the bartender if he's heard anything about ninjas around here;" and "The bartender says something cryptic about the path of the lotus, then vanishes in a puff of smoke," or do you get fully into character, speaking as your character would speak?

I often find it painful even when the talented actors in our groups speak in Ye Olde English, because they're not talented ex tempore script writers and so tend to have painful verbal tics.

One player constantly "flavours" his character's speech with "Is it?", as in "Is it that you are in need of some assistance?"

Another says "For a time", all the time. "I may have need of your skills for a time."

In general, however, the people I play with tend to vary depending on our moods. When we're trying to decide what we're going to do next, say, we'll discuss it casually out of character, though still trying to keep our characters' opinions in mind; you can tell that it distances us from our PCs, however, because we'll say things like "Well, William would obviously prefer to stay in town until he can buy a new horse."

When engaged in dialogue with NPCs, we tend to start out descriptively - "I ask the innkeeper for directions to the barracks" - and drop into first-person mode if the conversation is important or lengthy. That is, the longer we interact with the one NPC the more likely we are to start speaking in character - "I'd advise you to stand aside."

This is also likely to happen during combat - even our tactics tend to be called out in character. "Get back and I'll raise the ward!" Of course, when attention wanders even briefly we're likely to drop out for a short while.

Most of the games I play in also feature a stream of chatter, jokes, et cetera anyway, which I guess relieves the embarassment some might otherwise feel about spending most of their time speaking as their PC.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

As a player, its mostly modern style talk, but mostly "in character", unless its something simple that has little importance to roleplaying.

As a DM, it varies. I try and keep the talk "in character", but many times I just don't want to take the time on a short scene with an NPC that will probably never be seen again.

 

[Pielorinho]

I often find it painful even when the talented actors in our groups speak in Ye Olde English, because they're not talented ex tempore script writers and so tend to have painful verbal tics.

Yep--that's me! Because of this, I rarely have characters speak in exagerrated fashions: when I do, I tend to focus on one or two phrases, find myself repeating them over and over, and get flustered and distracted by it. No good.

The most exagerrated speech that I ever used was for a PBEM game in which I played a very bookish teenager who spoke like an old academic tome, each sentence full of parenthetical statements and diversions and ten-platinum words that obscured the main point. I'd intended for him to come across asa loveably clueless nerd, but found out to my chagrin that his flowery speech made the other players and DM despise him as an insufferably arrogant snot. Major RP failure on my part .

Since then, I use weird speech very sparingly. I might make an effort for a stupid character to speak in short, simple sentences and state the obvious, or I might make an effort for a friendly character to go out of his way to thank a character according to her rank and family, that sort of thing, but it's about the most I can do.

Daniel