Voice Acting in Your Tabletop RPGs: How Much/Little?

[MGibster]

I wonder if people playing in Scotland use American accents and they sound just as bad as when we do it.

The first time I saw The Meaning of Life it took me a while to figure out the Pythons were trying to do an American accent in some of their scenes.

Accents I've used in my games include German, Scottish, English, Scandinavian, American and a bunch of other I'm sure I can't remember. Are any of these accurate? Nah. Even my California accent is terrible. About the only accents I avoid are Asian because its hard to avoid sounding like a racist caricature.

 

[darjr]

That recent UK comedy D&D game there were plenty of American accents

 

[aco175]

We usually stick to the French accent from Monty Python. I tried a Jar Jar Binks one from Star Wars, but it came off as making fun of black people, so it did not last long.

 

[Ringtail]

I'd vote 11 except none of us are professionals, so 10 it is.

Same. We need an 10.5 Option "As much as possible. But we all suck" or "No professionals in sight."

 

[talien]

I find that the massive amount of NPCs that develop over a campaign become interchangeable. Players just forget who they are, what they do, or what distinguishes them. For one-shots and short-term campaigns it's not a big deal, but for longer campaigns I absolutely use accents as "character shorthand" so that a player never forgets them.

One thing I've started doing when world-building is associating accents with regions of my fantasy world. It really helps develop a sense of place when PCs are in a different land, and makes the NPCs more memorable.

What does get challenging is doing variants on accents though. It's one thing to come up with two distinctly different accents, it's another to come up with male/female, deeper/higher versions and keep that consistent. I fail a lot but my players don't seem to mind (or if they do, they just tolerate me as a DM).

 

[aco175]

I find that I do more body acting rather than voice acting. I have "floppy head on shoulder" guy which the players know is the local lord. My favorite one is the "ancient aliens" guy with the wild hair. I have to use my fingers as hair spikes though since I'm bald, but the players know right away that they are talking to the captain of the guard.

 

[Rdm]

It’s subtle, but I try to add a few ‘characteristics’ to the speech of different characters. Harishan the Druid is blunt, direct and gruff. There is a bit of ‘gravel’ to his voice and it’s deeper in the throat. He likes using simpler and more direct words. He talks like a blacksmith hitting an anvil.

on the other hand Rime the halfling witch has more of a lilting voice, a bit farther forward in the mouth and rising and falling, sort of a slightly mocking tone. She uses the big words, plays word games, and in general talks like a swashbuckler in a rapier fight.

My halfling bard, on the other hand, has a slightly cheerful note in her voice, about a midrange in the mouth voice and uses a lot of ‘compromise’ words.


It is not precisely ’accents’ but it’s enough characteristics that if I had both in the same
party you couldn’t mistake one for the other.

 

[Nytmare]

I'm all over the place, it depends too much on the game, the system, and the other players and their comfort levels.

I've been in table top games that were almost method acting LARPs, and I'm currently running a game where we're actively trying to squash roleplaying (ie typing in funny voices) over crafting narrative text. My preference changes too much in response to the group and how invested I am in things.

 

[Nytmare]

That recent UK comedy D&D game there were plenty of American accents

I forget what podcast it was, but there were an easy half dozen brilliant episodes of Dogs in the Vineyard where a bunch of brits did the absolute WORST cowboy-movie-western accents you can imagine.

What does get challenging is doing variants on accents though. It's one thing to come up with two distinctly different accents, it's another to come up with male/female, deeper/higher versions and keep that consistent. I fail a lot but my players don't seem to mind (or if they do, they just tolerate me as a DM).

It's not necessarily any easier, but what I used to try doing was to set in my brain not what accent I was imitating, but what character in a movie I was trying to imitate.

 

[Lucas Yew]

As least as possible. My nature is kilometers more of a gamer, way less an actor...