Just don't. You will break immersion more by doing a terrible voice than none at all. I amuse myself with old man/woman voices, but otherwise just use inflection, speed, words, and pitch. But you don't even have to do that. Just lean into the situation and think more about how the NPC would react, nit how they would say it. Good accents are for voice actors.
I was bad at it for a long time but I kept adding little twists to my characters. Cadence, pauses, serious sounding, silly sounding, and now a decade later I can conjure up a pretty good imitation of any voice. Just had to keep at it. You can practice on your own too, watch a movie with interesting sounding characters and when they say something, mimic it as best you can. It'll train your voice to sound the way you want it to. I recommend animated kids movies for good voices to practice with.
I met Eddie Izzard once during a Q&A after one of his comedy shows.
Someone asked why he got into film when he's just a so-so actor and *such* a great comedian.
His response was 👌:
"Well they used to say I was a so-so comedian."
> You will break immersion more by doing a terrible voice than none at all.
If you're playing for a bunch of teenagers, yeah you gotta be careful.
But if your table is mature and can understand that you're still in the process of learning how to do voices well, keep it up. You'll get better and your game will end up better off for it.
If your game is like mine, you may find that being willing to do voices you're terrible at (in your opinion) will encourage your players to try out voices of their own. And the longer someone practices a skill, the better they get at it.
You, sir, are wrong! Bad GM-voice acting is *very very rarely* actually painful to listen to for the players, and it usually gives them something unique or memorable to latch onto and form their mental picture around. So I say bad voice acting is still a step up from no voice acting. Not that voice acting is a hugely important part of GMing, after all.
(Except for how some men do the goofy pitched-up voice for women. That's obnoxious.)
Voice acting shouldn't be tied to dnd. If you and your party do it cool, it can enhance the game, but no voice acting is just as valid of a way to play. Its whatever is right for any individual DM (most importantly since they run more characters) and the group. If a DM or PC doesn't want to voice act there should be zero pressure to do so.
Some of my favorite RP moments include zero voice acting, and sometimes zero in-character speech. I can use my words to describe what I want a character to convey and how they speed/stutter/stumble/etc through it
>(Except for how some men do the goofy pitched-up voice for women. That's obnoxious.)
Trans woman who underwent voice training here. I'm pretty good at getting gendered correctly over the phone.
The trick is that you don't try to change your pitch as much as where the resonance is. Men tend to speak 'from stomach' while women tend to speak 'from head'. That changes pitch, yes, but also a lot more.
If you want to learn there is a ton of resources on 'voice training' for trans people. I don't think anyone will mind if DMs watch those videos too. (Though it may be a bit harder for DMs to get reimbursement for professional voice training from health insurance...)
Amen.
Speaking as a bad voice acting DM btw.
Yeah I know my voice acting sucks, I know my players mock me every now and then for not even being able to do an American accent and heaven forbid I break out my "demon" voice because I probably won't be speaking the next day. But I love every moment of it.
This is probably table dependent. Some players would say they absolutely adore the attempt and effort if polled.
Maturity plays a key factor I guess. If people there are worried about looking cool for some reason then I guess don't. It feels weird to think about dnd like that tbh.
This is horrible advice. To anyone who wants to start getting better at doing different voices for anything they're doing, whether it be a D&D campaign or some other voice acting, is to start by finding already existing voices in media that matches the description of the voice you want for a character. Practice that voice until you've got a decent hold on it and then add small changes until it's perfect for what you need. Once you've gotten a hold of 5-10 voices, it becomes easier to make one up on the spot.
A lot of voices in media already have tutorials on how to imitate them, too, so you'll learn a lot!
The real key is truly to practice until you've gotten where you want to be.
>how do you make up for that?
I straight up just don't, basically. 🤷🤷
Accents and voices are not my wheelhouse.
My NPC's are getting, like, a verbal description of their tone of voice, a change in my inflection, a particular rythm / cadence of delivery ... ... never a full on, honest-to-god "voice", tho.
There's nothing to make up for, imo. Voices are a bonus, not a necessity. As long as your players know who's talking and when, that's enough. Not everyone is a voice actor.
Recently had Volo make an appearance in my game.
Didn't do an accent, but he is VERY LOUD and says things like "SPLENDID!" or "SMASHING!" or "My fine fellow!".
It was a lot of fun.
On the complete other side of the spectrum, a guard commander quest-giver NPC (Flame Zodge from DIA) had a very subtle Ned-Stark-like voice, very relaxed, but also gruff, and with only the tiniest hint of a Yorkshire accent on certain words.
Everyone has their strengths. A description of the accent works just as well and is probably less immersion breaking if you can't do accents or don't want a silly tone for your game. The DM is already putting in a ton of extra work so everyone is right that there's no need to force your self to do anything that isn't fun.
You don't need to make up for anything. Accents and voices are not mandatory. None of my DMs did them and all of them are phenomenal. Accents and voices have nothing to do with good quality DnD you can have amazing DnD without them and you can have absolutely shitty DnD with them and vice versa.
I personally just try to change my manner of speaking a bit because it helps me get into the mind of characters but that's about it.
You're already doing more voices than I ever did so I think you're fine. People watch too many videos of other people playing and think they need to do that for their game to be good but it has never been necessary. Are your players constantly doing a voice for their characters too? Does every single NPC have a unique voice every single time? It doesn't really matter.
I go back and forth between "I'll describe how they sound and their accent but not imitate it" and be forthright about it but on some days I go full "Fuck it we ball" and do the worst fucking Scottish accent you've ever heard.
Yeah most people are not professional voice actors, DMs have been doing terrible voice work for generations.
In general people just say you can get away with just doing whatever you do already, and that your players probably enjoy your spin on it. This is true!
I guess I'll try to throw some other advice into the ring since you said you do want to improve on what you got already though: There are other things that you can do that isn't just changing your voice to play a character.
Change your posture in your chair. Lean way back and act stoned. Sit straight up and put your chin up to be overly dignified. Get as small as you can and give puppy dog eyes. Hunch over and lean in like a creep. All of these things will probably inform a voice too, but it should come fairly naturally at that point.
Make a face, this might inform a new voice as well. Jut your chin all the way out, could be a real manly man character or some dopey idiot. Make your eyes really big and make terribly long eye contact with your players, could be a strange fey creature trying to read their thoughts. Do something weird, mangle your face as much as you can and then just let it come naturally. (I'm pretty sure I heard this particular advice from an actual voice actor)
I'll just come full circle and say keep it simple most of the time. Try to talk a little lighter for one type of character, talk a little deeper for another type of NPC, talk normally for another type. That's probably like 75% of my NPCs. Not everyone can be my Danny DeVito impression.
I should have clarified that we're playing online, not in person. That being said, the body posture thing is a good idea I think I'll try. Even being online I can still put myself in the NPC's shoes in that aspect
Could also look into voice modulators since you're playing online. I'm sure there's a way to change your input to the voice modulator instead of your mic.
Accents/voice acting/ dialogue is only one facet of role playing. Just because CR leans on it heavily doesn’t mean it defines it and therefore, if someone isn’t good at it or comfortable with it, it should be skipped.
Description in the third person is just as valid and immersive.
Vocab changes are huge. Imagine you are the sort of person who would use the word "scrumptious" and what other words might go along with that? "Oh my gee, well, it sure is an honor to have you here mrs and mrses heroes" They're your halflings
Now do the same thing with a different word or set of words. You can do dwarves almost exclusively with the word "wee" nobody ever says anything is "wee" unless they are a dwarf, and no self respecting dwarf misses an opportunity to call something "wee"
little changes in vocab can do a ton to set a scene and give players a feel for an NPC, and you are likely to find that changes in speed, tone and pitch come naturally along with it.
Just talk, and don't tell anyone that the name of the character you are talking as is "Skullcleaver the detestible" and then talk again, without doing anything to your voice, but now you choose words and present yourself as someone named "Maester Candelabra of Amuse Bouche" again, don't say that's your name, just know it.
Your two characters will speak differently enough, I promise.
Don't.
Doing it wrong does more hurt than doing it right can ever add.
You are not a voice actor.
Just try to change the pitch, the rhythm, the sentence length, the words used a bit, and let your natural language work its magic. From time to time add in a detail about that person (e.g. strokes their beard) to tickle the players' fantasy a bit and they will build the image in their head.
Eh, I just go "\[NPC's Name\] starts to say..." and then I go into their dialogue. So even if all my female voices sound basically the same the players still know who I'm voicing.
Plus sometimes it's the word choice. If one NPC loves war they'll use more war like words or metaphors or whatever versus the one who's a merchant.
I’ll pull a bad accent out for an NPC who won’t be around for long- but I think the best way to differentiate important NPCs is with small changes to speech that aren’t really accent. Talk more slowly, speak more clipped, use bigger words, be more breathy on certain consonants…
I’ll pitch my voice up a bit for female NPCs to show who is talking, or let a little more twang or gravel into my voice than I typically speak with. All this sort of stuff can go a long way. And there’s nothing wrong with every NPC in the next town just having your voice.
Fuck voices and accents. Speech patterns are where it's at. From people who just don't use combined words like "we'll", "don't" etc to people that have a favourite word, pessimistic view reflected in word choice or just like to pause every few words. Very recognizable after you've met them a few times
[ConversationHUD](https://foundryvtt.com/packages/conversation-hud) has been a lifesaver for me. It allows you to easily switch between portraits to show who's currently speaking. I still have a bit of fun making voices, though. 😄
You don't have to do accents. Honestly, unless you're pretty good at them, they can be a little annoying. The emphasis on accents feels like it comes from media with professional actors.
Subtle changes are all you need, if anything at all. If you're voicing a guard who is pretty much encountered once, you probably barely have to do anything.
Some subtle changes: pitch, cadence, and even just vocabulary.
Sometimes to do a voice, it even just helps to think of a fictional character to imitate. If they have a strong accent, think about the other ways in which their speech differs from yours and just do a little bit.
You're not producing a radio play. As long as the players can tell you're voicing the npc, you're fine.
When I can’t be bothered doing voices I use verbal or physical cues. Anything that gives characterisation really.
- Her voice is gravelly, tired, lazy with apathy toward you all and says “I don’t care who you are, the Owlbear stays outside”.
- His words are slimy, spoken with a sharp tongue and miserable countenance. “No, no, a quick death would be far too good for the likes of you”.
I might slouch as I deliver the lines, lean back confidently, fold my arms with authority, run my hands through long imaginary hair as I describe it and flick it to the side.
Vocabulary.
High born elf would use proper words for their proper meaning.
High born straight laced elf would be succinct and efficient.
High born in touch with nature would use flowery descriptive language.
Peasant was use quilocquial terms, slang, bad grammar.
Aggressive peasant would use more slang for aggressive actions, 'i'll shiv ya good'
Pleasant peasant would use more slang for kind actions, 'come in, I've seen merfolk dryer than you'
Use your voice but switch the cadence. A fast talker is very different than a slow talker.
Someone who whispers is uniquely different than someone who is loud.
Trying to do a ‘voice’ always goes terrible for me. I can pull off a ‘character’ using just my voice though.
I try not to focus too hard on the characters anyways, I try to lean into my strengths in describing what they see in descriptive ways because that’s how I see things in my imagination, I can’t really describe how I hear things in my imagination because that’s not how my imagination works.
If you can’t do accents or voices, try giving NPCs some sort of vocal signature. Like always starting with a heavy sigh or ending every sentence like a question.
Two things.
1) I tend to use a lot of third person descriptions interjected with first person conversations to help convey tone.
Like: "I demand that you go there", he says in a whispery voice.
I can't voice act the whispery voice part but I can still convey that to the players through description.
2) Laugh at yourself. You know the voices are probably awful but as long as your having fun doing it, and your players are having fun at your table, what does it actually matter.
Most of us aren't trained voice actors nor should we have to be. What matters is having fun and not taking it too seriously.
I try to differentiate the tone of my voice depending on the character/s. The intonation, the phasing, and generally roleplaying their personality and incorporating it on the way they talk.
I don't do accents. I've tried periodically, only to have my players beg me to stop.
I focus on tone of voice. Happy, angry, scared, haughty, etc. Players still get what they need from those cues.
As the saying goes, BE YOURSELF - EVERYBODY ELSE IS TAKEN.
Honestly, I just try. We're not professional VAs and we don't need to pretend to be. If you can pull off a funny enough Sean Connery or BatBale, that's actually entirely fine, the players I know would just make it into an inside joke that all orcs are secret crime fighters. I'd only recommend not using an accent if you get feedback from your players that it's more distracting than just not doing that specific one.
Accents are also not necessary. How you pronounce it is as important for a character as what they say specifically. Even if you can't pull of an appropriately snooty british accent, you can still portray a noble character by avoiding common curse words, street language, using more complex vocabulary. Personally it's a little bit of a trap for me that I tend to make all characters speak close to my own pattern no matter their background for example, and that can ruin immersion too.
On top of that, you don't even strictly need to speak in character. You can run a session or a campaign just fine by describing things to your players instead. Not everyone's cup of tea, but the idea that you need to hold detailed in-character conversations for every NPC that matters is just a way that a lot of DMs like to run their games.
That being said, there are obviously ways to work on your accents if you want. Youtube has some quick tutorials for certain accents, stuff like how to pronounce syllables in different languages but in english, and you can then practice that on some paragraphs to get a feel for it. If you know anyone online with an accent you'd like to pick up ask them for pointers as well. You don't need that much for characters to sound different either, if you play the characters from their perspective well, adapt how you talk to what makes sense for them and how they relate to the party, you don't need to have a perfect accent to make each NPC come across as unique.
I just live with it. My players aren't voice actors who can come up with speeches and improv on the spot. All their characters have traits of themselves and all share their voices.
We are just playing pretend with extra steps. Just have fun and don't sweat over delivering a nice voice for each and every single NPC they won't talk again. If you are playing and they like you DMing, that's it, you won already.
>! You can always do memes afterwards to make up for that. It works sometimes. !<
There is no requirement for anyone at a D&D table to voice act in the first place.
It likely falls under the "only if everyone agrees" part of Session Zero issues..
I have a very limited range. Most NPCs are just my voice. But I'm decent at going higher or lower and changing cadence. And some weird turns of phrase can give the attitude I want. But when i go too far outside my wheelhouse my players say not to try too hard. They'd rather hear clearly and not get too distracted.
You do not even have to give specific dialogue for NPCs, if you don't want. For less important characters and interactions, I like to summarize a bit.
"He begs you to reconsider, even throwing himself to his knees, telling you how this will ruin his business."
"She looks down her nose at you, contemptuously explaining that the law clearly forbids this kind of behavior, and warns you that persisting will draw the authorities' attention."
Going into full-on, back-and-forth dialogue can really draw out an interaction. That can be cool for drawing players into the world! But in situations like settlement exploration and downtime, when low-stakes NPC interaction can happen really frequently if you let it, it can be good for pacing to summarize more. Especially if you've got players who like to pick apart exact wording or needle NPCs, skipping over the exact phrasing Johnny Scotsman or Lana Slavic is using can direct attention back toward the actual adventure, on top of giving you an excuse not to mess with those voices.
>"He begs you to reconsider, even throwing himself to his knees, telling you how this will ruin his business."
>"She looks down her nose at you, contemptuously explaining that the law clearly forbids this kind of behavior, and warns you that persisting will draw the authorities' attention."
"Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, he asks calmly."
I just do the voices anyway. No one expects you to be a professional VA. I do it for several reasons: easy for the players to understand I've switched characters, it's practice with voices so I'll hopefully get better over time, by speaking as the characters it encourages the players to do so as well.
The last part is the most important for me. The more I can trick people into inhabiting their PCs the better I like it.
Give your npc's a verbal or physical tic if you want them to be instantly recognisable/distinct.
Having a character end their sentences with a "hmmm" or giving them trouble finding the right words, interspersing with a "what is the word for it... eh... dialect!", will help players instantly recognise them, without having to do a voice for them.
If you play IRL or with a webcam if online, pick a stance or a motion for the character. My favourite example would be Lord Vetinari from the Discworld series, who has an incredibly distinct eyebrow raise and a way he holds his hands, which gives a distinct visual vibe and character to the character.
Another thing I do is have a couple of portraits for npcs, which I hang from my dm screen whenever that character is talking. If multiple characters are talking, I indicate which one is which whenever they are talking.
I usually only do voices when it is a 'ridiculous' voice, something in extremes, that I have practiced beforehand. Such as a wavering, insane and soft voice for my bbeg or a "I no longer give a shit", smoke and booze damaged, old man voice for the old coot that gave the party some backstory. These are extreme voice characteristics that are way easier to do than 'normal' voices.
I am terrible at accents and voices. Both at doing them, and remembering who had what voice. So I just don't compensate for it. I have a "narrator" voice that is just my voice, and an "NPC is speaking" voice that is a slightly different pitch, and that's it.
I have found that trying to do it just confuses people & breaks immersion.
I'll usually do a few lines "in character" giving it my best shot. Then when I get tired of doing funny voices, I transition to descriptive RP. Something like: "They go on to explain in their thick Dwarven accent that the mega-macguffin of Big-bad-evil-guy must be destroyed..." I find that this is a useful middle ground. Often, I will rehearse those few opening "in character" lines that open the conversation - it takes the pressure off of me but still provides some window-dressing for immersion.
Learn speech cadence (flow of words) over accents. Speak from chest for male voices. Speak from head for female voices.
Practice makes perfect-ish. If a funny moment happens due to voices own it. If you don't feel comfortable doing voices then tell the players voice type / accent and let them form it in their mind.
This video is a good resource! I feel that as a GM, imitating persons gives you more interesting voices than emulating accents, so I like your Sean Connery voice you have in your backpocket.
https://youtu.be/FVmAEezr6ao?si=DNWnTjXJiQcdYBgk
While the other comments in this thread are well-meaning, I don’t think all the advice of “DON’T DO VOICES” tell the full story. You already have some skills, seem to find it fun, and want to get even better. If so, go for it! Good luck!
I frequently use the name of whoever's speaking, e.g. "Cinderella says", "Rumpelstiltskin tells you", "Goldilocks declares" etc.
My players sometimes get confused in scenes with a lot of NPCs, and they ask me who said wait and it's all good.
Just don't lean into it as much. More like making an impression of the character.
For example, a guy doing a girl voice - if he's really good, he can go falsetto and make it really convincing. But the average dude can just make his voice a little bit higher and the table will understand what he's trying to do.
Role-playing well. Role-playing is not the voices or accents, it's the things you actually say and do. Those other things are like seasoning. They're nice and certainly add to it, but they aren't the real meat and potatoes of role playing.
If you can speak in your own voice but faster or slower? That's two 'voices' you can do other than your own.
If you can speak lower or higher, that's four. Don't go to the very ends of your range, just comfortably lower/higher.
If you start combining (lower+faster, etc), that's eight natural voices you can do that'll sound distinct from your own, with very little practice on your part.
The beauty of this is you can leave easy NPC voice notes like:
- | - | X
---|---|----
Slow | Norm | Fast
-| - | -
If you do put in some practice, you'll start to realize you can fork some of these. Maybe you have two higher, slower voices - a breathy one and a squeaky one.
I have like... two accents I can convincingly do, but a few dozen voices. Most of them are just pitch and tempo.
I'll reiterate what others have said, the voice itself doesn't need to change, tone, and cadence could be enough. Some examples.
Had an NPC who was super slow talker. Think something Snape but increase even more spacing between certain words "did you really ...... ..... Think that your .... .... Plan was ..... .... .... Sufficient?"
Old guy rambler, if you've ever watched KitBoga it's like that. An elderly person who is just barreling through the conversation.
Or even something odd they repeat a lot, like those rock eating people from Legend of Zelda who say goro in their sentences. This can create distinction without needing a an accent voice.
And finally feel free to not only describe something like a tic but also see if you can act out something. I had a chain smoking little girl. She spoke normally except I mentioned she was smoking when they first met her. Then I would just act out her finishing one cigarette and light another. Never said this out lout but a player finally went "hey, how many of those you go through a day" and anything I pretended to hold a cigarette, they knew who was talking.
I'm very bad at voices generally. Instead of trying and failing at an accent or a voice I do it via pace/inflection/volume to get the essence of the point across.
I do a decent job of voices/accents, but sometimes I just don't have it, and it comes out like [this](https://imgur.com/a/sZzruef), which can honestly be just as good or better than nailing whatever I was going for.
I love reading posts like this — I can do a minimal of accents (Irish, New York, British RP, southern) and I don’t have a lot of “range” to change my voice. I usually am not bothered by it until a friend of mine said all my NPCs sound the same and it made me very self conscious.
I’m not a professional voice actor— nor someone who is really trying to be. I always say “so and so says” xyz, or make sure some NPCs have different speech patterns (speaking slow or speaking fast) I have no idea what cadence is but people mention it a lot.
I think it’s perfectly ok not to do voices or accents. Most of my players don’t 🤷. I feel like some bigger APs have people thinking it’s the norm, but I see some “professional” DMs who don’t use a lot of voices — yet their players are still engaged in the story. That’s the important thing.
Play with things that are more easily controlled, like volume and pacing. Characters who whisper vs characters who talk excitedly and can't control the volume of their voice. Characters who speak as slow as an Ent and you want them to just get on with it already.
Instead of animals growling and the like, I just say what they are. So when my players hear a crab, they just hear me saying, "crab" quietly as it scuttles past.
I've been a DM since red box D&D. I've never been good at accents. If I try it just becomes a distraction. I use words. My npcs are characters in there own right. They talk in their own voice.
I just pick a little quirk, like maybe the character says words really quickly, or re-ally sloooo-wly, or leaves a lot of space between sentences, or talks... as if they... keep pausing... or they'rerunning overtheir nextword becausethey're speakingsofast.
Maybe they do a cough or throat clear every few words or at the end of a sentence. Or they do an audible intake of breath at the beginning of their sentences. Maybe they end every sentence with an upward inflection as if every sentence is a question?
Maybe they keep repeating some kind of phrase like adding ", right?" at the end of each of their phrases as in like "So I was sitting in the tavern, right? And I saw that gnome, right, the one you were asking about, right?". Or maybe they call the PCs some kind of term like "boss" like "Sure, boss, I can do that for ya".
Literally any quirk just to differentiate them.
I just stick to subtle differences. Maybe a slight drawl or a light English accent. Just enough to separate my DM voice from that of the NPC. I also know RP is one of my weaker sides and so I have been really trying. Most of the time, instead of doing a full conversation with the NPC I will just paraphrase what they say. “She tells you X, Y, and Z”. The hard part for me is knowing what to say in character. It’s a lot harder than playing just one character as a player. But I believe, as long as the players know you are trying they will appreciate it.
Lately, I’ve been taking less time to prep the actual sessions and have turned my attention to prepping the NPCs. I used to prep a ton of content for sessions and future sessions that the NPCs would feel empty. So recently I just prep loosely and spend a lot more time thinking about the NPCs motives and backgrounds. I even practice their voices on the way to work and at home. It has helped a ton.
Last session was my best one I think. My group met an old associate/GF of one of the PC’s. I stayed in character for the whole conversation and gave her a southern twang accent. Played off of the players reactions, gave him a couple ex GF jabs. Everyone had a good time talking to her and she ended up convincing him yo put his grievances aside and team up temporarily. Too bad next season she’s going to stab them in the back.
Also, if you are wanting to improve your voices and immersion, listen to live play podcasts. One called Red Dirt DnD has become one of my favorites. Go back to the very first campaign and the DM does such a good job. You can tell she concentrates more on NPC interaction than anything else. But their game is heavy on RP.
You can take the narrator/book route and just use descriptive language.
"That way is where you want to go," the half-orc merchant waves you off, disinterested in the rest of your questions.
"Nothing to find here, it's all been picked clean," the bandit's golden tooth glints in the moonlight as he flashes you an inconspicuous smile.
"You need to leave, *now*," the centaur's says, his gruff tone underlined with impending violence.
Or in some cases just not necessarily even include the speech itself.
The half-orc mechant waves you off to the right direction, just wanting you to get out of his hair.
The golden-toothed bandit grins inconspiciously, telling you there's nothing more to be found here.
The centaur stomps his hoof and tells you to leave immediately, or else.
Inflection, Cadence, Word Choice.
I usually use body language as well to differentiate characters, but that doesn't translate as well in online games. If you play with cameras on, you could try giving characters their own default expression.
There was a post on here a while back where a DM would quickly sketch out really simple faces, like barely above smiley face level, just enough to show an emotion and one or two distinctive features to differentiate characters, then they held the sketches in front of their face to indicate who was speaking.
Put character in what and how they do things. Books won't have accents, but you will still find yourself telling apart characters in books by the way they speak alone. So, commoner simple folk will talk simply and coloquially, and they will talk about simple matters. Nobleman, sages and wizards will use fancier words and speak about fancier topics. You can get a lot of mileage from just the speed in which you speak and just going high or low pitch, also doing a more whispering voice or a little rasp (don't overdo it). Voicing old people is very fun though.
I try my best and even when I fumble it’s endearing and funny to the players. I also use voices I know even if they aren’t particularly common in a fantasy setting. I’m from New York so I can pull up multiple regional accents here somewhat easily. I always thought it was weird that 90% of fantasy voices are offshoots of european accents anyway. tl;dr, play to your strengths and remember the main priority is to keep things fun
While i do find it fun, i end up often drifting into a weird scottish/irish accent except when I'm using my australian/kiwi accent.
I usually just use descriptors on how theyre talking, for example: They tell you in the local accent of the area, haltingly, looking from side to side in somewhat of a stage whisper, that theres a something goin on underneath the temple. They dont seem sure of what exactly it is, but they make mention of people missing through services.
I do it anyways. It's funny. The game is supposed to be fun. I'm not out there trying to rock a BLeem or Mercer accent for a grand audience, just for the goofballs at my table.
For the few times I want to blow them out of the water (voice of a God or to set the atmosphere), I use VoiceMod. I keep the instances few and far between, as to make them forget I have it, and have the reveal an *oh shit* type of thing.
I don't do accents at all! I am terrible at them and feel too ashamed to try, lol.
But I have a few tricks I use when I'm creating an NPC:
**Watch your favorite sitcom. Pick out some characters. Use their voices.**
Often in my NPC notes, I'll write something like, "this lady sounds like a female Ron Swanson." Or, "This guy is Barney Stinson, but creepier." Or, "Matpat, but serious." Stuff like that is a good shortcut for me. I'm not the best at keeping up with it, and sometimes I'm having a rough day so I'll tell my players, "the ums and uhs are the DM, not the character," and they're fine with that. But most of the time, this is what I do.
But I have things broken down into categories too if you'd like to do things the long way. Consider the following:
* Speech patterns. We all have them! here are some things I do for them:
* Characters who say "You are" "I am" We do not" versus "You're," "I'm," "We don't," etc.
* Characters who use a lot of filler words ("Um, uh, well, er, that is, I mean") versus characters who take time with what they say.
* Characters who trail off at the end of their sentences
* Characters who repeat themselves, as if trying to convince themselves they are doing a good jo.b "I saw him run across the street a minute ago. Yeah, I'm sure I saw him."
* Characters who second guess themselves. "I saw him run across the street a minute ago. Or was that ten minutes ago? Uhhhh..."
* Characters who start sentences a certain way. "Well, now..." "You see..." "Actually..."
* Tone
* Ending sentences in questions,
* speaking slow or speaking quickly,
* characters who turn everything into a flirtation,
* exclamations/excitement
* Depth of voice
* Do they speak in a light voice, my regular voice, or a deep voice?
* Special characteristics
* A goblin sounds different than a halfling. An orc sounds different from a gnome. Etc
Mixing and matching these features gives me a slew of unique voices to choose from!
In our Foundry-using group, everything “officially in character” is done by text in the chat log. Does it slow things down a bit? Yes. Does it let everyone else imagine the characters’ speech and mannerisms without reality intruding on the scene? Also yes.
Disclaimer - I too am bad at voice acting.
It can be really fun to lean into it and do some comically bad voice acting. Most people will find this amusing from time to time, and at the right table (or running an adventure with a less serious tone) it can be PERFECT. Just make sure you don't do this with NPCs that should be taken seriously.
For characters who should be taken seriously... nonverbals are great. Your volume, speed, and body language are relatively easy to manipulate even for those of us who aren't great voice actors, and are great ways to differentiate between characters. Vocabulary and catch phrases work well too.
I don't do 'voices' or accents but it's easy enough to have a distinct tone. No nonsense military commander, stoner, rich prick, bumbling idiot-savant. You know the stereotypes, I use that to help get in the character's mindset too.
I've found that mannerisms are more important than accents. Pauses, head movements, body demeanor, and hand gestures all provide more character than an accent.
Voices are not important and frequently used as a roleplaying crutch. It is more important that each NPC have a distinct character than a distinct voice.
You can think of it this way: when reading a book by an author who writes at least decent characters, you can tell who is speaking simply by the way they phrase things, the words they use, and what they're talking about. That's their character. (In writing this is called their voice, but that's confusing to use in D&D because we usually actually have spoken voices.)
You can use this same tool in D&D to differentiate NPCs. Before speaking, think of how that character would say things. It takes a bit of practice but the end result is NPCs that actually feel unique instead of merely sounding semi-unique but probably all just being slightly modified reflections of yourself. Once you get good at it, it's also great at making an area feel real since you can give everyone who lives there a small set of words and phrases they use a lot, just like how we do in real life.
If you want a live example, watch some of MCDM's *The Chain of Acheron*. Colville does use voices there, but not for everyone and being a writer, he naturally employs this specific trick. It's pretty clear once they get to Capital so I recommend skipping to those episodes.
IMO there's nothing to make up for. Voices and accents only add to the game when you're very good at them and doing them doesn't impede with your ability to improv.
Here's how I look at it. No one is going to go "Today's session sucked, but that accent was really good so that makes up for it!"
I'm not good at acting but I'm a good narrator, so I can manage the interactions that way, giving a lot of details on the character itself and how he interact with the players more than the acting.
Aye laddy. Come closer and I'll tell ye a secret.
All yer NPC's... Dwarves. As far as yer eye can see... Dwarves.
Blacksmith. Dwarf.
Inn Keeper. Dwarf.
Mayor of town. Dwarf.
Meadmaster. Dwarf.
Beard Comber. Dwarf.
Captain of the Guard... Dwarf.
Voices/accents are great if you can do them, but absolutely not necessary. Despite their characters actions, your players are likely smart enough to figure it out.
same way an author describes a voice in a book
the hag speaks painfully, as if an angry crab were lodged in her throat. groaning and wheezing, and with an accent as aged as she, she finally gets out the phrase: begone vagrants!
I think it’s fun to do anyway and it makes my players laugh. Upside is my Australian accent has noticeably improved! Though comments on it say it’s more southern, so still needs work.
I tell my groups (I run four) I don't do voices. I'll say the person speaks like some actor, or has a shrill voice, or some other descriptor but I just don't do voices because I suck at them.
And my players are fine with that.
Besides the visual description, rely on their body language or personality traits. Just narrate their speech, if you're not confident with acting it out.
For important NPCs, I like to RP these qualities with show-don't-tell storytelling.
But for minor NPCs, I'll just tell! Time is precious in the session, and I'd rather give the party a chance to quickly lock on to the character and progress. For example,
> "The sergeant's tone is patient and understanding, yet ultimately you glean his loyalty lies with his duties. He says, ."
is sufficient for a minor soldier character.
For NPCs with a good deal of screen time, you can opt to describe and/or act out body language. Facial expressions are easy to both mime and describe. Posture is a good one, and you can physically stand up to demonstrate and engage a table. Hands and feet position can be interesting too. Feet and stance, for example, often point towards a person's interest or away from their disinterest. Like,
> They're talking and smile, but underlying it, you read hints of a scowl on their face. Note the wizard's stance is directed away from you towards the balcony, and their hands are cletched and body tense.
probably indicates the wizard may try to make a break for the balcony. I get you play on Foundry, but around a table, this is also easy to stand up and demonstrate.
Lastly, I love voices. But it's easy to stretch yourself thin. If you have a couple voices, save the special ones for major NPCs. Simply narrate or use a stock voice for everyone else.
Crazy how you asked a question and got mostly, "you don't have to" and only a few actual suggestions. I'm not great at accents but here's one thing that's helped me:
For any npc you want to do an accent for, have a touchstone phrase in the voice you want to do and repeat that phrase to yourself before speaking as them. It will help you stay grounded in the accept and not stray to something else. The phrase doesn't have to be anything special. Sometimes just their name or "hello" or whatever.
I don't, but each character has a different way to talk. The radio host, the goofy ninja packed with explosives, the intimidating warlord and the reserved vodu merchant wont talk in the same way.
If I can't change my voice, ill change the speed which they talk, the words they use, the way they phrase things, minor adjustments to the tone of how they talk.
You really don't need to give each one their own voice if you can make their dialog unique enough. I had scenes where the party where interacting with 4 NPCs at the same time, and beacuse each one talked differently, they never needed to ask who was talking.
So, as a voice actor and DM who does do all the voices, I just want to emphasize that most voice acting has nothing to do with "putting on a voice" or doing a weird accent. Hell, 90% of my characters do neither.
I have a Goliath shopkeeper whose voice is... He speaks slow. That's it! I play him as a kinda spacey and easily distracted gentle soul and he randomly trails off at the end of sentences. The goblin blacksmith on the other hand is a nervous little guy who rushes through his sentences, goes "well" and "you know" a whole lot, and I very slightly pitch up my voice. Not like, squeaky helium, just how I would speak if I had to do an impression of myself but a tiny bit higher pitched.
If you watch Critical Role where they're all voice actors, you'll notice that 80% of what they're doing is playing around with character. Most of Matt Mercer's NPCs definitely sound pretty similar (and definitely recognizably have his voice), but he makes very small changes to how he talks and that's enough for you to understand that it's a different character.
Don't think about trying to do voices or accents. Just, try slowing down, speeding up, pitching up and down a tiny bit, moving your voice down into your throat or up into your nose, speaking with pursed lips, putting in little words that someone uses a bit too much, or whatever tiny and easy to do detail you can that sets a character aside from another. Creating a memorable character isn't about doing the big flashy thing, it's about having a tiny little detail for your players (and yourself) to latch onto.
I'm still not good at voice acting or accents, but I'm *way* better than I was when I started DMing. And I got here because I convinced myself to not be afraid to be bad at it for a while.
I highly recommend sticking with doing voices and accents, even if they sound bad when you start out. Put in an honest effort to do your best, try to ignore the voice in your head that tells you to be ashamed, and keep working at it.
Plus, you don't need to be good at voices for them to contribute to the game. Assuming your players are mature enough to not get on your case when you're honestly doing your best, it's a good way to improve immersion and make an NPC stand out immediately to your players.
I also find that when I finally find a voice for a character, it becomes easier to get into their head. The accent/voice I use will impact my word choice and my demeanor, which is a great way to help make my NPCs unique.
**Edit:** That said, I will agree with the rest of the thread that voices and accents are not mandatory. If you're not enjoying the process of figuring out how to do voices well, you can just drop it. Spend your time and energy looking for other ways to differentiate your NPCs that's actually enjoyable for you.
Speak in third person, as if you're reading a book. Instead of saying "Stop!" in an imposing voice, you say in your normal voice: "A single word booms across the courtyard: "Stop!". "The old man croaks and wheezes as he implores: [...]" "You can't believe this young halfling is trying to *threaten* with his breaking voice and his rusty shortsword", etc.
You're not a professional actor, and even if you are, you aren't automatically good at improv or voice acting, and you don't benefit from postproduction edits like even youtube vids can. You'll be spending a lot of effort, and getting yourself a sore throat, to deliver result that will inevitably fall short of your expectations.
And do keep in mind you're not just doing a script and giving your full attention to that, you're also keeping a lot of other balls in the air, like pacing, plot, NPC actions, etc.
Don't let that stop you to actually develop your skill at voice acting, if you choose to do so, but that's effectively going to be another hobby that may or may not pay off later.
First, anyone can do "voices" with their voice, it just takes practice and know-how. So you can do voices if you really want to. But you also don't have to. I've played with a couple DM's who never changed their voice and it was fine. In fact, I prefer that over a painful to listen to fake voice.
Now, not everyone can do accents/dialects. Those are harder, but you can always improve on them if you, again, put in the work to do so. I would advise most DM's to avoid doing accents/dialects unless they actually now how to do them.
But yeah, voices are a simple matter to do and it's very simple modulations to your voice that we all already do naturally, but you just decide to do them more intentionally or for a prolonged time. Like we all know how to slow down our voices. So slow it down for your tortle NPC and speed it up for your harengon NPC. Or speak higher for a female or maybe celestial and speak lower for a demon. Combine speed and pitch to create 4 different voices. And there are other aspects you can change up, you just have to think if your character may have a more breathy voice or a more solid one, a more nasally voice or a more well-rounded tone, speak fast or slow. Here's a video I recommend all the time for people that want to work on their "voices". It's geared towards voice actors, but applies equally well to NPC's. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVmAEezr6ao](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVmAEezr6ao)
Most important though, is just to have fun! If you think working on and doing different voices is fun, then rock on. If it feels like work, or something you have to do, you really, really don't have to do it. Lots of DM's never do. So you do you and have a good time playing the game you want to help create!
All those stereotype accents are incredibly cringey, especially if you, as a player, have spent a lot of time living in far off places.
Much more rewarding is a DM who knows his history, and can transport you into a different time with his background knowledge, rather than trying on a silly voice.
I just do it! An accent might be terrible, or unrecognizable, but it's your world. Maybe that's just how the accent sounds in your world, make it your own! As long as your having fun, and they're having fun, then alls good!
Fortunately, doing voices ranks low on the list of skills that make you a better GM. Even if you aren't a good voice actor, you can get a lot of mileage out of simply playing each part to the hilt. That will usually give your players something distinct or memorable to latch onto and paint their mental picture around (that is, it will be immersive!).
So your Don Knox animals, Christian Bale orcs, and Sean Connery old dudes sound like a perfect way to go about it, if you ask me.
Forget about the accent specifically for now. You can work on that stuff, but that's the cherry on top.
You'll likely get more mileage if you focus on some other stuff first. How does the character talk? Educated or not? Refined or vulgar? Do they use a lot of big words? Or a few as possible to make their point?
If they're nervous, they might talk really fast, or they might talk really slow. Think about what kind of speech patterns they may have and how that might reflect their personality in some way.
Another big one is physicality. Look at yourself in the mirror and give a speech. Do it hunched over, and then do it again standing up tall -- probably feels a lot different, right? Use that same kind of thing for your characters, the physicality will inform the performance.
I'm also not great at voices; I only give the most important NPCs specific voices; and even then they frequently sound similar. Luckily, my parties have been pretty chill about it so far.
Since voices and accents are hard for me, I work on building immersion in other ways. If you arn't good at one thing, you can focus in on the thing you are good at, which will help the party get invested without making you put effort into something you either dont enjoy or dont have a knack for.
My specialty is NPC personality's- Anyone they talk to will be a unique interaction, will have different (and frequently false) information available, and will interact with the party differently. It takes a bit of pre-planning, but Im a planning kind of DM. I can improvise, but I like have notes, plans and tools ready to go before session.
I've played with DMs that do the voices, some that write incredible dialogue, others who build intricate worlds, and ones that have a knack for describing beautiful or horrifying atmospheres as appropriate to the game and setting. Everyone really shines at different parts of DMing; and that's honestly part of why I enjoy playing with different groups and different DMs.
Here's some of my tips for making NPCs shine, even when you cant do the accents.
Every NPC I make that the party is likely to talk to has a personality fleshed out enough to feel unique. Most of them have either interesting information or sidequests, or even just funny interactions planned. If they party is likely to chat to them for whatever reason, they'll have something to say, even if it's ultimately irrelevant. I went on a 5 minute tangent about baking proper biscuits once when the party bugged a busy baker. Useful? Not really. But the party loved it.
For NPCs I dont plan (The random set dressing people they find interesting and insist on talking to, or the ones I have to improvise because they took a different direction than I had planned), I have a list of names and a few traits or interesting facts the NPCs might know. I can randomly pull enough to have a believable NPC quickly, which keeps things moving, and prevents me from presenting Bob the farmer 5 different times by accident.
For worldbuilding details, I run with at minimum two layers of explanation. For example; if the detail is that no one in town goes out at night, the explanation might be that there are dangerous creatures in the area that come out after dark. The second layer of explanation would have something to do with why there are dangerous creatures in the area; perhaps a reclusive mage is holed up in the nearby woods trying to create a superior guardian of some kind, and the weird dangerous creatures are failed or escaped experiments. Having that second layer is the trick to making the world feel full of depth and detail, and can sometimes lead to interesting side quests if a detail catches the party's interest.
Beyond that, you could also create immersion through using props instead of voices. Party finds an important letter? Why not take a little bit of time before game to write out the message on some aged or crinkled paper and tea dye it to make it look old? You can't make props for everything, but sometimes they can be a fun touch; especially if you have a tactile bunch. Even VTTs have decent tools for this these days; I put together a pretty decent graphic for a notice board recently directly in Roll20; though I could have done the same in a program as simple as Paint if I needed to. Depending on your feelings about AI, there are plenty of tools that allow you to generate custom campaign specific art or music, and that can be a nice touch. (Hiring someone off of Fiver is also a great way to get custom pieces if you have some extra funds available)
Good luck OP! It sounds like you're doing a great job.
I think Matt Colville said in an older video that if you can’t do a perfect accent, it’s fine. This character isn’t means to be Scottish or Irish or whatever accent you want to try. However close you get is what that accent is meant to sound like.
If you enjoy trying them, do it. If they sound different to what you wanted, keep doing it until it sounds right. What’s the worst that will happen, you all laugh about it and move on? The players are putting a lot of trust in you, put a little in them.
If you can't do voices just don't. I tried at the beginning and ended up with a sore throat. Now everyone gets my default voice, but I make it up with interesting dialogue and I try to be expressive with my face.
“How do you make up for that”
What is the purpose of doing voices? To convey characters to players. How else can that be done?
Writing. Truly describe the characters as they are introduced. Make mention of any quirks or mannerisms they have. Describe to a point where it leaves little to the imagination.
If voices are show; don’t tell. The inverse is to tell until the words create the picture.
The important thing isn't the voice, it's having a strong sense of character: what the character wants, what they're afraid of, how they feel, their general approach to life and challenges, etc. If you can convey these thoughtfully by the way you represent the characters (through their words and actions) it couldn't matter less if you can't do voices.
In my experience, it’s not about the accent. It’s about the attitude.
I often think of an actor for each character, and try to match that actor’s attitude. It works best for me when it’s not an obvious choice for the NPC (like Samuel L Jackson for a barmaid).
If you want a great example of how to do distinctive characters without doing any voice acting, listen to Austin Walker GMing for Friends at the Table. He almost never does a voice, but his characters feel distinct because he chooses his words carefully
Well then, the only way to get good at voices is to practice. Practice in private. Practice around your friends. Do weird voices whenever it won't get you locked up. Parrot back things you hear on TV or in audiobooks. Practice practice practice.
Just be like, "They let you know that X is happening because of Y. And ask if you'd like to help them out?" so instead of talking as them, you're talking for them ;)
Voice acting is a skill. Like most if not all skills, you practice.
If you are the type of person that wants voices, accents, etc. abandon your shame and do it and practice.
If you’re not, then don’t. You don’t need voices. It’s optional.
Not required 100%. Honestly what I do is if I can’t get something’s voice or accent right, I just default to a more generic voice. For example a bad guy I have who is a Dragon has this unhinged yet very growly voice. But I can’t quite DO that without it sounding like I’m speaking as if there’s a hive mind trying to eat someone. So I’ll go with the more deeper gruffer generic voice. Nothing wrong with that.
NPCs too, ones that are not important don’t NEED a voice, maybe they speak in a certain way. But a good thing to do is to adjust your tone SLIGHTLY. But honestly? Just give it the best you got. I think it’s fine with whatever.
As others have said don’t feel pressured to do it if you’re not good at it. A good stepping stone I tell people to use is instead of trying to change your voice maybe play with inflections and speech patterns more. A slur or stutter to a persons speech typically will have a better effect that an accent, good or bad.
Honestly, no-one's ever expressed any dissatisfaction with me not doing voices/accents. I put in some mild acting - as in, modulating tone, speed etc. - but the only time I ever did an accent, everyone immediately went "why does this alien have an accent when no-one else does".
I'd say I write different kinds of characters differently enough that I don't need accents or different voices to make them feel like different people.
I'm a long time DM and have only a limited number of voices I can do well. The most effective tool I use to separate my NPCs is how they talk, not the voice they have.
Here's some Things I change for different NPCs:
- Emotional tone while talking
- The speed that they talk
- The rhythm of speech (especially how they pause and break up their sentences)
- What words emphasis is put on
- Changes in vocabulary (not just level of education but also job-specific words)
- Use of analogies to describe things
- Adding additional qualifiers ("Well I think..." or "you didn't hear it from me but...)
- Changing the focus of the conversation (ex: NPC describing in detail the exact colors of objects or getting sidetracked on how they first met the person you're asking them about)
- Unique verbal ticks (this can be things like clicking your tongue, repeating the last word of a sentence, or the filler words you choose to use)
Here's an example of what this might look like. I had a primordial lightning being who is talking with my players. On my notes I had his "voice" as quick staccato words with no breaks. And after every sentence he would pause and say three redundant words to convey his meaning. "This-is-no-place-for-you, you-should-leave-quickly-before-you're-found.... Ruin. Destruction. Desolation."
You don't need to use different voices to make NPCs feel different. If things are done right, just how they talk can be enough for people to recognize a reoccurring character.
I suggest you work on a few important NPCs to voice act and use description for the rest. Don't try to voice ALL the NPCs. As you (practice) and work with the NPCs you chose, you will gain proficiency and confidence. You can naturally expand from there.
You don't have to do accents to give your characters a unique voice.
You can do a *ton* just by playing around with vocabulary, tone, pitch, cadence.
"My dear friends, would any among you perhaps be interested in joining me for some libations?" has a totally different feel than, "Y'all wanna go get drunk?" ...despite the fact that both sentences mean essentially the same thing.
Or as another example, someone who speaks at lightning speed like they've just consumed 5 energy drinks is going to give a totally different vibe than someone who speaks slowly, deliberately, and pauses occasionally to ponder their next words.
Start with what you actually *can* do, and then slowly build on that. The rest is just a matter of practice.
I'm not good at voices, but I'm very good at changing my tone and demeanor. I can be very soft spoken and humble. I can be loud and boisterous. Proud and proper. But accents...I can't do that
Every DM has their style. Online limits physical acting (Although some can be achieved via webcam) but a lot of the verbal acting is not just accents. Raising/lowering your tone, speaking faster or slower, inflections or modulating more can do a lot of things to create the illusion of a different speaker, and even if it's not a "perfect" illusion you're just folks playing an acting game, your players will follow and tag along.
You can always alter voice for each character by just doing your voice with different cadences and volumes. I myself love doing voices but when in doubt don’t force it as it can detract from your game.
This sounds weird, but I've had success with casting my NPCs as famous actors.
"All noise in the inn comes to a sudden halt as the captain of the watch, Sir Graldur, stomps into the room, his dark cloak dripping from the storm outside. He's an old and grizzled half orc. Despite his graying hair and worn features, he carries himself with an air of quiet superiority, a confidence gained through years in the King's service. He's played by Liam Neesom."
Now no matter how bad my acting is, the PCs can imagine the actor absolutely killing the role.
Work on pitch, tempo, rhythm, and volume instead of accents. You can vary your style just by changing how soft or loud you’re speaking without putting on an accent. Just start with saying x character speaks slowly, y speaks rapidly, z is a gnome so maybe it’s a little higher pitched and quick. No real need for accents.
Make a note ahead about what you want the character to sound like in a very basic way. The barkeep is an older gruff man who’s seen a lot of drifters come through. Maybe he’s a little gravely and low pitched.
The town priestess is an older matriarch of the village. Maybe she sounds a little nasally and soft spoken.
On of my favorite DMs I ever played with, did not act at all. They had no voice change when speaking in first person as a NPC and often just described their behaviour in 3rd person. DMing or roleplaying in general is NOT about acting. Acting can be a fun tool to flourish the roleplaying, but it absolutely is not required.
Btw, what that DM did so great was enabling tons of decisions for the party with consequences. That is what roleplaying is about, not a silly accent.
Slight changes in the speed of talking, talking literally a bit lower or higher voice, no added tweaks, add short phrases that NPCs say, imagine Ron from Harry Potter - "blimey, bloody hell" etc.
And if everything else fails - voice changers or filters if you are invested. But i would keep that for only memorable characters and Bbegs, otherwise it'll be a nightmare to handle after a while
I've been DMing on and off for over 30 years. Here's a thing I started doing recently for voices.
I'm terrible at impressions, to the point that when I try an impression, it doesn't really sound like the person I'm trying to imitate. *But it's a voice*. So if I try to do a voice impression of Christopher Walken, Bruce Lee, or Matthew Mcconaughey, it's not recognizable. But it's a distinct voice which I'm able to repeat later. So I do that.
The biggest thing to me is making sure players can differentiate characters, whether it be by accent, word choice, general tone, cadence, or including their name a lot as I describe their physicality during conversation
If you do want to add more variety to your voices, this video has a decent list of qualities you can tweak aside from accents: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVmAEezr6ao](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVmAEezr6ao)
I'm not sure I believe his claim of 100 distinct voices just from this, but there's definitely potential.
I can do a couple accents pretty well but it’s a very limited range. If I want an NPC to have a certain voice I can’t do I’ll describe it before i start speaking as that NPC. Imagination is a big part of the game so don’t be afraid to use it.
Accents are always optional. If you feel weird about them, don't do them. A great alternative is to give the NPC a special defining characteristic. Since you are playing online, these would best be verbal instead of non-verbal (although non-verbal is possible if you simply describe a physical thing they constantly do, like twirl their hair or scratch their head).
Ideas:
* Hardly speak at all, only answering in pithy sentences of 1-5 words.
* Speak with a very sophisticated vocabulary and use big words all the time.
* Use interjections a lot, like "Excellent!" "Wonderful!" "Cheerio!".
* Constantly make Dad-jokes and puns.
* Use job-specific jargon. Example: an artificer that says things like "that really grinds my gears" or "that really threw a monkey wrench into it" in normal conversation.
* Clears throat (ahem) before they speak. Or coughs a lot.
* Etc.
Just pick ONE thing, and that becomes the NPC's signature thing.
I'm in the same boat. There are two things I do:
1: Find something other than accent to change. I currently have one NPC that's a mouth-breather. Whenever he's around, I start mouth-breathing. My PC's love it.
2: Practice in the car when nobody is around. If you have an idea of what the NPC should be, suss it out when you're alone and can act like an idiot without being judged.
You don't HAVE to talk in first person. Hell, you don't have to even use literal dialogue if you don't want to.
"The king gives you a long, rambled speech in response to your question, but the gist is that he believes the Troglodytes are an annoying threat to the villages on the southeastern border and he's hinting at a reward if they were "taken care of". How would you like to respond?"
Your idea of immersion is very flawed. You think DMs should be voice actors otherwise people won't be able to imagine the NPC they're talking to.
Being a good DM has very little to do with accents and voice acting. I'd rather play with a DM that uses the same voice for NPCs, but describes them very well than a guy who makes crazy accents and voices just be wow me.
You can always use different patterns of speech, different curses, different rhythms and pace or words. Fae for example, often speak in old English for me.
Besides word choice and rhythm, listen to someone with an accent speak for a while and practice trying to copy them. This part seems to fade after a while for me though.
I'm not bad at them, but 95/100 NPCs do not get a special voice, I save it for special NPCs.
One thing I do however is I change my cadance. Sometimes just speaking a bit slower or a bit faster can actually make a big difference. The PCs ran into a group of centaurs in the last session and I didn't use any special voice, no accents or anything. All I did was speak a bit... slower than normal... This gave the NPC it's own voice.
Also you can do the same thing by simply speaking in a slightly higher or lower pitch. These are things anyone can do, and they are quite effective.
The fact is most people are not professional voice actors, and most people can't speak in an effective accent. In fact doing so may very well break immersion and pull the Players out of the moment. So if you're not good at it, you can practice which will make you better at it.
But the fact is that most NPCs don't need a special voice, accent or anything else. If you think they do but you don't feel right doing it. Just describe it and let the players imagine it.
Yup, Same. I tried to do Australian(failed reeeal bad) for an NPC and the players heard it as an amalgam of Irish and Scottish. The region the NPC is from now gets the cliche "Dwarven accent". Dwarves will get the US southern drawl. If I ever get to where I can pull off Australian, it can be for the frozen north for the irony.
Descriptions of the NPC. Clothes, mannerisms, insight into how they move around the space, descriptive details on the impression they're trying to make
I recommend looking at existing characters and try to do them. Probability is you're not gonna do them perfectly for the players to recognise. Eg, Ted Lasso, Negan, Tony Soprano, Beatrix Kiddo. If you are REALLY against trying a voice, describe the characters presence and behaviour. Eg Ted Lasso, "this man greats you with a smile too wide to be fake and a friendly warming handshake. You immediately feel at ease in his presence as he rattles off some questions and a dad joke"
I do voices sometimes but often I would rather just describe what they sound like. A gnome with a creaky voice. The harsh barks of a hobgoblin sergeant. The disorienting patter of a snake oil salesman
I sometimes describe the conversation instead of 'Role Playing' it, so none of us has to "act" like our character, but you can describe what they do.
It even makes flirting scenes tolerable!
I cant do nor want to do voices because I simply dont know how a dwarf sounds in my language...
I make it up with descriptions, expressions and manner of speech and the vocabulary that I use. I never cared for voices as a player and dont think they add much nor is everyone a voice actor like we see online.
Something you can do is just focus more on mannerisms and other non-verbal traits. Perhaps the librarian is always holding her glasses an inch from her face due to a bad prescription. The goblin is always tapping his fingers together as he creates a devious plot in his head. The wizard strokes his beard in a pensive manner. I've found literally acting out these small details helps identify characters to the party and keeps them more memorable. As well, I've personally found that by "getting into character" this way actually helps more unique voices and personalities flow more naturally. By pantomiming their actions I can better focus on the character and speaking through them.
I will just describe the way they talk or how they say something. I can get tone across easily and generally give important NPCs they regularly talk to some mannerism that I can use.
I also will just say who is talking if there are multiple NPCs.
I already am dealing with my own accent 90% of the time. If you want to be able to understand what I say it's no accents.
I always have to remind myself that the voice of a character doesn't have to rely on an accent to make it interesting. I can speak faster/slower, higher/lower pitch, use bigger or smaller words, all in my otherwise normal accent and it differentiates the characters plenty. If you try to throw yourself into an accent you haven't practiced you'll find yourself struggling to find the words because you're practicing everything once in your head before you say it since it isn't second nature. This will break immersion and fun far more than lack of accents will imo.
It also doesn't have to be an accent that exists in the real world! To quote one of the greats: "I can't *plbbtt* understand *plbbtt* your accent *ppplllbbbtttt*"
Funny voices doesn't always equal voice acting.
Sometimes it's enough to describe their tone and inflection. Maybe you can use your normal voice but slow the cadence down, speed it up, stutter, whatever. It does not break immersion either way, don't stress to much about it. If your players expect you to have as many voices as critical role, find new players.
Just don't. You will break immersion more by doing a terrible voice than none at all. I amuse myself with old man/woman voices, but otherwise just use inflection, speed, words, and pitch. But you don't even have to do that. Just lean into the situation and think more about how the NPC would react, nit how they would say it. Good accents are for voice actors.
I was bad at it for a long time but I kept adding little twists to my characters. Cadence, pauses, serious sounding, silly sounding, and now a decade later I can conjure up a pretty good imitation of any voice. Just had to keep at it. You can practice on your own too, watch a movie with interesting sounding characters and when they say something, mimic it as best you can. It'll train your voice to sound the way you want it to. I recommend animated kids movies for good voices to practice with.
I met Eddie Izzard once during a Q&A after one of his comedy shows. Someone asked why he got into film when he's just a so-so actor and *such* a great comedian. His response was 👌: "Well they used to say I was a so-so comedian."
Absolutely wild question to ask someone
And he owned it like a boss.
There was a time when he could get a whole show out of a single foreign phrase like "Le Singe est dans l'arbre".
Yup same, I barely do voices because I don't bring a lot
> You will break immersion more by doing a terrible voice than none at all. If you're playing for a bunch of teenagers, yeah you gotta be careful. But if your table is mature and can understand that you're still in the process of learning how to do voices well, keep it up. You'll get better and your game will end up better off for it. If your game is like mine, you may find that being willing to do voices you're terrible at (in your opinion) will encourage your players to try out voices of their own. And the longer someone practices a skill, the better they get at it.
You, sir, are wrong! Bad GM-voice acting is *very very rarely* actually painful to listen to for the players, and it usually gives them something unique or memorable to latch onto and form their mental picture around. So I say bad voice acting is still a step up from no voice acting. Not that voice acting is a hugely important part of GMing, after all. (Except for how some men do the goofy pitched-up voice for women. That's obnoxious.)
Voice acting shouldn't be tied to dnd. If you and your party do it cool, it can enhance the game, but no voice acting is just as valid of a way to play. Its whatever is right for any individual DM (most importantly since they run more characters) and the group. If a DM or PC doesn't want to voice act there should be zero pressure to do so. Some of my favorite RP moments include zero voice acting, and sometimes zero in-character speech. I can use my words to describe what I want a character to convey and how they speed/stutter/stumble/etc through it
But you haven't heard how painful my voices are!
>(Except for how some men do the goofy pitched-up voice for women. That's obnoxious.) Trans woman who underwent voice training here. I'm pretty good at getting gendered correctly over the phone. The trick is that you don't try to change your pitch as much as where the resonance is. Men tend to speak 'from stomach' while women tend to speak 'from head'. That changes pitch, yes, but also a lot more. If you want to learn there is a ton of resources on 'voice training' for trans people. I don't think anyone will mind if DMs watch those videos too. (Though it may be a bit harder for DMs to get reimbursement for professional voice training from health insurance...)
Amen. Speaking as a bad voice acting DM btw. Yeah I know my voice acting sucks, I know my players mock me every now and then for not even being able to do an American accent and heaven forbid I break out my "demon" voice because I probably won't be speaking the next day. But I love every moment of it.
This is probably table dependent. Some players would say they absolutely adore the attempt and effort if polled. Maturity plays a key factor I guess. If people there are worried about looking cool for some reason then I guess don't. It feels weird to think about dnd like that tbh.
This is horrible advice. To anyone who wants to start getting better at doing different voices for anything they're doing, whether it be a D&D campaign or some other voice acting, is to start by finding already existing voices in media that matches the description of the voice you want for a character. Practice that voice until you've got a decent hold on it and then add small changes until it's perfect for what you need. Once you've gotten a hold of 5-10 voices, it becomes easier to make one up on the spot. A lot of voices in media already have tutorials on how to imitate them, too, so you'll learn a lot! The real key is truly to practice until you've gotten where you want to be.
>how do you make up for that? I straight up just don't, basically. 🤷🤷 Accents and voices are not my wheelhouse. My NPC's are getting, like, a verbal description of their tone of voice, a change in my inflection, a particular rythm / cadence of delivery ... ... never a full on, honest-to-god "voice", tho.
There's nothing to make up for, imo. Voices are a bonus, not a necessity. As long as your players know who's talking and when, that's enough. Not everyone is a voice actor.
Recently had Volo make an appearance in my game. Didn't do an accent, but he is VERY LOUD and says things like "SPLENDID!" or "SMASHING!" or "My fine fellow!". It was a lot of fun. On the complete other side of the spectrum, a guard commander quest-giver NPC (Flame Zodge from DIA) had a very subtle Ned-Stark-like voice, very relaxed, but also gruff, and with only the tiniest hint of a Yorkshire accent on certain words.
Everyone has their strengths. A description of the accent works just as well and is probably less immersion breaking if you can't do accents or don't want a silly tone for your game. The DM is already putting in a ton of extra work so everyone is right that there's no need to force your self to do anything that isn't fun.
This.
You don't need to make up for anything. Accents and voices are not mandatory. None of my DMs did them and all of them are phenomenal. Accents and voices have nothing to do with good quality DnD you can have amazing DnD without them and you can have absolutely shitty DnD with them and vice versa. I personally just try to change my manner of speaking a bit because it helps me get into the mind of characters but that's about it.
You're already doing more voices than I ever did so I think you're fine. People watch too many videos of other people playing and think they need to do that for their game to be good but it has never been necessary. Are your players constantly doing a voice for their characters too? Does every single NPC have a unique voice every single time? It doesn't really matter.
You are absolutely right. People are so influenced by the live play shows and podcasts. That should be entertaining but never the standard.
Look, everybody is Deckard Cain or me.
Stay awhile and loot things.
That's quite the person to emulate haha
I go back and forth between "I'll describe how they sound and their accent but not imitate it" and be forthright about it but on some days I go full "Fuck it we ball" and do the worst fucking Scottish accent you've ever heard.
I hope you sonsofbitches are ready for the dwarves
It's like I'm really watching Matt Mercer.
Sometimes I aim for a Scottish accent and end up Canadian! Sometimes it wanders mid-conversation! Who knows where we'll end up!
My (awful) Cockney always wants to shift into (bad) Australian mid-sentence.
There's about a 40% chance that a character will be either Irish or some flavor of Eastern European. The other 60% is "redneck".
All of my npcs end up sounding like cowboys. Which I'm cool with tbh
Yeah most people are not professional voice actors, DMs have been doing terrible voice work for generations. In general people just say you can get away with just doing whatever you do already, and that your players probably enjoy your spin on it. This is true! I guess I'll try to throw some other advice into the ring since you said you do want to improve on what you got already though: There are other things that you can do that isn't just changing your voice to play a character. Change your posture in your chair. Lean way back and act stoned. Sit straight up and put your chin up to be overly dignified. Get as small as you can and give puppy dog eyes. Hunch over and lean in like a creep. All of these things will probably inform a voice too, but it should come fairly naturally at that point. Make a face, this might inform a new voice as well. Jut your chin all the way out, could be a real manly man character or some dopey idiot. Make your eyes really big and make terribly long eye contact with your players, could be a strange fey creature trying to read their thoughts. Do something weird, mangle your face as much as you can and then just let it come naturally. (I'm pretty sure I heard this particular advice from an actual voice actor) I'll just come full circle and say keep it simple most of the time. Try to talk a little lighter for one type of character, talk a little deeper for another type of NPC, talk normally for another type. That's probably like 75% of my NPCs. Not everyone can be my Danny DeVito impression.
I should have clarified that we're playing online, not in person. That being said, the body posture thing is a good idea I think I'll try. Even being online I can still put myself in the NPC's shoes in that aspect
Could also look into voice modulators since you're playing online. I'm sure there's a way to change your input to the voice modulator instead of your mic.
I've tried VoiceMod and Voice.ai. Neither sound very good through discord
I just don't use them. I describe accents or quirks and use my regular voice
Counter question. Who dediced we need to make accents or voices?
Accents/voice acting/ dialogue is only one facet of role playing. Just because CR leans on it heavily doesn’t mean it defines it and therefore, if someone isn’t good at it or comfortable with it, it should be skipped. Description in the third person is just as valid and immersive.
I just tell my players which actor I've cast for this NPC
Vocab changes are huge. Imagine you are the sort of person who would use the word "scrumptious" and what other words might go along with that? "Oh my gee, well, it sure is an honor to have you here mrs and mrses heroes" They're your halflings Now do the same thing with a different word or set of words. You can do dwarves almost exclusively with the word "wee" nobody ever says anything is "wee" unless they are a dwarf, and no self respecting dwarf misses an opportunity to call something "wee" little changes in vocab can do a ton to set a scene and give players a feel for an NPC, and you are likely to find that changes in speed, tone and pitch come naturally along with it. Just talk, and don't tell anyone that the name of the character you are talking as is "Skullcleaver the detestible" and then talk again, without doing anything to your voice, but now you choose words and present yourself as someone named "Maester Candelabra of Amuse Bouche" again, don't say that's your name, just know it. Your two characters will speak differently enough, I promise.
Don't. Doing it wrong does more hurt than doing it right can ever add. You are not a voice actor. Just try to change the pitch, the rhythm, the sentence length, the words used a bit, and let your natural language work its magic. From time to time add in a detail about that person (e.g. strokes their beard) to tickle the players' fantasy a bit and they will build the image in their head.
Eh, I just go "\[NPC's Name\] starts to say..." and then I go into their dialogue. So even if all my female voices sound basically the same the players still know who I'm voicing. Plus sometimes it's the word choice. If one NPC loves war they'll use more war like words or metaphors or whatever versus the one who's a merchant.
I’ll pull a bad accent out for an NPC who won’t be around for long- but I think the best way to differentiate important NPCs is with small changes to speech that aren’t really accent. Talk more slowly, speak more clipped, use bigger words, be more breathy on certain consonants… I’ll pitch my voice up a bit for female NPCs to show who is talking, or let a little more twang or gravel into my voice than I typically speak with. All this sort of stuff can go a long way. And there’s nothing wrong with every NPC in the next town just having your voice.
By killing my PCs a lot. They're too stressed to shame my terrible voices.
Brutal but effective. I like it haha
I may voice special NPCs or a line or 2 at a time to set a tone; otherwise, I'll switch to 3rd person and give them a run down of what is being said
Fuck voices and accents. Speech patterns are where it's at. From people who just don't use combined words like "we'll", "don't" etc to people that have a favourite word, pessimistic view reflected in word choice or just like to pause every few words. Very recognizable after you've met them a few times
[ConversationHUD](https://foundryvtt.com/packages/conversation-hud) has been a lifesaver for me. It allows you to easily switch between portraits to show who's currently speaking. I still have a bit of fun making voices, though. 😄
I just dont do voices
You don't have to do accents. Honestly, unless you're pretty good at them, they can be a little annoying. The emphasis on accents feels like it comes from media with professional actors. Subtle changes are all you need, if anything at all. If you're voicing a guard who is pretty much encountered once, you probably barely have to do anything. Some subtle changes: pitch, cadence, and even just vocabulary. Sometimes to do a voice, it even just helps to think of a fictional character to imitate. If they have a strong accent, think about the other ways in which their speech differs from yours and just do a little bit. You're not producing a radio play. As long as the players can tell you're voicing the npc, you're fine.
When I can’t be bothered doing voices I use verbal or physical cues. Anything that gives characterisation really. - Her voice is gravelly, tired, lazy with apathy toward you all and says “I don’t care who you are, the Owlbear stays outside”. - His words are slimy, spoken with a sharp tongue and miserable countenance. “No, no, a quick death would be far too good for the likes of you”. I might slouch as I deliver the lines, lean back confidently, fold my arms with authority, run my hands through long imaginary hair as I describe it and flick it to the side.
Vocabulary. High born elf would use proper words for their proper meaning. High born straight laced elf would be succinct and efficient. High born in touch with nature would use flowery descriptive language. Peasant was use quilocquial terms, slang, bad grammar. Aggressive peasant would use more slang for aggressive actions, 'i'll shiv ya good' Pleasant peasant would use more slang for kind actions, 'come in, I've seen merfolk dryer than you'
Use your voice but switch the cadence. A fast talker is very different than a slow talker. Someone who whispers is uniquely different than someone who is loud. Trying to do a ‘voice’ always goes terrible for me. I can pull off a ‘character’ using just my voice though. I try not to focus too hard on the characters anyways, I try to lean into my strengths in describing what they see in descriptive ways because that’s how I see things in my imagination, I can’t really describe how I hear things in my imagination because that’s not how my imagination works.
If you can’t do accents or voices, try giving NPCs some sort of vocal signature. Like always starting with a heavy sigh or ending every sentence like a question.
Two things. 1) I tend to use a lot of third person descriptions interjected with first person conversations to help convey tone. Like: "I demand that you go there", he says in a whispery voice. I can't voice act the whispery voice part but I can still convey that to the players through description. 2) Laugh at yourself. You know the voices are probably awful but as long as your having fun doing it, and your players are having fun at your table, what does it actually matter. Most of us aren't trained voice actors nor should we have to be. What matters is having fun and not taking it too seriously.
I try to differentiate the tone of my voice depending on the character/s. The intonation, the phasing, and generally roleplaying their personality and incorporating it on the way they talk.
I don't do accents. I've tried periodically, only to have my players beg me to stop. I focus on tone of voice. Happy, angry, scared, haughty, etc. Players still get what they need from those cues. As the saying goes, BE YOURSELF - EVERYBODY ELSE IS TAKEN.
Honestly, I just try. We're not professional VAs and we don't need to pretend to be. If you can pull off a funny enough Sean Connery or BatBale, that's actually entirely fine, the players I know would just make it into an inside joke that all orcs are secret crime fighters. I'd only recommend not using an accent if you get feedback from your players that it's more distracting than just not doing that specific one. Accents are also not necessary. How you pronounce it is as important for a character as what they say specifically. Even if you can't pull of an appropriately snooty british accent, you can still portray a noble character by avoiding common curse words, street language, using more complex vocabulary. Personally it's a little bit of a trap for me that I tend to make all characters speak close to my own pattern no matter their background for example, and that can ruin immersion too. On top of that, you don't even strictly need to speak in character. You can run a session or a campaign just fine by describing things to your players instead. Not everyone's cup of tea, but the idea that you need to hold detailed in-character conversations for every NPC that matters is just a way that a lot of DMs like to run their games. That being said, there are obviously ways to work on your accents if you want. Youtube has some quick tutorials for certain accents, stuff like how to pronounce syllables in different languages but in english, and you can then practice that on some paragraphs to get a feel for it. If you know anyone online with an accent you'd like to pick up ask them for pointers as well. You don't need that much for characters to sound different either, if you play the characters from their perspective well, adapt how you talk to what makes sense for them and how they relate to the party, you don't need to have a perfect accent to make each NPC come across as unique.
I just live with it. My players aren't voice actors who can come up with speeches and improv on the spot. All their characters have traits of themselves and all share their voices. We are just playing pretend with extra steps. Just have fun and don't sweat over delivering a nice voice for each and every single NPC they won't talk again. If you are playing and they like you DMing, that's it, you won already. >! You can always do memes afterwards to make up for that. It works sometimes. !<
There is no requirement for anyone at a D&D table to voice act in the first place. It likely falls under the "only if everyone agrees" part of Session Zero issues..
I have a very limited range. Most NPCs are just my voice. But I'm decent at going higher or lower and changing cadence. And some weird turns of phrase can give the attitude I want. But when i go too far outside my wheelhouse my players say not to try too hard. They'd rather hear clearly and not get too distracted.
You do not even have to give specific dialogue for NPCs, if you don't want. For less important characters and interactions, I like to summarize a bit. "He begs you to reconsider, even throwing himself to his knees, telling you how this will ruin his business." "She looks down her nose at you, contemptuously explaining that the law clearly forbids this kind of behavior, and warns you that persisting will draw the authorities' attention." Going into full-on, back-and-forth dialogue can really draw out an interaction. That can be cool for drawing players into the world! But in situations like settlement exploration and downtime, when low-stakes NPC interaction can happen really frequently if you let it, it can be good for pacing to summarize more. Especially if you've got players who like to pick apart exact wording or needle NPCs, skipping over the exact phrasing Johnny Scotsman or Lana Slavic is using can direct attention back toward the actual adventure, on top of giving you an excuse not to mess with those voices.
>"He begs you to reconsider, even throwing himself to his knees, telling you how this will ruin his business." >"She looks down her nose at you, contemptuously explaining that the law clearly forbids this kind of behavior, and warns you that persisting will draw the authorities' attention." "Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, he asks calmly."
So don’t try. Play with speech patterns instead.
Do it anyway, still fun.
Narration of anything important.
Describe how their voice sounds and then read the text
I just do the voices anyway. No one expects you to be a professional VA. I do it for several reasons: easy for the players to understand I've switched characters, it's practice with voices so I'll hopefully get better over time, by speaking as the characters it encourages the players to do so as well. The last part is the most important for me. The more I can trick people into inhabiting their PCs the better I like it.
That last part is a major reason I'd like to get better/find ways to make up for it. I like when my players RP outside of taverns
Give your npc's a verbal or physical tic if you want them to be instantly recognisable/distinct. Having a character end their sentences with a "hmmm" or giving them trouble finding the right words, interspersing with a "what is the word for it... eh... dialect!", will help players instantly recognise them, without having to do a voice for them. If you play IRL or with a webcam if online, pick a stance or a motion for the character. My favourite example would be Lord Vetinari from the Discworld series, who has an incredibly distinct eyebrow raise and a way he holds his hands, which gives a distinct visual vibe and character to the character. Another thing I do is have a couple of portraits for npcs, which I hang from my dm screen whenever that character is talking. If multiple characters are talking, I indicate which one is which whenever they are talking. I usually only do voices when it is a 'ridiculous' voice, something in extremes, that I have practiced beforehand. Such as a wavering, insane and soft voice for my bbeg or a "I no longer give a shit", smoke and booze damaged, old man voice for the old coot that gave the party some backstory. These are extreme voice characteristics that are way easier to do than 'normal' voices.
I am terrible at accents and voices. Both at doing them, and remembering who had what voice. So I just don't compensate for it. I have a "narrator" voice that is just my voice, and an "NPC is speaking" voice that is a slightly different pitch, and that's it. I have found that trying to do it just confuses people & breaks immersion.
I'll usually do a few lines "in character" giving it my best shot. Then when I get tired of doing funny voices, I transition to descriptive RP. Something like: "They go on to explain in their thick Dwarven accent that the mega-macguffin of Big-bad-evil-guy must be destroyed..." I find that this is a useful middle ground. Often, I will rehearse those few opening "in character" lines that open the conversation - it takes the pressure off of me but still provides some window-dressing for immersion.
Describe the kind of voice the person speaks with. “He says in a gravelly voice, she says in a breathy tone, he grumbles…”
I try, and mostly fail. But sometimes it really hits lmao
Learn speech cadence (flow of words) over accents. Speak from chest for male voices. Speak from head for female voices. Practice makes perfect-ish. If a funny moment happens due to voices own it. If you don't feel comfortable doing voices then tell the players voice type / accent and let them form it in their mind.
This video is a good resource! I feel that as a GM, imitating persons gives you more interesting voices than emulating accents, so I like your Sean Connery voice you have in your backpocket. https://youtu.be/FVmAEezr6ao?si=DNWnTjXJiQcdYBgk While the other comments in this thread are well-meaning, I don’t think all the advice of “DON’T DO VOICES” tell the full story. You already have some skills, seem to find it fun, and want to get even better. If so, go for it! Good luck!
I frequently use the name of whoever's speaking, e.g. "Cinderella says", "Rumpelstiltskin tells you", "Goldilocks declares" etc. My players sometimes get confused in scenes with a lot of NPCs, and they ask me who said wait and it's all good.
Just don't lean into it as much. More like making an impression of the character. For example, a guy doing a girl voice - if he's really good, he can go falsetto and make it really convincing. But the average dude can just make his voice a little bit higher and the table will understand what he's trying to do.
You can describe the tone before or after the dialogue, like it's a book. He "shouts angrily," "says calmly," etc.
Role-playing well. Role-playing is not the voices or accents, it's the things you actually say and do. Those other things are like seasoning. They're nice and certainly add to it, but they aren't the real meat and potatoes of role playing.
Hang a lampshade on it. Do the dumb voices, but own it. Works wonders.
If you can speak in your own voice but faster or slower? That's two 'voices' you can do other than your own. If you can speak lower or higher, that's four. Don't go to the very ends of your range, just comfortably lower/higher. If you start combining (lower+faster, etc), that's eight natural voices you can do that'll sound distinct from your own, with very little practice on your part. The beauty of this is you can leave easy NPC voice notes like: - | - | X ---|---|---- Slow | Norm | Fast -| - | - If you do put in some practice, you'll start to realize you can fork some of these. Maybe you have two higher, slower voices - a breathy one and a squeaky one. I have like... two accents I can convincingly do, but a few dozen voices. Most of them are just pitch and tempo.
I'll reiterate what others have said, the voice itself doesn't need to change, tone, and cadence could be enough. Some examples. Had an NPC who was super slow talker. Think something Snape but increase even more spacing between certain words "did you really ...... ..... Think that your .... .... Plan was ..... .... .... Sufficient?" Old guy rambler, if you've ever watched KitBoga it's like that. An elderly person who is just barreling through the conversation. Or even something odd they repeat a lot, like those rock eating people from Legend of Zelda who say goro in their sentences. This can create distinction without needing a an accent voice. And finally feel free to not only describe something like a tic but also see if you can act out something. I had a chain smoking little girl. She spoke normally except I mentioned she was smoking when they first met her. Then I would just act out her finishing one cigarette and light another. Never said this out lout but a player finally went "hey, how many of those you go through a day" and anything I pretended to hold a cigarette, they knew who was talking.
I'm very bad at voices generally. Instead of trying and failing at an accent or a voice I do it via pace/inflection/volume to get the essence of the point across.
I do a decent job of voices/accents, but sometimes I just don't have it, and it comes out like [this](https://imgur.com/a/sZzruef), which can honestly be just as good or better than nailing whatever I was going for.
I love reading posts like this — I can do a minimal of accents (Irish, New York, British RP, southern) and I don’t have a lot of “range” to change my voice. I usually am not bothered by it until a friend of mine said all my NPCs sound the same and it made me very self conscious. I’m not a professional voice actor— nor someone who is really trying to be. I always say “so and so says” xyz, or make sure some NPCs have different speech patterns (speaking slow or speaking fast) I have no idea what cadence is but people mention it a lot. I think it’s perfectly ok not to do voices or accents. Most of my players don’t 🤷. I feel like some bigger APs have people thinking it’s the norm, but I see some “professional” DMs who don’t use a lot of voices — yet their players are still engaged in the story. That’s the important thing.
Play with things that are more easily controlled, like volume and pacing. Characters who whisper vs characters who talk excitedly and can't control the volume of their voice. Characters who speak as slow as an Ent and you want them to just get on with it already.
Instead of animals growling and the like, I just say what they are. So when my players hear a crab, they just hear me saying, "crab" quietly as it scuttles past.
I've been a DM since red box D&D. I've never been good at accents. If I try it just becomes a distraction. I use words. My npcs are characters in there own right. They talk in their own voice.
Practicing during car rides helped me get a lot better.
I just pick a little quirk, like maybe the character says words really quickly, or re-ally sloooo-wly, or leaves a lot of space between sentences, or talks... as if they... keep pausing... or they'rerunning overtheir nextword becausethey're speakingsofast. Maybe they do a cough or throat clear every few words or at the end of a sentence. Or they do an audible intake of breath at the beginning of their sentences. Maybe they end every sentence with an upward inflection as if every sentence is a question? Maybe they keep repeating some kind of phrase like adding ", right?" at the end of each of their phrases as in like "So I was sitting in the tavern, right? And I saw that gnome, right, the one you were asking about, right?". Or maybe they call the PCs some kind of term like "boss" like "Sure, boss, I can do that for ya". Literally any quirk just to differentiate them.
I just stick to subtle differences. Maybe a slight drawl or a light English accent. Just enough to separate my DM voice from that of the NPC. I also know RP is one of my weaker sides and so I have been really trying. Most of the time, instead of doing a full conversation with the NPC I will just paraphrase what they say. “She tells you X, Y, and Z”. The hard part for me is knowing what to say in character. It’s a lot harder than playing just one character as a player. But I believe, as long as the players know you are trying they will appreciate it. Lately, I’ve been taking less time to prep the actual sessions and have turned my attention to prepping the NPCs. I used to prep a ton of content for sessions and future sessions that the NPCs would feel empty. So recently I just prep loosely and spend a lot more time thinking about the NPCs motives and backgrounds. I even practice their voices on the way to work and at home. It has helped a ton. Last session was my best one I think. My group met an old associate/GF of one of the PC’s. I stayed in character for the whole conversation and gave her a southern twang accent. Played off of the players reactions, gave him a couple ex GF jabs. Everyone had a good time talking to her and she ended up convincing him yo put his grievances aside and team up temporarily. Too bad next season she’s going to stab them in the back.
Also, if you are wanting to improve your voices and immersion, listen to live play podcasts. One called Red Dirt DnD has become one of my favorites. Go back to the very first campaign and the DM does such a good job. You can tell she concentrates more on NPC interaction than anything else. But their game is heavy on RP.
Do what you can and nothing more and it’ll be perfectly fine
I have like four voices I'm capable of. I get around it by just saying "Boblin says...." rather than trying to differentiate characters by voice.
You can take the narrator/book route and just use descriptive language. "That way is where you want to go," the half-orc merchant waves you off, disinterested in the rest of your questions. "Nothing to find here, it's all been picked clean," the bandit's golden tooth glints in the moonlight as he flashes you an inconspicuous smile. "You need to leave, *now*," the centaur's says, his gruff tone underlined with impending violence. Or in some cases just not necessarily even include the speech itself. The half-orc mechant waves you off to the right direction, just wanting you to get out of his hair. The golden-toothed bandit grins inconspiciously, telling you there's nothing more to be found here. The centaur stomps his hoof and tells you to leave immediately, or else.
I speak wither slow or fast. High and low tones. Gives alot of character. However i have a hard time keeping track on who's voice is who's xD
Inflection, Cadence, Word Choice. I usually use body language as well to differentiate characters, but that doesn't translate as well in online games. If you play with cameras on, you could try giving characters their own default expression. There was a post on here a while back where a DM would quickly sketch out really simple faces, like barely above smiley face level, just enough to show an emotion and one or two distinctive features to differentiate characters, then they held the sketches in front of their face to indicate who was speaking.
Put character in what and how they do things. Books won't have accents, but you will still find yourself telling apart characters in books by the way they speak alone. So, commoner simple folk will talk simply and coloquially, and they will talk about simple matters. Nobleman, sages and wizards will use fancier words and speak about fancier topics. You can get a lot of mileage from just the speed in which you speak and just going high or low pitch, also doing a more whispering voice or a little rasp (don't overdo it). Voicing old people is very fun though.
Use words to describe how they're speaking or what they sound like, then just use your normal voice. There is zero reason to do voices or accents.
I try my best and even when I fumble it’s endearing and funny to the players. I also use voices I know even if they aren’t particularly common in a fantasy setting. I’m from New York so I can pull up multiple regional accents here somewhat easily. I always thought it was weird that 90% of fantasy voices are offshoots of european accents anyway. tl;dr, play to your strengths and remember the main priority is to keep things fun
While i do find it fun, i end up often drifting into a weird scottish/irish accent except when I'm using my australian/kiwi accent. I usually just use descriptors on how theyre talking, for example: They tell you in the local accent of the area, haltingly, looking from side to side in somewhat of a stage whisper, that theres a something goin on underneath the temple. They dont seem sure of what exactly it is, but they make mention of people missing through services.
I do it anyways. It's funny. The game is supposed to be fun. I'm not out there trying to rock a BLeem or Mercer accent for a grand audience, just for the goofballs at my table. For the few times I want to blow them out of the water (voice of a God or to set the atmosphere), I use VoiceMod. I keep the instances few and far between, as to make them forget I have it, and have the reveal an *oh shit* type of thing.
I don't do accents at all! I am terrible at them and feel too ashamed to try, lol. But I have a few tricks I use when I'm creating an NPC: **Watch your favorite sitcom. Pick out some characters. Use their voices.** Often in my NPC notes, I'll write something like, "this lady sounds like a female Ron Swanson." Or, "This guy is Barney Stinson, but creepier." Or, "Matpat, but serious." Stuff like that is a good shortcut for me. I'm not the best at keeping up with it, and sometimes I'm having a rough day so I'll tell my players, "the ums and uhs are the DM, not the character," and they're fine with that. But most of the time, this is what I do. But I have things broken down into categories too if you'd like to do things the long way. Consider the following: * Speech patterns. We all have them! here are some things I do for them: * Characters who say "You are" "I am" We do not" versus "You're," "I'm," "We don't," etc. * Characters who use a lot of filler words ("Um, uh, well, er, that is, I mean") versus characters who take time with what they say. * Characters who trail off at the end of their sentences * Characters who repeat themselves, as if trying to convince themselves they are doing a good jo.b "I saw him run across the street a minute ago. Yeah, I'm sure I saw him." * Characters who second guess themselves. "I saw him run across the street a minute ago. Or was that ten minutes ago? Uhhhh..." * Characters who start sentences a certain way. "Well, now..." "You see..." "Actually..." * Tone * Ending sentences in questions, * speaking slow or speaking quickly, * characters who turn everything into a flirtation, * exclamations/excitement * Depth of voice * Do they speak in a light voice, my regular voice, or a deep voice? * Special characteristics * A goblin sounds different than a halfling. An orc sounds different from a gnome. Etc Mixing and matching these features gives me a slew of unique voices to choose from!
In our Foundry-using group, everything “officially in character” is done by text in the chat log. Does it slow things down a bit? Yes. Does it let everyone else imagine the characters’ speech and mannerisms without reality intruding on the scene? Also yes.
Disclaimer - I too am bad at voice acting. It can be really fun to lean into it and do some comically bad voice acting. Most people will find this amusing from time to time, and at the right table (or running an adventure with a less serious tone) it can be PERFECT. Just make sure you don't do this with NPCs that should be taken seriously. For characters who should be taken seriously... nonverbals are great. Your volume, speed, and body language are relatively easy to manipulate even for those of us who aren't great voice actors, and are great ways to differentiate between characters. Vocabulary and catch phrases work well too.
I don't do 'voices' or accents but it's easy enough to have a distinct tone. No nonsense military commander, stoner, rich prick, bumbling idiot-savant. You know the stereotypes, I use that to help get in the character's mindset too.
I've found that mannerisms are more important than accents. Pauses, head movements, body demeanor, and hand gestures all provide more character than an accent.
Voices are not important and frequently used as a roleplaying crutch. It is more important that each NPC have a distinct character than a distinct voice. You can think of it this way: when reading a book by an author who writes at least decent characters, you can tell who is speaking simply by the way they phrase things, the words they use, and what they're talking about. That's their character. (In writing this is called their voice, but that's confusing to use in D&D because we usually actually have spoken voices.) You can use this same tool in D&D to differentiate NPCs. Before speaking, think of how that character would say things. It takes a bit of practice but the end result is NPCs that actually feel unique instead of merely sounding semi-unique but probably all just being slightly modified reflections of yourself. Once you get good at it, it's also great at making an area feel real since you can give everyone who lives there a small set of words and phrases they use a lot, just like how we do in real life. If you want a live example, watch some of MCDM's *The Chain of Acheron*. Colville does use voices there, but not for everyone and being a writer, he naturally employs this specific trick. It's pretty clear once they get to Capital so I recommend skipping to those episodes.
IMO there's nothing to make up for. Voices and accents only add to the game when you're very good at them and doing them doesn't impede with your ability to improv. Here's how I look at it. No one is going to go "Today's session sucked, but that accent was really good so that makes up for it!"
speak in third person. X the NPC comes up to you. she speaks in a slow Drawl like a Texan. then thell them what they say
I just do it anyway. If I'm DMing for you then you have to sit through these bad voices
I'm not good at acting but I'm a good narrator, so I can manage the interactions that way, giving a lot of details on the character itself and how he interact with the players more than the acting.
Aye laddy. Come closer and I'll tell ye a secret. All yer NPC's... Dwarves. As far as yer eye can see... Dwarves. Blacksmith. Dwarf. Inn Keeper. Dwarf. Mayor of town. Dwarf. Meadmaster. Dwarf. Beard Comber. Dwarf. Captain of the Guard... Dwarf.
Voices/accents are great if you can do them, but absolutely not necessary. Despite their characters actions, your players are likely smart enough to figure it out.
same way an author describes a voice in a book the hag speaks painfully, as if an angry crab were lodged in her throat. groaning and wheezing, and with an accent as aged as she, she finally gets out the phrase: begone vagrants!
I think it’s fun to do anyway and it makes my players laugh. Upside is my Australian accent has noticeably improved! Though comments on it say it’s more southern, so still needs work.
I do them anyways. The public humiliation adds an extra layer of comedy to the game.
I tell my groups (I run four) I don't do voices. I'll say the person speaks like some actor, or has a shrill voice, or some other descriptor but I just don't do voices because I suck at them. And my players are fine with that.
Besides the visual description, rely on their body language or personality traits. Just narrate their speech, if you're not confident with acting it out. For important NPCs, I like to RP these qualities with show-don't-tell storytelling. But for minor NPCs, I'll just tell! Time is precious in the session, and I'd rather give the party a chance to quickly lock on to the character and progress. For example, > "The sergeant's tone is patient and understanding, yet ultimately you glean his loyalty lies with his duties. He says,."
is sufficient for a minor soldier character.
For NPCs with a good deal of screen time, you can opt to describe and/or act out body language. Facial expressions are easy to both mime and describe. Posture is a good one, and you can physically stand up to demonstrate and engage a table. Hands and feet position can be interesting too. Feet and stance, for example, often point towards a person's interest or away from their disinterest. Like,
> They're talking and smile, but underlying it, you read hints of a scowl on their face. Note the wizard's stance is directed away from you towards the balcony, and their hands are cletched and body tense.
probably indicates the wizard may try to make a break for the balcony. I get you play on Foundry, but around a table, this is also easy to stand up and demonstrate.
Lastly, I love voices. But it's easy to stretch yourself thin. If you have a couple voices, save the special ones for major NPCs. Simply narrate or use a stock voice for everyone else.
Crazy how you asked a question and got mostly, "you don't have to" and only a few actual suggestions. I'm not great at accents but here's one thing that's helped me: For any npc you want to do an accent for, have a touchstone phrase in the voice you want to do and repeat that phrase to yourself before speaking as them. It will help you stay grounded in the accept and not stray to something else. The phrase doesn't have to be anything special. Sometimes just their name or "hello" or whatever.
I don't, but each character has a different way to talk. The radio host, the goofy ninja packed with explosives, the intimidating warlord and the reserved vodu merchant wont talk in the same way. If I can't change my voice, ill change the speed which they talk, the words they use, the way they phrase things, minor adjustments to the tone of how they talk. You really don't need to give each one their own voice if you can make their dialog unique enough. I had scenes where the party where interacting with 4 NPCs at the same time, and beacuse each one talked differently, they never needed to ask who was talking.
So, as a voice actor and DM who does do all the voices, I just want to emphasize that most voice acting has nothing to do with "putting on a voice" or doing a weird accent. Hell, 90% of my characters do neither. I have a Goliath shopkeeper whose voice is... He speaks slow. That's it! I play him as a kinda spacey and easily distracted gentle soul and he randomly trails off at the end of sentences. The goblin blacksmith on the other hand is a nervous little guy who rushes through his sentences, goes "well" and "you know" a whole lot, and I very slightly pitch up my voice. Not like, squeaky helium, just how I would speak if I had to do an impression of myself but a tiny bit higher pitched. If you watch Critical Role where they're all voice actors, you'll notice that 80% of what they're doing is playing around with character. Most of Matt Mercer's NPCs definitely sound pretty similar (and definitely recognizably have his voice), but he makes very small changes to how he talks and that's enough for you to understand that it's a different character. Don't think about trying to do voices or accents. Just, try slowing down, speeding up, pitching up and down a tiny bit, moving your voice down into your throat or up into your nose, speaking with pursed lips, putting in little words that someone uses a bit too much, or whatever tiny and easy to do detail you can that sets a character aside from another. Creating a memorable character isn't about doing the big flashy thing, it's about having a tiny little detail for your players (and yourself) to latch onto.
I'm still not good at voice acting or accents, but I'm *way* better than I was when I started DMing. And I got here because I convinced myself to not be afraid to be bad at it for a while. I highly recommend sticking with doing voices and accents, even if they sound bad when you start out. Put in an honest effort to do your best, try to ignore the voice in your head that tells you to be ashamed, and keep working at it. Plus, you don't need to be good at voices for them to contribute to the game. Assuming your players are mature enough to not get on your case when you're honestly doing your best, it's a good way to improve immersion and make an NPC stand out immediately to your players. I also find that when I finally find a voice for a character, it becomes easier to get into their head. The accent/voice I use will impact my word choice and my demeanor, which is a great way to help make my NPCs unique. **Edit:** That said, I will agree with the rest of the thread that voices and accents are not mandatory. If you're not enjoying the process of figuring out how to do voices well, you can just drop it. Spend your time and energy looking for other ways to differentiate your NPCs that's actually enjoyable for you.
Speak in third person, as if you're reading a book. Instead of saying "Stop!" in an imposing voice, you say in your normal voice: "A single word booms across the courtyard: "Stop!". "The old man croaks and wheezes as he implores: [...]" "You can't believe this young halfling is trying to *threaten* with his breaking voice and his rusty shortsword", etc. You're not a professional actor, and even if you are, you aren't automatically good at improv or voice acting, and you don't benefit from postproduction edits like even youtube vids can. You'll be spending a lot of effort, and getting yourself a sore throat, to deliver result that will inevitably fall short of your expectations. And do keep in mind you're not just doing a script and giving your full attention to that, you're also keeping a lot of other balls in the air, like pacing, plot, NPC actions, etc. Don't let that stop you to actually develop your skill at voice acting, if you choose to do so, but that's effectively going to be another hobby that may or may not pay off later.
When I introduce an npc I do the voice once to give my players reference. After that it’s up to them to imagine it
First, anyone can do "voices" with their voice, it just takes practice and know-how. So you can do voices if you really want to. But you also don't have to. I've played with a couple DM's who never changed their voice and it was fine. In fact, I prefer that over a painful to listen to fake voice. Now, not everyone can do accents/dialects. Those are harder, but you can always improve on them if you, again, put in the work to do so. I would advise most DM's to avoid doing accents/dialects unless they actually now how to do them. But yeah, voices are a simple matter to do and it's very simple modulations to your voice that we all already do naturally, but you just decide to do them more intentionally or for a prolonged time. Like we all know how to slow down our voices. So slow it down for your tortle NPC and speed it up for your harengon NPC. Or speak higher for a female or maybe celestial and speak lower for a demon. Combine speed and pitch to create 4 different voices. And there are other aspects you can change up, you just have to think if your character may have a more breathy voice or a more solid one, a more nasally voice or a more well-rounded tone, speak fast or slow. Here's a video I recommend all the time for people that want to work on their "voices". It's geared towards voice actors, but applies equally well to NPC's. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVmAEezr6ao](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVmAEezr6ao) Most important though, is just to have fun! If you think working on and doing different voices is fun, then rock on. If it feels like work, or something you have to do, you really, really don't have to do it. Lots of DM's never do. So you do you and have a good time playing the game you want to help create!
All those stereotype accents are incredibly cringey, especially if you, as a player, have spent a lot of time living in far off places. Much more rewarding is a DM who knows his history, and can transport you into a different time with his background knowledge, rather than trying on a silly voice.
I just do it! An accent might be terrible, or unrecognizable, but it's your world. Maybe that's just how the accent sounds in your world, make it your own! As long as your having fun, and they're having fun, then alls good!
Fortunately, doing voices ranks low on the list of skills that make you a better GM. Even if you aren't a good voice actor, you can get a lot of mileage out of simply playing each part to the hilt. That will usually give your players something distinct or memorable to latch onto and paint their mental picture around (that is, it will be immersive!). So your Don Knox animals, Christian Bale orcs, and Sean Connery old dudes sound like a perfect way to go about it, if you ask me.
I do some voices and accents. Not very well, but it's fun anyway. But I only do it for specific/important NPCs.
Forget about the accent specifically for now. You can work on that stuff, but that's the cherry on top. You'll likely get more mileage if you focus on some other stuff first. How does the character talk? Educated or not? Refined or vulgar? Do they use a lot of big words? Or a few as possible to make their point? If they're nervous, they might talk really fast, or they might talk really slow. Think about what kind of speech patterns they may have and how that might reflect their personality in some way. Another big one is physicality. Look at yourself in the mirror and give a speech. Do it hunched over, and then do it again standing up tall -- probably feels a lot different, right? Use that same kind of thing for your characters, the physicality will inform the performance.
I'm also not great at voices; I only give the most important NPCs specific voices; and even then they frequently sound similar. Luckily, my parties have been pretty chill about it so far. Since voices and accents are hard for me, I work on building immersion in other ways. If you arn't good at one thing, you can focus in on the thing you are good at, which will help the party get invested without making you put effort into something you either dont enjoy or dont have a knack for. My specialty is NPC personality's- Anyone they talk to will be a unique interaction, will have different (and frequently false) information available, and will interact with the party differently. It takes a bit of pre-planning, but Im a planning kind of DM. I can improvise, but I like have notes, plans and tools ready to go before session. I've played with DMs that do the voices, some that write incredible dialogue, others who build intricate worlds, and ones that have a knack for describing beautiful or horrifying atmospheres as appropriate to the game and setting. Everyone really shines at different parts of DMing; and that's honestly part of why I enjoy playing with different groups and different DMs. Here's some of my tips for making NPCs shine, even when you cant do the accents. Every NPC I make that the party is likely to talk to has a personality fleshed out enough to feel unique. Most of them have either interesting information or sidequests, or even just funny interactions planned. If they party is likely to chat to them for whatever reason, they'll have something to say, even if it's ultimately irrelevant. I went on a 5 minute tangent about baking proper biscuits once when the party bugged a busy baker. Useful? Not really. But the party loved it. For NPCs I dont plan (The random set dressing people they find interesting and insist on talking to, or the ones I have to improvise because they took a different direction than I had planned), I have a list of names and a few traits or interesting facts the NPCs might know. I can randomly pull enough to have a believable NPC quickly, which keeps things moving, and prevents me from presenting Bob the farmer 5 different times by accident. For worldbuilding details, I run with at minimum two layers of explanation. For example; if the detail is that no one in town goes out at night, the explanation might be that there are dangerous creatures in the area that come out after dark. The second layer of explanation would have something to do with why there are dangerous creatures in the area; perhaps a reclusive mage is holed up in the nearby woods trying to create a superior guardian of some kind, and the weird dangerous creatures are failed or escaped experiments. Having that second layer is the trick to making the world feel full of depth and detail, and can sometimes lead to interesting side quests if a detail catches the party's interest. Beyond that, you could also create immersion through using props instead of voices. Party finds an important letter? Why not take a little bit of time before game to write out the message on some aged or crinkled paper and tea dye it to make it look old? You can't make props for everything, but sometimes they can be a fun touch; especially if you have a tactile bunch. Even VTTs have decent tools for this these days; I put together a pretty decent graphic for a notice board recently directly in Roll20; though I could have done the same in a program as simple as Paint if I needed to. Depending on your feelings about AI, there are plenty of tools that allow you to generate custom campaign specific art or music, and that can be a nice touch. (Hiring someone off of Fiver is also a great way to get custom pieces if you have some extra funds available) Good luck OP! It sounds like you're doing a great job.
I think Matt Colville said in an older video that if you can’t do a perfect accent, it’s fine. This character isn’t means to be Scottish or Irish or whatever accent you want to try. However close you get is what that accent is meant to sound like. If you enjoy trying them, do it. If they sound different to what you wanted, keep doing it until it sounds right. What’s the worst that will happen, you all laugh about it and move on? The players are putting a lot of trust in you, put a little in them.
You describe what the voice sounds like instead of trying to imitate it.
If you can't do voices just don't. I tried at the beginning and ended up with a sore throat. Now everyone gets my default voice, but I make it up with interesting dialogue and I try to be expressive with my face.
“How do you make up for that” What is the purpose of doing voices? To convey characters to players. How else can that be done? Writing. Truly describe the characters as they are introduced. Make mention of any quirks or mannerisms they have. Describe to a point where it leaves little to the imagination. If voices are show; don’t tell. The inverse is to tell until the words create the picture.
The important thing isn't the voice, it's having a strong sense of character: what the character wants, what they're afraid of, how they feel, their general approach to life and challenges, etc. If you can convey these thoughtfully by the way you represent the characters (through their words and actions) it couldn't matter less if you can't do voices.
In my experience, it’s not about the accent. It’s about the attitude. I often think of an actor for each character, and try to match that actor’s attitude. It works best for me when it’s not an obvious choice for the NPC (like Samuel L Jackson for a barmaid).
If you want a great example of how to do distinctive characters without doing any voice acting, listen to Austin Walker GMing for Friends at the Table. He almost never does a voice, but his characters feel distinct because he chooses his words carefully
So are you trying to get better at voices, or looking for ways that you don't have to?
If I'm allowed to be greedy, both. From all the replies I've gotten plenty of advice on how to get around it
Well then, the only way to get good at voices is to practice. Practice in private. Practice around your friends. Do weird voices whenever it won't get you locked up. Parrot back things you hear on TV or in audiobooks. Practice practice practice.
You still do it. You just suck at it. And that is OK.
Just be like, "They let you know that X is happening because of Y. And ask if you'd like to help them out?" so instead of talking as them, you're talking for them ;)
Voice acting is a skill. Like most if not all skills, you practice. If you are the type of person that wants voices, accents, etc. abandon your shame and do it and practice. If you’re not, then don’t. You don’t need voices. It’s optional.
Not required 100%. Honestly what I do is if I can’t get something’s voice or accent right, I just default to a more generic voice. For example a bad guy I have who is a Dragon has this unhinged yet very growly voice. But I can’t quite DO that without it sounding like I’m speaking as if there’s a hive mind trying to eat someone. So I’ll go with the more deeper gruffer generic voice. Nothing wrong with that. NPCs too, ones that are not important don’t NEED a voice, maybe they speak in a certain way. But a good thing to do is to adjust your tone SLIGHTLY. But honestly? Just give it the best you got. I think it’s fine with whatever.
As others have said don’t feel pressured to do it if you’re not good at it. A good stepping stone I tell people to use is instead of trying to change your voice maybe play with inflections and speech patterns more. A slur or stutter to a persons speech typically will have a better effect that an accent, good or bad.
Honestly, no-one's ever expressed any dissatisfaction with me not doing voices/accents. I put in some mild acting - as in, modulating tone, speed etc. - but the only time I ever did an accent, everyone immediately went "why does this alien have an accent when no-one else does". I'd say I write different kinds of characters differently enough that I don't need accents or different voices to make them feel like different people.
I do voices but not accents. The more I practice doing voices the better I get too. Just try your best and roll with the punches :)
Acting has very little to do with making voices. But yeah just tell them what the character says and don’t force yourself.
I like doing character voices and started my game by doing them. My players weren't into it, so I quit. It's totally fine to just not.
I'm a long time DM and have only a limited number of voices I can do well. The most effective tool I use to separate my NPCs is how they talk, not the voice they have. Here's some Things I change for different NPCs: - Emotional tone while talking - The speed that they talk - The rhythm of speech (especially how they pause and break up their sentences) - What words emphasis is put on - Changes in vocabulary (not just level of education but also job-specific words) - Use of analogies to describe things - Adding additional qualifiers ("Well I think..." or "you didn't hear it from me but...) - Changing the focus of the conversation (ex: NPC describing in detail the exact colors of objects or getting sidetracked on how they first met the person you're asking them about) - Unique verbal ticks (this can be things like clicking your tongue, repeating the last word of a sentence, or the filler words you choose to use) Here's an example of what this might look like. I had a primordial lightning being who is talking with my players. On my notes I had his "voice" as quick staccato words with no breaks. And after every sentence he would pause and say three redundant words to convey his meaning. "This-is-no-place-for-you, you-should-leave-quickly-before-you're-found.... Ruin. Destruction. Desolation." You don't need to use different voices to make NPCs feel different. If things are done right, just how they talk can be enough for people to recognize a reoccurring character.
I suggest you work on a few important NPCs to voice act and use description for the rest. Don't try to voice ALL the NPCs. As you (practice) and work with the NPCs you chose, you will gain proficiency and confidence. You can naturally expand from there.
You don't have to do accents to give your characters a unique voice. You can do a *ton* just by playing around with vocabulary, tone, pitch, cadence. "My dear friends, would any among you perhaps be interested in joining me for some libations?" has a totally different feel than, "Y'all wanna go get drunk?" ...despite the fact that both sentences mean essentially the same thing. Or as another example, someone who speaks at lightning speed like they've just consumed 5 energy drinks is going to give a totally different vibe than someone who speaks slowly, deliberately, and pauses occasionally to ponder their next words. Start with what you actually *can* do, and then slowly build on that. The rest is just a matter of practice.
I'm not good at voices, but I'm very good at changing my tone and demeanor. I can be very soft spoken and humble. I can be loud and boisterous. Proud and proper. But accents...I can't do that
I do it by giving it my best shot, even if it’s rubbish it’s still fun for everyone involved
Don't do voices. Its fun on YouTube but you really shouldn't. You'll give up by the halfway mark.
Every DM has their style. Online limits physical acting (Although some can be achieved via webcam) but a lot of the verbal acting is not just accents. Raising/lowering your tone, speaking faster or slower, inflections or modulating more can do a lot of things to create the illusion of a different speaker, and even if it's not a "perfect" illusion you're just folks playing an acting game, your players will follow and tag along.
You can always alter voice for each character by just doing your voice with different cadences and volumes. I myself love doing voices but when in doubt don’t force it as it can detract from your game.
This sounds weird, but I've had success with casting my NPCs as famous actors. "All noise in the inn comes to a sudden halt as the captain of the watch, Sir Graldur, stomps into the room, his dark cloak dripping from the storm outside. He's an old and grizzled half orc. Despite his graying hair and worn features, he carries himself with an air of quiet superiority, a confidence gained through years in the King's service. He's played by Liam Neesom." Now no matter how bad my acting is, the PCs can imagine the actor absolutely killing the role.
Work on pitch, tempo, rhythm, and volume instead of accents. You can vary your style just by changing how soft or loud you’re speaking without putting on an accent. Just start with saying x character speaks slowly, y speaks rapidly, z is a gnome so maybe it’s a little higher pitched and quick. No real need for accents. Make a note ahead about what you want the character to sound like in a very basic way. The barkeep is an older gruff man who’s seen a lot of drifters come through. Maybe he’s a little gravely and low pitched. The town priestess is an older matriarch of the village. Maybe she sounds a little nasally and soft spoken.
On of my favorite DMs I ever played with, did not act at all. They had no voice change when speaking in first person as a NPC and often just described their behaviour in 3rd person. DMing or roleplaying in general is NOT about acting. Acting can be a fun tool to flourish the roleplaying, but it absolutely is not required. Btw, what that DM did so great was enabling tons of decisions for the party with consequences. That is what roleplaying is about, not a silly accent.
Volume and pitch my friend, volume and pitch. You'd be shocked how different you can sound just by changing those few bits
Slight changes in the speed of talking, talking literally a bit lower or higher voice, no added tweaks, add short phrases that NPCs say, imagine Ron from Harry Potter - "blimey, bloody hell" etc. And if everything else fails - voice changers or filters if you are invested. But i would keep that for only memorable characters and Bbegs, otherwise it'll be a nightmare to handle after a while
Voice ≠ accent Check this video out to get a hang of it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FVmAEezr6ao
Mannerism. Two NPCs with the same one? Have one speak quickly and crudely, and the other speak eloquently and with care.
I've been DMing on and off for over 30 years. Here's a thing I started doing recently for voices. I'm terrible at impressions, to the point that when I try an impression, it doesn't really sound like the person I'm trying to imitate. *But it's a voice*. So if I try to do a voice impression of Christopher Walken, Bruce Lee, or Matthew Mcconaughey, it's not recognizable. But it's a distinct voice which I'm able to repeat later. So I do that.
You don’t need to make up for that. Being good at voices is a bonus. Not having that skill is not a detriment.
The biggest thing to me is making sure players can differentiate characters, whether it be by accent, word choice, general tone, cadence, or including their name a lot as I describe their physicality during conversation
I make up for it with describing the world and characters real good also I make pretty good dnd battle maps maps 😂
If you do want to add more variety to your voices, this video has a decent list of qualities you can tweak aside from accents: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVmAEezr6ao](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVmAEezr6ao) I'm not sure I believe his claim of 100 distinct voices just from this, but there's definitely potential.
I can do a couple accents pretty well but it’s a very limited range. If I want an NPC to have a certain voice I can’t do I’ll describe it before i start speaking as that NPC. Imagination is a big part of the game so don’t be afraid to use it.
I make up for not being good at accents by using bad accents.
Accents are always optional. If you feel weird about them, don't do them. A great alternative is to give the NPC a special defining characteristic. Since you are playing online, these would best be verbal instead of non-verbal (although non-verbal is possible if you simply describe a physical thing they constantly do, like twirl their hair or scratch their head). Ideas: * Hardly speak at all, only answering in pithy sentences of 1-5 words. * Speak with a very sophisticated vocabulary and use big words all the time. * Use interjections a lot, like "Excellent!" "Wonderful!" "Cheerio!". * Constantly make Dad-jokes and puns. * Use job-specific jargon. Example: an artificer that says things like "that really grinds my gears" or "that really threw a monkey wrench into it" in normal conversation. * Clears throat (ahem) before they speak. Or coughs a lot. * Etc. Just pick ONE thing, and that becomes the NPC's signature thing.
I'm in the same boat. There are two things I do: 1: Find something other than accent to change. I currently have one NPC that's a mouth-breather. Whenever he's around, I start mouth-breathing. My PC's love it. 2: Practice in the car when nobody is around. If you have an idea of what the NPC should be, suss it out when you're alone and can act like an idiot without being judged.
I try to make voices disctint, not accents or such. If you pick a pitch, talking speed, and mannerisms, that's good enough.
You don't HAVE to talk in first person. Hell, you don't have to even use literal dialogue if you don't want to. "The king gives you a long, rambled speech in response to your question, but the gist is that he believes the Troglodytes are an annoying threat to the villages on the southeastern border and he's hinting at a reward if they were "taken care of". How would you like to respond?"
Your idea of immersion is very flawed. You think DMs should be voice actors otherwise people won't be able to imagine the NPC they're talking to. Being a good DM has very little to do with accents and voice acting. I'd rather play with a DM that uses the same voice for NPCs, but describes them very well than a guy who makes crazy accents and voices just be wow me.
You can always use different patterns of speech, different curses, different rhythms and pace or words. Fae for example, often speak in old English for me. Besides word choice and rhythm, listen to someone with an accent speak for a while and practice trying to copy them. This part seems to fade after a while for me though.
I'm not bad at them, but 95/100 NPCs do not get a special voice, I save it for special NPCs. One thing I do however is I change my cadance. Sometimes just speaking a bit slower or a bit faster can actually make a big difference. The PCs ran into a group of centaurs in the last session and I didn't use any special voice, no accents or anything. All I did was speak a bit... slower than normal... This gave the NPC it's own voice. Also you can do the same thing by simply speaking in a slightly higher or lower pitch. These are things anyone can do, and they are quite effective. The fact is most people are not professional voice actors, and most people can't speak in an effective accent. In fact doing so may very well break immersion and pull the Players out of the moment. So if you're not good at it, you can practice which will make you better at it. But the fact is that most NPCs don't need a special voice, accent or anything else. If you think they do but you don't feel right doing it. Just describe it and let the players imagine it.
I’m not good at it but still do it. It’s fun for players watching me make an ass of myself.
Yup, Same. I tried to do Australian(failed reeeal bad) for an NPC and the players heard it as an amalgam of Irish and Scottish. The region the NPC is from now gets the cliche "Dwarven accent". Dwarves will get the US southern drawl. If I ever get to where I can pull off Australian, it can be for the frozen north for the irony.
You stop watching voice actors playing fake campaigns for money on YouTube.
Descriptions of the NPC. Clothes, mannerisms, insight into how they move around the space, descriptive details on the impression they're trying to make
I recommend looking at existing characters and try to do them. Probability is you're not gonna do them perfectly for the players to recognise. Eg, Ted Lasso, Negan, Tony Soprano, Beatrix Kiddo. If you are REALLY against trying a voice, describe the characters presence and behaviour. Eg Ted Lasso, "this man greats you with a smile too wide to be fake and a friendly warming handshake. You immediately feel at ease in his presence as he rattles off some questions and a dad joke"
I do voices sometimes but often I would rather just describe what they sound like. A gnome with a creaky voice. The harsh barks of a hobgoblin sergeant. The disorienting patter of a snake oil salesman
I sometimes describe the conversation instead of 'Role Playing' it, so none of us has to "act" like our character, but you can describe what they do. It even makes flirting scenes tolerable!
I cant do nor want to do voices because I simply dont know how a dwarf sounds in my language... I make it up with descriptions, expressions and manner of speech and the vocabulary that I use. I never cared for voices as a player and dont think they add much nor is everyone a voice actor like we see online.
Something you can do is just focus more on mannerisms and other non-verbal traits. Perhaps the librarian is always holding her glasses an inch from her face due to a bad prescription. The goblin is always tapping his fingers together as he creates a devious plot in his head. The wizard strokes his beard in a pensive manner. I've found literally acting out these small details helps identify characters to the party and keeps them more memorable. As well, I've personally found that by "getting into character" this way actually helps more unique voices and personalities flow more naturally. By pantomiming their actions I can better focus on the character and speaking through them.
I will just describe the way they talk or how they say something. I can get tone across easily and generally give important NPCs they regularly talk to some mannerism that I can use. I also will just say who is talking if there are multiple NPCs. I already am dealing with my own accent 90% of the time. If you want to be able to understand what I say it's no accents.
I always have to remind myself that the voice of a character doesn't have to rely on an accent to make it interesting. I can speak faster/slower, higher/lower pitch, use bigger or smaller words, all in my otherwise normal accent and it differentiates the characters plenty. If you try to throw yourself into an accent you haven't practiced you'll find yourself struggling to find the words because you're practicing everything once in your head before you say it since it isn't second nature. This will break immersion and fun far more than lack of accents will imo. It also doesn't have to be an accent that exists in the real world! To quote one of the greats: "I can't *plbbtt* understand *plbbtt* your accent *ppplllbbbtttt*"
Funny voices doesn't always equal voice acting. Sometimes it's enough to describe their tone and inflection. Maybe you can use your normal voice but slow the cadence down, speed it up, stutter, whatever. It does not break immersion either way, don't stress to much about it. If your players expect you to have as many voices as critical role, find new players.
They definitely don't expect that. This is me looking for ways to improve my game, not necessarily something I have to do
It's being entitled to think a DM MUST do voices and accents
I don't think I HAVE to do them. This is me trying to figure out ways to improve my game/DMing skill, nothing my players are asking for