Do you act and do voices in roleplaying games? Are you good at it? Should everyone try?

Kinda.
No.
Yes.

Players should do what allows them to have the most fun without impinging upon the fun of others. This principle should balance the practice of players doing what allows the DM/other players to have the most fun without impinging upon one's own. Imo, trying new things when playing an RPG is what keeps it fun, and if you've never acted/voiced a character, trying it out seems worth the risk of being a cringy idiot with your friends.

>Do you act and do voices in roleplaying games?
Yes. Our GM is a good actor and does a swell job of bringing NPCs to life, so we try to do the same. Two of our players are good at it, one is a bit shy but learning fast, and the other is utterly terrible.

>Are you good at it?
I'm okay at it, though I'd like to get better. My character's voice doesn't mesh well with my accent (I'm Scottish, character is a Monk who'd likely speak proper English) so I often just speak normally. I do try to speak with the same inflections and manners as my character would. I also try to punctuate what I say with descriptions of how my character acts and moves: "I point to [character] as I say it," or "I scratch my chin, and say..." and stuff like that, as well as gesticulating.

>Should everyone try?
If they feel comfortable with it, yes. If not, I'm quite happy for people to describe what they do in prose. I'd also ask people who cannot act or do accents, or who simply play characters as themselves, or who talk far too much while saying very little, to avoid it and just shut up.

This is one of those things that varies from person to person.

If you practice a ton, and you aren't afraid to embarrass yourself you can eventually pull it off, maybe.

That said, you don't have to do funny voices, or weird accents. Simply changing your intonation, your pacing, your pitch, your choice of words, and your mannerisms can give a lot of flavor and verisimilitude to an npc.

But if you hate acting or whatever, you can narrate everything the npcs do and say in third person, and that's fine too.

Anyway, to answer your questions, I'm ESL and speak several languages so learning how to speak to fit in was something I worked on for a long time, so yes I do act and do voices to some degree. You should try it if you enjoy doing it, and your audience is cool with it.

I definitely talk differently than I normally would. Sometimes I'll do a very bad accent if it's appropriate.

I've been told I'm a pretty good roleplayer. I love acting (haven't done it since high school) and I like to apply what little I know about acting theory to my characters.

I need to work on making my NPCs more distinct. A lot of them are "shopkeeper annoyed with party antics" because my players like to fuck with me on purpose.

Eh, I'd really like to, but absolutely nobody does that in reality, so that would be just incredibly embarrassing.

I've found the best NPCs start as one-dimensional characters, it makes any other characteristics more apparent. Further development being tied to player interactions.

>"my players like to fuck with me on purpose"
Turn that around on them. It makes great stories in my experience.
>potion shopping
>old lady running the place won’t be haggled…
>”unless the bard locks lips with me until I’m satisfied”
>bard refuses and we go elsewhere
>find a potion store with a hot young owner
>bard flirts for a discount
>”trying to cheat on me with my daughter?!”
>fucking old lady pops out from under the counter
>bard can’t buy potions unless he visits the old lady now

I act things out if I get very into a conversation or I think it would be fun, but I'm bad at diction and voices in general, so I just use body language and my natural voice.

No, I'm not very good, but I do enjoy it. I over act and ham it up because that's the only thing I can do. I think I can deliver comedic stuff passably, but I don't try to goof things up unless I think it's appropriate for the scene.

It's not for me to say if you should do it or not, but there's no harm in trying. Better to try and fail once or twice than staying unsure.

In my experience most nerds have a hard enough time finding their own voices. Trying to do roleplay voices is almost always a horrible experience.

That said, if you have friends that are good at improv or have done any acting it can make any tabletop game VASTLY more fun. It's almost like acting prepares one to play a role or something.

Yes.
I have a limited range, but I work with what I have.
Perhaps. It's fun. But some players excel at describing character action--if they enjoy that, they ought to stick with it.

>doing voices
>not light-hearted

I sometimes do gestures, I'll do certain voices that I'm confident with.

I'm not great but my normal voice is pretty monotonous so it's better than nothing.

Everyone should try at least once, even if that means practicing on their own at home or something. It's definitely not for everyone.

I think finding a distinctive manner of speech is more important than a voice. If I'm voicing a princess I'm not going to do a falsetto, I'll just speak with a more upper-class accent and use appropriate phrases, or if I'm playing a scholar I'll use more technical vocabulary. You get the idea.

I do like tone switches but I generally do like for there to be a noticable difference between my voice and that of my characters.

One time while negotiating with a merchant, one of my players attempted to add a dose of poison to the deal to sweeten to pot. They were trying to be subtle and not use the word poison but then I interrupted by excitedly exclaiming "POISON?!" with such timing and force that it just cut his sentence in half. I dont often think about it but my friends still refer to it as something of an inside joke, so I guess I must be doing some things right.

Nobody should be doing anything they dont want or feel comfortable with but I think it ads quality to the experience when done well. You gotta buy into it.

I'm bad at doing voices. I still do it.

If I don't try I can't improve.

No
No
Yes

In my case, FUCK doing character voices, I am so bad at it that it immediately smashes the immersion and sends the pieces out of the nearest window. Nobody else in my group can do it worth a damn either. It was for this and a few other reasons that we switched to playing online and use voice for OOC shit while roleplaying via text.

So no, we don't do voices. Doesn't mean people shouldn't try it.

Always
Hell no
Hell yes

Yes
No
Yes

For me, it's really hard to stay in character unless I'm doing a voice for them

Yes to all. Though I'm not in a permanent state of voice acting. I do it when my character speaks or if I'm voicing an npc

Yes
Yes
No
I |do a fair few accents fairly well, my neutral accent is also fairly strong (Broad Yorkshire) and I can turn it up to suit provincial or rough sounding characters with extreme ease. Other than that my accents are limited to, French, Scandi, Dutch/Kiwi, Spanish, Welsh and Scottish.
That tends to cover nearly all the bases in terms of storytelling and within an accent I can change the way I speak in terms of pitch and inflection to create an individual voice.
It makes it much easier for players to keep track of whats going on if for any reason two NPC's happen to be talking to each other.

If you can do voices and accents convincingly by all means please do it. Having your character have a distinct voice to your own makes the immersion much deeper for the other players and also removes confusion about what is in and out of character. That said I've heard some fucking terrible voices from players from players who think that speaking with excessive vocal fry, lisps, or falsetto but otherwise in their own voice constitutes a character voice. This always ends up as sounding terrible and pulls you out of immersion instead of into it.

>Dutch/Kiwi
If you can't easily distinguish between the two, you aren't as good at either as you think.

Yes.
Yes.
Yes, once but they should drop it if bad at it.

Doesn't matter if he can distinguish, what matters is if the players can distinguish.

I meant more that if he's not sure which it is, it's probably not a very good version of either - for generic fantasyland, it'd probably be fine, but you'd be laughed at by anyone of either nationality in reality.

Either way, you're right, it doesn't matter.

I'm just a kiwifag getting triggered by people saying we sound dutch

good explanation

this is neat

why?

Sorry, I didn't catch that. I don't speak Dutch.

I'm the original guy you replied to.
Dutch, Kiwi and South African all do sound similar to the untrained ear.
Obviously they are different, but if you can do one convincingly you can probably do the others too.

Just describing it works almost as well honestly, just like getting up music or images and playing/showing it, it needs to be done really well to be worth it - waiting several minutes for the gm to find the right picture is bad, and if you can't get the voice right quickly or it's inconsistent then that doesn't really add much. Critical Role sounds great but for most people I don't think it's very important. I think tone is big though, I don't care about making lighter voices for women or accents or whatever but if your character is scared for example that coming across in the voice is nice and adds to verisimilitude.

I sometimes put on a bit of a voice, change in tone, etc. but I don't throw real voices. No I am not good at it. Everyone should do a bit of inflection change but cringeworth accents are better to avoid unless you can do them well.

Nah, I don't think so. Not in this case.

Sort of, I need a few minutes to get into the mood then I start acting. No voices usually I'm no good at them.

Yes but only for comical characters. But I mostly play light hearthed games, so there's that.

Yes.
Yes.
Yes, everyone should try. Describing the way your character behaves is serviceable but, in my experience, trying to act it out, even if you're not particularly good at it, is a lot more fun.

I should, but voices are murder on the throat.
No.
At least once, perhaps even once per character. You never know if it might be good or not until you try it.

Yes teh voice makes in character speech distinct from OOC jokes/questions (my group BS's a lot then we play)
Not really
I'm in favor of it but it's your prerogative

Method acting gm here. Had my party carry me around ala weekend at Bernie's because that's what they wanted to do with the bandit leaders body.

Yes, yes, yes.
Look, some people can't do it, but there's no reason not to try. It makes it easier to keep the flow going if you can do a voice, then it's just a matter of finding what you need to do to keep the characters straight in your head.

Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. Can you repeat the question?

Yes. I like to think so. Yes, but I think it's the reason I'm not in a group anymore.

Most of the time, since most of the games I'm in are for fun and the way I speak normally does not reflect anyone with one ounce of formality. Yes, because I like to improv and voice act with friends, occasionally to amuse children. They should try if they feel like it, but if it's some grimdark super serious campaign it might be a bad idea.

When the party is okay with it. In my view, everyone should always do this, and always put their all into it. Even if you suck balls at it at first, it's the only way to improve, and people who are too cool to actually get into the game can go get a different hobby.

Yes to all. Now if you had asked "Should everyone HAVE to do it" that would be a no, but for everyone who is comfortable with it it makes the game so much better.

When necessary.

Yes.
I'm good enough for the players to not hate it.
If they want to.

Me and my friends are hobby actors, so that comes naturally to us. I would honestly recommend doing voices even if your bad at it though. Talking like the character is a good way to get in character.

I use my characters as practice as voice acting so i think I'm decent at it

>Do you act and do voices in roleplaying games?
Most of the time.

>Are you good at it?
Fairly good. People can tell what npc they are talking to easily and I can convey their character fairly easily for them to understand when someone is actually threatening them or is joking about it.

>Should everyone try?
Try once. If it doesn't work for you stop. If it does, do it whenever you feel like it.

Sometimes, when the ROI is too big to ignore. Most of the time, if I'm not going for a laugh rather than a serious immersive technique. I don't think there is a "should or should not" for whether everyone should try a thing, if they want to and feel alright doing so, do it in a low-risk scenario. What's more important from a group perspective is not to push something where you're damaging enjoyment to the point of tanking your group for nothing.

Yes.
Hell, no.
Maybe. Can't hurt to vary pitch and timbre as long as you're capable of doing that, especially if you're a GM and you're trying to make characters distinct. Just make sure that's not the only thing that distinguishes them.

Yes, no, yes. It's good fun and sometimes helps the players get immersed.
Though for the life of me, I'm not sure how they are because thanks to my inability to apply an accent to different voices, everyone in Barovia sounds the same.

It's not something i'm very good at, but I want to try more and improve - but none of the other players at my table do it and I feel real self-conscious trying.

Any tips for improving?

I do, probably not, and yes. It's a lot of fun doing the voices.

>Do you act and do voices in roleplaying games?
Yes, usually
>Are you good at it?
My players have had no problems with it
>Should everyone try?
Depends on the GM and on the group: it works for some, others don't feel comfortable doing it. People should go with what they're comfortable with.

I do accents and some voices but nothing overtop.
A bit of nasally tone to voice for a rich aristocrat time.
A big booming voice for a strong man ect ect

Basically when your parents read you bedtime stories stuff.

>Do you act and do voices in roleplaying games?
I try, because it helps define the character for myself. I get a better idea of what's going on, what they do and what they think.

>Are you good at it?
Some of my voices are better than others, and it takes a lot of practice to get the hang of them.

>Should everyone try?
It's not everyone's cup of tea, but being bad at something is the first step to being kinda good at something.

Fpbp

Yes
No
Yes, at least try. Some aren't comfortable but we are all friends together at the table here to have a good time and doing voices can be fun and light hearted in an otherwise dark game

>Do you act
Yes.

>and do voices
No. I find voices and accents to be a distraction. Everything becomes about the silly accents people have, and unless you're really good at it, it isn't actually more immersive. It actually breaks immersion, because instead of hearing the voice in your head, you hear the silly accent. So I think it's best to just talk regularly. The people you are gaming with are used to that and will therefore be able to largely eliminate your personal accent and inflections and get more of a neutral stream of information, onto which they can pattern their mental conception of your character.

Don't get me wrong, putting some emotion into your delivery can be very important. People should know if the character you're portraying is angry, pensive, or amused. And I will definitely give different characters different mannerisms as befits their personalities. But I'm not a professional actor, and I'm more interested in people's core characters than their affectations in any case. I do try to inhabit the characters and be at least somewhat expressive, but it's like their consciousness jumped into my body and find themselves using my voice and accent and so forth, because that's hardwired into the instinctive, unconscious parts of my brain. (When it comes to other people, I'm happy with just the suggestion of how characters express themselves, as I can take that suggestion and run with it in my head.)

>Are you good at it?
I think I'm reasonably good at sinking into a character, though like I said, I'm not trying to do anything fancy when it comes to portraying them.

>Should everyone try?
To actually role-play? Sure. If nobody inhabits their characters at all, I'm honestly not got to be very interested in the game. Without that element, we might as well just be war gaming.

Pic unrelated.

Yes, all the time, and i love doing voices
Yes, i practice all the time and am working on getting more VA work
Yes if they want to, it's more fun and immersive and silly all at once.

I do it as a gm. Im not good, everyone have more fun this way. Its helps while creating the personality of the npcs

This is going to sound odd, but listen to interviews with people who have a thick, but intelligible, accent. Listen too interviews with people who have very distinctive voices. While listening take the time to really consider how they must be moving their mouths to make those sounds. Then try it out, pick a very specific phrase from the interview and try to nail it as close as you can, once you have it down the rest is much easier from there. For instance I can do what I'm told is a very good Glaswegian accent because I listened to several really long podcasts Kevin Smith did with Grant Morrison and just became really interested in how he weird fucker talked and kept repeating something he said, "It's not creepy or weird" until I could mimic it exactly.

Starting tip: The best way to start on a Michael Cane impersonation is to say "My cocaine" over and over again until you get the idea.

Adding to this, an amateur rapper I knew mentioned that when he had a line he was having difficulty with, he would put some small ice cubes/marbles in his mouth and work over the line slowly to feel out what pronouncing the different syllables felt like.

Dude was pretty good, so IDK, might apply here too for working out how different accents are formed.

I always act, and try to do voices that I could realistically perform. I try accents if it's not too obnoxious.

I'm not sure but I'm told I do a good Trandoshan voice.

It's not for everyone and I respect that.