What are your thoughts people doing accents and voices for their characters/NPCs at the table?

What are your thoughts people doing accents and voices for their characters/NPCs at the table?

Fine?

Depends entirely on the setting, campaign tone, accents and voices in question.

Don't see a problem with it. Only gets weird when that one guy tries making his voice feminine for his female character, fails hard, but keeps it going regardless.

its fine but only if they're this racist

I dont get it.

They're supposed to be like Chinese or something

I dont see it.

>racist

Against the green-skinned, orange-eyed people of...where exactly?

If they do it well but most of the time it ends up cringey asf.

Doing voices actually forces you to stay in character, which is good.

Works fine if they aren't terrible at accents or acting. Being especially talented at either can bring some life into a character.
Personally, I find it very fun and helps me get into character. I'm aware its probably awkward and cringeworthy as fuck which is why I don't do it other than with my main group

>Enjoy doing voices because I feel like it adds a lot to the characters and makes them more memorable to players
>Can't do a female voice for shit
>Any attempt just sounds forced and shitty
>Can't just NOT do them because then it feels weird doing voices for everyone else BUT them

Delivery matters for a lot of things, it matters when your attempting to do accents you may have never actually ever heard.

It's an accent. You can't SEE an accent. Watch the damn movie and catch all the L sounds they turn into Rs.

Same as in theatre- if it's a distraction, don't.

How do you feel about men doing woman's voices and women doing men's voices?

As long as it isn't monty python esq, unless it's a joke.

Most of the time, a soft tone and voice does enough, and people will look past the fact it's a pretty masculine voice. Suspension of disbelief.

Don't do a 'female' voice. Just talk with your normal voice and add an accent. Trying to add a female voice never works because that's not how females talk.

The only thing you could do is alter the pitch of your voice somewhat, but most people who try way overdo it.

It's entirely possible to do a convincing female voice, but it's a skill that takes a long time and a lot of effort to master. Probably not worth it without some motivation beyond playing a character in an RPG.

How do you do a convincing Russian accent?

I find it works best to just go to the higher end of your own voice and make it a little more 'breathy'
If you do that, people will read it as 'oh, this is female' after a bit, and it's a decent way to get close without it being forced and cringeworthy.

Vodka.
With enough vodka, you can do anything.
ANYTHING!

It's a very necessary part of the game.
It's no fun if every NPC has the same voice.
It's no fun if everyone's characters just sound like their normal voices.
In my campaign we have a french bard, an Irish halfing, the typical Scottish Dwarf and the town watchmen all have Nazi-tier camp German accents. We also have a recurring Arab merchant character, a stuttering priest with a lisp, a terrified teenage recruit (think of the Krusty burger Teenager from The Simpsons) and a really REALLY flamboyant King.

Without accents/voices for them all no-one gets emotionally invested in those characters or even remembers them.

I try to vary my voice for different characters, but the only ones I do an out-and out accent for are the Serbian drow and Malcolm Tucker

I honestly never thought they sounded Chinese, even with the weird L's and shit. I still don't see it, even today.

It's fine for NPCs but when the players do this from session to session (like squeaky goblin accent) it becomes really annoying to everyone else.

They sound like Anglos in the Russian dubbing

Abs like french in the german one.