How much of your game takes place "In Character" (I draw my gun and say "Prepare to die fiend") ? How much is "Out of Character" (My character spends an action aiming, and then takes a head shot.)? Which do you prefer? Why?

Does voice acting, as it were, bother you? Do you picture in your mind unique voices for PC's or NPC's?

While I like the idea of giving voice to my characters as a player and a GM, I usually don't do it at the table.  I may say a few things from a "first person" perspective for occasional dramatic effect, but I generally narrate my characters' actions in the third person ("Arglebargle points at the bandit leader with his sword and demands to know why he's blocking their way" or similar).

I do try to convey personality when I narrate actions, but I'm just not quick enough to do it all "in character."

I'm about 50/50 but it depends on the rules and meta-stuff.  The more at ease I am with the rules and the more the group is flowing, the higher the proportion of the game I'll be playing in character.

I love voice acting if it's good.  Especially if it's a GM who can do all kinds of voices.  That stuff is cool.  For players who can't do accents or act all that well, I recommend just a subtle changing of the voice.  That way you are indicating that you are speaking in character, which is often enough to maintain our willing suspension of disbelief, but you aren't acting badly or goofily, which can become a distraction.

I definitely like to play as much "In character" as possible, when dialoge is warranted.  I play "Out of character" when I am trying to make other players aware of my actions, with alerting or giving up our position.  
 
I prefer IC, because I find it comfortable to step outside of my reality as much as possible when I role play.  Although I have tried to do voice acting in the past, I always end up sounding like someone from southern US.  So I spare my game group to further pain.

I like to be in-character as much as possible, only returning to my own voice to give out-of-character actions ["Can I see him? Okay, then I shoot him."] or to discuss out-of-game tactics with the other players ["Seriously, I don't think our characters are clever enough to run away at this point. We're going to have to stay and fight."]. Or to make jokes, which I do too often.

I'm an actor, recreationally, so if my character doesn't have a distinctive vocalization, it usually means I'm not trying very hard. I try to push myself a little further each time, from developing unique accents for fantasy civilizations to pushing the envelope of what age I can imitate [which is harder than you'd think]. At the table, I'm limited somewhat by realism, but if we were playing Toon, I could really go all-out with the voice acting. Well, I've been known to push the limits of tolerance with voice acting in D&D, as well, as with my character Kaas, a poison dusk with a distinctly nonhuman voice. But our table really enjoys voice acting - about three-quarters of our group has won some kind of award for acting at some point in their lives, and most have done community theater or something similar - so it's all part of the game for us.

Having a few players who are always pushing the envelope also helps the more shy members of the group overcome their nervousness of voice acting, which is usually the only thing keeping a mediocre voice actor from being a good one, or a good one from being a great one. Sometimes, unfortunately, it does the opposite, and makes people who aren't voice acting feel self-conscious and ashamed, but tragically, some stupid dicks at our table - like, say, me - don't give a fuck. I love acting; it's why I roleplay.

I'm all about the IC.

When running, I have a ton of different voices and mannerisms that I can and do use. I'm pretty good at mimicking people/doing impressions, so it works out.

Same as Engine, but I don't play much, so I do the voice thing with NPCs. I'm not an actor, either, but I play one on TV.

-clash

I do IC voices both while playing and GMing.  It can be kinda inconsistent depending on my mood and my success at capturing the character at the moment.  

I have also had a lot of luck using props to differentiate NPCs from one another during play.  The most infamous of these included a whole host of hats that we used in our comedic fantasy campaign.  My personal favorite was the gaudy pimp hat for the half-orc thief named "Sweet Jimmy"...


TGA

I try to be as IC as I can be when playing and GMing.  The only time it becomes tough is when we're playing a new game which requires a little more OOC talk to set the atmosphere and tone of the setting.

I do my best to be in-character as much as possible. I sometimes find it a little easier when NPCing female characters to go with the "she says...".  

Character vocalizations?  Well, I try.  I do a really good foppish dandy, which is good for court intrigue games.

We do them all the time. As a switch-up, the first time we played D&D 4e and each of the players controlled two characters, I used an out-of-character fake voice and just had my characters talk like I do in order to more fully and perfectly annoy the other guys.

voice acting is cool with me.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Serious Paul;256908How much of your game takes place "In Character" (I draw my gun and say "Prepare to die fiend") ? How much is "Out of Character" (My character spends an action aiming, and then takes a head shot.)? Which do you prefer? Why?

Does voice acting, as it were, bother you? Do you picture in your mind unique voices for PC's or NPC's?

The whole game is normally IC except when we call a time out. Voice acting is my speciality. Although it's mostly voice mimicry

Regards,
David R

When playing, I usually describe what my character does in the third person.  "Carmen walks over to the orc, kicks him in the ribs, and shouts at him to wake up and grab his sword, so he can die with some dignity."

I kind of hate it when people try to engage me in improvisation in-character dialog, whether as a player or DM.  I really hate it when it's some undeveloped stock background character.

"I walk over to the chambermaid.  'How you doing?'"

"She says 'Sod off you fucking wanker, there's a plot you're supposed to be following!'"

But I do some stuff, maybe 5% of stuff, mostly exposition, in character.  It's really the lamest thing about gaming, I think, and I have zero patience for people who waste most of a session with that tripe.

We try to be IC as much as possible, and when describing character actions we usually do it first person. I think that the most involved players help the shy ones to start acting, and usually is funny.

Voice acting is OK, unless is deeply horrible. None of us are actors,but we're cool with our performances.