Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1043220Make them Swedish.  As in "The Swedish Chef."

I dare you.  I double dare you.

I double-dog dare you!

There was a TV show in the UK in the eighties, Not the Nine o'Clock News, which had a sketch called "At the Swedish Chemist". A customer walks in and says, with a Swedish accent, "Hello, I'd like some deoderant please.", the chemist replies "Ball or Aerosol", to which the customer says "Neither, it's for my armpits".

I agree that Acting is not required but does usually bring something positive to the table. I think I have to draw the line at too much pantomime though because to me that gets annoying fast, especially when someone mimes eating.

One thing about accents is that I only make them silly with silly characters (which can just as easily only have a silly voice, or a silly dialect of english, or whatever). If you can't make a serious accent for a serious character you're better off not doing so at all.

I generally prefer to avoid accents, just as I avoid falsetto for female PCs. However you can make NPCs distinctive without an accent per se, just by altering the cadence. Perhaps they talk rapidly, or slow and deliberately. A slightly higher or lower pitch can work. This is as much to help the GM get into the character, the players may not consciously notice.

I will occasionally do a Scottish dwarf - I'm from Scotland so I think it's ok. I might do working class London, or posh southern English.  Maybe French. I probably wouldn't do a Welsh accent, they're a bit touchy. In all those cases it'd just be a line or two to establish character, then back to my own accent.

I use accents when it makes sense to bring ethnic flair (Russians, French, etc.).

For women, I often use a lighter and somewhat "clearer" tone.

Yeah, I don't really do falsetto for women either.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1046194Yeah, I don't really do falsetto for women either.

I save falsetto for the rare, very distinct, fussy characters.  It usually goes with sliding my glasses down my nose so that I can peer over them, as if they were reading glasses.  Since I then can't see the person I'm talking to except as a blob, my lack of focus also enhances the feeling of the NPC going into lecture mode, instead of paying attention to the player character as a person. If I'm really lucky, my lazy eye will kick in, and one eye will wonder off the person while I'm talking to them.  I've spooked more than one players with that. Even then, I only throw in a little falsetto for effect.  It's the mannerisms that carry the characterization, not the voice.

I do all sorts of things. Though whenever I tried to do Thanos, it ended up sounding like Shere Khan. I've played Elric many many times, and the last time I started reciting the song Black Blade as spoken word. It took the DM a minute to figure it out.

I'm pretty awful with accents and I tend to butcher them. Naturally, then, I attempt them far more often than I should. If a character or a given moment is intended to be serious, I tend to be very conservative about using them if I'm not certain of my ability to pull it off appropriately.

I've asked my players about this (and others at the table, when once in a blue moon I play instead of run), they each say that they enjoy them and that it adds something to the game (that "something" is never really successfully explained, however).

So, I'm never quite sure what to think about that. My instinct is always to tone down or remove them as far as my own use, but the table seems to enjoy when I ham it up.

But yes, I never demand acting or accents from players. Each person gets to play the game in their own way. I'm not running a theatre troupe; not that acting is unwelcome at all from those who enjoy doing it or someone who has a moment of inspiration or whatever. As long as it doesn't negatively impact the game for the people at the table, go nuts.

Edit: Regarding falsetto, absolutely not ever unless the character is some comedy relief caricature which I never really do anyway.

Falsetto for females is a big no-no for me when I'm DMing, it just sounds silly.

As somebody who mostly DM's Rogue Trader, I usually stay away from heavy dialects or such, and instead work with cadence, speed and just general vocabulary. The only type of NPC I "Ham it up" with are Orks, for obvious reasons.

Far as my players go, our Tech Priest uses a voice modulator to actually sound like a robot, which works fine. Since the group I'm playing with originally came into roleplaying via a World of Warcraft RP-Server (Go ahead and laugh!), we do actually "act" most interactions, short of the most basic ones. I did have cases where this was sort of awkward for newcomers, so I dont insist on it. Most players get into it as they become comfy with the group and setting.

I will also try to reward good RP efforts. For example, if the player actually comes up with a rousing speech, or a convincing argument, they will either just suceed or at the very least get a positive modifier on their roll.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1046232I save falsetto for the rare, very distinct, fussy characters.  It usually goes with sliding my glasses down my nose so that I can peer over them, as if they were reading glasses.  Since I then can't see the person I'm talking to except as a blob, my lack of focus also enhances the feeling of the NPC going into lecture mode, instead of paying attention to the player character as a person. If I'm really lucky, my lazy eye will kick in, and one eye will wonder off the person while I'm talking to them.  I've spooked more than one players with that. Even then, I only throw in a little falsetto for effect.  It's the mannerisms that carry the characterization, not the voice.

In my DCC campaign, one of the NPCs (Captain Harry) is a guy with a british accent and a really awfully annoying falsetto laugh. It's made him stand out as a character.