Quote from: tenbones on June 20, 2023, 02:21:53 PM
I'm wondering who this actually affects aside from people who run one-shots or play in pick-up groups?

My experience is that even with long term groups you have to figure out how to accommodate those who just don't like to do any form of acting. 

To be clear, yes I ran into players multiple times over multiple years in completely different venues that had a distinct aversion to any type of acting. They were as rare as those who really like to get into roleplaying a distinct character which includes me when I play.

Most hobbyists in my experience are in-between. Most of their roleplaying is them in that situation but with one to a handful of quirks they like to roleplay for that character. Also common is roleplaying their background (usually tersely written).

Hence why OK to play as a version of yourself with the abilities of the character in my campaigns.

Quote from: tenbones on June 20, 2023, 02:21:53 PM


I'm wondering who this actually affects aside from people who run one-shots or play in pick-up groups?

Introverts or people who are afraid to look foolish in public

A few years ago I was reading the Belgariad to my son as his bedtime story and I asked him what the best part of the book was.  He said it was the way I had a different voice for each character.  I didn't even know I was doing that!  I paid attention the next time, and sure enough Garion, Belgarath, Silk, Polgara, etc each had their own set of diction, inflection, pace, and tone.  I expect I'm much the same when playing or running an RPG.  I'm very curious if others have had a similar experience.

Quote from: THE_Leopold on June 20, 2023, 03:00:15 PM

Quote from: tenbones on June 20, 2023, 02:21:53 PM


I'm wondering who this actually affects aside from people who run one-shots or play in pick-up groups?

Introverts or people who are afraid to look foolish in public

I have a few extreme introverts in my group - I simply tell them to explain how their characters "say" it. I don't require them to do accents, but I simply tell them to explain how their character says it. And if I need them to explain their angle or intent I ask.

Now getting introverts from playing passively - is another issue. And I've had dozens of introverts of all stripes, and I'm well aware of the parameters people's comfort. I've never had an issue *because* of being fans of Critical Roll suddenly feeling soured on any of my games because they don't measure up to a voice-actor.

My current group has a couple of fans of anime and they know all the voice-actors out there, they're fans of Critical Roll, *none* of them are scarred by their own performance because of this phenomenon. I've seen people make videos about this "issue" online... I personally think these motherfuckers are just making controversy over nothing, or are looking for something to gripe about.

Or more likely these people are fucked in the head worse than normal.

If you've been playing since the 70s, you've been listening to people make up voices for their characters since the 70s. It's one of the most mundane and unremarkable aspects of the hobby.

I've always been a 'less is more' proponent when it comes to voice-acting characters. I do it far more often as a DM than as a player, and even then I usually limit it to moments when I'm trying to inject a little humor or discomfort in the form of innkeepers or monsters.

I've played in games where one player at the table used a fake voice /accent for the entire session while nobody else (including the DM) did. The sessions went fine but it was just a little weird every time that player said something.

Bottom line- this is one of those things for which there is no right/wrong answer. If it works for your table and people want to do it, then do it. If it doesn't work, don't do it. If people are going to get upset about it, time for some people to migrate to a different group or game. If someone is using a fake voice in a narcicistic or overbearing fashion, the DM should call them on it and ask them to stop so the game can move forward. Or kill their character horribly in the next encounter, whichever works better. 

I do think Pundit's on to something.

If you play character X for a while (or GM NPC Y for a while), after a while you get a weird tulpa like-thing. You (and everyone else) kind of know what they would do, think, or feel, even though they're not real. You're not hallucinating that you are actually that fake person, and you're NOT acting either - in the sense that you're doing things for the sake of evoking some kind of response in other people or reading from a script that is designed to do that. It's its own strange thing specific to tabletop roleplaying games. The same kind of thing happens in the world - even if the GM wasn't making the calls, the fake world/situation everyone is in starts to take on this strange quality where you kind of know how it would act in a given circumstance.

Pundit is using the word "immersion", but for a lot of people that means "visually and audibly hallucinating in detail that you're in this super-realistic world", which isn't the same thing.

Quote from: jmarso on June 30, 2023, 02:38:27 PM
I've always been a 'less is more' proponent when it comes to voice-acting characters. I do it far more often as a DM than as a player, and even then I usually limit it to moments when I'm trying to inject a little humor or discomfort in the form of innkeepers or monsters.

I've played in games where one player at the table used a fake voice /accent for the entire session while nobody else (including the DM) did. The sessions went fine but it was just a little weird every time that player said something.

Bottom line- this is one of those things for which there is no right/wrong answer. If it works for your table and people want to do it, then do it. If it doesn't work, don't do it. If people are going to get upset about it, time for some people to migrate to a different group or game. If someone is using a fake voice in a narcicistic or overbearing fashion, the DM should call them on it and ask them to stop so the game can move forward. Or kill their character horribly in the next encounter, whichever works better. 

This is our groups. We are chock full of introverts, if anyone is keeping count.  Some are more so than others, but there isn't an extrovert in the bunch. We are also more literary in our inspirations than film, stage, or the like.  We switch freely between 1st and 3rd person, sometimes in mid-speech.  We also have several people with less than ideal hearing, which affects the ability to do voices. 

I've never played with anyone where picking 1st or 3rd person changed how they approached the character.  But then, we are more like to describe things than do dialog because of our influences.  We do use mannerisms, hand gestures, varying speaking volume and pitch, etc.  It's just not changing the accent of the character.  We can tell when someone is showing their character as excited or angry or sad or frightened by those voice cues.

It's an interesting point. My introverts *are* less focused in on any of my NPC's particular voice accents (when I use them). But they're very keen on my descriptions of their mannerisms. Or any particular gestures I might make in RPing that NPC, or gesticulations etc.

I'm still with Pundit on this tho, it's immersion. I mean sure, we can nitpick about whether it's the voices or the other mannerisms that go hand-in-hand with roleplaying, but ultimately it's all under the umbrella of making players feel at ease in being *in* their character within the setting.

I'll happily submit there is a difference between "voice-acting" and "narrative description/physical mannerism" - but I don't recall ever doing one without the other when *I* am roleplaying a PC or NPC, however subtle or slight it might be. Whatever gets the players over the finish line into immersion land...

I mean I once flooded the room with a tank of nitrous...

(just kidding)

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on June 30, 2023, 07:43:30 PM

Quote from: jmarso on June 30, 2023, 02:38:27 PM
I've always been a 'less is more' proponent when it comes to voice-acting characters. I do it far more often as a DM than as a player, and even then I usually limit it to moments when I'm trying to inject a little humor or discomfort in the form of innkeepers or monsters.

I've played in games where one player at the table used a fake voice /accent for the entire session while nobody else (including the DM) did. The sessions went fine but it was just a little weird every time that player said something.

Bottom line- this is one of those things for which there is no right/wrong answer. If it works for your table and people want to do it, then do it. If it doesn't work, don't do it. If people are going to get upset about it, time for some people to migrate to a different group or game. If someone is using a fake voice in a narcicistic or overbearing fashion, the DM should call them on it and ask them to stop so the game can move forward. Or kill their character horribly in the next encounter, whichever works better. 

This is our groups. We are chock full of introverts, if anyone is keeping count.  Some are more so than others, but there isn't an extrovert in the bunch. We are also more literary in our inspirations than film, stage, or the like.  We switch freely between 1st and 3rd person, sometimes in mid-speech.  We also have several people with less than ideal hearing, which affects the ability to do voices. 

I've never played with anyone where picking 1st or 3rd person changed how they approached the character.  But then, we are more like to describe things than do dialog because of our influences.  We do use mannerisms, hand gestures, varying speaking volume and pitch, etc.  It's just not changing the accent of the character.  We can tell when someone is showing their character as excited or angry or sad or frightened by those voice cues.

I am certainly an introvert myself, and was even more so back then. Same was with the other players at the table, more or less.

When I read a book I have a very rich imagination already, landscapes, characters, situation and voices. Problem all this gets wrecked somehow if some guy is strongly overacting and dresses up, as it then steals the show. It becomes all about him and his portrayal, which can never be as good as what my brain can come up with.

Done subtlely and well I'm totally ok with it, it's the "look at me how great I am at acting and taking the center of the stage" I have a hard time dealing with. I do realize I have come off rather blunt in my initial post and painted with broader strokes than I should have, but at least we got a discussion going.

As I recall we played mostly first person as players - the DM often described NPC's as third person, but also as first person when it came to dialogues, as it just seemed more natural.

QuoteStorygamers love to trot that one out. "Well acting is really real Role Playing!" and "Reading a book is really real role playing!!!" ad nausium.

That I strongly disagree. Storygamers at least as most commonly defined in modern RPG discurse does not give a shit about well acting, because they do not give a shit about immersion.
Storygamers care about narrative structures within games. That's why their mechanics usually included various elements influencing dramatic not simulationist aspect of millieu.
I personally see large chunk of spectrum players within SG fans, because mechanics push drama for them, when their own authism do not allow them to improvise it easily in "trad" games.

"Well acting" folk tend to stick with 5e or WoD.

I generally spend 90% of the time, if not more, in 3rd person. Only occasionally dipping into a character voice. And that is when I DM. I consider it completely valid to stay in 3rd person 100% of the time if someone chooses. What I do not endorse is either side saying one particular type is wrong.

That said, we've all had weirdos who made things beyond awkward. I'm not there to live out some theatre's flunkie's wet dream in my game. OP didn't lose anything when that person bailed.

Quote from: blackstone on June 20, 2023, 10:56:14 AM
I have no problem with it, as long as it's not taken to excess. I as a DM have done several accents to help differentiate between NPCs. It makes the NPC a bit less generic. I'll sometimes base it upon people I know (work is a perfect example. LOTS of different people from around the world).

As long as people are having fun, it's fine with me.

Tyranny of Fun says otherwise.

I could play with or without the dramatic voices, as long as the dice still decide success or failure.

Quote from: Jam The MF on August 16, 2023, 01:10:04 AM
I could play with or without the dramatic voices, as long as the dice still decide success or failure.

Yup. Same here. I enjoy both. Especially the really good voice actors in our group.

The problem for me (not a big voice actor) is when some (not all) proponents of the voice acting use the voice acting type role playing to determine bonuses or penalties or how good you were at persuading the other person, etc. I like to role-play characters not like me - people good with people, or with crazy chemistry skills, or really good at climbing. (I've repelled a few times and got the merit badge but that was decades and decades ago. And I got a C in chemistry but was reading Engines of Creation for fun -- the prof was confused about that when I talked with him about the book.) Someone with the knowledge could write encyclopedias about what I don't know (or can't remember) about those things.

IIRC, most of the people in this thread do not fall into the above category. But I've seen posts of that type in other threads. (Making players solve puzzles to resolve their character's skill attempt or wanting really convincing verbal arguments with an NPC.)