NPC Roleplaying Tips for D&D | Do I have to do “voices”? | Ask a DM #6

So I lean towards the opinion that voices aren’t necessary to have a good game but on the flip side I am someone who does voices as a dm. My advice is you don’t need to have 100 different voices to be a good VA dm. I have like 3 that I go back and forth with and while I may change them ever so slightly they are more or less the same 3. They just convey a mood to the players. They convey that this guy is old and grizzled with a tough voice or this other guy is meek and reserved or excitable with a higher pitched voice.

While I don’t use these voices often one of my favorite encounters happened when I had my players come across an enemy they had fought in the past. This guy was more of a trickster and annoyed the heck out of the players characters in game. So when the players heard me say that when they turn the corner and see a familiar face and then heard me do his voice their reactions were priceless. They instantly knew who it was and their reactions to randomly encountering him were the best part of that session for me

A DM should at least try to do voices. The clues in the title, Role playing game. Doing voices will take you from a 5 to an 8.

Cha'alt!

His face is so amazingly descriptive and animated! It's something I rarely see lol.

I came across this video in my preparation to run chapter 2 of Lost Mine of Phandelver. My players nicely wrapped up chapter 1 in one session and now I am getting ready to run chapter 2 and am trying to figure out how I should handle all the different NPC's in the town. I've been trying to find a more fleshed out guide to these NPC's but so far have not found one. Any ideas or tips you might have would be most welcome. I am planning to makes some notes for each NPC to refer to during play, but trying to decide how to play each NPC differently is feeling like a daunting task but I am trying to get away from flat NPC's and feel this is important to me.

If you knew how cool Idris Elba was you would be ashamed of what you just said.

You don't know who Idris Elba is..... Heimdall much? Lol great podcast

How the hell do you not know who idris Elba is

Special voices should be for special npcs.

One year later I type in Idris Elba, I get something about the Coronavirus... so I ain’t clicking on that link.

Ideas Elba is the huge black gentleman playing Heimdul on the Thor movies.

We'll just roll with it and accept it. Those are great players.

I make nameless NPCs and just have a list of names incase the players ask “what’s your name sir/madam?” There are a few things I do extra like adding religious background to a few NPCs.

I'm not afraid when I talk to the voices in my head. I'm afraid when they talk back.

Using different accents from the real world, especially when all of them are from the same race, helped my players distinguish special NPC's from each other.
And using body language generally improved my level of roleplay.

Not all npc’s need a specific voice. I leave it for the more notable characters.

While I don't think it's truly necessary to do different voices, it definitely makes the campaign more fun and the NPCs more memorable. Our DM has been great with that, some highlights being an outrageously stereotypical hindu guy, neckbeard wizard and sore throat Mickey Mouse mono-tone smithy (the monotone smithies have become a running gag at this point, I love it :V).


For the neckbeard wizard he deeply inhaled after every other word, he was even about to pass out at one point but he stayed committed! What a legend.

Sometimes I forget to do a voice for reoccurring NPCs. I've been called out on it a few times. That proved to me that my players enjoy it. Lol

I think it improves the game, it immerses the player into the game and makes the world feel more alive

Lol
Your Evil voice is Randy Savage (the macho man)
If you never heard Randy Savage google it it's great.

You don't want me to do voices.

game over.

Why have real life accents for fantasy language?

Great information. Thanks,

I have a 40-50 minute commute everyday to work and then again home. I've been using this time to practice voices to myself in the car. Sounds silly, but it really helps.

I really like doing voices because it differentiates a character. If nothing else, the players KNOW who they are talking to and dealing with. I think there was a guest on Dragon Talk that had much of the same advice that you do. Everyone has at least 8 voices that they can do (something like: serious, silly, low baritone, etc etc). But really, it doesn't have to be a spot on accent or impersonation of a celebrity. One of the best things I've seen some one suggest is that even if you do a bad impersonation, that then becomes the voice of that NPC, and you own it that much more.

You make awesome voices, I'll start to practicing mine😂😈😈

It's not entirely necessary to "do voices", but I have noticed that the players find it more entertaining and immersive when you do. It doesn't have to be something extreme, we're not all voice actors, just a slight change in pitch, accent and/or speech pattern goes a long way to capture the NPCs' character. I tend to add at least one silly voice per session, but that's mostly due to me adding some fun and humor into the game. Doing voices is a bit tricky for me since I'm not a native English speaker, but I still do it (with a varying degree of success) for my English speaking players.

This was a great help sir, along with all the advice you had given me under the comments of my original question it has been super useful! I just wanted to say thank you :) here’s hoping everything goes great haha

You also never know when a throw away NPC will end up being something important to the players. I had a cult attract people who wanted to have amazing dreams, so when the players pretended to bite, I had an NPC who was depressed there, because he wanted a little happiness in his horrible life. My players loved this NPC for reasons I don't know, and all I did was say depressing things in a drull voice.

Ha! Love your evil voice and mannerisms! I think the biggest thing when doing voices for NPCs is to act like the NPC. Don't worry about how the voice sounds, just do and act like the NPC might act. You'll notice your voice naturally changes anyway.

Voices aren't necessary but totally elevate the game imo it helps with immersion and even if the voices arent great it certainly makes for a memorable npc and probably a few good laughs.I love doing orc voices