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Dungeons & Dragons - Role Playing Tips
Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #80
Creating Npc Voices: 6 Techniques & Tips From Subscribers
Contents:
This Week's Tips Summarized
Creating Npc Voices: 6 Techniques & Tips From Subscribers
- Use TV & Movies For Inspiration
- Focus On The Physical Way You Say Words
- Use Language Tapes
- Use Letter Substitution
- Extend Letters
- NPC Voice Examples From Readers
Readers' Tips Summarized
- Create Opposite Personalities To Help You Roleplay Better
- Use Fonts To Get Players Roleplaying
- More Cheap Miniatures
- Homemade GM Screen Idea
- Reader Request: Tips For Disabled Players?
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A Brief Word From Johnn
New Newsletter Service
My fingers are crossed that this newsletter goes out
smoothly, as I've just switched to a professional list
hosting provider. This also means your email headers have
changed, and that might affect your email filters. Let me
know if you had any problems or concerns about this week's
issue.
Regards,
Johnn Four
johnn@roleplayingtips.com
Johnn Four
johnn@roleplayingtips.com
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Roleplaying Games @ About.com
Check out my other Roleplaying Games web site: http://www.roleplaygames.about.com
In the Forums (These links bring you in as an anon. guest):
"PCs as NPCs: when player becomes GM"
"The most ridiculous character..."
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Creating Npc Voices: 6 Techniques & Tips From Subscribers
- Use TV & Movies For Inspiration
A great way to increase your repertoire of NPC voices is to
study interesting characters from movies and TV shows. Your
group's style will determine whether you can get away with
mimicking famous characters or not as those voices might
prove to be too distracting to your players.
If this is the case, then focus entirely upon the supporting
cast. In fact, secondary characters are often the most
interesting to model. They usually need a strong, simple
character hook so that the audience immediately identifies
them and understands their role in the story. And, quite
often, these hooks involve voice and speaking mannerisms--
perfect fodder for your NPCs.
Another source for NPC voices would be computer games. Shawn
F. wrote in that he mimics "Garrett" from the Thief and
Thief II computer games for a whispery rogue in his
campaign.
Try renting a movie and watch/listen for the character you
want to mimic. Then pause the movie and parrot that
character's lines out loud. Rewind and repeat until you feel
comfortable with it. Do this throughout the movie with that
same character so that you build up a larger vocabulary of
words done in that voice.
Do the same with books: focus on a few characters and say
their lines out loud to practice their speaking mannerisms.
Here's a great example from ShadowJack's Earthdawn campaign:
"It was a mystery, and the man behind it was this reclusive
wizard living in a nicely-appointed cave near the village. A
nice old gent, really - it wasn't his fault his pets were
poisoning the water supply. The PCs made their way through
the cave, found the door to the guy's apartment. The door
swings open and they see him in an armchair facing the
fire. He stands, turns, faces them, and...
It's Vincent Price.
'Good evening...gentlemen.'
In six words, we all knew EXACTLY what this guy looked like
and acted like."
Here's another example from Miguel V:
"One voice tip I have comes from listening to Agent Smith in
the movie the Matrix. Agent smith spoke in a monotone the
whole way through. He rarely varied his voice pitch, but he
did not become boring because he varied the speed of his
speech. This is one that would take some practice, but the
result is a voice that sounds a little unnatural without
most people catching on immediately."
Here are a few shows/people to watch, as suggested by
subscribers:
- Anything by Jim Henson (Sesame Street, Muppets)
- Cartoons
- Saturday Night Live
- Monty Python
- Robin Williams
- Bill Cosby
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- Focus On The Physical Way You Say Words
Excalibur wrote in with some great tips about creating
different voices by focusing on the actual way you say the
words:
"I can create many different types of voices, from hick to
Southern, Australian, Scottish, English, and several cartoon
character voices. I guess the main trick to creating a new
voice is to find one to model after.
I do this by listening to the way someone speaks over and
over again. Then I attempt to find the mouthing patterns
which might produce the sounds and the way the person talks.
Lastly, by positioning your tongue in different positions as
well as 'tightening your vocal chords' (I can't really
describe it in any other words) you can produce the 'pitch
and roll' of the voice.
After you start to hear the voice you want coming out of
you, spend time while driving looking at signs and objects
and try to pronounce them in that voice. I once spent a 2
hour trip speaking like an Australian. It was rather
difficult to kick back out to American English after
that ;)"
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- Use Language Tapes
Another trick is to borrow some language tapes from your
local library, or find some in a discount bin at a book
store. Listen to the tapes, follow the lessons if you wish,
and repeat out loud the voices you hear as much as possible.
You will not only learn accents this way, but you will learn
different voices and completely different ways of speaking
(such as different pacing and rhythm).
Once you've mastered a new language style (not necessarily
the vocabulary though--just how the language sounds), you
can borrow elements to change your regular words (such as
pronouncing normal words with foreign vowels or using other
unique language sounds).
Here's an example from The Rooster:
"If every 'A' sounds like the a in 'rain' with an 'ay'
sound, "cat" becomes "cayt", "backwards" becomes
"bayckwayrds". Or, if you flatten all 'A's to sound like an
'o', then 'pat' becomes 'pot', 'thanks' becomes 'thonks'."
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- Use Letter Substitution
To create a new voice for an NPC, select one or more letters
and substitute it with one or more different letters. For
example, say all 'th's as 'sh's. Like shis.
Another version of this tip is to avoid pronouncing a
particular letter. For example, try speaking without saying
the letter "T".
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- Extend Letters
Pick a letter that, whenever the NPC says it at the
beginning or end of a word, you extend it for a half-second
or so.
"Rrrright you arrrre good sirrrr."
"Wwwhat wwwwould you wwwant wwwith that?"
This is different than stammering. Here you're smoothly
pronouncing the letter the whole time.
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- NPC Voice Examples From Readers
- The Stutter: The patron of my current group is, rather than
being a high level wizard, a high level NPC mundane sage
with a problem with personal confrontation. Therefore, when
he met the party face to face, he broke out in, "E-e-e-e-x-
c-c-c-usssse m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-e, m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-mi-m-m-my
n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-nam-mm-e is-s-s-s..." It instantly created
an impression on everybody that they'll never forget.
- The Lisp: This voice, like the stutter, needs to be used
fairly sparingly, as both are fairly annoying. However,
I've used the Lisp to great effect for evil henchmen
(combined with the Snivel, see below.), puppet kings, and
anyone who needs to seem not-so-bright.
- The Snivel: For henchmen, lackeys, and subordinates, nothing
beats the snivel, especially as it can easily be combined
with any other voice for it's own brand of uniqueness. The
Snivel is created by adding a low pitched nasal whine to
your voice and thinking about avoiding being beaten soundly
about the head again...
- The Gravel: Speaking with a low, raspy voice immediately
tells someone you're down on your luck, either physically,
mentally, or both.
- The Hiss: Prolong the time when you say all 'S's.
- The Snob: Nose in the air, and high pitched nasal tones.
- The Hippie: Speak like your mind's somewhere else, in a
happy place.
- The Scatterbrain: Hem and haw, mumble, and pause halfway
through an important thought, then finish sentences with
complete non sequiturs.
- The Angry Monotone: Grit your teeth while talking and try
not to use any inflection whatsoever.
- The Hysteric: Over dramatize. Think classic Shakespearian.
- The Kirk (from Star Trek): Work, truly work, to make, every
word, a discourse in, the emotion, of the moment.
- Third Person: Refer to everyone and everything in the 3rd
person. "Sam doesn't like it when Jimmy hits Sam!"
- Lip Smacker: Smack, smack, just like this, smack.
- Wire Jaw: Pretend your jaw is wired shut and speak between
clenched teeth.
- The Phlegmer: Have you got any phlegm? Use it.
- The Water Breather: Speak while you have water in your
mouth.
- The Paper Trick: Speak through a sheet of paper, and try
different thicknesses (such as tissue and 20lb)
- The Toothless Hag: Stick a couple of fingers in your mouth
or pull on the side(s) of your mouth.
- Deep Voice: It's a common trick, but for a particular fully-
armored knight NPC I always kept a large plastic mug or
glass at hand. Speaking into such a vessel makes a voice
deeper and fuller and it sounds somewhat like Darth Vader.
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Tips Request: "Running Cities"
An upcoming issue will be dealing with running city
campaigns or adventures, based on a number of tips requests
from the Topics contest and a recent reader's regular tip
request. This is a big topic though, so I need help from you
in narrowing it down.
What kind of city tips would you like to see? What
problems/difficulties do you run into while GMing a city
adventure (regardless of genre or game system) that we could
all gang up on and help you with?
Also, if you have any city tips, generic or specific, please
send them on in.
Send your tips to: johnn@roleplayingtips.com
Thanks! :)
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Readers' Tips Of The Week:
- Create Opposite Personalities To Help You Roleplay Better
From: Telquenariel
http://pages.infinit.net/suledor/home.htm
[Johnn: I thought this tip, aimed at players who play two or
more characters, would also apply to the NPCs you play.]
I've been reading your roleplaying tips for a while now, and
they always get me thinking. So, I thought I'd give back
that which has given me so much.
I once played in an adventure where there were so few
players that each of us ended up playing two characters
each. To make the experience memorable I decided to play
completely opposing characters. One was a female Elven
Shaman, and the other a female human barbarian. Anyway,
needless to say the characters did not have similar views.
In each situation I would try to figure out how each of them
would react - and often, they would piss each other off.
When they would discuss ideas they would misunderstand
things - or rather - selectively understand things to
enhance their character differences.
Playing such opposite characters helped me [and the others]
not confuse the two of them. Switching characters was easy
because they were so different, acted different and believed
in different things.
Sometimes, I would point to the figurines as I spoke to
reinforce who was speaking... That helped. Sometimes I would
hold the two handed bastard sword in my hands, twitch it or
whatever, as the barbarian would do. Or sing as the shaman
would.. It was obvious who was talking.
- Use Fonts To Get Players Roleplaying
From: Allyson Y.
Johnn,
I've found that the best way to get people roleplaying is
also the easiest, as long as you have a computer, the
internet, and a printer.
Getting interesting fonts at www.themeworld.com is a big
help. I like to send my characters letters from NPCs, let
them intercept enemy code, get hold of government documents,
etc. Microsoft Word is great, especially c2000. You can
insert clip art, and download more straight from their
website. We play Vampire, and having a font like arial just
doesn't suit an elder. I always search for old fancy
calligraphy types, and let it go from there. :o)
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- More Cheap Miniatures
From: Kirk
Another place for cheap miniatures is somewhere like e-bay
( http://www.ebay.com ). I have found many miniatures for
around $1.00 each, with minimal shipping and handling. Some
are painted, many are not. This has become my location for
buying miniatures, as opposed to just using pictures and
such.
The easiest way to locate such items on e-bay is to do a
search by company (ie, Grenadier, Reaper, or Ral Partha). I
have seen prices ranging from $.01 (that's right, one cent)
all the way up to $78 or more. Most are still in blister
packs, and often from failed hobby stores.
E-bay is also a good place to find dice, companies/stores
that sell hobby supplies (one that I found was
http://www.discounthobby.com ), and also that quite-
expensive Dwarven Forge molded miniature dungeon (also quite
inexpensive on e-bay, doing a search on Dwarven Forge).
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- Homemade GM Screen Idea
From: Petter S.
I've found that all GM screens are just too big, hide too
much, contain too much and cost too much. After playing
without a screen for a while, I decided to make my own on
which I could put just the information I needed.
I took a plastic page protector sheet and glued it on a
somewhat bigger piece of cardboard. I actually found a crack
in our gaming table that I could stick it in, but I also
made feet from two rectangular pieces of cardboard with
scores in the middle.
Before a game I write down the essential rules I want on it
and maybe the names of the characters or some other handy
information.
I've also glued another page protector on the front and use
it to put up theme related art made by my players and player
handouts that need a good place where everyone can read
them.
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- Reader Request: Tips For Disabled Players?
From: Jarrett D.
I have a question that might make for a good future issue.
How do GM's deal with disabled individuals who play in their
games?
As an example, one of our players is blind, which causes a
lot of changes to be made as they cannot read the books (it
costs $300 just to have the D&D PHB brailled), cannot see
the miniatures, or the maps.
So how do others suggest modifying the way that games are
generally run in order to handle those with disabilities and
keep the game flowing smoothly, while at the same time
giving everyone a fulfilling time?
Just a thought that I think would bring even more players
into the fold. Thanks for a GREAT newsletter.
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