How to do crazy NPC voices in Dungeons & Dragons/Tabletop RPGs!
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
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As mentioned in the video, I am not a VO coach or acting professional. This is just my personal method for doing character voices in D&D games.
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"They're nerds too, and they won't judge you for it."
So true...
oh, they WILL judge you, but they'll avoid making voices themselves, because they're too insecure about it.
I VisiBomb I
Not always
7:27 - The Tough
13:30 - The Wise
17:38 - The Innocent
19:38 - The Crazy
22:32 - The Pathetic
Gabriel de Mello thank you, this list is great for when I just want to review these voices on a rewatch
Lol thanks, I appreciate him doing this but that 7:27 minutes was not necessary
Lol
thank you!
0:05 gobln
Every female voice I try to do ends up being the classic female Monty Python voice
That made me laugh a lot. Good job! Every accent my husband does turns into a bad Irish accent. Unless it's the bad Russian accent. They are literally the best thing in my life
My goblin PC has a scratchy Russian accent but bc I suc it’s horrible
Caleb Harper monty python are the best so be happy.
My female voices are actually better then my male ones. And im male
I ran a DnD game last night and was told my voices made the session. Thanks Mark, for your insane tips that somehow work
Fantastic comment to get! :D Thanks and glad it helped!
I think that confidence is so important for things like this - I often feel pretty jealous of Mark on High Rollers since I'd love to be that confident.
You know that you're a bit of a celebrity in the High Rollers community now, right Alex?
I'm sure it helps, but I think just enjoying it helps a lot more! I don't have great confidence but I relish the chance to do a variety of voices as a player and DM. It's also quite an amazing feeling to portray an entire scene of different people talking in first person using nothing but your voice.
Chris Barnes Yeah, I guess so :)
My confidence comes from the fact that I am playing with good friends (who laugh with me at my cringey moments) and can relax. Maybe even give your friends a heads up and say "Gonna try doing some different stuff this time guys, try to just roll with it" etc. :)
Mark, I would have literally just watched an entire video of you pulling voices out of your arse. xD
Hahah, maybe one day. ;) I do love just doing dumb voices!
I now have a mental image of Korak with a stone caught in his throat and that's how he has his really deep voice.
FTL Captain He's just constantly choking on a rock that caught there. Talk about gravel!
The main reason I prefer to speak English when I dm and play dnd is because there are so many accents you can use that we can associate with fantasy instead of Swedish. But one does what one can. Voices and accents give so much flavor to the game. Great vid, Mark! Very inspiring.
I hadn't considered how other languages could affect DMing, but that's kinda cool to know! TYVM!
Damn, I know this too well. I remember getting curious about TTRPGs a few years ago. I somehow brought it up to two old friends of mine and we arranged a game. The second session they made me a DM and the first thing I said was, "alright guys, we have a lot of NPCs in this campaign and since I can only do so much with mannerism, pitch and texture, I'll also be using accents to make them stand out from one another. I can't do a Scottish or even a Spanish accent in Danish, because you never hear those people speak Danish, so we're all switching to English"
It just feels more 'right' to speak english, in D&D.
id' say Danish just sound to boring. Plus danish aren't good at other accents, other than the nordic languages.
Same with me and norwegian, can't really do much with it unless I don't care about offending every other dialect, luckily my friends also like using english for fantasy games
Ikr, every English-speaking dwarf is either Scottish or Irish, and it is cool cause it is a consolidated trope. But if I made every gnome in my world Argentinian or Mexican (and we Spanish speakers have hundreds of accents with more than twenty countries to pick from) it would seem either plainly stupid or even racist.
The most important part, at leasr for me, is having fun doing your voice. When you have fun doing a voice, it's infectious, and it adds so much more to your campaign.
Only one can do a granny Trell voice, it cannot be copied XD
I would watch this on silent if I were you. Then imagine it is a man being stung by bees from the waist down.
Specifically the start
:P
also put it on 2 times speed
I dm for the first time in 3 minutes xD
A bit late perhaps. But how did it go? :)
It went pretty good, I've always been pretty good at voices but everything helps
Michael Shay 10/10 icon
So, uh... How did the campaign go?
I know this is three years ago but good luck to the past you
We need Matt to explain Granny Trell perfectly for us
*reaching very high pitched voices*
me: huh that kinda sounds like me. oh no
For me, I do these voices when I am driving by myself. I play out entire conversations between NPCs I have in my campaign on my drive to work, or doing groceries etc.
It feels amazing to have the privacy and no limit on "how loud you can be"... looking at my wife >_>
Great video Mark, I'm going to use this for the voices of my NPCs in my edge of the empire campaign I'm running
I just had my first session as DM for our group and I love doing the voices! You and Mercer are such a joy to watch and, quite frankly, steal ideas for voices from :) Just subbed. Great idea, this channel. Cheers, Mark!
Thanks friend! And welcome!
Tabletop Weekly thank YOU! Keep up the good work!
i love doing silly voices with my friends, can't wait to (hopefully) do it in d&d. just caught up with high rollers, sadly couldn't catch the stream sunday, but the VOD is up and i really loved your frost giant's "scandinavian" voice. keep up the good stuff!
Be careful when you say “go in the bath and just mess around”
These are fantastic tips! Especially the physicality and points of voice projection!
Thank you ser
This is a great video for voice over actors in general. There aren’t a ton of detailed videos for creating character voices for voice over on UA-cam, surprisingly. I recently started D&D a few weeks ago to work on my character improv and came across voicing D&D characters videos, like this one, as I was researching gameplay in general, and they are so much better than the videos focused on voice over.
Very well done bud!
By far one of my favourite voices my dm uses is the swedish chef for a specific character, it just adds so much character to the npc without the use of description or much conversation.
I am looking forward to the silly voices - I honed my skills on bedtime stories voicing animals and silly people, a great way to really get the voices fixed as you have to quickly switch from one to the other and make them distinctive. Young kids soon tell you if you've slipped up, DMing should be a breeze after that tough audience.
Vicktor, the black powder merchant! Ha-ha!
Love this video! The voices are definately one of the awesome things about D&D (And High rollers) Can't wait for the next Weekly video. Keep it up Mark! :D
only thing this video is missing is reference to tharisdon (the insane beholder)
Perfect voices and very valuable explanations. You feel so comfortable acting out different characters.
Fantastic video, your tips are practical and easy to understand!
I love this video, it's helped me with the voices of the NPCs i'm doing. One being a D&D creation of my Larp Character Northorn (he's got a gruff, slightly Northorn accent) and the other being a Dijjin(inspired by Robin Williams). It also helped with my Snow Elven Princess, Helayna Frostwalker, Evocation Wizard
Thank you for this Mark, I listened to your advice and started practicing weird/silly/funny voices when I am alone, found it really fun and can't wait to use it in sessions
Hey Mark, thanks a lot for these tips and tricks. I've watched High Rollers since it started and love it to bits!
As some who loves D&D but can't play it due to lack of friends who dare to jump into the world of D&D I really appreciate that you share these things, because it makes me more confidant in trying to get people to play it and someday become a awesome DM like you.
Look for people in online groups, or maybe just invite your friends over and dump pre-made characters in their lap and start narrating a scene. See if they roll with it. ;) I know plenty of people who turned their noses up at TTRPGs but then actually loved playing them. ;)
I'm glad you advertised your channel on the office cam, now I know you have a channel
Welcome! My selling out clearly worked! :D
Before this, my pinnacle of voices was a hybrid I named Christopher PlankWalken, a swashbuckling version of the classic voice. Now I can do several voices that are slightly more unique than impressions. A genuine thanks from me, a Babby DM.
Glad it was of help Ben! :D
I need to hear an example of this like now hahahaha.
Oh man, mark and his cocacola addiction visible in the background
Hey Mark, loving the content you are creating and high rollers. just watched 30+ hours of high roller streams and still have more to watch as I have had no time to watch them due to studies. A video I would love to see is how you create and setup character sheets and spells, mainly the entire process of character creation. Keep up the great work. Congrats on hitting 1 million dollars on the jingle jam :)
Character Creation is the next "big" D&D Tutorial I want to do, as I think it's something a lot of folks get confused by! Thanks for watching! :D
Great! cant wait will you also be covering multiclassing at some point as i have a player that would like to and would be great to know a bit more about how it works :) keep up the great work really enjoying the content you are producing
That visualization method really helps! Thanks!
You know you're watching a geeky video when there is a health and safety notice about making voices XD. Love this vid.
I’m currently playing as an opium-addicted human CG/CN gunslinger. When high he gets a temporary damage resistance, changes from CG to CN, and changes his voice from a southern drawl to foghorn leghorn. My friends think it’s hilarious.
One of my favorite NPCs I have used is just essentially a clone of the black knight from Monty Python. He just guards the mouth of a cave holding holy relics and is instructed by his superiors to let no-one pass, and just the voice alone was the most fun thing of the encounter. *None shall pass*, and *Then you... shall... die* was the only thing I said too.
great video man. i took a ton of notes and found myself constantly rewinding. this will help me greatly as a dm
Hey mark! I love Highrollers!
Thanks James!
This video was super helpful not just for DND but also since i like doing wierd funny voices for drama so thanks Mark.
p.s I like how there's just a coke can lying on your desk.
There's always a can of coke somewhere. ;)
Tabletop Weekly Noice
Great video Mark, I like to do voices as well and will definitely do them whenever I DM. I think the physicality aspect is pretty important like you said, I always try have my body portray the character as well. I have some funny voiced characters that I'm just waiting for my players to come across in my WoW RPG game, including a Gnome couple who are like 190 years old.
Yo my dog this is the exact kind of tutorial i've been looking for for dming. Many thanks
This is insanely helpful to me as an aspiring DM. Thanks Mark!
I love doing stupid voices. This is awesome. My favourites are a Smeagol-like one and a demon one because I can get it super deep and growly.
Love the video, Mark!
4,161 subscribers...
The Yogscast don't promote other channels very well...
This is the Best Channel!
Ohh visualizing where the voice comes from, really really helps a ton! I havent paid attention to that before
It's a weird, but cool thing right!?
Tabletop Weekly damn right!
Okay, Mark, you're wayyyy too good. We need to meet and have a voice-off.
voices are extremely difficult for me due to my damaged lungs and diaphragm but this has helped me so much.
@Sherlock Hulmes
Thank you for the video! This will be a huge help for my games! This is truly wonderful content.
thanks for the coaching ;) I will have these tips in my mind when I DM for the first time :)
What you demonstrated with the different resonances was really cool and is extremely important in singing as well. Understanding the chest/head resonances will help you shape your vocal tone and colour. The "voice being pulled out the top of your head" is what my singing teacher always tells me to visualize when I try to sing higher notes. Top tips m8
I wasn't just talking nonsense?! I remembered something from my singing lessons?! :O Glad it was sensible stuff!
Haha yes! It kinda makes sense, because in both singing and voice acting you use your body/respiratory system and visualisation to do your thing. I'd recommend to everyone dabbling in voice acting to look it up and maybe try some breathing/vocal exercises.
Thanks Mark, very helpful. I've been watching High Rollers lately and caught up from the beginning in a week, I've managed to watch the last 7 episodes live now and it's really got me into D&D. Me and my friends hav now got two sessions running and last week I DM'd TLMOP but I just thaught that it was a bit bland without the crazy voices so this is very helpful for me. Thanks again
Glad it helped! Sometimes I find if the DM is willing to be a bit silly and do voices it can encourage the players to RP a bit more as well and that can lead to more interesting developments and stories! Sorry for the slow reply, been so damn busy! :O
Tabletop Weekly that's ok, I'm sure your busy with Jingle JAM and all of the streams happening. I have another question though, when are all of the Yogs going to Insomnia?
Practicing beforehand makes it much easier. Although I don't practice for nervous characters, that way I'm actually nervous and it comes out naturally.
gotta love how the mic is in focus the entire video lol
It's easy to get carried away and think that every NPC needs its own special sound. The players speak with 16 NPCs and it's a real struggle to find different voices. It can be exhausting, too. Mark, you spoke about mannerisms in terms of an aid to get the voice right. Even if a DM doesn't really need a special "Smeagol" voice, just hunching up and putting on an eager expression will help. Often that's all you need to do. I have a leader of the thieves guild in my homebrew setting who is a former PC from an old 2nd-edition campaign. I did a couple of simple things. First, just a lighter tone to my voice - the friend who played the character has a kind of middle range tone. I also tended to clasp my hands together and occasionally blew upwards as though trying to get a wisp of hair off my forehead, mimicking a couple of her habits. My current players have never met this friend (she has long moved interstate), so the mannerisms and the tone became that guildmaster.
Nice video, Mark! It's actually a little easier for me to understand what you're talking about because I'm in choir. Will definitely remember this when I start DMing again :3
I'm amazed I actually made any sense! XD
I can only do three voices. The slightly gravely voice, the lofty elven voice, and the KOBOLD VOICE
I started D&D a few months ago, my first character was Donnie Trumpet, a slightly...dim high elf, who had an obsession of constructing walls of course. The accent for this character was obviously key, and massively improved the emersment!
Absolutely brilliant video! I think just about anyone can learn at least one new thing from this right here. Thank you for all the tips!
My pleasure! Thanks for watching!
This was brilliant, thanks Mark. Found this really useful and hopefully it will help me in the future with characters. :)
My favourite Dm voices so far: T-bone The goblin companion who almost literally knows nothing, Harken a cockney half orc bartender and Roshi a racist elf sadist (she is my favourite npc to rp ever). Any one else got a favourite dm voice list?
felix vogel I am quite partial to the Cockney Ettin Roy'Olly whose heads refer to eachother as 'Roigh bruv' and 'Oh ley bruv'.
I had Grezek, a curmudgeonly old goblin. "I spitses upon the graves of their ancestors!"
Golem is that you?
Pumat Sol from Critical role 2
Jethro, the nasally/gravelly kobold who often goes on tangents about his youth, probably.
This video made me laugh so much. Subscribed!
Haha thanks friend! Welcome to the community!
Watching this great video about voices, I can't help but feel sad that Little Moonbeam's parents don't have a Scottish accent, that was so, can't think of better words to describe it, terrifying and adorable at the same time. Really sad Mark, but great video nonetheless. :D
im going to go through a whole school day doing a goblin voice XD
Okay, some follow-up that might be useful for people. The high, mid-, and lower registers are great. For grandmotherly types I wouldn't go quite so high. Vocal chords elongate over time so even women's voices drop in pitch over time a bit. Keep this in mind and they go from being silly to matronly, or they can.
For doing female voices, working in the higher register is good, but keep your breath more airy. Not so much struggling for air but softer and more breathy. Think of silk curtains blowing in a breeze. The register doesn't have to be as high. (This is something that was mentioned by Mr. Matthew Mercer, who is a phenomenal voice actor.)
Another thing you can look at is the low, mid, and high registers of the voice, but then combine them with the Seven Dwarves. There's a great video on Geek & Sundry's channel in the GMTips playlist where Satine Phoenix and Talesin Jaffe talk about this subject and that was something that he brought up.
Using those two combinations, even without accents will give you 21 different characters or archetypes, and htere was more to be added. Combine them with accents, even two or three, and you jump to like over sixty. And with your five types, crossing them with the others, you get a huuuge amount of leeway.
If you're also struggling with it, consider impressions. Find a character from a movie, or a famous person and try to get close with impressions. And then branch off, or find more. Unless you're super good, you might not be spot on for people to realize what you're doing. And if you are, you'll probably be complimented. (Stay away from Arnold Schwarzenegger though, cuz that gets silly, unless you're actually running someone with his accent, and doing it as a serious character.) I do impressions and funny voices for friends and to entertain myself, but I don't really use them for my online games. I don't know those people as well, and many are from the UK, and I'm afraid I might offend someone, even if I have a good Cockney/Londoner accent, or a good Posh/Received Pronounciation English accent. What might work in my ears might not work for them. Same for Scottish or Irish, and I normally enjoy doing those. I used to have a good Aussie but now I'm paranoid about that too.
I get suuuuper self-conscious about it, despite my own enjoyment. I worry about pissing someone else off by being bad at it. Wot if it's really good though? I dunno. Aaaand having social anxiety doesn't help so I don't use it, even if it used to be something in my DMing toolkit. I wound up taking a 10 year break from tabletop gaming (involuntarily) and now I feel like I'm so rusty .. I dont have the freedom, confidence, or what not.. that I used to. I used to run off the cuff, and off the top of my head, but now.. I don't feel like I can as much.
Maybe it's over-prep or something. Anyway, enough of my rambling, but hope those few tips help, and resources. One more thing, the International Dialects of English Archive is great for learning accents.
I considered myself a pretty decent voice actor before this video, but after watching and applying this advice I think my voice talent has improved by 110% Thanks a lot Mark =)
The talking to yourself is the best advice, I do it while I'm doing chores, cleaning, sat alone etc, and just voice scenes from movies, books, scenes in my head, songs in an accent etc etc, it's something that the more you do it, the more comfortable you will get.
Yep! 100% agree with this!
absolutely amazing Mark! really helpful. hoping to get my mates into a game of DND soon all because of high rollers and the hatfilms Christmas stream last year!
Awesome! Look out for a new Hat Films RPG this Jingle Jam! ;) Chub Chub will return!
Could you explain how to create interesting player able character/ NPC's?
On my big list of "stuff I want to make videos about!"
Great video. Using physicality to inform voices is a great tip!
This is super helpful and well done! Thanks so much!
Mark, thanks to you and Matt mercer you have convinced my friends to play dnd all I can say is thank you 👍
Yay! Thank YOU for watching our streams and being inspired!
I'm playing a dwarf cleric, hopefully I do not let my team die
Thanks, this helped me put a lot. Cant really do great voices, but the personalities of the characters are shining through a bit more. X)
Is no one going to talk about how perfectly he did Victors voice from critical role?
This is absolutely fantastic. Great advice, and just plain fun! Tried out some voices during D&D last week, but my players said it just made them uncomfortable. Maybe another time with another group I suppose.
Sorry to hear that Alex! :( Is it a new group or one that's been playing for a while?
Well it's my friends and I at Uni, so we've been together playing D&D for about two years now. Two years, and this was our second campaign, my first DMing for these guys. So I'm thinking they were uncomfortable due to both my attempts at character voices (which our old DM didn't do), and maybe just my style of DMing. They voted to disband D&D until next semester though, at which point our old DM will retake the reins. So I guess it gives me time to practice! :)
I did a cockney accent for a pair of bugbears, one of whom mistook the party's Dragonborn Paladin for "the biggest bloody kobold I ever did lay me eyes on!"
Needless to say, the party had every intention of killing these guys.
I see the focus in this video is on the mic. Fitting ;)
This was a great episode and it helped a lot. Thanks
Loving all these new videos Mark :) Could you perhaps do a supplementary video on this topic regarding performing a more regal sounding voice? Or maybe just how to nail Turps's voice so accurately? :P
I may do another video like this, but other stuff I want to cover in the meantime!
Hey Mark, very helpful video, one video I would like on would be on note making and the amount you should note up as being a first time DM I can never quite get the balance, thanks.
Roger wilco Jake, I think I should probably do a couple of videos for "first time DMing" etc as it's something I get asked a lot.
So helpful! Nicely done. Thanks! I'll try some of these out on my esl students when I read dialogue, lol.
"Oh hello, sir. I'm a young boy! Ooo!"
Quote of the decade.
Im the one of the two players in all of my groups that uses a voice, my favourites are Ak, the massive orc with intelligence and wisdom of 3, and Craphat the insane goblin necromancer wuth his pet creation- daisy. It adds so much to these characters and without the voice you wouldn't get a sense of Ak's dumbness and Craphats insanity. Try it if you're a player or DM and everyone will love it.
This is why I believe audiobooks should have a male and female reader or paraphrase the dialogue of the opposite sex. As a male with low affect, I find the later option much better than embarrassing myself.
this is an amazing guide. Thank you Mark for inspiring me to start my own campaign, and for giving me these tips.
Great video, would love to hear some other voices.
I'm sure they will crop up in other videos Robert! :D
Knew this video was going to be entertaining once I saw the title haha. The "voice source" thing is a really interesting perspective though. I do weird/different voices quite a bit but never gave "how" I do them much thought. Will have to try your method out and see what happens :P
Let me know pal, as I have no idea if this advice actually works for other people! Haha!
this video has been extreamly helpful, i have been doing some of this stuff subconsciously or natrually, but now i can add more and be mindful about what i am doing. and also
The Tough=Rainbow dash
The Wise=Applejack
The Innocent=Fluttershy
The Crazy=Pinkie Pie
The Pathetic=Rarity
The normal voice=Twilight
just a thought.
so how many people started doing voices at your computer or phone during the video. I had headphones on and my sister walked in
Thanks to your influence I ended up developing a ridiculous range of stupid/unique voices that have been inflicted on my players for the best part of a year. Great content as always! : )
Win! :D
Lovely video! I shall try to remember these tips for my next session :D
I love this video! Ive always enjoyed doing weird and wonderful voices and accents, good to see im not crazy xD Thanks for the tips!
Your nasal crazy voice sounded like John Hurt to me xD
I feel silly, but I'm still gonna send it!
I find the best way to do silly voices amazingly is to get really drunk.... makes D&D more fun as well.
Watching from a sunny Essex right now as someone that's new to D&D! And although I don't sound as you suggest I can confirm Many do 🤦🏼♂️
*tiny clapping* Honestly I love seeing the thought process behind the magic (especially as it's a wee bit insane! haha) This was actually super helpful to me and you're an amazing voice actor! (almost as talented as Granny Trell!) Thank you for doing what you do!
I'm a new, female DM and Im very expressive, but I really wish I could go for the deeper tones
Same here.. sigh..
Yeah, im a dude with a softer voice and cant really hit those lower voices without sounding like a child trying to sound tough