Three Different Techniques For Doing Character Voices

Character Voices in Dungeons and Dragons

Doing character voices in D&D isn't for everyone. Occasionally, I myself will even plan a voice for a character and then not perform that voice on the night I'm DMing. But I've come across a technique or two for doing character voices that I think works fairly well, and I'd like to share.

Bad Celebrity Impressions

I am no impressionist. If I try to do an impression of some celebrity's voice, you'd probably have no idea whose voice I was trying to do. But for DMing, that can actually work really well. I jot down some celebrity name next to an NPC, and then I try (poorly) to do that voice. Nobody recognizes the celebrity because my impression is so bad. But it's still a voice, and it's one I can repeat. If I play that NPC enough, the voice will become a thing of its own, divorced from the original source character.

A couple examples of voices you might try to imitate:

• Peter Lorre: A fantastic old timey villain from many a 20th-century film
• Ronald Reagan: The 40th US president has a voice that has been often imitated.
• Matthew Mcconaughey: His voice is unique enough to make a good character voice.
• Bruce Lee: He didn't really have much of a Chinese accent at all, but the way he enunciated words was distinctive.
• Christopher Walken: If you're a good impressionist, this one might be too obvious. I, for one, am not.

There are so many more where these come from.

Focus on Your Mouth

Aside from trying to do impressions, I've often just given a character some mannerism that involves doing something unusual with my mouth when I speak. Holding your tongue to your lower lip while speaking results in a odd voice that might come from a non-human character. Speaking with your teeth subtly clenched the entire time results in a voice that makes a character sound grave if not a bit angry. Speaking with lots of saliva in your mouth and perhaps chewing on your tongue a bit might be appropriate for a lizard-man or a locathah, accustomed to being underwater.

You can also do other voices without making it an impression. Speak in a croaky, gravely voice. A stutter is a solid and relatively easy affectation to add to an NPC to make their voice distinct from everyone else's. And a favorite of mine is speaking in the lowest possible falsetto, resulting in an odd and almost creepy voice.

Character Voices

Last up, character voices. There are a lot of impressive voice actors out there. Taking notes from them when doing characters can only up your game.

The first voice I think of is Inosuke from the anime Demon Slayer. He's got a gritty voice that hurts my throat if I imitate it too much. But what a great character voice.

Egg Shen from Big Trouble in Little China also had a fantastic character voice. I'll leave any further rants about that film's greatness aside, but if you watch the linked clip, you can hear him speaking. Kurt Russel's Jack Burton voice is another good voice impression to try with an NPC tough guy.

Phantom Menace was not a great film, but the alien Watoo had a good character voice which I might try to imitate at some point. Given my lack of talent for impressions, it's unlikely that anyone will know what I'm going for.

Ever heard of a show called The Simpsons? It's loaded with great character voices, but the one I'll point out here is Professor Frink, because when trying to do that voice, I've actually had to tone down the impression to make it less silly. Even 20% Frink is sufficient.

There are plenty of voices that can easily be too much, but work if you tone them down. Kermit the Frog, Rain Man, the Count from Sesame Street. Worst case, your players call you on it, but is that really the end of the world?