I’ve been playing RPG’s for awhile now. I like them. They are a great diversion in my hectic schedule. But one thing I have never been comfortable doing is speaking in character.
I have always been a player who says things like, “my character crosses the bridge slowly” or “my character rolls thievery to see if they can pick the lock”. That’s just the way I work. It’s what make me comfortable in a game.
However… The other night when playing my new gnome character, for the first time, I tried speaking as the character. It was a bit fun though still felt incredibly awkward to me. It really didn’t feel natural.
Of course, the other players around the table all noticed. They were so excited that I was branching out in my gaming. Our players have a variety of styles they play in. Some always speak in character while others bounce back and forth and then there’s me who is always speaking about my character but never in her voice.
It was nice to try. I don’t know if I’ll continue or maybe just throw it in here and there when I feel like stretching myself.
What about all of you? Do you speak in character: all the time, some of the time or never? Let me know how your gaming groups like to do it.
10 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 4, 2009 at 9:50 am
Ameron
I’ve never been a fan of speaking in character. I agree that it seems silly. Not to mention that I already get enough ridicule from my wife for playing D&D in the first place. Putting on funny voices and accents is just asking for endless ribbing.
I think the only time I’ve found speaking in character useful is when I don’t want the PCs to have any table talk. I clearly tell them that they are now in character. Any dialogue spoken by the players is heard and commented upon by the NPCs present. I don’t like to do this too often, but when I do everyone at the table snaps to attention.
I think moderation is the key.
March 4, 2009 at 9:52 am
Stargazer
I usually speak in character as often as possible. It makes roleplaying much more fun IMHO.
March 4, 2009 at 10:02 am
dungeondiva
I didn’t set out to speak in character, in fact the roleplaying aspects worried me at first, but it felt totally natural to me. I agree with Stargazer: the immersion is what makes the game so damned fun. I have a cleric (my first character) so at first I just did some simple “By the light of Pelor” phrasing but now she has her own way of speaking and I don’t have to think about it. I open my mouth and Indira, the cleric, speaks.
March 4, 2009 at 10:03 am
Wyatt
I play mostly online and in prose rather than voice. When I played on the tabletop I spoke in-character, because that’s part of the tabletop experience. Otherwise, you get stuff like “My character hits the kobold”, “My character takes the gold”, “My character hates your character’s guts” ad nauseum which seems like a boring and dry way to go about it.
What my groups did was have an “In-Character” signal to avoid confusion. So we would raise our left hand lightly, like we were taking an oath, and do dialog that way.
March 4, 2009 at 10:14 am
Darran
I do try to speak in character in most situations.
When I GM I do try to speak in character with all my NPCs.
March 4, 2009 at 11:26 am
Questing GM
We had a table rule that if any of the players wanted to speak OCC, they placed their hand on their heads. It was sillier to speak OCC than in-character that way.
I haven’t been using the I-C speak as a DM for a long time but I’m starting to learn that it actually helps to improve the game. I guess it’s about time that I go back doing squeaky voices like I did when I was a kid.
March 4, 2009 at 1:54 pm
PrecociousApprentice
I typically play PbP games, so it is really easy to do IC talk. They make these funny little marks to show it. Like these “.
In all seriousness, I never liked speaking IC in FtF games. I am a med student, and they have us role-play a lot of stuff in school. I hate it. It always seems contrived.
PbP lets me step back, approach playing my character from the position of an author, and separate myself from the character. I enjoy this immensely.
March 4, 2009 at 6:53 pm
ScottM
I like speaking in character, but even at my best I’m probably only 50/50. There’s always so much to discuss and so many real world elements that come into it…
It’d be fun to push myself for a session or two. Maybe I’ll put a hand on my head, Questing GM style, when speaking OOC to break my bad habits.
March 10, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Canon Puncture 61: License to Roll : Canon Puncture
[...] Dice Monkey – Speaking in Character – to do or not to do? [...]
April 26, 2009 at 1:32 am
Hvad Fat Man Down ikke er « Stemmen fra ådalen
[...] og råben som værende ‘live-rollespil’. Vedkommendes måde at spille på ligner lidt dette indlæg. Han talte i alle fald meget konsekvent i tredje [...]