No, we're not talking "swine" here, we're talking acting. How much do you act out (or over-act, as the case may be) your NPCs? How much do your players stand it?
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I am somewhere between Brain Blessed and Richard O'Brien.
I am a Christmas feast of ham acting. I can't act, but I got mad over-acting skillz. As for players, it apparently works for them since they keep showing up year after year whenever I run at their cons.
My home crew are petty hammy too so it adds to the fun.
Quote from: jadrax;645412I am somewhere between Brain Blessed and Richard O'Brien.
I try to keep it Timothy Dalton and R. Lee Ermey.
Unabashed b-movie over-acting ham when I'm firing on all cylinders.
Well, I've slipped a fake blood capsule in my mouth when the players weren't looking to have an NPC start vomiting up blood at the appropriate time.
Yep, pretty damn hammy.
Very hammy, but I pretty much run a comedy game, so nobody's complained.
I ham it up, use voices, mannerisms...
Of course, I'm also fairly-well involved in local community theatre too, so it kind of comes with the territory.
Pretty hammy.
The typical over-acting, especially in our Pulp or Spaghetti Western games.
I have a habit of pounding the table to get them to jump during surprises in the game.
I'm a low hammy, but I use stereotypical speeches of NPCs according to their descriptions (haughty headmistress, rascal fatman, etc. etc).
Hammy, but with panache (I actually did some theatre work in my younger years because I thought it would help my role-playing). So I am a ham, but a ham on black russian rye bread with a slab of swiss cheese melted over me and some dijon mustard on top.
I'm far, far more of a hammy player.
It's hard to say as obviously I don't get to experience myself GMing in action. I'm tempted to say not very in that one of my goals as GM is to try to fade away and leave as much room for the players characters to fill in. If I notice the players are really interested in an NPC I will go with it and play the part best I can and I have to admit that is a lot of fun but as a general principle I'd rather keep the spotlight on the player characterd rather than my NPCs or descriptions.
For similar reasons I like system that push all the dice rolls to the players.
I'm cured, smoked, AND glazed. Further, all your scenery are be chewed by us.
Moderately hammy. I dunno, low-fat ham? :eek: I do have my moments, though.
In a game in my current WFRP campaign, we did get a neighbor to call the police on us when the Elf Rogue was surprised in flagrante delicto by the jilted fiancée of the innkeeper's daughter and a heated argument (followed by a brutal fight) followed.
We've since remembered to close the windows and keep our voice a little less loud, so that's definitely diminished my hamminess. :(
Not at all. Don't like it. My idea of RPG Hell would be a group that are all members of the local Amateur Dramatics Society, or Theater Majors (as you USasians might say). Which isn't to say I'm a hack and slashmiester, or a "Roll" Player or a Gameist (or whatever Forgites call that style these days). I just prefer a third person rather than a first person approach to things. I think it was Zak S who wrote a great blog post about detached irony and that gels well with how I like to play too. As do the descriptions of how Mike Mornard/Old Geezer plays his games.
Not very. I usually describe events in third-person like Weru mentions. I'll do a voice here and there (people say I'm good at them, I don't know), but I'm not great at extemporizing crackling dialogue.
I really don't like amateur theater hour, either. I've never seen a group that indulges in "acting" that was as good at it as they thought they were.
Quite quite hammy. Acting it out is one of the funniest parts of GMing for me, so there it goes.
If it's good, bad or terrible, you should ask my players :D
Generally very hammy, as playing NPC's as a Gamemaster is one of the reasons I enjoying running games. I envision running of my games are run as if Joss Whedon wrote it*, serious sitatuions but often comedic and over-the-top reactions to those situations.
*only in my mind. I am no Joss Whedon.
Quote from: RPGPundit;645409No, we're not talking "swine" here, we're talking acting. How much do you act out (or over-act, as the case may be) your NPCs? How much do your players stand it?
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Positively Shatnerian. When I do Castle Ravenloft there are silly Dracula accents from sea to shining sea.
full-on Monty Python
Quote from: Weru;645529Not at all. Don't like it. My idea of RPG Hell would be a group that are all members of the local Amateur Dramatics Society, or Theater Majors (as you USasians might say). Which isn't to say I'm a hack and slashmiester, or a "Roll" Player or a Gameist (or whatever Forgites call that style these days). I just prefer a third person rather than a first person approach to things. I think it was Zak S who wrote a great blog post about detached irony and that gels well with how I like to play too. As do the descriptions of how Mike Mornard/Old Geezer plays his games.
I agree that post on irony and detachment in games is fantastic. But if you've ever seen Zak S. run a game, in the video series I Hit It With My Axe, you will notice that he throws in a lot of funny accents and voices. He's pretty good at it.
Brian
I generally try to ham it up as much as possible, at least for sympathetic and neutral NPCs. I've learned that villains are best toned down, though, to avoid the pantomine effect. And for female NPCs to be taken seriously they need to be played in a more subdued manner. I had a GM recently who played his female NPCs with falsetto voices, which turned it into a comedy game when I'd have preferred something more serious.
But when I get an NPC who can legitimately be hammed up, I go to town. Brian Blessed is a model of course; so is Steven Fry's General Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth. Players love that stuff.
Quote from: BillionSix;645627I agree that post on irony and detachment in games is fantastic. But if you've ever seen Zak S. run a game, in the video series I Hit It With My Axe, you will notice that he throws in a lot of funny accents and voices. He's pretty good at it.
Brian
Yeah, I particularly liked his Ringo Star voice for a giant beetle of some sort. It's not black and white, I'll do the odd voice especially if it's a beer and pretzels night, running T&T or the like. I just don't enjoy the style where everyone is going for the serious Thesp stuff and the idea that the RP part is the most important part of RPGs.
I love to ham it up in a game I'm running or playing. I'm not a great actor as anyone can see here, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-wIjZnTkQ0) but I do like doing it.
I also hold an amatuer radio liscence.
I have done professional voice acting (i.e I got paid significantly above scale for it) and I am BRIAN BLESSED on PGH levels of ham when I GM.
For heaven's sake, this hobby isn't the Royal National.
Quote from: Weru;646147Yeah, I particularly liked his Ringo Star voice for a giant beetle of some sort. It's not black and white, I'll do the odd voice especially if it's a beer and pretzels night, running T&T or the like. I just don't enjoy the style where everyone is going for the serious Thesp stuff and the idea that the RP part is the most important part of RPGs.
heh. Yeah. It was obvious really. They got four beetles to ride and named them John, Paul, George and Ringo. :)
Any way you slice it...hehehe (get it, you slice ham).:)
Quote from: flyingcircus;646330Any way you slice it...hehehe (get it, you slice ham).:)
Quote(get it, you slice ham).:)
Quoteget it
(https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRDIv8fGYA6yX7_0PYeNA-y2G6RyBq8GITbfJx_GpA69EfBqZx7aQ)
Much as it pains the method actor in our group, I don't ham it up when I GM, just as I don't ham it up when I play. I use third person far more often than I use first, and I never demand that the players speak in-character (though some will do it unprompted, and that's fine). I get frustrated with groups where the GM insists that everyone speak in-character and actually find that less immersive than when folks use third person.
EDIT: I also initially read the title as "How much of a Harn-GM are you?" and was all set to talk about a campaign I ran in southern Kaldor. :D
No ham. I try to at least speak in teh first person, but I guess I'm the GM vegetarian.
As a player I try out accents and idiomatic speech patterns for 'my guy', which makes me the most hammy of the people I play with.
Seriously: Where the hell are all you guys coming from? :confused:
Quote from: Old One Eye;645431Well, I've slipped a fake blood capsule in my mouth when the players weren't looking to have an NPC start vomiting up blood at the appropriate time.
Yep, pretty damn hammy.
Seriously? prop blood? That really is a step above when it comes to haminess.
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