So, I'm running the first session of a D&D game. The players go to a local sage for some advice. He's standing behind a podium, so I'm standing. They ask him a question about some obscure subject, so I pantomime him pulling out a big book, placing it on a podium, and paging through it.

Now, I'm no actor, so this was sure to be too bad for the stage. Even so, I thought it was kind of cool. It demonstrated the reality of the players' environment.

But one player (a new guy, I'd never gamed with before) looked at me like I had an eyeball growing out of my head. Ever since then, I've wondered if this was really all that strange.

So, to all the GM's out there, how much playacting do you do? Talk in character? Different voices, speech tempo, foreign accent? Walk and gesture like them? Pantomime sword swings and the like? Or sit at the table and narrate?

What's your preferred style?

I am very animated, hamming it up when necessary. I gesticulate, use accents, speak with a rasp, talk into a cup to emulate the voice of those who're wearing helmets. I like to stand whenever I speak, so it draws attention from the players directly to me. I pantomime a LOT of things.

I also make sound effects; it's something I always did as a kid (and I love to beatbox). So, I emulate sword swings, the crashing of weapons shattering against shields, gunfire, the clattering of bootfalls, the slinking of mail swishing back and forth as soldiers walk, etc...

When all else fails, I let my Ambience app and iPad music list do the talking, letting the environment confer a sense of immersion.

All in all, I am a play actor at heart. I may not be the best, but I strive to be the most entertaining. I can say without a doubt my players tend to remember important NPCs by name whenever I emulate their mannerisms.

I talk in character. I dont do voices all the time but will if i want to draw attention to it (otherwise i feel like i am diong a bad robin willims impression). My accents are very hit or miss. In modern games I tend to use them more (if i am playing a russian hitman , might as well do the accent)...but i have to admit i am bad--my last attempt at an Italian accent morphed into an irish brogue, so that the PCs thought their contact from Italy was supposed to be an irishman. In fantasy games i dont always use them, and in historical settings I tend to avoid them unless they make sense (for example if my pcs are all Roman speaking latin, I dont think that requires an accent).

I think pantomiming leafing through a book is normal (not sure how often I do it, but definitly see that behavior at the table).

Quote from: ZWEIHÄNDER;626786I let my Ambience app and iPad music list do the talking, letting the environment confer a sense of immersion.

This app? I'll check it out.

(Also, your style of playacting sounds much like mine. )

Quite a lot, actually.  I'm a total ham.

More than half the time I am standing while the players are sitting so I can get various play aids such as tiles, maps, miniatures and books.

All NPC's and monsters are given different voices - I can do several and I'm learning more, it's fun to get into it at the table.

The only time I use my own voice unadulterated is when I speak as "The Dungeon Master".

Except maybe when I'm The Warlock Charlie Sheen.  The Warlock Charlie Sheen refers to himself in 3rd person, so you can't really tell when the Dungeon Master is speaking of The Warlock Charlie Sheen or when The Warlock Charlie Sheen is talking about himself.  That's just a joke, though.

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;626780So, I'm running the first session of a D&D game. The players go to a local sage for some advice. He's standing behind a podium, so I'm standing. They ask him a question about some obscure subject, so I pantomime him pulling out a big book, placing it on a podium, and paging through it.

Now, I'm no actor, so this was sure to be too bad for the stage. Even so, I thought it was kind of cool. It demonstrated the reality of the players' environment.

But one player (a new guy, I'd never gamed with before) looked at me like I had an eyeball growing out of my head. Ever since then, I've wondered if this was really all that strange.

So, to all the GM's out there, how much playacting do you do? Talk in character? Different voices, speech tempo, foreign accent? Walk and gesture like them? Pantomime sword swings and the like? Or sit at the table and narrate?

What's your preferred style?

Depends on the flow of the game. However, I rarely play with strangers, so comfort is never an issue...but as things start getting more tense, yeah, I'm all over the place, voices changing, and so on, with bouts of sitting at the table behind the screen.

None. I don't really go much in for theatrics, funny voices and accents, or gesticulations, as a GM or a player. I find them more a distraction from the session than an addition to it. And, if attempted seriously, worthy of ridicule.

A few years ago, a friend's girlfriend GM'd a pseudo-historical ORE campaign for us. In one session she tried slipping in a British accent for an NPC that was so bad that she was taunted the rest of the evening. She was a good-natured sport about it, though.

Quote from: K Peterson;626797None. I don't really go much in for theatrics, funny voices and accents, or gesticulations, as a GM or a player. I find them more a distraction from the session than an addition to it. And, if attempted seriously, worthy of ridicule.

That's sort of the whole point.  I don't know if any person on this board is a real thespian, and as long as you're aware of that it can be great fun.

Not if you're trying to be too serious though. Save that part for the rules.

The ridicule part at our table happens only when a person attempts an accent but can't quite get it or it sounds like another accent.  It's all good natured ribbing, even if it sounds harsh.

*Attempting Cockney*
*Gets Irish*
*Everyone looks around with smiles*
DM:  "Fuck it, he's Irish."
*laffs*

I do funny voices and first person acting honed by a decade of playing roles in boffer LARPS.

I always talk in character but I can't really do accents so everyone sounds a lot like me. I try to mix it up by varying the speech patterns and mannerisms though. One of our current NPCs is a moleman who doesn't share any languages with the PCs, so when I'm playing him I just babble incessantly and use emphatic hand gestures.

We play sat on armchairs so I don't normally act out things physically, but it happens occasionally. One time I nearly killed a PC by doing this.

Depends, really no consistency at all for me.  Sometimes I'll let the players get away with "we tell him this/we buy this/etc.", but if I shift into "wacky shopkeeper/befuddled old sage/etc." mode, the players know they've got to do the same if they want to get anywhere.  (I try not to put people on the spot TOO much if they're new to speaking IC, or just not comfortable with it, but you gotta learn somehow - no better way than by doing.)

One thing I still haven't figured out is portraying women that AREN'T Terry Jones in drag (those are easy).  Especially ones that might have "romantic entanglements" with PCs.  For example, one of our regular party members has a wife - it's been assumed so far that when he comes home from the road, he'll have "family commitments", and we just fade to black from there.  So I'll usually portray her in the third person (more comfortable for everybody, that way).

I did community theatre for six years, but I can't seem to summon the nerve to *act* at the gaming table, whether as DM or player. At least with theatre, there's this division between you and the audience and usually a fair amount of physical distance, too. Not so at a table with my friends. I give the most generic RP performances imaginable, in person.

My first DM was an amazing actor, and he coordinated the music just right, too. If I were going to try something like that, I'd want to emulate his style, but I have a hunch I'd be terrible at it, at least in comparison with him.

Most of my gaming nowadays is play-by-post, and I'm able to roleplay decently well in that format.

I don't generally stand, but funny voices, mannerisms, speech idioms, are all part of making people vibrant and different in a role-playing game, for me.

All that and then some.

I often let the NPCs flow, so in populated areas its not uncommon for rapid dialogues -- which means I look like I have multiple personalities arguing or gossiping with themselves. If the players suspend and immerse it runs swimmingly, using my directional glances and NPC personality inflections as cues as to whom with which they are talking. The real magic is when they stop describing in 3rd person and just dialogue directly. Maintaining a heated argument where you as GM represents more than one NPC side is perhaps my favorite bit of magic. Seemingly schizophrenic, but definitely magic.

Now doing any of that acting so well as to not be a big ol' ham? Well, I'm obviously not getting paid the big bucks of what would be a ridiculously talented actor. So we can safely assume "no."

I'm always acting out my NPCs, and according to some of my players I'm really damn good at it .

In Albion it helps that I'm Shakespeare-trained, and can recite quite a lot of the text by heart.

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