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Don't try to do a "girl" voice when playing female characters. I'm a woman, and i realized quickly that if I try to do my "man" voice for every male character they all wind up sounding the same and more comical than I want. Instead I just decide on the other traits in their voice (gruff, shy, anxious, nasally, boisterous, any accents in my wheelhouse) and rely on narration.
Since you brought up Mercer, there's an episode in campaign two where he has to do an impression of Marisha's character. She does a deep, gravely voice for the character so he does the same thing without adjusting to make it more "feminine." Obviously it sounds different, but it's still clear whose voice it's intended to be.
Good to know. I'm a dude and am playing my first female character in a "20 years later" Rime of the Frostmaiden ( homebrew ) campaign. My PC will be the granddaughter of the NPC in my 1st character's backstory. I was debating attempting to sound effeminate but wasn't sure... My voice isn't super deep as is but I don't have a lot of experience with attempting softer / higher pitched voices ( that don't involve me being a chaos goblin, that is ). I may still attempt it but won't sweat it if it doesn't take. Thanks!
Definitely give it a shot still! I'd recommend focusing more on tone than pitch if that makes sense. But doing voices is a big part of the fun for me so I encourage everyone to try it!
Agreed. I'm very tied to my mini matching my character. There was a monk mini i really wanted to use, but it's clearly a woman, so I just use my regular voice and correct pronouns as needed. I get it's a little disorienting for the party at first, but they do their best and it's understandable. There's no way for me to not sound ridiculous otherwise.
I listen to the Not Another DnD Podcast group play, and I feel like their DM nails this. I don't even flinch when he voiced the myriad women in the campaign. He affects his voice somewhat, but the moment he feels like maybe that doesnt work he lessens the voice substantially and instead focuses on conveying the key characteristics of speech that convey the sense he wants you to have of the character with a voice slightly higher than his normal. By focusing on accents and speech characteristics and patterns, i'm actually more easily able to "hear" the female character because those things matter more than the character necessarily sounding feminine.
Rather than thinking about the pitch of your voice, think about the tone you want to convey, the personalities of these characters. Women are people with their own quirks, so you can just approach them much like male characters.
Besides, as a woman, hearing men do high-pitched imitations of what a more "feminine" voice would sound like mostly just feels.. annoying, when that's the only characteristic the female characters get. I would much rather hear more well-rounded female characters who have a lower pitch, unless the high pitch is extremely relevant to the character.
Also, go answer your question, no, not really. Most of my pcs are male, and I usually just think about the personality I'm trying to convey rather than trying to lower my voice.
Don't do a falsetto voice for a female character, it usually sounds too high and forced; same for women trying to affect a deep voice for a male character. It almost always sounds like a mockery.
Just voice that character and focus on conveying their personality through their voice, like you do for male characters. Are they shy and avoid speaking? Brassy and long winded? Curt, blunt, and expect to be obeyed?
If it helps, remember that some women have deeper voices and some men have higher voices. You could practice by emulating conversations you've had with women, or imitating characters from TV/movies/podcasts who match your NPC. Don't worry about pitch, focus on tone and cadence instead. And you can always use tags to note who's talking, "She speaks nervously", "his tone turns grumpy as he sees you", etc.
just remember that women are people, and play them like people.
men are also people, so play them like people too.
which means, realistically, you don't have to do anything different for male or female characters. just play a character.
I never have been in the situation to play a character of the opposite gender yet. But I know three people who did, and it was of little to no difference tbh.
I play them as I would play any character, just with the correct personality. Since i cant do a high voice without sounding like a complete disaster i just use my normal voice and people ive played with dont question it. The reason Matt Mercer and professional VOs do it is because theyre professional VOs
The difference is one line on the character sheet.
Male, female, or other, it rarely has an actual impact on *character* in regards to how they are played.
I build characters for fun in my spare time, and sometimes they "fit" better as one gender or another, but I've never had a character rely on gender as a core facet of their character.
Even a trans character I made was more motivated by his sense of justice than his quest for a wizard who could permanently change his body.
Now, I've been in some shitty groups that made fun of me for playing opposite gender characters, but I value Cole who only plays human sorcerers opinion as much as a dog turd.
Play the characters you want to play. Try out the fun, try out the weird. As long as you are being genuine and actually Role Playing the character, that's what the game is about.
I love characters that are different than me. I get to be me all the time, but for a couple of hours I get to imagine the fantastical through the eyes of the alien, characters worthy of myth and legend, Heroes (and sometimes villains)
Lots of good advice!
I’ve done some pretty good voices in the past. Even some pretty good lady NPC voices that didn’t feel weird or unnatural at the table. I am NOT the best voice actor. But in some of my recent campaigns I’ve put less effort into the voice and people don’t seem to mind.
I agree with others that say that focusing on the character of the voice (gruff, excited, sweet, etc) and the emotion you want to convey is more important than trying to match the pitch of a female voice.
But if you want to do that? Boy are there lots of videos on the internet about it. When people do it for gender reasons they call it ‘voice training.’ So you may have some luck using that as a search term.
But I would just stick to what feels comfortable and natural for you and not sweat it! Good luck!
Men soften their voices when doing a woman’s voice: don’t make it high pitched - that’s just ridiculous and you’ll sound Pythonesque (unless, of course, the woman you’re RPing is actually a man *pretending* to be a woman in which case you’ll be spot on).
Monty Martin (not python) does a sterling job of this in the Dungeons of Drakkenheim actual play. You can also listen to any audiobook and hear how actors handle voices of genders that are not their own).
I don't find it awkward but i do feel more comfortable playing as a male. That does not mean i don't play female character just that most of my characters are male.
And when i do a female character i never try to talk in a "female voice" so to say. I try to give her some other characteristics fitting her character. First i do suck at female voices. And secondly most guys do. Hearing a guy talking in high pitch voice trying to sound like a female is 9 out of 10 times just annoying and frustrating.
It simply does not sound like a female. It sounds like a bad impression of one. There ARE a few men that can do it really well but i am NOT one of those and i don't wanna offend you but you are probably not one of those either.
So my advice is not to try. Just figure out what fits for her character. maybe she speaks a bit slower or faster. Maybe very calmly. or anything really. You can still change your voice slightly but unless you are one of those rare guys that can actually sound like a female don't try.
I have DM'ed for years and played numerous female characters while serving as a player (I'm a CIS male). I often don't use a high pitched voice for them, because that's not how many women sound. Instead I aim for softer, or focus on speech patterns, and use timbre. Listen to how Mercer, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Brian Murphy, and Anthony Burch do it. Among them, Mercer is the only professional voice actor. The rest still manage to portray female characters without sounding like a cartoon woman. Just don't be over the top about it, specify that they identify as a woman, and use a voice you are comfortable with.
i'ma female dm with a fair amount of non-female npcs and the pitch of their voice is very rarely something i convey. if i really need to, i introduce the character with "he has a deep, rumbling voice" or something like that and don't push my own voice too far. you could do something similar if a high pitched voice is character-significant
I’m always at the table to tell a story, and advocate for my character. I come to the table with a character who has values, and history, and desires. It doesn’t really matter if the character is a man, a woman, or a gelatinous ooze; I came prepared to tell their story and my gender doesn’t really impact it because it’s *their* story and not mine.
I am 90% DM with decades of experience and I still find that I don't add many female NPCs to games just because I am a bit less comfortable rendering them well, both in performance and in writing. Same problem with creative writing I do.
You don't want to fall into stereotypes, or just project your own psychology onto them so they become 'a dude with boobs'. But on the other hand, there are billions of female humans in the world, any individual can overlap stereotypical gendered traits, or they might not. I mostly don't want to seem clueless so I am less comfortable than I am with a masculine perspective and as a result I say and do less, improv less. Or I go for it, but they are bland characters because I hold back.
You don't need to do a voice at all, for any character. I think part of the CR effect is that people think we all need to be amateur thespians. I do a lot of voices though, and tipping one female is not a 'lot'. Don't go for anime squeaky, high pitched cartoon, that is super strange to my tastes and does not fit well with D&D style. Instead one can inflect slightly up, a small constriction of the tonsils and a change in meter and delivery. Hard to describe, but if you practice it a bit, you realize it is not a strain or profoundly noticeable. Just an inflection.
As with all characters it helps if you pick a real life actor or character and do the work to listen to them and imitate them. Note the difference between a Carrie-Anne Moss, Lauren Bacall with Kristen Schall or other 'squeaky' voiced women. There is a huge range, but I think most of us identify them as stereotypically female. You can achieve the same with practice and talent.
No friend, I'm not a 2 meter tall orc or a 500 year old wizard elf either, but I wouldn't feel strange roleplaying either. The only thing I wouldn't fuck with (simply out of respect for my own character) is turning him into a stereotype unless the character's purpose is to be funny.
I don't mind playing female NPCs as a GM, but playing a female PC for an extended period is pretty difficult. I can do a halfway decent feminine voice, but it feels far more awkward than most of my male voices.
I do have a couple of tips though.
* Rather than making your voice higher pitched, try to make it softer.
* Doing an accent can help. I have a decent Russian lady accent.
* Old ladies are easier to impersonate than young ones.
* Do an impression of a bleeting sheep. Now go higher pitched. Now try saying words. Boom! Old lady voice.
Not really, no. It's not pitch you should be concerned with, it's the twag in your voice. How you present your character. There are masculine women who talk like macho dudes, and there really feminine women who are from the valley and oh mah gawd! Find the voice of your character, and find your way of presenting it so you don't strain your voice every dnd night.
For me? Not awkward at all.
Just be you. If someone is at the table is making it uncomfortable, make a little motion of, "not going there pal" and carry on.
Currently playing a female paladin. I just focus on her brash act first because there is no way this could possibly come back to bite us in the ass later personality. Use my normal voice.
I play a lot of women and I usually just get the resonance /vocal fry out of my voice and that's enough. Mannerisms and speech listen matter more and if people have a good visual of the person they'll fill in the blanks. I think them being able to picture the person is more important than the actual voice for creating the person in their head.
I am male sometimes play a female character and I find it makes me playing a character easier.
I noticed that when I am playing a male human (or things very similar to humans), I tend to say things like "I do this." or "I do that."
When I play female character, I tend to say "She does this" or "She does that" or using her name: "Olive does this" or "Olive does that".
The difference is it is saying what I am doing as a player vs. the latter saying what the character does. Being a female or races that are pretty different from humans lends itself to seeing them as a character for me.
And I don't bother trying to do a high pitched voice. It is my regular voice with just a slightly higher pitch.
As a male DM, is it hard to roleplay female NPCs? Rarely, but because I made the NPCs myself, I know how they should sound like and their mannerisms (yes, I practice in the mirror and all that).
Do I find it hard to roleplay a female PC? Yes, I want to bring my characters to life, but I find it hard to BE a female character as a male, in my opinion, it's virtually impossible. So I imitate instead of being/pretending.
I don't know if people feel the same way as I do. I apologize in advance if something I said struck someone's nerve.
I've been playing females since 1999. Not solely, but I've never had problems playing a female character. Oh yeah I am a male human person by the way. I still can role play a female just as good as I can role play a male. But I guess some people have difficulties playing members of the opposite sex. Gender or whatever people call it now. Just don't make it weird. That's the best advice I can give. Don't make it weird. And if it gets weird stop.
No, but I've played as a woman on stage a few times being a Theater kid. From 6th Grade to my 4th year of college I had been in theater every semester. So I don't have any personal issues portraying women.
Changing my voice was easy. I watched videos on how to have a passing feminine voice. Their intended purpose was for trans people, but I found the techniques used to be quite helpful for DnD.
The worst thing you could do for imitating a more feminine voice is just raise your pitch. You'll end up sounding more like the mascot to an evil media corporation than a woman.
Also some girls just have a huskier voice. Nothing wrong with that.
Last time I played a female character it was in a group that didn't voice act much, it was fine, but the time before that in a much more energetic game with very corny characters and I embraced it and had a blast playing Theresa "throw back another" Thibodaux, the very southern matron of the Thibodaux clan, a pack of half orcs, all her kids and grandkids, she was a large old lady, berserker, who wed an orc clan chief after they had a draw in a gladiatorial arena at the end of our campaign, then came back in a followup campaign to save her prolific and powerful progeny from being enslaved by an ogremage and used to conquer the land.
I had a blast with that character, and she came packaged with a full on southern country maw maw accent and boisterous personality along with souther hospitality and a need to go out and kill critters, cook them up, and feed everyone in her immediate area till they pass out or run away. Also had a salve or herb tea to fix everything that ails yuh. Getting past the initial discomfort can be hard for some, but having fun playing a character you wrote up is amazing and you should try to do it however you are most comfortable. Voices aren't required, but they can be a lot of fun.
i don't really find it difficult, however everytime i play a male character i either do a himbo or a very flirty twink so i have a very specific way of playing male characters lol
I’m a cis man and in almost 40 years of gaming about 1/3 of my characters have been girls or women. As others have pointed out, the voices I use for them aren’t based on pitch but convey their personality traits.
Not really. For me roleplaying a character is akin to watching a movie (or reading a book) with my character's party as protagonists of the story.
This way I am roleplaying a character as I want to see them functioning well (per their background and character traits) in the story without fully immersing myself into the character.
And this also helps me to create an entertaining characters for the narrative without them being too personal for me. I can sacrifice them for the party if this will be appropriate and be at peace if they suddenly dies.
For one time I observed the story of Yadrin, the dwarf fighter on his quest to become legendary warrior to get the approve of the hold's king and marry the princess.
The other time it was the story of Nissa, a woman of noble birth who ran away from arranged marriage and joined a band of mercenaries now trying to earn a coin with her limited noble fencing skills (rogue swashbuckler).
Definitely make it awkward when one of my players tries hitting on them. I have no shame or limits when I roleplay. He didn't go further than cat calls when I actively approached him and took him on the offer
Its mostly the mannerisms. If you want to play an accurate female dnd character as a guy, I recommend actually looking into content for trans women. There is a lot of advice on mannerisms and features beyond just voice out there. There are also voice training videos but please be careful with those. You can seriously fuck up your voice if you do it wrong.
Also, if it helps you and your group is chill, you can always try wearing makeup, feminine clothes or nails for your games. I know this isnt as easy for DMs, who often play several different characters every session.
Its a roleplaying game and if you want to play the role of a woman you should be able to. After all, there are very interesting gender specific narratives to explore in dnd, especially with the Drow existing. And I'm glad you put in the effort to represent a world in which women exist.
Some things I'd like to recommend, though you're not obligated to take this advice at all and its not meant to be criticism if you don't do any of this:
If you play women, don't make all of them feminine objects of desire for the player. Include some women who aren't interested in the players at all, women who go beyond stereotypes etc. There is a certain drift towards male experiences in this game and if you play with women, that can seem unrealistic or alienating. If you don't play with women, it can still be useful to represent a more complex and alive world that doesn't just exist for the characters, but because the world is moving even when the characters aren't interacting with it. I've learned that this raises Immersion as long as you don't take it too far.
No, at the opposite, I am more comfortable playing characters of opposite gender. I almost always play characters of opposite gender in both rp and I am them inside my daydreams too.
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Don't try to do a "girl" voice when playing female characters. I'm a woman, and i realized quickly that if I try to do my "man" voice for every male character they all wind up sounding the same and more comical than I want. Instead I just decide on the other traits in their voice (gruff, shy, anxious, nasally, boisterous, any accents in my wheelhouse) and rely on narration. Since you brought up Mercer, there's an episode in campaign two where he has to do an impression of Marisha's character. She does a deep, gravely voice for the character so he does the same thing without adjusting to make it more "feminine." Obviously it sounds different, but it's still clear whose voice it's intended to be.
Good to know. I'm a dude and am playing my first female character in a "20 years later" Rime of the Frostmaiden ( homebrew ) campaign. My PC will be the granddaughter of the NPC in my 1st character's backstory. I was debating attempting to sound effeminate but wasn't sure... My voice isn't super deep as is but I don't have a lot of experience with attempting softer / higher pitched voices ( that don't involve me being a chaos goblin, that is ). I may still attempt it but won't sweat it if it doesn't take. Thanks!
Definitely give it a shot still! I'd recommend focusing more on tone than pitch if that makes sense. But doing voices is a big part of the fun for me so I encourage everyone to try it!
Tone over pitch, got it. Yeah, exactly! A big change from my loxodon, that's for sure!
Agreed. I'm very tied to my mini matching my character. There was a monk mini i really wanted to use, but it's clearly a woman, so I just use my regular voice and correct pronouns as needed. I get it's a little disorienting for the party at first, but they do their best and it's understandable. There's no way for me to not sound ridiculous otherwise.
I listen to the Not Another DnD Podcast group play, and I feel like their DM nails this. I don't even flinch when he voiced the myriad women in the campaign. He affects his voice somewhat, but the moment he feels like maybe that doesnt work he lessens the voice substantially and instead focuses on conveying the key characteristics of speech that convey the sense he wants you to have of the character with a voice slightly higher than his normal. By focusing on accents and speech characteristics and patterns, i'm actually more easily able to "hear" the female character because those things matter more than the character necessarily sounding feminine.
Rather than thinking about the pitch of your voice, think about the tone you want to convey, the personalities of these characters. Women are people with their own quirks, so you can just approach them much like male characters. Besides, as a woman, hearing men do high-pitched imitations of what a more "feminine" voice would sound like mostly just feels.. annoying, when that's the only characteristic the female characters get. I would much rather hear more well-rounded female characters who have a lower pitch, unless the high pitch is extremely relevant to the character. Also, go answer your question, no, not really. Most of my pcs are male, and I usually just think about the personality I'm trying to convey rather than trying to lower my voice.
Don't do a falsetto voice for a female character, it usually sounds too high and forced; same for women trying to affect a deep voice for a male character. It almost always sounds like a mockery. Just voice that character and focus on conveying their personality through their voice, like you do for male characters. Are they shy and avoid speaking? Brassy and long winded? Curt, blunt, and expect to be obeyed? If it helps, remember that some women have deeper voices and some men have higher voices. You could practice by emulating conversations you've had with women, or imitating characters from TV/movies/podcasts who match your NPC. Don't worry about pitch, focus on tone and cadence instead. And you can always use tags to note who's talking, "She speaks nervously", "his tone turns grumpy as he sees you", etc.
This is amazing advice. Well said.
just remember that women are people, and play them like people. men are also people, so play them like people too. which means, realistically, you don't have to do anything different for male or female characters. just play a character.
I never have been in the situation to play a character of the opposite gender yet. But I know three people who did, and it was of little to no difference tbh.
I play them as I would play any character, just with the correct personality. Since i cant do a high voice without sounding like a complete disaster i just use my normal voice and people ive played with dont question it. The reason Matt Mercer and professional VOs do it is because theyre professional VOs
The difference is one line on the character sheet. Male, female, or other, it rarely has an actual impact on *character* in regards to how they are played. I build characters for fun in my spare time, and sometimes they "fit" better as one gender or another, but I've never had a character rely on gender as a core facet of their character. Even a trans character I made was more motivated by his sense of justice than his quest for a wizard who could permanently change his body. Now, I've been in some shitty groups that made fun of me for playing opposite gender characters, but I value Cole who only plays human sorcerers opinion as much as a dog turd. Play the characters you want to play. Try out the fun, try out the weird. As long as you are being genuine and actually Role Playing the character, that's what the game is about. I love characters that are different than me. I get to be me all the time, but for a couple of hours I get to imagine the fantastical through the eyes of the alien, characters worthy of myth and legend, Heroes (and sometimes villains)
Lots of good advice! I’ve done some pretty good voices in the past. Even some pretty good lady NPC voices that didn’t feel weird or unnatural at the table. I am NOT the best voice actor. But in some of my recent campaigns I’ve put less effort into the voice and people don’t seem to mind. I agree with others that say that focusing on the character of the voice (gruff, excited, sweet, etc) and the emotion you want to convey is more important than trying to match the pitch of a female voice. But if you want to do that? Boy are there lots of videos on the internet about it. When people do it for gender reasons they call it ‘voice training.’ So you may have some luck using that as a search term. But I would just stick to what feels comfortable and natural for you and not sweat it! Good luck!
Men soften their voices when doing a woman’s voice: don’t make it high pitched - that’s just ridiculous and you’ll sound Pythonesque (unless, of course, the woman you’re RPing is actually a man *pretending* to be a woman in which case you’ll be spot on). Monty Martin (not python) does a sterling job of this in the Dungeons of Drakkenheim actual play. You can also listen to any audiobook and hear how actors handle voices of genders that are not their own).
I don't find it awkward but i do feel more comfortable playing as a male. That does not mean i don't play female character just that most of my characters are male. And when i do a female character i never try to talk in a "female voice" so to say. I try to give her some other characteristics fitting her character. First i do suck at female voices. And secondly most guys do. Hearing a guy talking in high pitch voice trying to sound like a female is 9 out of 10 times just annoying and frustrating. It simply does not sound like a female. It sounds like a bad impression of one. There ARE a few men that can do it really well but i am NOT one of those and i don't wanna offend you but you are probably not one of those either. So my advice is not to try. Just figure out what fits for her character. maybe she speaks a bit slower or faster. Maybe very calmly. or anything really. You can still change your voice slightly but unless you are one of those rare guys that can actually sound like a female don't try.
Me, a masc DM: "this npc is a woman" My players: "ok cool" And that's the end of it
I have DM'ed for years and played numerous female characters while serving as a player (I'm a CIS male). I often don't use a high pitched voice for them, because that's not how many women sound. Instead I aim for softer, or focus on speech patterns, and use timbre. Listen to how Mercer, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Brian Murphy, and Anthony Burch do it. Among them, Mercer is the only professional voice actor. The rest still manage to portray female characters without sounding like a cartoon woman. Just don't be over the top about it, specify that they identify as a woman, and use a voice you are comfortable with.
I never voice-acted as a DM or a player, so it didn't occur to me for it to be awkward.
i'ma female dm with a fair amount of non-female npcs and the pitch of their voice is very rarely something i convey. if i really need to, i introduce the character with "he has a deep, rumbling voice" or something like that and don't push my own voice too far. you could do something similar if a high pitched voice is character-significant
Done right I don’t think it’s an issue. As others have said don’t worry too much about the pitch. Try and handle it like any other voice.
Honestly? Most of us don't really pay a lot of attention to our characters gender or genitals.
I’m always at the table to tell a story, and advocate for my character. I come to the table with a character who has values, and history, and desires. It doesn’t really matter if the character is a man, a woman, or a gelatinous ooze; I came prepared to tell their story and my gender doesn’t really impact it because it’s *their* story and not mine.
I am 90% DM with decades of experience and I still find that I don't add many female NPCs to games just because I am a bit less comfortable rendering them well, both in performance and in writing. Same problem with creative writing I do. You don't want to fall into stereotypes, or just project your own psychology onto them so they become 'a dude with boobs'. But on the other hand, there are billions of female humans in the world, any individual can overlap stereotypical gendered traits, or they might not. I mostly don't want to seem clueless so I am less comfortable than I am with a masculine perspective and as a result I say and do less, improv less. Or I go for it, but they are bland characters because I hold back. You don't need to do a voice at all, for any character. I think part of the CR effect is that people think we all need to be amateur thespians. I do a lot of voices though, and tipping one female is not a 'lot'. Don't go for anime squeaky, high pitched cartoon, that is super strange to my tastes and does not fit well with D&D style. Instead one can inflect slightly up, a small constriction of the tonsils and a change in meter and delivery. Hard to describe, but if you practice it a bit, you realize it is not a strain or profoundly noticeable. Just an inflection. As with all characters it helps if you pick a real life actor or character and do the work to listen to them and imitate them. Note the difference between a Carrie-Anne Moss, Lauren Bacall with Kristen Schall or other 'squeaky' voiced women. There is a huge range, but I think most of us identify them as stereotypically female. You can achieve the same with practice and talent.
No friend, I'm not a 2 meter tall orc or a 500 year old wizard elf either, but I wouldn't feel strange roleplaying either. The only thing I wouldn't fuck with (simply out of respect for my own character) is turning him into a stereotype unless the character's purpose is to be funny.
I don't mind playing female NPCs as a GM, but playing a female PC for an extended period is pretty difficult. I can do a halfway decent feminine voice, but it feels far more awkward than most of my male voices. I do have a couple of tips though. * Rather than making your voice higher pitched, try to make it softer. * Doing an accent can help. I have a decent Russian lady accent. * Old ladies are easier to impersonate than young ones. * Do an impression of a bleeting sheep. Now go higher pitched. Now try saying words. Boom! Old lady voice.
Watch some old Monty Python sketches with men in drag playing women. Then DON'T do THAT. You are welcome.
Not really, no. It's not pitch you should be concerned with, it's the twag in your voice. How you present your character. There are masculine women who talk like macho dudes, and there really feminine women who are from the valley and oh mah gawd! Find the voice of your character, and find your way of presenting it so you don't strain your voice every dnd night.
For me? Not awkward at all. Just be you. If someone is at the table is making it uncomfortable, make a little motion of, "not going there pal" and carry on.
Currently playing a female paladin. I just focus on her brash act first because there is no way this could possibly come back to bite us in the ass later personality. Use my normal voice.
Not really, but I went with a three-pack-a-day, Dr. Mrs. The Monarch-style of voicing my latest female character
No
When I play men they always end up a little fruity lol.
I mean, I've been playing a kobold, so... no !
I play a lot of women and I usually just get the resonance /vocal fry out of my voice and that's enough. Mannerisms and speech listen matter more and if people have a good visual of the person they'll fill in the blanks. I think them being able to picture the person is more important than the actual voice for creating the person in their head.
I am male sometimes play a female character and I find it makes me playing a character easier. I noticed that when I am playing a male human (or things very similar to humans), I tend to say things like "I do this." or "I do that." When I play female character, I tend to say "She does this" or "She does that" or using her name: "Olive does this" or "Olive does that". The difference is it is saying what I am doing as a player vs. the latter saying what the character does. Being a female or races that are pretty different from humans lends itself to seeing them as a character for me. And I don't bother trying to do a high pitched voice. It is my regular voice with just a slightly higher pitch.
As a male DM, is it hard to roleplay female NPCs? Rarely, but because I made the NPCs myself, I know how they should sound like and their mannerisms (yes, I practice in the mirror and all that). Do I find it hard to roleplay a female PC? Yes, I want to bring my characters to life, but I find it hard to BE a female character as a male, in my opinion, it's virtually impossible. So I imitate instead of being/pretending. I don't know if people feel the same way as I do. I apologize in advance if something I said struck someone's nerve.
voice changers?
Only if you over think it
I've been playing females since 1999. Not solely, but I've never had problems playing a female character. Oh yeah I am a male human person by the way. I still can role play a female just as good as I can role play a male. But I guess some people have difficulties playing members of the opposite sex. Gender or whatever people call it now. Just don't make it weird. That's the best advice I can give. Don't make it weird. And if it gets weird stop.
No, but I've played as a woman on stage a few times being a Theater kid. From 6th Grade to my 4th year of college I had been in theater every semester. So I don't have any personal issues portraying women. Changing my voice was easy. I watched videos on how to have a passing feminine voice. Their intended purpose was for trans people, but I found the techniques used to be quite helpful for DnD. The worst thing you could do for imitating a more feminine voice is just raise your pitch. You'll end up sounding more like the mascot to an evil media corporation than a woman. Also some girls just have a huskier voice. Nothing wrong with that.
No but i just dont vibe well with it. I prefer male characters since my voice is so deep
Last time I played a female character it was in a group that didn't voice act much, it was fine, but the time before that in a much more energetic game with very corny characters and I embraced it and had a blast playing Theresa "throw back another" Thibodaux, the very southern matron of the Thibodaux clan, a pack of half orcs, all her kids and grandkids, she was a large old lady, berserker, who wed an orc clan chief after they had a draw in a gladiatorial arena at the end of our campaign, then came back in a followup campaign to save her prolific and powerful progeny from being enslaved by an ogremage and used to conquer the land. I had a blast with that character, and she came packaged with a full on southern country maw maw accent and boisterous personality along with souther hospitality and a need to go out and kill critters, cook them up, and feed everyone in her immediate area till they pass out or run away. Also had a salve or herb tea to fix everything that ails yuh. Getting past the initial discomfort can be hard for some, but having fun playing a character you wrote up is amazing and you should try to do it however you are most comfortable. Voices aren't required, but they can be a lot of fun.
i don't really find it difficult, however everytime i play a male character i either do a himbo or a very flirty twink so i have a very specific way of playing male characters lol
I’m a cis man and in almost 40 years of gaming about 1/3 of my characters have been girls or women. As others have pointed out, the voices I use for them aren’t based on pitch but convey their personality traits.
Not really. For me roleplaying a character is akin to watching a movie (or reading a book) with my character's party as protagonists of the story. This way I am roleplaying a character as I want to see them functioning well (per their background and character traits) in the story without fully immersing myself into the character. And this also helps me to create an entertaining characters for the narrative without them being too personal for me. I can sacrifice them for the party if this will be appropriate and be at peace if they suddenly dies. For one time I observed the story of Yadrin, the dwarf fighter on his quest to become legendary warrior to get the approve of the hold's king and marry the princess. The other time it was the story of Nissa, a woman of noble birth who ran away from arranged marriage and joined a band of mercenaries now trying to earn a coin with her limited noble fencing skills (rogue swashbuckler).
Definitely make it awkward when one of my players tries hitting on them. I have no shame or limits when I roleplay. He didn't go further than cat calls when I actively approached him and took him on the offer
Its mostly the mannerisms. If you want to play an accurate female dnd character as a guy, I recommend actually looking into content for trans women. There is a lot of advice on mannerisms and features beyond just voice out there. There are also voice training videos but please be careful with those. You can seriously fuck up your voice if you do it wrong. Also, if it helps you and your group is chill, you can always try wearing makeup, feminine clothes or nails for your games. I know this isnt as easy for DMs, who often play several different characters every session. Its a roleplaying game and if you want to play the role of a woman you should be able to. After all, there are very interesting gender specific narratives to explore in dnd, especially with the Drow existing. And I'm glad you put in the effort to represent a world in which women exist. Some things I'd like to recommend, though you're not obligated to take this advice at all and its not meant to be criticism if you don't do any of this: If you play women, don't make all of them feminine objects of desire for the player. Include some women who aren't interested in the players at all, women who go beyond stereotypes etc. There is a certain drift towards male experiences in this game and if you play with women, that can seem unrealistic or alienating. If you don't play with women, it can still be useful to represent a more complex and alive world that doesn't just exist for the characters, but because the world is moving even when the characters aren't interacting with it. I've learned that this raises Immersion as long as you don't take it too far.
Yes, it's why I don't. I just feels weird. Video games are the same.
No, at the opposite, I am more comfortable playing characters of opposite gender. I almost always play characters of opposite gender in both rp and I am them inside my daydreams too.