Do you have go-to voices for your NPCs?

[DM Marcus]

One trick I read somewhere is to pick out some actors and or characters that fit the NPC or villain you are portraying and picture that person saying the lines. For that to work for me, not having Rich Little-like skills, I have found that they need to have very distinctive vocal ticks.

One go-to pool that I will dip in mentally is to picture one of the multitude of Disney characters my girls watched growing up. Some easy ones... Any of the seven dwarfs (which all express distinct emotions and ticks), villains like Scar of Lion King and the Evil Queen in Snow White.

I will sometimes scribble something like "Grumpy" by an NPC in a module to remind me to use that voice. If I don't, I'll overuse that cockney English accent every time.

What are your go-to voices or do you use them at all?

[GnomeBoy]

I don't always use voices, as in altering my own voice, but I do try to speak in a way that's the character and not mine, especially if it's relevant to who the person is.

Sometimes this can be over-the-top like giving a crime lord a goodfellas style of speech. Sometimes it's subtle.

But yeah, for example, I ran a thing last month with the note that the character was like Sydney Greenstreet from The Maltese Falcon. It was a Hutt.

[donpimpom]

Sure! I do voices, and even some body language, specially for old characters, crazy or villains if they are doing an speech, or a tete-a-tete chat with one of the players.
It's a great way to create empathic feedback in the players, for instance when interacting with a disgusting NPC they hate despite they need their help; or when interacting with extremely friendly NPCs that will cheat them later.
But I don't that all the time. All the session doing that can be exhausting for the judge, and boring for the players imho.

[DCCfan]

A former DM of mine used to do voices for his NPCs. They were all great except for one. The pirate voice ended up sneaking out for every evil NPC we came across. It always made us chuckle every time it happened.

[Tortog]

Sure! I do voices, and even some body language, specially for old characters, crazy or villains if they are doing an speech, or a tete-a-tete chat with one of the players.
It's a great way to create empathic feedback in the players, for instance when interacting with a disgusting NPC they hate despite they need their help; or when interacting with extremely friendly NPCs that will cheat them later.
But I don't that all the time. All the session doing that can be exhausting for the judge, and boring for the players imho.

+d100 on all points!

Me too! The neat thing about using voices and such is that it can also help players feel more comfortable with role playing their characters and adopting voices of their own. Used judiciously it's a great way to enhance the game.

[Skyscraper]

Although voices help distinguish characters, I try to use them for humoristic or punctual/temporary NPCs only, because adding a different voice to character interpretation usually adds a layer of complexity to playing the role and to making its interpretation profound. For important/serious NPCs, I'll usually use a voice much closer to my own which facilitates conveying emotions, for me.

But I love giving voices for big brutes (e.g. giants), annoying little buggers (e.g. goblins), or agressive loud-mouthed opponents likely to die quickly (e.g. orcs).

[DM Marcus]

Although voices help distinguish characters, I try to use them for humoristic or punctual/temporary NPCs only, because adding a different voice to character interpretation usually adds a layer of complexity to playing the role and to making its interpretation profound. For important/serious NPCs, I'll usually use a voice much closer to my own which facilitates conveying emotions, for me.

But I love giving voices for big brutes (e.g. giants), annoying little buggers (e.g. goblins), or agressive loud-mouthed opponents likely to die quickly (e.g. orcs).

I like this a lot.