Its pretty self explanatory. I want my adventures to have a more diverse set of NPCs but I don't know what to do when it comes to voicing a female.

What do you mean by "voicing a female?" I don't think a male player should feel obligated to affect a female voice when talking for his female character (in fact, I'd discourage it, since it will probably lead to too much joking around the table). If you mean the ethics of a male player playing a female character, I think it totally comes down to the maturity of the player and his motives for doing so. Is the motive to get a thrill by putting the female PC into suggestive situations? Well, not at my table, but if you allow that kind of thing, it's probably best to make sure the other players are OK with it. Is the motive to challenge the player to get into the head of someone of a different gender from himself? I wouldn't have a problem with that.

Forget about the voice. Focus on motivations—what does she want, and what is she willing to do to get it? That is the formative question you should be asking for every NPC your group of PCs interacts with.

After figuring out what she wants, then you can think about affectations and personality. Is she soft-spoken? Is she refined? Is she gruff, ill-mannered? Preoccupied, or inattentive? Matter-of-fact to the point of rudeness? Is she pompous and narcissistic? Is she kind and compassionate?

Don't try and make your voice go higher and talk like a girl. Just worry about what she's like as a person and try to get that across to your players.

Ah, sorry; I misread your original post. Yes, Awayputurwpn summarized it nicely. Don't pitch your voice up or down unless you want your players to laugh. Instead go for the personality of the NPC in question.

I know what works for me. I don't alter the pitch of my voice. Instead, I will give my voice a softer edge, and speak just a little more melodically. Incidentally, it's also how I voice elves in my fantasy games.

One helpful thing an old storyteller would do is have pictures of the notable Npc and hold up the card of who is speaking. That helps make sure it is clear to the group who is talking if you can't or don't want to do different voices.

Who says a woman has to have a feminine voice? (Also, lots of swearing and stuff, so don't watch if you can't stand that.)

Start at around 3:25

1 hour ago, OddballE8 said:

Who says a woman has to have a feminine voice? (Also, lots of swearing and stuff, so don't watch if you can't stand that.)

Start at around 3:25

****! Vid won't load, so putting this out there befor I know what it is. I'm guessing Dr Mrs The Monarch.

I'm disappointed now.

But this is who I meant

https://youtu.be/rQtlTiYtKa0

On a related topic;

As a Human how would you handle portrayal of a Trandoshan NPC?

There is no way MY voice could emulate the gutteral grunts & hissing of that species and I have no way of comprehending that Trandoshan words might sound like.

Another thought would be to describe NPC's as 3rd person entities and to be descriptive.

"The female Trandoshan, glowers angrily and reaches toward her massive looking blaster pistol while hissing and warbling at you in an aggressive tone."

or

"The female Trandoshan gently lays her meaty hand on Griff's shoulder and draws him in close, while either purring softly or gargling a throatful of smooth stones in her throat. She lowers her head trying to meet Griff at an eye to eye level and slowly exhales a breath that stinks like seven day dead rodents with a very toothy smile."

I definitely couldn't vocalize either of these verbal interactions so that's one way to handle this issue.

In short BE Descriptive. Be Ee Descriptive!

23 hours ago, Stethemessiah said:

I'm disappointed now.

But this is who I meant

https://youtu.be/rQtlTiYtKa0

Yeah, it's no Dr Mrs The Monarch, but that was indeed the point I was making.

(also, as a sidenote, is anyone else as turned on by Dr Mrs The Monarch as me? It's the weirdest thing, that voice... )

Absolutely mate. Guess we're just proper wrong 'uns. Lol.

If you're running a game over the internet you could get morph vox junior (free voice changing software with 3 voices one of which is female).

If you want to avoid the issue entirely, use only third-person narration when your PCs interact with NPCs. Half the time I don't even speak in the first person for the NPCs and the other half, I simply hold up a picture of the NPC and speak normally.

The issue is that this is less immersive than a female voice playing a male. Well, unless your character is a anime girl and tries to be cute.
"Misaka does not understand what you mean. Misaka does not speaks weird. Misaka thinks you are rude." ;-)
Though I am sure that there are several species which actually refer to themselves in the third person.

Still whatever suits your group. Which is as well the best answer to the topic. Trying a little voice acting or not, whatever makes you most comfortable should work just fine.

This gand does not understand what you mean. This gand does not speaks weird. This gand thinks you are rude.

Interestingly enough, I am planning to play a female character in a (non-star wars) rpg soon. I love doing voices because it helps me get into character. I will be playing with a mixed group. My intent is to just soften the way I speak and use a little more energy in my words. Kind of like when you try to emulate GLaDOS from Portal. I have the benefit of already having a slightly higher pitched voice already.

I occasionally cross play (or whatever the hell playing a woman when I'm a dude is called) probably 50 percent of the time. It really depends on the demands of the character - the last female I did portrayed as a female was a tomboy farmhand. That's a concept that really wouldn't work as a dude to my mind. But then someone like my IRA terrorist Stormtrooper defector, yeah, not really a feminine character - so yeah, I'm pretty comfortable flip-flopping genders running female characters.

Buuuuuut. . . .

When I first started playing RPGs some 30 years ago*, when I played my very first female character I tried to play "A Woman". Dear god did that not work out. The two women of the group were all 'What the **** are you doing? Stop that' From that point on, I built the character, built the personality and played to that personality, not forcing "I am A Woman" into the mix on purpose. Let the character be who they are, and don't worry about the gender.

*Jesus, 1989 was 30 years?!? Someone hold me, I'm going to cry.

12 hours ago, Desslok said:

I occasionally cross play (or whatever the **** playing a woman when I'm a dude is called) probably 50 percent of the time. It really depends on the demands of the character - the last female I did portrayed as a female was a tomboy farmhand. That's a concept that really wouldn't work as a dude to my mind. But then someone like my IRA terrorist Stormtrooper defector, yeah, not really a feminine character - so yeah, I'm pretty comfortable flip-flopping genders running female characters.

Buuuuuut. . . .

When I first started playing RPGs some 30 years ago*, when I played my very first female character I tried to play "A Woman". Dear god did that not work out. The two women of the group were all 'What the **** are you doing? Stop that' From that point on, I built the character, built the personality and played to that personality, not forcing "I am A Woman" into the mix on purpose. Let the character be who they are, and don't worry about the gender.

*Jesus, 1989 was 30 years?!? Someone hold me, I'm going to cry.

That's pretty much the best way to write characters too...

Make the character and personality, then pretty much flip a coin to select gender

Just describe the NPC or PC to the players and then go from their. If you want their voice to sound particularly feminine you tell the players it's very feminine or high, then let their imagination do a far better job then your voicebox ever will.

16 hours ago, Desslok said:

*Jesus, 1989 was 30 years?!? Someone hold me, I'm going to cry.

Technically...... only 29 years, but who’s to squabble over a year......... :)

Oh, that's SO much better. . . .

1 hour ago, Desslok said:

Oh, that's SO much better. . . .

It's the difference between two decades or three. At this point in my life I'll take it.

On 2/15/2018 at 5:41 AM, Desslok said:

*Jesus, 1989 was 30 years?!? Someone hold me, I'm going to cry.

Heh, I had you beat there... I started playing 1984.

That's right... I started playing at 8.
Because in Sweden, roleplaying games were sold in toystores back in the day

That was until the 90's when a big moral panic erupted and news outlets started claiming that roleplaying games turned you into a murderer and stuff like that... Didn't help that some wackjob killed his friend with a rock in the woods, and just so happened to play RPG's... oh and then a game called Kult came out which was all about supernatural beings and weird dark murderous stuff... kinda like call of cthulu, but darker and grittier...

So, games were pulled from the shelves of toystores and that kinda ended the hobby for a while... Only those already playing kept playing... and games were hard to get, for a long time...

But, enough nostalgia... I started GM'ing at 8, and I suck as much at it today as I did back then, but finding anyone else to GM is nigh-impossible... so here I am... doing the best I can.

At least I get to do it at work as well

10 hours ago, OddballE8 said:

Heh, I had you beat there... I started playing 1984.

That's right... I started playing at 8.
Because in Sweden, roleplaying games were sold in toystores back in the day

That was until the 90's when a big moral panic erupted and news outlets started claiming that roleplaying games turned you into a murderer and stuff like that... Didn't help that some wackjob killed his friend with a rock in the woods, and just so happened to play RPG's... oh and then a game called Kult came out which was all about supernatural beings and weird dark murderous stuff... kinda like call of cthulu, but darker and grittier...

So, games were pulled from the shelves of toystores and that kinda ended the hobby for a while... Only those already playing kept playing... and games were hard to get, for a long time...

But, enough nostalgia... I started GM'ing at 8, and I suck as much at it today as I did back then, but finding anyone else to GM is nigh-impossible... so here I am... doing the best I can.

At least I get to do it at work as well

Newbie.

11 hours ago, OddballE8 said:

Heh, I had you beat there... I started playing 1984.

That's right... I started playing at 8.
Because in Sweden, roleplaying games were sold in toystores back in the day

That was until the 90's when a big moral panic erupted and news outlets started claiming that roleplaying games turned you into a murderer and stuff like that... Didn't help that some wackjob killed his friend with a rock in the woods, and just so happened to play RPG's... oh and then a game called Kult came out which was all about supernatural beings and weird dark murderous stuff... kinda like call of cthulu, but darker and grittier...

So, games were pulled from the shelves of toystores and that kinda ended the hobby for a while... Only those already playing kept playing... and games were hard to get, for a long time...

But, enough nostalgia... I started GM'ing at 8, and I suck as much at it today as I did back then, but finding anyone else to GM is nigh-impossible... so here I am... doing the best I can.

At least I get to do it at work as well

The Swedish classic: have you, or have you not, bought RPGs in a toy store?