My very first RPG came from a toy store. I'd asked for a board game called "Dungeon Dice" for my 9th birthday. My mother came home with a Moldvay-era Basic D&D box set. Any shot I had at a normal social life died that day.

2 hours ago, Sharatec said:

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

You might as well ask if the Swede in question was born before or after 1984... if you were born after, you're not very likely to have bought an RPG in a toy store.
If you were born before then, it's highly likely that your first RPG came from a toy store.

13 hours ago, OddballE8 said:

You might as well ask if the Swede in question was born before or after 1984... if you were born after, you're not very likely to have bought an RPG in a toy store.
If you were born before then, it's highly likely that your first RPG came from a toy store.

I must have been a late bloomer. My first - DoD Chronopia - came from a book store.

13 hours ago, Sharatec said:

I must have been a late bloomer. My first - DoD Chronopia - came from a book store.

Yeah, Chronopia was post-hysteria.
It came out in '94, meaning it was well into the "OMG won't somebody think of the children" outcry that got them thrown out of toy stores.

Indeed!

I'd like to say I'm young... but that's not true...

I started playing when I was 16 in the Year 2000... they told us the world would be destroyed... and they were right about it... 2 Sessions and the former GM decided that he wants to be a player again (the group already played for some time before I was invited by a friend)... everybody turned to the newbie (me) and asked: "kid we heard you have some strange fantasy in your head... wanna give it a try? here are the core rules, and some important supplements (a total of 6 Books!) see ya next week..."

Somehow I managed to read and comprehend all that stuff within one week (of course I had to do alot of rereading later on) and am stuck with the GM roll ever since... only 2 charcter I everplayed as player were used in more than two sessions.

Luckily for all my players I've got a "god-complex" (maybe because of all that might they gave me in such an early state ) so I really like to be the GM and create the worlds theire character try to struggle against fate (MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cought* sorry...)

BTT:

I tend to give my female characters softer voices when they are not in supreme possitions. Only Pitching the voice if I want the NPC to be a really anoying hag.

If I want to get a precise kind of tone, I became describtive to make sure the player gets the message e.g. "Her soothing voice gently appeals your ears while she says... / Her voice and stance make it clear: She is stone cold, you don't want to be on the wrong side of her!"

**Stands up and clears his throat**

Hi everyone, my name is Simon and I have an addiction, I'm a roleplayer, <nervous pause> ive been an addict since 1981, mostly GMing.

During that time my style for portraying NPCs has evolved from not making any distinction between them to full blown voice acting with accents, mannerisms and inflection.

I would suggest practicing as much as possible to gain confidence and skill in what you are attempting. If you are nervous or lacking confidence do it alone until you are happy with what you are trying to achieve.

If people laugh, all the better, they are having fun and that is the point of what we do, right?

Encourage others to try the same thing for their characters, but if they don't want to, don't force it. Eventually your group will accept that is how the sessions work and it will not cause disruption.

I feel voicing characters and NPCs adds a lot of depth to games and situations and greatly enhances the group experience, especially when everybody is on board.

Don't forget, that it is a learning process and unless you are one of the lucky few who are naturally super confident and have the gift of the gab, it will take a long time to be happy doing this.

I was painfully shy when I was a teenager but I regularly do public speaking now and I put a large part of my confidence down to rpgs.

Above all have fun.

***Sits down***

I always modulate my voice when I portray different characters. Women especially - then I soften my voice, to a degree depending on the character's personality. It feels so extremely natural for me to do it, I don't even realize I'm doing it most of the time. It seems to me like most guys I've ever played with here in Sweden (and that's a looot of people) do the same, however, most groups I've played with are probably quite far to the theatrical side of things.

To each his own, of course. But if anyone wants an example, you can hear me do it a lot in this english-speaking actual play podcast (at 45:50, for example), of the upcoming swedish game Neotech. (I'm the GM). In this example, I portray an AI who has a very sweet female voice.

Voices don't have gender

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Any gender can contain can contain any of the qualities and characteristics of voice, especially in a galaxy far, far away.

If you want to give someone a voice that you cannot imitate, simply say "their voice sounds [characterstic]."

But don't fall into using a sexist cliche that only women have soft, high-pitched, or melodic voices. Also, don't fall into using the cliche that anyone who does must be "weak" or "gentle" or "sexual/seductive".

On ‎4‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 5:05 PM, panpolyqueergeek said:

Voices don't have gender

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Any gender can contain can contain any of the qualities and characteristics of voice, especially in a galaxy far, far away.

If you want to give someone a voice that you cannot imitate, simply say "their voice sounds [characterstic]."

But don't fall into using a sexist cliche that only women have soft, high-pitched, or melodic voices. Also, don't fall into using the cliche that anyone who does must be "weak" or "gentle" or "sexual/seductive".

It's also important to not discount gender in my opinion. I have a friend who GMs from time to time and he seems to have some misandry issues. Every woman is a competent leader and combat savant, while every jerk-off or mook is a guy. To me it seems like Star Wars is a largely human universe by design, because we are able to relate to humans better. Given that their are humans it makes sense that they have some qualities of humanity such as the same statistical qualities concerning genders and existence of more than two gender choices. In other words, a realistic take on the characters in the game won't do anything to hurt verisimilitude.

On 2/14/2018 at 8:41 PM, 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.

I was -7 years old

On 2/14/2018 at 11:41 PM, 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.

On 2/21/2018 at 4:37 AM, Nightone said:

I'd like to say I'm young... but that's not true...

I started playing when I was 16 in the Year 2000... they told us the world would be destroyed... and they were right about it... 2 Sessions and the former GM decided that he wants to be a player again (the group already played for some time before I was invited by a friend)... everybody turned to the newbie (me) and asked: "kid we heard you have some strange fantasy in your head... wanna give it a try? here are the core rules, and some important supplements (a total of 6 Books!) see ya next week..."

Somehow I managed to read and comprehend all that stuff within one week (of course I had to do alot of rereading later on) and am stuck with the GM roll ever since... only 2 charcter I everplayed as player were used in more than two sessions.

Luckily for all my players I've got a "god-complex" (maybe because of all that might they gave me in such an early state ) so I really like to be the GM and create the worlds theire character try to struggle against fate (MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cought* sorry...)

BTT:

I tend to give my female characters softer voices when they are not in supreme possitions. Only Pitching the voice if I want the NPC to be a really anoying hag.

If I want to get a precise kind of tone, I became describtive to make sure the player gets the message e.g. "Her soothing voice gently appeals your ears while she says... / Her voice and stance make it clear: She is stone cold, you don't want to be on the wrong side of her!"

17 hours ago, Rean411 said:

I was -7 years old

You guys are all young'uns . I started playing in 1984 at the age of 13 . (I was 6 when the original Star Wars came out in 1977). I graduated high school and joined the Army in 1989.

As for playing females, I've played a few. more than one of my current characters is female as well.

On 2/15/2018 at 1:02 PM, TCArknight said:

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

There, you feel better? Now it's TWO YEARS LATER! Now get the hell off my lawn. *shakes fist*