Ragitsu Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Stereotypically, it seems that Dwarves are Scottish, Elves are "refined" English, Orcs are Cockney and so forth. Do you use the same voice for all fantasy races, or do you choose unique accents for each one, and if so, what are they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? In the past, we've done this in various groups I've been in. It's not the same "voice", but a consistent accent does help give some contextual clues as to who is talking and convey some extra differentiation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? It doesn't have to be an accent per se, but it does help to use different modes of speech. Dwarves can have deep voices and speak slowly, while elves have nasal falsetto voices and titter a lot. You get the idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? When running a post-apocalyptic game that included fantasy races, I self-consciously set out to "de-Scot" the dwarves. I basically made them artisan bikers, and stole the vocal inflections of the flamethrower troops from Starcraft. The elves I basically made very careful and reflective, but that's mainly because they're so attuned to nature, and nature's so out of whack that they're very defensive and careful about what they say and how they're feeling. This meant that even though they didn't have an accent per se, they did have a different kind of cadence and diction when they spoke, and that made it obvious who was speaking as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Race and culture are completely different things. I give accents to different cultures. The humans, dwarves and elves that live in the Duchy and are of that culture, have a germanic accent. The humans, dwarves and elves that live in Brondheim have a norse accent. The humans, dwarves and elves that live in Daria and Ambria have an english accent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Pardon my rant, but Stereotypically' date=' it seems that Dwarves are Scottish,[/quote'] WHERE THE HECK DOES THIS COME FROM?? I never heard of this idea until a couple of years ago when I started reading Order of the Stick, and as far as I know, that's where it was invented. Starting when I was 14 and reading Tollkein, I'd never imagined Dwarves as anything but Germanic. Why the heck does anyone think they sound Scottish? How long have YOU thought they sound Scottish? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary thinks it's one of those annoying internet memes like "Ninjas and Pirates!" that pops up one week and next week everyone seems to talk like it's been there for years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? The R.A. Salvatore books. Bruenor Battlehammer spoke in a deep Scottish accent. The fanboys took it from there. If I were going to do racial accents, dwarves would have a German-ish accent as I see them as Norse-like. As I have no idea how to do a proper Scandinavian accent, German is as close as I get. Even that is hacked up a bit so a real German native would cringe and beg me to stop. But we try. I think more along the lines of Curufea. Cultural accents work better for me, though there might be some slight variation. A friend once had all Elves speak in a very exaggerated Parisian accent. And when I say exaggerated, I mean so thick and stereotypical that it made us all cringe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Suave Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? The R.A. Salvatore books. Bruenor Battlehammer spoke in a deep Scottish accent. The fanboys took it from there. American literature*, creating memes since before the internet! *Or Literature if you prefer, depending on your opinions on the subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? WHERE THE HECK DOES THIS COME FROM?? I never heard of this idea until a couple of years ago when I started reading Order of the Stick, and as far as I know, that's where it was invented. Starting when I was 14 and reading Tollkein, I'd never imagined Dwarves as anything but Germanic. Why the heck does anyone think they sound Scottish? How long have YOU thought they sound Scottish? I've heard this since the early/mid-eighties when Warcraft came out. That was my first exposure to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Pardon my rant, but WHERE THE HECK DOES THIS COME FROM?? I never heard of this idea until a couple of years ago when I started reading Order of the Stick, and as far as I know, that's where it was invented. It's been a staple of Games Workshop for decades now - along with the idea that Orc speak like oiks or football hooligans. As far as I know, that's where it comes from. Certainly it long predates Order of the Stick and the Salvatore books, because I was being exposed to it back in the mid-80's. I think it got to be popular because it's far easier for english-speaking platers and GMs to do a scottish accent than a scandinavian one: even though I always saw Dwarves as short, hairy, money-grubbing subterranean vikings cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Games Workshop. Never got into anything they published. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steph Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? R A Salvator: litterature ???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted January 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Multiple sources have been brought up, so perhaps the idea is even older than that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? One of my players has used a Scottish accent for Dwarves since the early 90s, and I'm positive he's never played Warhammer. Like others have said, iIn my fantasy world, accents tend to be regional/cultural rather than species-specific. Of course, most people prefer to live/work among their "own" race, so folks tend to cluster amongst themselves. Therefore, it would be pretty easy for people to think, "He's got an Elf accent" rather than "He sounds like he's from the eastlands." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Suave Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? R A Salvator: litterature ???? Thus why I spelled it with a lowercase "L" the first time around. I've actually done more than a little academic work on what should and should not count as "literature with a capital L" and you'd be surprised how much scholarly effort has gone into analyzing these ideas about High and Low Culture and what constitutes Literature and Art. Especially considering that almost every book on the Five Foot Bookshelf is written by a white, western male. It's a very interesting subject but unfortunately not the topic of this thread. /offtopic P.S. Also I just remembered that my first post was intended to be a joke. That's what I get for taking Comparative Literature classes for fun... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? If I were going to do racial accents, dwarves would have a German-ish accent as I see them as Norse-like. As I have no idea how to do a proper Scandinavian accent, ... Minnesoota. Or worse, Swedish Chef. (I briefly played a fearsome Viking once with a really bad Swedish Chef accent. Talk about penalties on your PRE attack.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnotherSkip Posted January 22, 2010 Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Pre Warhammer there was a definate Scottish dwarven phenom in Northern TX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted January 22, 2010 Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Minnesoota. Or worse, Swedish Chef. (I briefly played a fearsome Viking once with a really bad Swedish Chef accent. Talk about penalties on your PRE attack.) I was so thinking I would not do Swedish Chef when I posted that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted January 22, 2010 Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? One of my players has used a Scottish accent for Dwarves since the early 90s' date=' and I'm positive he's never played Warhammer.[/quote'] None of us did either: when something becomes a meme, it rapidly spreads beyond the group it originated in. Reaper/Warhammer dates back to the end of the '70's/beginning of the '80's so the meme had a decade to spread by the time you first encountered it. My experience was that "scottish-flavoured dwarves" were a wargaming thing before they spread into roleplaying in the mid '80's. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Suave Posted January 22, 2010 Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Come to think of it, Dwarves are always Scotts but do tend to be more Norselike in their weaponry. (I use the word "always" loosely.) I want to play a Dwarf with a claymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted January 22, 2010 Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Stereotypically' date=' it seems that Dwarves are Scottish, Elves are "refined" English, Orcs are Cockney and so forth. Do you use the same voice for all fantasy races, or do you choose unique accents for each one, and if so, what are they?[/quote'] I constantly use accents for my NPC's. I do try to differentiate by race. Currently I'm running a Shadow World campaign and human sub-races in that campaign are very well defined, so I end up doing different accents for those as well. It can get pretty crazy but my players seem to like it. I haven't had any Dwarves show up yet (Kulthean Dwarves being fairly reclusive, so only mavericks become adventurers) but the Elves I try to do a "no accent" but with more refined speech patterns. Wood elves are more casual then High elves. Lugroki (Orcs) sound like Klingons and generally speak their own language. Very few know human or elven tongues. Lots of gutteral, grunting sounds, even when speaking common human languages. I do want to have a Dwarven NPC show up soon and if so I will probably do a scottish-like accent. Either that or sound as much like John Rys Davies as I possibley can! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrAgdesh Posted January 22, 2010 Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? I wouldn't wish the Cockney dialect on anyone. Orcs, or Dick Van Dyke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted January 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? And, of course, Hobgoblins with thick Slavic accents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted January 22, 2010 Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Barbarians with thick southern accents. "Amoanna hurt y'alls purty bayud!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted January 23, 2010 Report Share Posted January 23, 2010 Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? Every gameworld has a Norf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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