# D&D races and accents/voices



## Bullgrit (May 8, 2008)

I'm considering playing a goblin wizard character*, and to portray the character I'd like to speak IC with an accent. But what kind of accent would a goblin have? And where could I learn the accent (maybe a character in a movie)?

And to widen this question, what accents or voice would work well for other races? I know some players give dwarves Scottish or German accents. And I've seen an elf with sort of a French accent. The tiefling in the WotC D&D4 promo video has an eastern European accent (Romanian?), and the gnome in the same vid has a distinct voice. (The Travelocity gnome has a different accent.)

What about halflings, orcs, hobgoblins, aasimar, etc.?

Bullgrit
Total Bullgrit

* Goblin wizard to be named "G-Wiz".


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## smootrk (May 8, 2008)

Maybe I just think it would be funny, but why not give him a Indian/Hindu style accent... like Abu from the Simpsons... anyhow, with so many episodes of the Simpsons you shouldn't have much trouble coming up with interesting things to say (or ways to say things).


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## Dragonwriter (May 8, 2008)

Well, how are you looking to play the character? A goblin wizard is uncommon, to say the least, but will he be kinda bumbling but well-meaning? Or will he be vicious? Or is he wise and sharing or wise and tight-lipped?

Also, what's his background? Is this goblin from a city? Or is he tribal and somehow got instructed in the ways of wizardry?

Personally, these things influence the way I do character voices. In the end, most of my characters get some kind of English accent.


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## Ilium (May 8, 2008)

In my game...

For some reason I play goblins with raspy, gravelly voices.  Sort of like Yoda without the semantics problems.

Orcs always get a deep-throated thug voice (usually with a cockney accent thrown in).  Too much Tolkien, I guess. 

Elves in my game speak with a generic high-class accent, even if they come from a rustic community.  Something between aristocratic British and Boston Brahmin.

Halflings talk like humans, with accents appropriate to the region they come from.

Aasimar talk like whatever nation/culture they were born into.  Their Outsider ancestry doesn't enter into it.


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## theredrobedwizard (May 8, 2008)

In my campaigns, even going back into the late 80s/early 90s, Goblins talked like they were from Brooklyn.

Elves speak with a Welsh accent, Dwarves with a Norwegian accent, Gnomes with a Spanish accent, and Halflings with a Eastern European/Romani accent.

-TRRW


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## Clavis (May 8, 2008)

I tend to do goblins with a high-pitched, sniveling voice, something like Dr. Frankenstein's Igor.
Hobgoblins have a harsher, bestial sound, but are articulate.
Orcs I also do with a deep, bestial voice, but they are inarticulate, and they use LOTS of obscenities.
Dwarves I do with a Germanic accent.
For Elves I use a breathy, brogue-like voice.
Gnomes I do with a slight Yiddish accent.
My Halflings talk like American Rednecks.


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## Tonguez (May 8, 2008)

Dwarf - Bravarian
Gnomes- Irish
Halfling - Cornish
Orcs - Klingons
Hobgoblins - Russian
Aasimar - Farsi
Goblin - Tamil (High pitched and fast)


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 9, 2008)

I've done a lot of that, but among the most fun came when DMing a homebrew campaign a few years ago.  In it, the anthropo-Badgers- the alt-PMP world's equivalent to Dwarves- spoke like Frenchmen.

Or, more accurately, like the _outraaaaaaaaaaaaageous_ Fraunch Kniggits of _Holy Grail_ fame...and this was technically the "language of burrowing animals."

Which meant that the PC gnome- from a D&D standard PMP- was _also _ forced to speak that way when communicating with them in their native tongue.

Much fun!


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## MonsterMash (May 11, 2008)

I tend to make my accents like this:

Dwarves - Yorkshire
Halflings - West Country (more accurately mummerset the british actors fake west country accent)

Orcs and Goblins - Mockney (false cockney - v. stylised and not that close to my real cockney accent)


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## Switchblade (May 12, 2008)

theredrobedwizard said:
			
		

> In my campaigns, even going back into the late 80s/early 90s, Goblins talked like they were from Brooklyn.
> 
> Elves speak with a Welsh accent, Dwarves with a Norwegian accent, Gnomes with a Spanish accent, and Halflings with a Eastern European/Romani accent.
> 
> -TRRW




I take it by welsh you mean valleys accented Wenglish (the common stereotype).  I now have a lovely image of an elf going "See those two tree houses, mine is the one in the middle boyo"


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## Aus_Snow (May 12, 2008)

Bullgrit said:
			
		

> But what kind of accent would a goblin have? And where could I learn the accent (maybe a character in a movie)?



'Ugly one-horned mule.'

That's the kind of voice I used, for one type of goblin.


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## Rhun (May 12, 2008)

I've always like Costykan's "New Jersey" accent for orcs.


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## Kesh (May 12, 2008)

Apparently, having bronchitis makes my gruff dwarf voice sound a lot better.

I don't think it was worth it.


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## WayneLigon (May 12, 2008)

Kesh said:
			
		

> Apparently, having bronchitis makes my gruff dwarf voice sound a lot better.
> I don't think it was worth it.




The last time I played a dwarf, he was a barbarian with a low, gruff Scottish accent. I had had a bout of allergies and bronchitis the week before and was just getting over same when we gamed next. About 20 minutes into the game, my voice suddenly pitches up to a squeak and fails. Completely. It even hurts to whisper. So I have to write 'RAARRGGHH!' on a peice of paper and show that to the GM whenever I Raged.


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## VoidAdept (May 12, 2008)

I've been tempted to give the Elves in my campaign California "surfer dude" accents, but I don't think it would go over too well.


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## Desdichado (May 12, 2008)

I don't really do "racial accents" but if I were running a goblin magic-user, I'd probably have him talk like Igor from all those mad scientist movies.  Kinda high pitched, greasy and slimy.


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