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Finding Your Character's Voice
19 Plays3 months ago
In this episode of Tabletop Tune Up, we discuss the fun and creative process of finding your character's voice in RPGs. Accents and vocal choices can add depth to character portrayal, and voices can be a memorable extension of a character’s story. You don't have to be an experienced voice actor to be really expressive with your voice, and we talk about how to incorporate voice work effectively without overdoing it by using inflection, speed, volume, and vocabulary to create memorable moments with your characters. We also talk about how to avoid common pitfalls like stereotypes or overuse of accents at your table.
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Transcript
Acting Naturally: Avoid Overacting
00:00:00
Speaker
Oh, my prince, would that you drink of my lips as
00:00:12
Speaker
Oh, good lord. Victor, how many times are we gonna have to do this? Listen, sweetheart, acting is acting like you're not acting. So act, but don't act like you're acting, can you? All right. Why don't we try this?
00:00:26
Speaker
Come get your tune-up It's time for your tune-up Your
00:00:59
Speaker
Wow, Mark.
Musical Intros: Approach and Rationale
00:01:00
Speaker
Okay, you know what? This is going on long enough. It is time for you to be on the hot seat. What in the world, for new listeners or for people who are just joining, what in the world are you thinking with all of these different musical intros? They've all got the same lyrics. there's There's never, there's no two that are like otherwise. I feel like I have to apologize for that one right there. How are you doing these and why, what's the rationale behind this?
00:01:26
Speaker
For those who've been with us since the beginning, we've been using Suno for our intros. Like you say, Ben, we've kept the lyrics. We just kind of bring in new genres and new sounds, hopefully to kind of fit whatever we're going to be talking about in the topic for the day. But also just to kind of have fun. yeah That's what we're here for. We're go you're here to have fun.
00:01:47
Speaker
You guys at home should know that I've stopped actually asking this question, but I used to ask Mark all the time and be like, well, Mark, you know, whenever you get tired of these, whenever you've kind of run out of inspiration for different musical styles, ah you know, we'll we'll pick one of the ones we like and we'll just use that one for a consistent show music. But Mark, you are a bottomless well of musical stylings, it seems.
00:02:08
Speaker
Yeah, i do I do like enjoy tinkering with these, obsessing over them, making them, some of them are just so bad they're good, some of them are just bad. I mean, we've hit Motown, ShowTune, Synthwave. Yeah. Mark, what are some of the other ones we've hit? What are some of your favorites that we've hit?
00:02:25
Speaker
I mean, I always like the synth wave is probably one of my favorite ones that I think sooner does a really good job with. Yeah, there are some genres that are just are incredibly difficult to get a Broadway this Broadway musical. Oh, yeah man, I think took for was this one, right? This was like a show tunes thing.
00:02:43
Speaker
And i I mean, I don't even, truth be said, I'm not a big fan of Broadway musicals in, you know, in sound. They're just a little too bombastic, but we're talking about, today we're talking about hint, bad acting. yeah So I thought that was like kind of a, kind of appropriate, but you know what? Real quick, you guys, I do every 10 episodes, I have been compiling those 10 episodes and I put them up on YouTube. So if you get a chance,
00:03:10
Speaker
and you like a certain track, jump on that. Every 10 episodes, we're going to have 10 more coming up here soon. Let us know which one's your favorite. Yes, it was like one to 10 and it was all of the Suno intros we did for those and then 11 to 20 and so on. Yeah, and we're going to do it again coming up here soon because we're getting close. This is actually episode 30 right now, isn't it?
00:03:30
Speaker
I believe it is. Yeah. We've hit episode 30. That's a great milestone. Uh, so unfortunately that one's going to end with a Broadway musical. I mean, look, some people like show tunes. Where are we at today, Ben? What are we doing? Okay.
Developing Character Voices in Role-Playing
00:03:44
Speaker
Look, here's what's going on today. We're going to talk about finding your character's voice. And that's going to be kind of a range of different things related to the way that we use our vocal instruments yes voice acting.
00:03:56
Speaker
That's right thinking about voices and voice acting at the table. It's probably something we've all done. We were always kind of using voices and stuff, but like I would argue that critical role gave us permission or at least let us be forgiven for all of our bad voices. Yeah. And not that their voices are bad. They were fantastic on that show. I mean, you get a group of trained voice actors together. What are they going to do?
00:04:20
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, like when you have people that can do it well, all of a sudden they've got great characters that have these great voices that are very distinctive. And gosh, especially Matt Mercer has such a fun range of characters. He's got a quiver of voices you can use. So if critical role gave us permission for us to kind of do it, should we? Like, should we really all of us?
00:04:46
Speaker
I mean, all of us? Yeah, I would say this. If you can do it, yeah, do it. Yeah, you got a gift. You know, your players will love it. You're going to add to your game, but not everybody can do it. So it's okay. yeah Here's the thing, friends. Today, what we're going to do is we're going to kind of break down this.
00:05:02
Speaker
If you're somebody who is comfortable doing voices and accents and things like that, here's some things you can do and some things to think about. And then if you're not somebody who is very into that or very good at that, that's OK, too. There's actually, Mark, as I'm thinking about it now, there's even kind of a third category of people who don't even like just talking character. You know, they won't say things like, I say this or I say that. They'll kind of say things like in the third person will say, well, my character says um that they'd like to get a room for the night or whatever. Yeah.
00:05:31
Speaker
So yeah even there, I think it's okay. Don't have to worry about accents and characterization. Just you know enjoy this episode and try to understand your fellow players. So let's start with this. What does it mean to really do this well? If you're somebody who is comfortable doing this stuff, how do we let voice convey character? How do we let your characterization come out through the use of your voice?
00:05:54
Speaker
The first thing is that voice is an extension of your character. Voice tells us a little bit about your character's story. If this is somebody who's had a very rough background, they've had a hard time growing up or whatever, maybe they sound like they're a little bit jaded. Maybe their voice is a little bit in their lower register or they found sound defensive. they don't Maybe they don't sound very optimistic or upbeat. There's lots of things you can do like that. Oh, bother. Eeyore is a perfect example of a character whose mood and background is conveyed by their voice.
00:06:23
Speaker
One thing you can do that's a little bit of shorthand is if you were gonna cast this character, like if you imagine your character being played by a famous actor or somebody who you think you probably can do an impression of, what would that person sound like? Are they gonna sound like Matthew McConaughey? Are they gonna sound like some other actor who's very distinctive that you can channel a little bit? yeah That's trying to get the vocal tone right. That's kind of thinking about how this connects up to your character's story. Another thing to do is then think about how often your character uses their voice.
00:06:52
Speaker
um If you're a bard and you're the face of the party, you're always doing all the social encounters, that kind of stuff. Or in other kinds of games, if you're the espionage character that's pawning people out of their secrets and so on. These are going to be different kinds of characters than if you are that kind of laconic character in the back line that doesn't talk so much. If you're the muscle of the group, you know, maybe you're yeah going to say a few things. So think about how often you're going to use your voice. And then I'd say there's a kind of a corollary here, which is be selective about when you're going to use that character's voice because There's a lot of real fun you can have with these voices, and accents, and characterizations. But I will say I've never played a game where somebody did that start to finish. And it was always fun. And it was always great every time. So you probably want to like dip into it from time to time just to accentuate things.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah. On that note, like, uh, you know, I, we always stay, see it start small. We're talking about world building in this case, but think about, you know, a voice that you can maintain for a while. You know, if you think about like, how long could I speak in this voice before I exhaust myself and all the people around me, you you know, Ben, you're really good with voices. I'm just going to throw that out there. You got a chance to play with Ben. So Ben had this character who's playing the game. um His name was Renzo. ran so Tell us a little bit about Renzo's voice. Where where' did you would you come up with this one? Renzo is basically Peter Lorry. And I had this idea a long time ago to do ah a character who was basically a coward. He was a D and&D rogue. And the point about rogues, if you think about it on their face, like
00:08:24
Speaker
A lot of roads, especially the thief type roads that they're not really interested in getting the combat. If you would think about any kind of a thief character, like they probably want to get in, get their loot and get out and then go spend it and enjoy themselves. If you think about it, they're taking the easy road in life, at least the road, easy road they think is easy because they got learning and learning to read and write and all that stuff is too much work.
00:08:45
Speaker
That's right. And so the idea behind Renzo was I wanted a character who was essentially cowardly. and So whenever he would come into something that could be a combat encounter with his party, yeah he would be the one who was trying to get away and who was trying to do this something else that had to sound cowardly. And so pretty quickly i pretty quickly, I began to go for this kind of Peter Lorre voice, you know, when he wants to get away.
00:09:09
Speaker
He's kind of frightened. And so that became Renzo. He was the cowardly thief who was always trying to escape. Here's the thing, folks.
The Impact of Distinctive Character Voices
00:09:18
Speaker
yeah The voice is great. like And you you had that voice down. But here's why Renzo was was so good is because Ben kind of knew when to use it and when to not use it. Because you can't maintain it. You can't just be talking like Renzo all day, every day. You know you just can't do it.
00:09:36
Speaker
However, he picked his moments and people remember those moments. And in fact, because he picked those moments, it makes you think that all the moments he had that voice, even though he didn't. In our minds, when we think back to it, we're filling in those blanks.
00:09:51
Speaker
let the story come to you a little bit. You don't need to have something to say in every encounter. You don't need to be out front and making sure that everybody knows your character is there and can swing a sword or whatever it might be, right? And when it comes to the in accents, that means that you can kind of pick and choose the moments when you want your character's presence to be really felt. And if you are selective, you can make a lot more impact than if you're trying to get your two cents in with every exchange.
00:10:16
Speaker
So folks, I'm not very good at the voices. like i Maybe I was when I was younger. but like You were actually, and i I think you probably still are, but you know you say you're not. I say I'm not. But as I get older, my voice doesn't have the strength it used to. And i just I get kind of exhausted by doing some of these voices. However, there's alternatives I can use.
00:10:38
Speaker
to create effect. And I don't need to use voices to do these things. These are tips and tricks for for those of you like me who maybe doesn't feel comfortable doing a voice or sustaining that voice for too long. Well, and if I can just throw in something real quick, Mark, everything you're about to say here is something that applies also if you are somebody who does voices too. That is very true, Ben.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yeah, so these are things you can apply for those of you who are gifted with the ah that the the thespians voice acting ah On that note Hughes inflection Your inflection is going to tell you a lot about those characters also the volume. Do you speak quietly? Do you want people to lean in come in toward you? Let me back up I want to make sure everybody knows what inflection is mark. What's inflection?
00:11:24
Speaker
the up and down of your voice, when to modulate it, when to project it, when to pull it back. when to put emphasis on a syllable. Yeah. So, you know, you got your inflection, you got your volume. Sometimes you want to speak a little quieter, so people have to kind of listen in. Maybe you got like a quiet raspy voice, and you don't want to do a a voice per se, but you want to have it portray a character who's got little things, holds things a little close to his sleeve. Or maybe you want to be a little bit more bombastic.
00:11:58
Speaker
You know the best example I can think of about this, and it's it's interesting that it's not even really about voice, but the principle applies. A lot of us have seen and really kind of appreciated what Christopher Reeve did with the Clark Kent Superman transition. oh yeah And you remember like, when he's Clark Kent, he's kind of hunched over, and his voice is kind of like, hi, Lois, and he's very awkward. yeah But then when he becomes Superman, you watch him do with this in the first movie in Lois's apartment, he kind of squares up his shoulders.
00:12:25
Speaker
His chest comes forward a little bit, and and all of a sudden he says, Lois, and then he kind of stops, realizes what he's doing, and he goes back into clerking. And it's so great. And you can do that with your voice. You can start out with like very guarded, careful things, and maybe And then maybe maybe you put it down in your chest a little further and you modulate a little more carefully. You can do so much with volume. And as with volume, you can also do a lot with speed, the speed of which you talk. um I think about we were talking about Marvel characters. you know Peter Parker is a fast talking kind of guy. He's always spouting off things. He's he's rattling off things on top of his mouth. you know He's excited. And that' that's it. He's an excitable person. His thoughts are definitely running out faster in his mouth.
00:13:09
Speaker
The speed of which he's talking shows you what he's young, number one. He's excitable, number two. But also like when you put him next to like, say, Captain America, who's a more thoughtful speaker, his words have impact. So he's not wasting words. What he says is important. This is just done by speed. That's the all it is. It's how they're ramping up and slowing down their voices can convey different things. And then we also took and talk about cadence, Ben.
00:13:36
Speaker
Cadence is when to let your words breathe. It's the rhythm of your language. And it's slightly different from speed in the sense that you can let your words take a moment to gather. Now you sound like William Shatner there, Ben. Oh, no. Well, he definitely had cadence. He definitely had cadence. He might not think it's a great one or he might, I don't know. But I think the example that we brought up when keeping with the Marvel cases was like Thanos, right? Thanos would say, you could not deal with your failures and that has led you back to
00:14:12
Speaker
It's a a mixture of being thoughtful, but also cadence can also show you he's trying to convince you. yeah He's appealing to you with that cadence and he's appealing to the audience. One of my favorite sayings about poetry, and I think this was either Dylan Thomas or Thomas Hardy,
00:14:27
Speaker
said this. He said you prove it on your pulse. It's something that you feel. And I think cadence is like that. Cadence is something where you just want to let your villains or your NPCs find that way to make their own rhythms and their own sort of verbal music make their point for them.
00:14:43
Speaker
So what else do we have for people who maybe don't use voices per se?
Character Vocabulary and Background
00:14:49
Speaker
If you think about the main things that make for a great accent beside the phonology, a great impression, you know it's not just the inflection. It's not just the volume or the speed and the cadence. It's also using appropriate vocabulary that fits that character. If you're playing somebody who is from Appalachia, you're not going to be using a lot of $10 words.
00:15:10
Speaker
yeah If you're talking about somebody who's from you know the posh bit of South London or something like that, right you probably want to go hit the dictionary and find some good aristocratic kinds of sounds.
00:15:21
Speaker
This can be a really tough one because, you know, if you don't have a large vocabulary, it's going to be difficult to play some of those types of characters. I mean, you can always kind of play down. You can always go the other direction. But sometimes it can be very difficult to kind of play those upper crust characters. But I have a bit of a solution for that, Ben.
00:15:41
Speaker
I'll bet you do. I'll bet it's like what you do with villains, isn't it? It is a little bit. I will oftentimes when I'm playing a kind of, let's say a character with a higher intelligence than I possess, which is most characters. I will use some pre-written lines that I'll use in a clutch or just words that I could use. um I could organize some of this stuff by maybe mood or maybe the type of encounter.
00:16:09
Speaker
And I can use some of those upper crust words on occasion. out Again, kind of going back to what we say earlier about using your voice sparingly, if you use like one of these words in the right situation, people aren't going to remember all the stuff in the past. They're going to remember the fact that you used this big word at the right moment, and it made your character feel larger than life at that at that moment, right?
00:16:34
Speaker
Indubitably. Indubitably. So let's talk about some of the things we got to watch out for. Yeah, let's talk about things to watch out for now. Man, this stuff can go sideways quick, can't it? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so things to watch out for. The elephant in the room is, obviously, you can do some pretty offensive stuff if you use voices that you're, I'll just say kind of quote unquote, not entitled to. Why are you looking at me like that, Ben? Well, yeah, some stories. Look, I think we all have some stories here. Yeah, I'll get to one of these. I got one for you. That's just oh, yeah, I cringe thinking about it now, okay When you think about these voices and things you're going to do You could really unknowingly offend some people around the table. So be considerate I want to give you an example a couple examples one might be like a stutter if you're playing a character with a stutter or something like that and it could be all sorts of things it could be any sorts of
00:17:25
Speaker
Verbal tick or things of that nature you might be doing this to kind of get a laugh here and there But you may not know that a player across the table might have grown up Overcoming a stutter right
Sensitivity in Portraying Different Ethnic Backgrounds
00:17:36
Speaker
and that could be a very sore spot for them So like some of these things you might think are funny. They just aren't that funny be thoughtful Be open with your other players about what you are going for with this this type of thing And some of you might say you know what that doesn't work for me. Can we try something else?
00:17:54
Speaker
I'll give you an example of one of my least proud moments. okay In the 90s, we were playing a game of Oriental Adventures, which on its face sounds offensive now, right? ah you know People might choose different terms for that, I suppose.
00:18:09
Speaker
But that was the game back in the 90s. It was an old 80s game that we were playing. And, you know, I grew up watching Kung Fu cinema. Like I loved that stuff. Like we all did growing up. like Bruce Lee movies, Jackie Chan, that kind of children of the 70s and 80s. Every Saturday, that was what was on TV. We're going to watch them. We're going to watch some Kung Fu and some samurai films. We were big into the samurai films. So my friend was playing, running a samurai game.
00:18:36
Speaker
and we were all playing the samurais and here we are playing we're sounding like the american translation of the japanese films sort of like the worst stereotypes the worst we're just like uh we're gonna you know i'm not gonna do the voices but that's probably good yeah let's not let's not sin twice they were not good but we all sounded like super dive from from conan the barbarian played by the fantastic and inimitable mako we miss you just So we had these really, these stunted voices. It was bad. And we're all sitting around the table, and I think it was Randy at one time, said, you guys sound like a bunch of idiots. And we all stopped and were like, wow, yeah, we kind of do. These things just don't fly these days. And they probably didn't fly back then, but we were too stupid to realize it.
00:19:22
Speaker
Yeah. Let's imagine that things done in innocence can be maybe innocent until they know better. And yeah I think a lot, a lot of friends has to do with your intentions. One of the things I want to say is that something that GMs are going to have to come to some kind of grips with as they play is What do I do when I'm playing a character that doesn't have my ethnicity or my cultural background? Like if I'm in a game now and I'm kind of wanting to be careful and sensitive, but I do want to express that, hey, this is a character who's black or Asian or something that I'm not. What are some of the things that you would do to carry out that expression, but also not be doing something that's a caricature or sort of bad cultural appropriation or things like that? What what are some strategies you could think of?
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I and don't know if I have strategies other than just to be thoughtful and know your audience and do what you feel is best for for them and your game. I don't think we have a quick solution for you because everybody's got different toolboxes that they could use and you just have to use your common sense and be thoughtful about it.
00:20:27
Speaker
One of the things I would do is don't overplay it. If you're concerned about it, if you don't feel like you've got the trust of the group, you don't know people well enough that they're going to trust your expression of that, then I would say do a lot of that kind of stuff in third person. This character says this or this character says that. Here's how they appear to be feeling. You can do that kind of stuff. It's pretty easy.
00:20:46
Speaker
The other thing I'd say is if you do feel confident enough to inhabit those characters a little bit, just try to be a little understated. Let it be gestures, not big, bold moves that really are clothed in cultural or ethnic identities that you don't have.
00:21:00
Speaker
This is also a good place if youre if you're a person who likes to do voices, maybe put the voice on the on the back shelf yeah and and focus on you know inflection, volume, speed. Those are ways you can express that character without having to maybe feel self-conscious, number one, about the voice, but also running the risk of offending somebody with some sort of bad acting.
00:21:23
Speaker
Totally agree. Let's talk also a little bit. is This is kind of a little bit more fun area. And this happens a lot I've seen. It's quite comedic.
Group Dynamics and Accents in Role-Playing
00:21:31
Speaker
It's when multiple people at the table are using accents. Ben, you've got some experiences. tell Tell us what happens. Oh my gosh. Yeah. The thing is, is when you hear an accent, you kind of start to fall into it. And one time I was playing a character that had kind of a Russian accent in a certain way. He was a wizard. His name was Gregor. And we were in some encounter. and um doing some bit with Gregor and then my friend ah Wes next to me is playing a dwarf and he's playing him with a Scottish accent but the first thing comes out of his mouth after Gregor said something was in that kind of same Russian accent and I kind of looked at him and he looked at me and started laughing because my first sort of bit had taken him off his game a little bit so
00:22:11
Speaker
I've seen this same thing. Then I've i played the game where people were kind of like in a bit of Western and two of the characters were playing these kind of hillbillies and we were not all hillbillies, but my God, by the end of that, that game session, we were all hillbillies. Yeah. Yeah. It just, and we were laughing about it. Like it just gets infectious. You can't help yourself. but You kind of want to join in in a certain way. Cause it sounds like fun, you know? So I think, I think the big trick here is friends, number one, try not to like,
00:22:40
Speaker
get too many people doing accents in the game, just take it as read that everybody has that accent and you can all talk normally, or just stay focused on what your character's doing. And maybe you yeah don't need to all kind of be that distinctive.
00:22:54
Speaker
And these accents, good or bad, particularly bad, man, they can break a mood fast. Like they can break a mood really fast. Yeah, they can. And so be thoughtful about that, you guys. ah You players, I should say, um when you're doing a voice or even the GMs, if you're running a voice and you're doing a bad job with it, you're gonna break that mood. You don't wanna give the players ammunition to laugh at you. yeah They're gonna laugh at you. Every mistake you make, they're gonna be laughing at you. Don't give them ammo.
00:23:22
Speaker
I'm going to actually share briefly just a quick story of how you can break a mood with that. We had a ah game that I was playing in and I was playing this barbarian from the Northlands, you know, and I thought, well, the thing he would probably sound like, right, if I'm kind of borrowing from this, ah you know, Scandinavian kind of motif is he'd probably sound He's from Sweden or something." And then I was like, well, what does that sound like? Now, later I got wiser about this and I started thinking Max von Seidl, but at at the time, all I could think of was the Swedish chef.
00:23:51
Speaker
so but just We're just oh so close to Max von Seidl. Yeah, really nothing like that. so um You know there was a couple times when I try to Swedish chef kind of accent and I I'm not even gonna try it now but the point is oh please don't talk about breaking any kind of tension to the game just exited as soon as ah As soon as it sounded like we were in a ah muppet show When you think you're max, there's got to be a meme out there when you think you're max inside out, but you sound you sound like a Swedish chef. So yeah, it can break a mood. And also, you know, that, that would get old quickly hearing the Swedish chef voice all the time. You know, less is more. Like we said earlier, it doesn't always have to be a voice, but using it less at the right times can be good.
00:24:38
Speaker
And again, it doesn't have to be a voice. it It could be maybe your group is okay with a character who stutters in the right place. Again, don't do it all the time. Just do it in the right spot. Or I think about a whistle. That was a joke from Orissa development when he broke his tooth. yeah And he had that little whistle. It was hilarious. It would get old after a while. So less is more. Bottom line, folks, have a good time. Have fun. That's what we're here for. And that's what a critical role is trying to express when they're doing these voices is how much fun they're having. And the voices is just another way to increase your level of fun in the game.
00:25:24
Speaker
We are digging into our bag of new tuneups that we need to do. We have gone out and gathered them from the hinterlands. Mark, I've got a great one for you today. Oh, these are fresh, fresh off the vine. These these are friends, right? Hey folks, we, uh, I'm just going to make a plea real
Listener Engagement and Questions
00:25:40
Speaker
quick. Folks, we need some tuneups. We need you to send us tuneups. Send them to tabletop tuneup at gmail dot.com. Right now, all that address gets a spam related to our subscriptions, to the tools that we use to bring you this fine show. yeah You know, what would be so much better is if we had your tune up questions. Yeah, we'd love to hear it. Also like, feel free to drop a tune up question on any of our YouTube videos. We will catch those there.
00:26:04
Speaker
and we'll grab him and pull him into the tune-up studio. right What do we got today, Ben? We have a tune-up from our friend, Bob, and Bob writes us and says, hey, you know, the last time I DM'd, it was Redbox D and&D, but I've been playing 5E regularly for the last couple of years.
Advice for Returning Dungeon Masters
00:26:18
Speaker
Since I'm launching a new campaign, what do I need to learn or forget to pull this off?
00:26:24
Speaker
Forget nothing Bob, forget nothing. It's all good. No. Yeah. Just for reference friends, the red box is going to be like early eighties. So our friend Bob here has been, been at this a while, but he's been absent for a while too. So Mark, what do you think are kind of the distinctive bits about the early game that you maybe.
00:26:41
Speaker
think are similar or different in the later games. You played those early games too. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's so much fun stuff in those early games. I would say one of the things that I think people have brought back a little bit with fifth edition as opposed to maybe do a couple other versions before it.
00:26:59
Speaker
is the idea of crafting, making new things, and bringing them into your game. Don't be afraid of homebrewing stuff, making your own items, spells, whatever, to bring your game and your world, whatever your story, to bring it alive. And that's kind of the spirit of some of the orderly D&D, the red box, first and second edition.
00:27:20
Speaker
Crafting, that is to say having characters or crafting things in game, but also then homebrewing your own rules kind of at the level of the players in the GM. Yeah, i just the idea of building stuff that didn't exist that's outside of the box, outside of the book. The red box was interesting because a lot of the adventurers were found outside the box.
00:27:40
Speaker
what they gave you there in that original book was a core book of instructions of how to run a game and you're imagining what nation which was really should be and been in a fertile place to kind of create stuff and don't lose that spirit when you're playing fifth edition either the current version or the 2024 version. What do you what are your thoughts Ben? What do you think?
00:28:01
Speaker
I agree with all of that, right? I mean, I think the the bit about being confident as a home brewer is good. We put out an episode a while back now about home brewing the rules and stuff, when and how to do that. I think that should be helpful guidance there. But also this bit of home brewing in terms of making your own world, making it yours. One of the things I think is so fun is to try that stuff, but then not to be daunted by how many parts and pieces that you might have to do. Our mantra in this podcast has always been to start small. And so my advice to Bob would be just like you kind of did in the early red box, you would start with a dungeon and maybe then you'd find a town and then maybe you'd go to the next town and pretty soon you'd start finding your way into a broader world. Similarly here, ah you know,
00:28:45
Speaker
Ivy's no different. um Start with something reasonable, small. ah Start with a little adventure that you can then grow into a bigger adventure. Yeah, and Bob, also take a thought back and think about what you enjoyed about your Red Box days. What's changed? yeah I mean, nothing really. I mean, those things would still be fun today. So maybe don't forget what brought you to the hobby and play the game like it's new.
00:29:09
Speaker
Oh, that's great. I love that. Play the game like it's new. Well, friends, I hope you all go out there and play the game like it's new. You email us at tabletoptuneupatgmail.com and tell us how it went. Or, as Mark says, drop some comments on our YouTube channel. We'd love to hear from you. Until then, guys, keep those dice rolling. up
00:29:35
Speaker
your fun Tune up, your quest has now begun tune up we'll show you how level up your fun Tune up, your quest has now begun Tune up, we'll show you how
00:30:06
Speaker
Tune up, level up your fun. Tune up, your quest has now begun. Tune up, we'll show you how
00:30:23
Speaker
Come get your tune-up It's time for your tune-up Your