Voice Filters - are they acceptable and worthwhile?

Greetings, I am relatively new to VTTRPG and considering purchasing and using a voice filter for some of my dnd characters. I don't have a great deal of range and have been thinking this could make character roleplay more realistic and fun.  So, two questions:  In general is this acceptable or frowned upon by the VTT community? Is it worthwhile, does something like EaseUS VoiceWave work well enough, or are the programs kinda cheesy?  Thanks! 

I think it would depend on the specific "table" (DM and players) you play with.  There's a lot of variation in what people find acceptable.  For example, my usual group never uses cameras, just static image avatars of our characters.  But another group I used to play with always used cameras. Speaking as a DM, consistency is what would matter to me: I recognize who is speaking by their voice, so the voice would need to be recognizeably the same voice from session to session. I typically play with a small group of long-time friends, and none of them have ever done this.  But it doesn't sound inherently bad, unless the voices were badly synthesized and grated on the ear. I have no experience with the actual systems you suggest and can't comment on that aspect.

Ken - thank you, I appreciate your insight on this. Your thoughts on going with what the table is ok with and consistency for the DM (and the table too I guess), are helpful. 

I'll echo Ken S.'s post. It depends on your player group. My voice-acting ability is limited (I can do a passable generic Eastern European or quasi-Austrian) so I usually just describe the speech pattern or accent of individual NPCs. I'll also repeat that consistency is key. My player group also consists of old friends that I've played with for decades; we have our avatars set to "Name Only" and use Discord for A/V, but even then we don't use cameras due to some players' bandwidth restrictions.

Discrepancies Abound, you appear to be making a common mistake, that is conflating acting with roleplaying . Your players should know it's you speaking.  Many GMs do not have much range and do the job fine. You do not have to act out the characters you are playing, just telling the players this character is speaking is enough.

Well, although I agree with GiGs that you don't have to, I'll note that "don't have to" isn't the same as "shouldn't". For me, successful DMing is largely about building immersion in the world for my players.  And I mostly do that with maps and carefully worded descriptions I read out, as I'm a visual/text person. In the end, it's a personal style.  I have less than no acting ability, so I rarely try to get "in character" as a DM as it's not likely to work well.  But I've had a few characters I've played where I did adopt a particular speaking style for (more word choice than accent; I often script at least some of the major NPCs in advance with ways they'd respond to specific questions).  But I've known both players and DMs who did "characters" (accent, attitude and speaking style) more often, with varying degrees of success. If a voice synthesizer helps with the characterization of an NPC (or a PC for a player), it seems worth at least trying.  Just keep an open mind (and ear) to the opinions of the table. Sometimes you can't tell when you're failing, and the players may not wish to tell you, so make it clear that they should speak up if something falls flat, or worse, gets in the way of understanding the situation.

I had always hoped that either Roll20 (or Discord) would make voice-changing a GM ability for the multitude of NPCs that always seem to appear in a game.  As a player-option...there would have to be some agreement at the table and between the players and GM.  Interesting idea though.  

I'd think that Discord - or a Discord bot creator - would be more likely to develop something like that. It would be a pretty niche product. Pandarian said: I had always hoped that either Roll20 (or Discord) would make voice-changing a GM ability for the multitude of NPCs that always seem to appear in a game.  As a player-option...there would have to be some agreement at the table and between the players and GM.  Interesting idea though.  

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