Towards a Voice Design Tool to Support Game Masters of Tabletop Role-Playing Games

Abstract

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) are collaborative storytelling experiences in which a human facilitator, the Game Master (GM), prepares and runs sessions while portraying non-player characters (NPCs), often through improvised voice acting. Creating distinct and consistent character voices can be challenging, especially in long-running or complex narratives, which motivates the need for supportive tools. To explore how voice design tools could support GMs in this context, we conducted a formative online survey among GMs and players (32 participants with GM experience and 28 participants who primarily played), designed a web-based voice design prototype called NPVoice, and evaluated it in five semi-structured interviews with experienced GMs. Our findings show that voice design tools are particularly promising for preparation-heavy use cases and static texts such as speeches, while being less suitable for dynamic in-game dialogue due to interaction and generation delays. At the same time, participants highlighted the potential of such tools to support player immersion and identified desirable features such as accents, monster voices, randomizers, and improved voice controls. Taken together, our work contributes an initial design exploration of voice design support for GMs and provides concrete implications for future design and research.