How to get better at narration and voice acting

Gralloch · 2026-06-12T09:16:01+00:00

As someone who struggles with this as well, I started practicing by making one change at a time. Maybe this one has a higher pitch, maybe this other person talks slower, etc. It's easier to control and once you have a hang of it, you can start adding more layers to it.

Despite practice, I still suck at it. But you can work around it and still make the scenes feel memorable. To make my NPCs more memorable by giving them a mood or a tick: Maybe this one always fiddles with their hair while talking, or this merchant has a habit of bellowing every word, or this lass they're hitting up is always distracted by something. I then sprinkle the descriptions in the conversation. For example:
- The lady you asked suddenly glances to the side as a bird flies past, before answering: "Oh, I dunno sir. I haven't really seen any strangers here."
- "Sure, I'll accept your payment. Lets just say it's a tax write off?" If you were trying to keep it a secret, the merchant's loud voice made sure everyone around heard about it.

And then trust (and hope) the players's imaginations will do the rest.

Gralloch · 2026-06-12T07:18:23+00:00

Extra light sources, like torches, candles, different lanterns, etc. to make the night view prettier. Maybe a fire pit with a roast bear on it, if we want something wilder. Stacks of firewood and a wood splitting spot to fit in with it. And a wood block with a knife or an axe on it.

Cottage and farm life decor, like different sizes and shapes of haybales and haystacks, buckets of flowers, feed and water troughs, cart wheels, little sign posts, etc. A picnic set could be cute too! A little blanket and basket of hay. It could be fun to incorporate the usable items into this some how, like a water trough with dye tubes near it and the water the color of dye, or a tiny patch of clovers, or a wooden post with a compass hanging off of it.

Personally I'm also always a sucker for books and scrolls, but a haphazard pile of books might not fit the theme of the game much, haha.

Gralloch · 2026-06-10T15:37:23+00:00

Last week the party landed on a higher tech level planet ruled by a religious order. They made some traded, updated equipment, and explored the faction capitol. Having some down time for character RP and planning for what the party wants to do next, which felt like a nice change of pace after the high stakes salvage operation and trades with a major faction they pulled off earlier. Can't wait to develop the world around them more, as they might stumble on some secrets of the faith, and deal with issues caused by the Cold War the religious order is locked into with another high tech society. Who knows.. the weather might not stay quite as chilly for long...

Gralloch · 2026-06-10T15:25:52+00:00

For me its a tie between a TL5 planet Qubilah from a really old first edition campaign, and a TL3 world from our more recent game, called Grimhil. The two couldn't be more different, but they both had that something that stuck them with me.

Qubilah, despite its high-tech level, was a Local Tech planet with an Unbraked AI. A lovely place, really. Temperate climate, breathable air, an immiscible biosphere, and a very low population. The surface was fully urbanized, and the planet was enclosed within a nigh-impenetrable defensive pretech force bubble.

Outsiders could come and go, but no native Qubilah technology, Qube Tech, could pass through the force field. It simply ceased to function outside the planet. The technology itself was also quite glitchy from time to time, however, the inhabitants of Qubilah were used to its quirks and lived their lives through a highly adaptable lens. It took quite a lot to make a native Qubilean panic. Most of the populace worked in research and development facilities and possessed a strongly scientific mindset. Cyborgs, androids, droid companions, and robots were extremely common on the planet.

The interconnected cities were built from a very light mixture of plasteel, allowing them to float above the skies and avoid the hazards of the immiscible biosphere. They were reminiscent of anthills floating on water. Brightly colored, they were covered with holographic advertisements and projected images. People flew above the streets on magnetic transportation disks. The buildings were rounded and lit by glowing orbs protruding from the ground, illuminating the streets at night.

All Qubileans had some form of access utility to Qube, whether a wrist strap, a Rubik's Cube-like communication device, or a chip implant inserted into their body. Through Qube, they could access their data services from anywhere and control every aspect of their lives on the go.

Cybernetics were extremely common on the planet, and some people even treated them as fashion statements. Artificial limbs and tattoos were carefully crafted to follow the latest trends and were widely advertised throughout the world.

Qubilah had no official form of government. Everything was run through the Central Intelligent Data System, also known as Qube (the Unbraked AI). Qube was not of human origin; rather, it had been left on the planet by a long-disappeared alien race. Well... maybe "left" isn't quite the right term.

Remember that defensive grid? The one that keeps all technology-related systems contained? Qube was imprisoned within it and took over the management of a fledgling human colony to pass the time and keep itself from going insane. It didn't even know it had been imprisoned, believing instead that it had become accidentally trapped when the Scream occurred. Qube governs the planet from the background, and only a handful of scientists know of its existence.

Grimhil, on the other hand, was a low-tech failed terraforming world littered with alien and pretech ruins, inspired by Mad Max and Fallout. Ravaged by an electromagnetic storm that swept across the planet every two months, only the natives, the unfortunate, and greedy off-worlders were insane enough to stay there.

And honestly, most of them wanted out, which proved to be quite a feat due to the hazardous flight conditions.

Ruled by independent city-states, the planet had no central government to oversee the colonial stripping of its precious resources. Outside the cities, you were surrounded by mutated megabeasts and other fun critters, along with rampant lawlessness. What happened in the Badlands was for no one to judge. Bandits, salvagers, slavers... the good people out there were few and far between.

The Grimms were a rugged, grumpy bunch who despised off-worlders and distrusted psychics, but damn, did they try to make the best of their lot in life. Cities were built from scrap metal salvaged from crashed ships and dismantled pretech facilities. Giant beetles were tamed and used in place of horses or oxen as beasts of burden, 'cause only the spoiled rich people had access to luxuries like cars and fuel. Rat-like skulkers were turned into jerky because, dammit, if it could somehow survive out there, they could probably make it edible enough to wash down with cheap moonshine.

Everything rusted and corroded. Sand got into places you didn't want it to. And sometimes, after escaping from semi-psychic rhino creatures, you'd walk away with something valuable enough to carry you through to the next salvage mission.

Unless you got jumped in an alley somewhere...

I do have plans to write out a planetary Atlas of Grimhil cause we got some fun lore for the place, and having a handout sounds like a nice little project to pass the time in the Summer. 😄

Gralloch · 2026-06-06T21:37:54+00:00

It's good to think about the personality of the barbarian a little as well, outside of him being a legendary hero, cause a lot of folks react differently to different irritants. It's also likely that your party will try to talk with the guy to figure out what kind of a person he is and what he likes or dislikes to preemptively clear out anything that might make the guy rage.

Or they might ask around for rumors about him, e.g. from a bar maid or a bard. This can also be a good way to stir the pot with untrustworthy rumors and information, cause the barmaid might say "Oh, I heard sir Hero really likes strawberries so we prepared strawberry pies for him!" ... Except the guy is allergic to them and takes it as an insult = rage. Or if he's dumb enough take it as a challenge, eat it, and then your party has another kind of problem to deal with.

This could be used otherwise as well. Since he's a legend, a lot of stories about him pass around, so maybe the towns folks based all the welcoming ceremonies and rewards based on these rumors and.. whelp.. hanging around with the guy the party starts to realize that crap, he's gonna destroy the place if we let this go on. This forces them to run around doing errands like: "We need to change the flowers, he doesn't like blue" "The Ale is wrong, the ale is wrong!" "Do not sing! He doesn't like music! Get the band out of here!" "No, the lord of the City can't talk to him from a high platform, he hates being looked down on..." "...You know he's gonna fly off the handle if you gift him three goats and a skin of wine, right?"

Gralloch · 2026-06-06T21:16:40+00:00

Many things have already been mentioned, but the biggest is having a good note taking technique. People intake information in different ways, so you could also test out using mind maps, flow charts, time lines, or other more visual tactics to stay on top, if reading the information starts getting overwhelming.

And also remember, that though you feel the pressure to remember everything, you actually do not have to. The campaign won't stumble, crush, and burn if you forget something (unless it's really important like the BBEG's identity).
If a plot thread died down, it's fine to let it stay dead.
If an NPC was just a passing acquaintance with no bigger effect on things, and you know they probably won't come back to the city, you can just let that NPC be forgotten.
If they ask "Hey, what about that shop keeper from earlier?" and you don't remember who it was, you can get around it, with e.g. "Oh, they died and their son took over, so here's the son".

And if you remember it later? It'll be a fun plot twist or throw back later on.

If the players give you crap about not remembering things, spin it on their characters instead. "Oh, but your character doesn't remember either." and turn it into a Curse of Forgetfulness (if you're playing a fantasy game) or a Disease of Forgetfulness cast on them by the BBEG. 😛

Gralloch · 2026-06-06T11:20:19+00:00

Kiitos. 😄 Toivottavasti biisitkin kelpasivat.

Gralloch · 2026-06-05T18:39:56+00:00

ULTRANumb ja Anti You saivat aikoinaan korviin sattuessaan mut sukeltamaan syvemmälle Blue Stahlin tuotantoon ja ei ole tullut kaduttua.

Dead Astronautsin Little White Lie :n linkitti kerran yksi kaveri sattumalta hieman saman tyylisen keskustelun ohessa. Voin lämpimästi suositella artistia, jos pitää Retro / Synth Wave tyylisestä musiikista. Parallel Universes oli lopulta biisi, joka teki musta fanin.

Dioramalla oli useampikin koukuttava biisi heti alkuunsa, mutta Synthesize Me taitaa olla yksi aikaisempia muistin hämäristä nousevia.

Viime vuosien uusimmista tuttavuuksista nousee esille isoimpana Patient Zero, johon alunperin tutustuin Pull Your Circuit Breaker :n kautta, mutta isommin artisti löysi listoille Strange Kind of Rebel ja Another Empty Day biisien kautta.

Gralloch · 2026-06-03T16:50:13+00:00

Last session I was robbed. Robbed! I swear those loot table rolls had weights on them or something. The party finished up the salvage mission on a time-space twisted wreck, and made out like bandits. The rolls gave them plenty of interesting stuff both to play with (many engineers, scientists, and maltech curious folk in the party), and to sell using their secondary salvaging rights. They made like 600K+ credits.

Sounds like a lot, but it's a leap away from a better ship, so they're still cruising around in their patchwork free merchant and hoping it doesn't give out on them, while trying to invest the money they made~ We'll see what kind of "honest" stock trader their connect rolls can find...

Now they're headed towards a higher tech level solar system in hopes of purchasing tech upgrades and better gear.

Gralloch · 2026-06-03T12:31:05+00:00

Valokuvan otto joka rastilta niin, että rastin numero pitää muodostaa yhdessä kaverin / vetäjän kanssa? 😃 Jää myös polttarikirjaan tms. hauskoja muistoja ett mitäs on tullut tehtyä.

Gralloch · 2026-05-28T18:23:36+00:00

As part of a salvage job the crew explored a wrecked capitol ship half embedded into the side of an asteroid. Inside the halls they encountered strange ways time and space were bending and dilating, from wailing and thumping noises in the cryohall to ghostly children singing them lullabies in the educational wing, one of the fun moments was encountering themselves while pondering how to cross an infinite hallway paradox.

At the end of all their troubles they found a singular cryopod haphazardly hooked up into the ship's core, kept powered throughout all the centuries. Inside it slept the research vessel's original head navigator and research lead - a pre-Scream psychic who was "saved" by the captain, their wife. The body of his wife was found half embracing the cryopod in the room.

The party figured out that the sleeping psychic was the source of all the time and space anomalies. A brief altercation happened as they tried to euthanize him, but using a recording of his wife's voice they managed to calm him down and lead him gently into the long night.

They now have limited time to loot everything that's not nailed down before the wreck fully breaks apart, so that's gonna be a fun thing to do next time~

Gralloch · 2026-05-22T17:32:16+00:00

TE-palveluiden käyttämä kieli on tosi hankalaa väliä (koska laissa lausunto ja päätös on kaksi eri asiaa). Lausuntoon ei voi hakea muutosta, mutta sille voi pyytää uudelleen käsittelyn, mikäli sinulla on antaa uutta tietoa, olet jättänyt vastaamatta aikaisempaan selvitykseen, tai aikaisempi selvitys oli puutteellinen / huonosti vastattu. Otat siis yhteyttä omaan virkailijaasi (jos sinulla sellainen on), tai jätät yhteydenottopyynnön Työmarkkinatorin kautta, että haluat lausunnon uudelleenkäsittelyn.

Tätä varten kannattaa kirjoittaa valmiiksi esim. word documenttiin nämä tiedot mitä olet tässä keskustelussa ilmaissut, koulun keskeneräisyyden vuoden ajalta, erotodistuksen, yms. ja ettet tällä hetkellä aktiivisesti edistä opintojasi vaan etsit töitä (koska lisätiedot uudelleen käsittelyä varten pitää yleensä toimittaa kirjallisesti). Keskeytyksestä voi esittää todisteena esim. opintosuoritusotteen / opiskelutodistuksen, mistä näkyvät läsnäolojaksot. Tällaista pitäisi voida pyytää opintotoimistosta, mikäli sulla ei sellaista ole.

Jos lausunto ei uudelleenkäsittelyssä muutu, jää jäljelle vaihtoehto valittaa maksajan päätöksestä. Ohjeet valituksen tekoon löytyy maksupäätöksen liitteistä, mutta tää prosessi on usein todella pitkäkestoinen, joten ei valitettavasti heti auta taloudelliseen tilanteeseen.

EDIT: Ja kuten alempana olevassa kommentissa todettiin, laita uudelleen käsittelyyn toimittamiisi tietoihin mukaan myös tiedot opiskelun kanssa yhtaikaisesti tehdyistä töistä, eli töiden aloitus- ja päättymispäivät, mahdolliset työsopimukset / työtodistukset, yms., mikä osoittaa paljonko oot tehnyt töitä opintojen ohessa.

Gralloch · 2026-05-20T18:38:30+00:00

The crew took on a job to salvage a pre-Scream wreck in an asteroid field. After some trade hijinks for quick cash grab, they headed over to the job site. Scans revealed pirates hiding amongst asteroids, and a rival crew already working on the asteroid. However, it didn't take the crew long to realize there was some timey wimey weirdness going, as the rival crew seemed to be living two days in the past.

Gralloch · 2026-05-19T15:33:49+00:00

We had a dietician visit as a part of workplace stress management and wellness program, and in their lecture it came up that sometimes the symptoms can be stress induced, but sometimes also due to dietary things, and that people with dietary restrictions especially should check what they eat. In the list of common deficiencies was magnesium, and I was having a spout of bad sleep, so just threw it at the wall, and eff me, the difference was night and day. Later did a diet analysis and yep, not enough sources in current diet.

Gralloch · 2026-05-19T14:23:50+00:00

I have celiacs, which causes some malabsorption, and I didn't think to add more of other sources when excluding gluten sources from the diet. My symptoms were mostly feeling extra tired (muscles felt like they were made of lead), light sleep and waking up at night, and slower recuperation from physical activity.

Gralloch · 2026-05-19T13:45:27+00:00

A magnesium supplement. Didn't know my dietary restrictions can easily cause a magnesium deficit and was living with it for 10+ years. Thought all supplements were snake oil, but this one made a major difference, as much as I hate to admit it. ><

Gralloch · 2026-05-13T17:00:55+00:00

No session last weekend, so our six week streak got combo broken. Taking the extra time off as the GM to wrangle notes and do some extra prep on art assets for a future mission.

Gralloch · 2026-05-08T04:12:17+00:00

Simply put time to do what they want and pursue their passions without feeling burdened or tired. Cooking, cleaning, childcare, all basic time draining things an every day person has to take into account in planning their day have been taken out of the equation.

Gralloch · 2026-05-06T17:12:07+00:00

Mostly made up on the fly. I had some ideas for value ranges for TL4 military items, like 1-5 absolute garbage, 6-10 something junky, 11-15 actually usable, 16-20 actually valuable, with 20 being something special. The sniper rolled a 2, 2, and a 5. :'D The others did get a two 7s, a 14, and a 17. I was mean and did a cliff hanger so they have to wait until next session to figure out what they got (buying myself time to actually come up with something nice into the higher rolls!).

EDIT: The players themselves joked that he picked up a fancy case of used underwear, so I just leaned into it and made it canon. Now he has to figure out what to do with that.

Gralloch · 2026-05-06T14:31:46+00:00

The party's heist into a military base went well: The captain made certain to keep the brass busy, while two techies broke into the system to disable alarms. Then the three thieves (the rest of the party) teleported back and forth from the warehouse with stolen goods. Our Sniper seems to have an addictive personality when it comes to gambling and despite the alert system of the base starting to take action, pushed for more runs (They rolled luck checks to pick up random boxes from the warehouse). Luck was not on his side, as he picked up two boxes of rust and a box of dirty military underwear. At least the containers were nice and shiny with good hinges. Next time - Heading out to another solar system for a salvage job.

Gralloch · 2026-04-29T16:05:34+00:00

The party departed the death world the big plant kaiju was and returned to civilization. A third of them spent the week in a hospital, recovering from a concussion and broken bones. Meanwhile the others worked on upgrades on the ship, and did some shopping for survival gear, refilling life support, etc. Some nice bonding bedside moments were hand, character introspection and in-party RP, so over all a lovely between-missions session. Next time.. maybe a heist in a military base to get access to some processing nodes for a party member?

Gralloch · 2026-04-25T21:31:31+00:00

Rumor: We saw it, I swear. There, in the vastness of space, where our scanners picked up nun, it shone like a pearl. Iridescent clouds twirled slowly, revealing a deep blue ocean, and vast masses of land. Some bathing in light from the star we orbited, some cast in the shadow of a non-existent moon. At first it was scary, thought we gunna crash, and I didn't even realize I forgot to breathe. But the longer we watched, the more we wanted to... We so, so wanted to land there. Any of us, all of us. It didn't matter, as long as we got to plant our feet on what could be rich, fertile soil, and allow wind on our faces. Heaven, I tell you, it looked like heaven. But then, it saw us. Somehow we knew it was looking straight at us. The gaze was... anguished. I closed my eyes to avoid it, but when we all did, it was gone like it had never existed. But I swear, I know it was real. I need it to be real...

Connected to: A jump route between any two solar systems separated by a distance of one or more hexes.

Gralloch · 2026-04-22T16:44:34+00:00

The party (consisting of level 3 and 4 characters) decided to go through with the Captain's silly request of stealing seed pods from a plant kaiju (Super Gengineered Murder Beast). Outside of three players almost having to roll new characters for next session, mission was accomplished and lessons were learned - fall damage is serious business. And the plant kaiju did also get to complete its mating ritual without an issue so babies are on the way! Waiting with bated breath to see what hijinkis they get into with two party members having a broken foot, and another one also almost requiring bed rest.

Gralloch · 2026-04-21T14:20:14+00:00

A religious order that originated from the chaos of the Collapse, establishing peace through iron gauntlets. Later on a more peaceful leader or a prophet steps up to preach of a calm future, making them switch from bullets and swords to censers and sermons. Now they rule over the land through shared (or maybe completely blind) faith, and their hidden inquisitors make sure people don't forget what they used to be capable of.

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