The ‘Critical Role’ of voice quality in Dungeons and Dragons: A case study of non-player characters voiced by Matthew Mercer

Abstract The current study provides a holistic analysis of voice quality and how it is employed via affective stancetaking through high performance of non-player characters on Critical Role, a popular Dungeons and Dragons digital media ‘actual-play’ series. Specifically, we ask how a character's moral stance is indexed through improvised performed speech. We show that current acoustic methods for voice quality have the potential for underrepresentation of sociolinguistically meaningful variation when relying solely on acoustic data. By incorporating both acoustic and auditory data, we find that constricted laryngeal settings (and whisperiness in particular) are used to signal evilness and negative moral stance, while unconstricted laryngeal settings (breathiness in particular) are employed to signal friendliness and positive moral stance. The two general vocal settings show nuanced variation linked to affective stancetaking, including one-off changes in characters’ stances as well as their habitual styles. (Voice quality, stance, methods, affect, morality)*