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I'm curious what accents everyone uses for the different races, factions, and NPCs out there. Besides getting help in areas where I'm stumped I'd like to use what's most common out there so the world is more seemless between different GMs. Below is what I've thought about using so far.
Garundi - Arabic/Middle-Eastern
Keleshites - Arabic/Middle-Eastern
Mwangi - African
Shoanti - Native American
Tians - Oriental of some variety
Ulfen - Nordish
Vudrani - Hindi
Dwarves - Scottish or Irish
Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin - He looked stern like a Russian
Sczarni - sounds like an Italian mob
Grandmaster Torch - I didn't use an accent, but a raspy voice
Lady GLoriana Morilla - I tried a British accent
I haven't quite figured out how to do the Arabic/Middle-Eastern, African, Native American, Oriental, Nordish, or Hindi accents.
I used this link to work on the Russian accent and found it really helpful.
Dwarves - Scottish or Irish
Dwarves - Scottish
Gnomes - Irish
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If you want to find examples of accents from around the world, the Speech Accent Archive is the place to go. They've got audio clips of people sorted by region and language speaking a stock phrase, as well as notes on general trends in pronunciation exhibited by those individuals.
As for me, I must admit I get rather self-concious about doing accents for fear of slipping into offensive steriotypes. I generally try to match my voice to the character's personality or role in the story, rather than their race or nationality. So, for instance, I would portray the emperor of Kelesh with a confident, imperious, perhaps even somewhat disinterested voice, but I probably wouldn't try to also do a Persian accent or anything.
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I've used French for Elvish names, and Germanic sounding names for Dwarvish, but I didn't use the accents.
It was a homebrew 2nd ed campaign, starting with the Dragon Mountain boxed set followed by the DM's own. My main character was a female light elf swashbuckler/blade dancer called Février. Her sister was called Siouxbien and there was a human ex-male now-female (wrong girdle; don't want to talk about it!) who took the Elven war-name 'Revanche', who dual-classed from fighter to transmuter in an unsuccessful attempt to regain his/her original gender.
Long story short; we saved the world but Llolth hates us.
Dwarves: Scottish
Elves: English, but that sorta airy type you hear in LotR.
Goblins: Psychotic. Kinda high pitched and menacing, with giggles to straight out insane laughter which usually cuts off and something evil sounding comes out next.
Gnomes: "Talk really fast". Normally in slightly higher tone.
Halflings: English, but not as airy or high falutin' as the Elves. More "Commoner" English.
Half Orcs: I give guttural accents. Pretty much like the Orcs from WoW, which is what they pretty much are. Like Klingons.
Catfolk: I know it's pretty on the nose but they talk all seductively and purry. Unless they're pissed. Then they roar and growl
Drow, I lump in with the Elves, but with a sinister tone.
Hobgoblins: Clipped and growly. They tend to speak little and glare alot
Kobolds: Hissy but a bit squeeky. Their cowardly nature comes out. It says Goblins are cowardly but they're a bit nutso about it. The Kobalds I think are a bit more clear cut cowards.
Orcs: To be honest we don't run into them much. We treat the "Half orcs" as "orcs"
Ratfolk: Whispery, with squeeky when excited. I like rats. I've had pet rats so I'm not disgusted or instantly think Ratfolk are craven villains. They are a bit sneaksome though.
Tengus have croaky voices. (( I'm aware I'm totally profiling many of these but it's just how it happens))
Tieflings: Sort of innately sinister voices. Though now that I think about it, many of them had a sort of Russian tint.
Duergar: Gravely sinister voices that stretch out the "S"s. Not hissing.. Just... as if they were purposefully being that way
Kitsune: Asian accents.
Centar: Native American like.
The Ulfen are a cobbling together of nordic and Germanic cultures. Norse is probably the way to go, as their primary cultural motif is viking.
I do an austailian accent for svirfneblin. A gm that got me hooked on that said that was because they are from down under.
The Ulfen are a cobbling together of nordic and Germanic cultures. Norse is probably the way to go, as their primary cultural motif is viking.With the (often overlooked) Kellids picking up the Germanic cultures. Specificly the 'Celts' that the Romans kept fighting against.
They also seem to have strong elements of the Gaulish nations, at least the way the Romans saw them.
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I always thought Kellids were more "Neanderthal," since their primary homeland seems to be the Land of the Mammoth Lords, which is like travelling back in time to Golarion's prehistory, from what I'm told. And in their other homeland, Numeria, they're just roving primitive tribes poking amidst the corpse of things far beyond their reckoning.
Sorry if that seemed offensive, but to me it seems like Kellids are often overlooked because they feel more "caveman" than "medieval/Renaissance warrior."
With Garundi, I always imagined a more North African accent, as opposed to the Keleshites being more Middle Eastern.