Amelia Tyler is now known by millions around the world as their virtual dungeon master. Her role as narrator in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3 puts Tyler in a position of power, but she&rsqu🍎o;s also there to guide and comfort players. Players have told her their lives now feel narrated by her voice in their heads, or that they’ve been able to connect with a genre with char🍬acters and events they’d often shy away from because the invisible guardian presiding over them made it feel uniquely rewarding and fun in ways few games manage.
“I was expecting the game to be big, but I was also like, ‘I’m the narrator, nobody is gonna notice me’,” Tyler tells me as she looks back on the launch. “So it’s been really overwhelming but lovely. Because I wasn’t expecting such a reaction to because those are very much me, like real life Millie. I think that&ꦑrsquo;s something I’ve been afraid of in the past because real life Millie does not have her shit together. She’s not the DM of her own life, let alone anybody else. I’ve always been worried that people would be disappointed that the real me has flaws and is still wrapping her head around life, to show that side of me to people and for them to just go, ‘Me too!’ has been really heartening. I found my people.”
Tyler talks about her experience with ADHD and coming to terms with who she is and what she excels at over the years. Baldur’s Gate 3 gave her freedom as a performer to tell stories and explore characters with emotional journeys that many actors would kill for. But instead of filling their shoes directly, her role asks her to watch over an evolving play in which there is no room for judgement. As a dungeon master, she is there with you, whether good or evil, she encourages your actions and wants players to give into their brightest and darkest impulses. I couldn’t🧜 imagine the breadth of material, and even now, it throws Tyler through a loop remembering how much work has gone into a game like this over the years.
“There are very distinct styles of narration depending on the choices you make,” Tyler notes. “And it’s all my voice, I’m not putting on an accent or anything like that, but in different moods because we wanted it to feel like this is your narrator. It’s not unreliable, aside from moments where you’re being manipulated, and we’re not subtle about that and how these are feelings you need to embrace. But the rest of the time, I wanted it to be non-judgme🍨ntal, and the kind of DM who would be perfect around a table no matter what kind of player you aﷺre.”
As with most games, Tyler’s lines weren’t recorded in sequence. Given the number of unique narrative permutations a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 affords, it would have been impossible. For Tyler, however, it presented a fun and evolving challenge as she took the mantle🍸, doing her best to picture the worlds and characters she was watching over like the game itself was playing out in her head like the world’s longest Dungeons & Dragons♛ campaign.
“We were hopping around different chapters of the game and different player characters to a point where sometimes we had to really look into the lines to figure out which character this choice was for,” Tyler explains. “I didn’t want to do impressions of characters, but I did want to echo them slightly, so the rhythms change. If you’re playing as Karlach, it has a bit more bounce to it, or if it’s The Dark Urge, then it’s deep and growly. It was a fantastic exercise in emotional and vocal versatility. I’m not a parrot, I’m not one of those actors꧟ who can do a million different accents and sound like a million different people. I’ve got a very notable tone, so characterisation had to be much more subtle, which was a great challenge.”
Unlike most actors in games this vast, the fact Baldur’s Gate 3 remained in early access for so long allowed both Tyler🃏 and her fellow actors to receive real time feedback on their performances. This became a source of learning and community that she says will never be taken for granted. “I didn’t have to keep it under my hat for too long, which many actors in this game had to, and bless them for that self-control,” Tyler laughs.
“It’s not easy when you’re part of something you’re so proud of and so excited about, but you can’t say anythingౠ until you’re given the nod. It was really cool to be so open about that. I think from the moment the [patch] dropped, people were like ‘I know that voice! I know who that is!’ and suddenly, my Twitter DMs were blowing up. It was nice being able to engage with players at that point. I’m a ta𒀰bletop player myself, so it was cool to get feedback throughout the process, since we changed up the narration after early access as well.
“I’m a woman in a position of power in this game, and we al♉l know that sometimes that doesn’t go down so well. I was braced for the worst - I’d expected my DMs to be flooded with dreadful people saying awful things. But reactions have been so overwhelmingly positive, I could never have dreamed it would go this way.”
But where exactly did the narrator’s voice come from? ജWhile Tyler’s voice is the bedrock, it was the direction in the booth that brought it to lifꦆe in the finished game. “The early access version was more of an outside view dungeon master, and I think the direction I was given was Scar from The Lion King. That kind of, ‘Oh dear, I’m enjoying watching you fuck up.’ It was going to be great, but over an entire game, especially one this long, that would have been exhausting. That’s domming somebody for several hundred hours, like, you need a break.
After ear꧋ly access, we sort of re-assessed and were like we want the DM to feel, we want it to feel like it’s not another person challenging the player, it’s their voice. I’ve been a voice in their heads their entire life, and I know how they think and am totally on board with whatever choices they make. Apart from when they roll ones, in which case I’ll rip the piss out of them mercilessly.”
Tyler especially highlights the benefits of working wit🌺h directors who trusted her to put a unique spin on every single line and take. “I have aphantasia, so I can’t picture things in my head,” she tells me. “So if somebody describes a scene or ‘the player is doing this right now’, then I can’t picture that. What I realised I do is translate that into feelings, which makes it so much easier to vocalise when I’m not trying to intellectualise or manipulate the listener. I’m just feeling this thing. There’s a part where you come across some haunting memories, and that in itself is in a different read style. We h๊ad 16 different read styles by the end depending on your choices and your character.”
Another comparison Tyler makes to the narrator is Missy from Doctor Who, outfitted with a similarly condescending yet hopeful tone as the Time Lord’s ne𒁃mesis. “It was that kind of vibe, which I love playing. We kept that for the moments where the tadpole tries to manipulate you. All the different read styles we came up with in the end are characters of their own. I don’t think there is a difference between character acting and narration aside from the physicality of it. I got to sit down for the entire game, which was very nice. Not great for my back, but very nice! For me though, narration isn’t just reading texꦿt, you’re more than just imparting information. You are a person telling a story, and you have an opinion on that story and moments you find amusing. Otherwise, it’s just an instruction manual, right?”
Tyler is yet to play Baldur’s Gate 3 for herself, having been too swept up in the busy launch and overwhelming response to her role, and so refuses to pick a favourite character from the motley crew of adventurers. “There are situations where I know the narration to the character,” Tyler admits. “So I’m really fascinated to see how they’re brought to life. I can’t pick a favourite because, especially the companion characters, I’ve narrated the entire experience of this game as them. I’ve been through all their highs and lows, seen them at their best and their worst. It’s almost like having best friends. It’s not intimate, but it’s an intimate way of knowing a character. When it comes to romance.... it's Karlach. It's gotta be Karlach.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 has already become a vehicle of expression for a new generation of D&D players, 🌳many of whom are queer. They’re passionate for fantasy worlds that allow them to make theirꦍ mark without compromise regardless of their gender or sexuality, and Tyler is proud to share that journey with them. “Through this game I can hopefully be, maybe not a parental figure, but just a person who can help somebody play with that and find who they are and be more comfortable expressing whatever it is they want to be.”
Tyler gets to be the perfect dungeon master for everyone, whether they've come to realise it yet or not. "You play however you want to play," she says. "That's why it's so cool we've got the versatility in the narrator because not everyone is going to sit around a D&D table and get along. You're not always going to have a DM that you gel with or gets your style of play. So I get to be that no matter what."
