How to Turn On Text to Speech in RPGs

RPGs are as much reading as playing: quest logs, item and spell descriptions, books, letters, and dialogue that is only partly voiced, or not voiced at all. If you would rather hear it, there are three places to look: the game's own settings, a mod made for that game, and a reader that works from outside the game.

This guide goes through all three and links sources where they're public. Accessibility options change between updates, so check your own game's settings too.

Step 1: look in the game's settings

Open the options and check the Accessibility tab first, then Audio or Sound, then Interface. The feature goes by several names: Text to speech, Narration, Menu narration, UI narration or Screen reader.

When you find one, check what it actually reads. Many of these features are menu narration: they speak the button or setting you are on, which helps blind and low-vision players find their way around, but they may not read a quest log, a book or a long tooltip. Some read with the voice set in Windows, so if the voice sounds robotic, that comes from Windows rather than the game.

RPGs with text to speech built in

These are the RPGs we could confirm from the developer or a detailed accessibility review:

• Pentiment. Obsidian's narrative RPG is made almost entirely of text, and it has text-to-speech support in its accessibility options. Its official site notes that the narration assist feature isn't available on PlayStation or Switch, so PC is one of the places to use it.
• Wasteland 3. It has a UI narration option that reads interface text aloud. inXile's support site notes that narration requires an online connection, so it won't work while you play offline.
• Diablo IV. It has a screen reader in its accessibility settings. Can I Play That?'s accessibility review, played on PC, found the voice, its volume and its speed could all be adjusted.
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Ubisoft's accessibility announcement describes menu narration in English across all settings menus and most in-game menus, with its own pace and volume, and letters found in the world narrated when you pick them up. The HUD isn't narrated.

Two strategy games come up in the same searches. Stellaris has Text to speech and Text to speech (Tooltips) in its Accessibility settings and reads with your Windows voice (see our Stellaris guide), and Civilization VII added text-to-speech narration in a 2025 update. Our list of PC games with text to speech built in has the details and sources.

RPGs that voice the dialogue, but not the rest

Voice acting is easy to mistake for text to speech. In these games the conversations are spoken, but the menus, items, books and journal are text, and there is no setting that reads them aloud:

• Baldur's Gate 3 voices its dialogue apart from your own character's replies, and has no built-in text to speech or menu narration on PC, according to the Family Gaming Database accessibility report. Tooltips, item descriptions, books and the journal go unread. More in our BG3 guide.
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard is voiced too, but Can I Play That?'s accessibility review found no menu narration and no screen reader.
• Divinity: Original Sin 2 voices its dialogue, narrator included, while books, notes, tooltips and the journal stay as text. See the DOS2 guide.
• Disco Elysium: The Final Cut voices the dialogue and narration, but your own reply options, the journal, the inventory and the Thought Cabinet are text. See the Disco Elysium guide.

Many classic and Pathfinder-style RPGs voice only part of their dialogue. Players describe Pathfinder: Kingmaker as voicing the big story conversations and leaving side quests mostly as text, and Torment: Tides of Numenera as voicing little more than the opening sentence of a conversation. Wrath of the Righteous has long stretches of unvoiced narration between voiced lines, and Pillars of Eternity voices part of its dialogue. Planescape: Torment and the Shadowrun trilogy are almost entirely text, and the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Editions mostly so. Our guides for Planescape: Torment, Shadowrun and Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 have the details.

RPGs with text to speech mods

Modders have filled a lot of the gap, and their work deserves credit. Each mod covers one game or one series, usually installs through a mod manager, and an update to the game can break it until the modder catches up.

• Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous. Osmodium's free SpeechMods read dialogue and other text with your Windows voices and install through Unity Mod Manager. Osmodium also made one for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. Our Kingmaker, Wrath of the Righteous and Rogue Trader guides compare them with Corvo Reader.
• Pillars of Eternity. VaultDoc's free Text-to-Speech mod for the first game was built for his wife, who has dyslexia. It reads unvoiced dialogue, the journal, the cyclopedia and loading screens with Windows' built-in voices, and skips lines that are already voiced. See the Pillars of Eternity guide.
• Crusader Kings III. More strategy than classic RPG, but you do play a character: the Text to Speech mod in the CK3 UI Accessibility collection on the Steam Workshop reads event text and option tooltips with a key press, through a companion reader app and your Windows voices. See the CK3 guide.
• AI voice packs. Some mods add generated voice acting for a game's script instead: Planescape: Torment AI Voices, the Dragonfall Full Voice Pack on Nexus Mods (241 characters across 13,933 lines of Shadowrun: Dragonfall's Director's Cut campaign) and WotR AIVO. They cover the lines their authors processed, and they can't read text that only exists while you play, like tooltips that change with your build.

If you only play one of these games and its mod suits you, it's a good free option.

For the rest: add text to speech from outside the game

For RPGs with no reader and no mod, or where the built-in option skips the text you care about, you can add a reader that works on your screen instead of inside the game. Corvo Reader is a Windows app that reads any text on your screen aloud in a natural voice. Nothing is installed in the game, so there is nothing to break when it patches.

1. Download Corvo Reader and install it. The Free plan needs no card.
2. Open your RPG.
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+E and draw a box round the text you want to hear: a quest, a tooltip, a book page, a reply option.
4. Listen.

One setting matters: run your game in Borderless Windowed or Windowed mode. In exclusive fullscreen, Windows keeps the game's picture away from other apps, so there is nothing for Corvo Reader to read. The setting is usually in the game's video or display options.

For the spots you check over and over, like the dialogue box or the journal, save the area as a region. Saved regions read with one key, so each new line is one press away. On paid plans, Summarize gives you the short version of a long book or quest, and Translate reads it in another language.

It works the same way in Baldur's Gate 3, Pathfinder, Pillars of Eternity, Disco Elysium and other Windows RPGs that run in Borderless or Windowed mode; there are more in our game-by-game guides.

Which option should you use?

• Your RPG has text to speech and it reads what you need: use it. It's free and already there.
• You play one RPG and it has a good mod: try the mod, especially if Windows voices suit you.
• You want a classic RPG to feel fully voiced: look for an AI voice pack for that game.
• You want one natural voice that reads whatever you box, without mods: that's what Corvo Reader is for.

They mix well. A game's own narration for the menus and Corvo Reader for the books and tooltips it skips is a perfectly good setup. If two readers speak the same text, turn one off.

Frequently asked questions

Does Baldur's Gate 3 have text to speech?

Not on PC. The dialogue is voice acted apart from your own replies, but there is no built-in option that reads tooltips, books or the journal aloud. Corvo Reader can, without mods.

Do the Pathfinder games have text to speech?

Not built in. Osmodium's free SpeechMods add it to Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous with your Windows voices; Corvo Reader reads them without a mod.

Is voice acting the same as text to speech?

No. Voice acting is recorded for the lines the developers chose. Text to speech reads text aloud as you play, including books, tooltips and lines that were never recorded.

Can Windows Narrator read RPG text?

Narrator reads what Windows can see, like launchers and menus built from standard controls. Most games draw their text as pictures, so inside the game it has little to read.

Will Corvo Reader conflict with my mods?

No. It isn't a mod and doesn't change game files, so it runs alongside your mod list.

Is it free?

There is a Free plan with no card. Paid plans (Core $6.99, Plus $12.99 and Max $24.99 a month) add weekly premium-voice minutes, unlimited standard voices, and Summarize and Translate.