How do you handle 2 NPCs talking to each other? I for one feel completely ridiculous having a conversation between 2 NPCs, and even with some voice changes, it tends to confuse the players "Wait, Trix said that or Fingers did?".

I try to simply avoid the situation, but when I can't, I often simply give a resumé of the conversation, something like "they argue for a few minutes over the course to take. The main points of contention seem to be over the fact the highway will be too dangerous at this time of night" etc., in order to try to give the PCs a chance to put in their word over in the conversation (i.e. above example, they could suggest an alternate route).

But sometimes discussions are just for flavour, so giving a resumé doesn't work so well. I've *seriously* considered using sock-puppets to make it simple to see who's talking, but unfortunatly the mere idea of that had my players rolling on the floor in laughter (rightfuly so, most likely...). That leaves less comical derivatives of such a technique, like discreetly raising a little paper sign with the NPC's name when he's the one speaking, etc.

Anyway, just want to know how everyone handles this.

Third person narration. That is, third person perspective of the audience (in this case, likely runners), narrated more or less as one would write a story from said perspective, with adaptations etc for the medium

I'll have to, uh, consider sock puppets and signs.

With as little of it as possible. It's much too easy for players to drift, when their PCs are in effect "out of it" for any extended period of time.

For when I do have exchanges between NPCs, I often break it up into several small one or two-line exchanges, each in a way "prompted" by one of the PCs. (Says the person who just managed to write a GMing post that didn't once mention either of the PCs directly involved. I could have kicked myself.)

I have a defined personality trait for each of the NPCs involved, be it as simple as one who's rude and abrasive, and the other who's withdrawing, maybe a bit afraid. Just sticking to those traits seems to really bring across who's speaking when: and I've found that by itself, even if I don't identify them each and every time, just the manner of reaction, once it's been established, will almost invariably instantly bring across to the players which NPC is speaking.

Sometimes I use speech mannerisms the same way: just small things, like, the tendency to use "like" like a comma; or thoughtful silence between comments; or a tendency to jump into every silence; or a specific way of phrasing some things.

If I really know the NPC, I'll sometimes toss in custom vocabulary.

As a sheerly physical mannerism, I've also noticed in myself a tendency to alter my head and body orientation: facing slightly right for one NPC, slightly left for the other. (You've all seen a more extreme version of this in the filmed Gollum.)

I usually give a quick rundown of what's being talked about.

Last time we had a guy GM for the first time, he had a lengthy conversation with himself by his npc's. We were rolling.