I’ve enjoyed starting to stretch my range in the Sunday games with the voices I use as the DM – my whole style has become more descriptive over the years anyway; but there’s something about the performative aspect of our game as we stream it that seems to be inspiring me to playfulness.
One of the recurring voices that I now have to keep remembering is that of Tanglefinger the Boggle. I love the reaction I get from people when he appears in a scene. While thinking about how I make his distinctive sound, I realised that there are some physical motions I do to make him come to life.
First, I hunch my shoulders and lower my head a bit. I wrinkle my nose up, and draw my upper lip back to reveal my canines, and just let his snide, shifty, nasal snark roll out but not before taking a swift breath so he sounds slightly breathless.
If there’s a character he’s based on, it would be Kreacher the house elf but with less condescension and more playful sass and misdirection. I vary his pitch between stronger presentation when responding to people, and then semi subvocalised asides as he adds things sort of under his breath to see if he can sneak amendments to instructions.
Tanglefinger’s a chaotic creature of fairy stock born from the loneliness of a child, and embodies mischief. He’s a great excuse to be utterly outrageous.
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