Speaking of Immersion

[bryant]

“I love it when a plan comes together.”

Vincent has a new forum. While I wasn’t looking, he’s started thinking a lot about immersion. This is awesome stuff.

Originally published at Imaginary Vestibule.

Comments

[dcltdw]

I want to say that Ars Magica has gobs of immersive front-loading, but I think I am at serious risk of talking about a different kind of immersion than you are.

It has lots of room for a strategic->tactical planning -- which, to me, is front-loading, but largely on a conflict axis. But if you're talking about "how do I get into the mind of my character, and who they interact with", then it's (to me) just like any other system: it doesn't affect how fast/slow a person imagines their character.

I'm wondering if you (and others) are using very precise definitions of immersion and other terms that I've been reading today.

[bryant]

I very probably am.

When I talk about immersion, I'm talking about the goal of submerging oneself into one's character such that character decisions are instinctual. The gaming equivalent of Method acting, actually.

This can co-exist with tactics -- I used to play in a hardcore rules-oriented D&D game, with minis, in which we explicitly made an effort to be tactical from the viewpoint of the PCs.

I think you're right about Ars. (I've played a little.)

There is a whole vast thorny thicket of RPG theory, which IMHO is often overly influenced by academics, but I can point you at it if you /want/.