Your Suspension of Disbelief: SHATTERED!

[billd91]

When we are roleplaying a tavern scene and I dont have ceramic or wooden mug for my bear.

Would that ceramic mug for your bear have "Hunny" written on it?

 

[Horwath]

Why does your bear need a mug?

ofc.

He looks sad without it:

 

[Coroc]

[MENTION=6801299]Horwath[/MENTION] he misspelled, he wanted to say his bear needs a hug

 

[AmerginLiath]

In my mind, suspension of disbelief in a game is often when something happens where you stop having the characters take it seriously, as if they suddenly realize they’re in a game because one too many odd things have been tossed into the story stew.

For me, in my history, it was the session that our Dragonlance party ended up in Narnia. It started off seriously, a la a classic Gygaxian genre-bender, until our uhh...very simple-minded half-ogre panicked at Mister Tumnus and cleaved the faun in half. Most of us having grown up reading Lewis, seeing a beloved childhood icon go out like that set us off in an odd way and the adventure became totally derailed. Instead of quickly returning home, we ended up going to war with the White Witch (my fire specialist Druid proving an apt opponent for her) and then against Aslan as the evening drew on and we grew more tired and disconnected from our connected from our characters’ reality (looking back now, that must be how visitors to Westworld feel). Finally, with Narnia a smoky pile claimed for the gods of Krynn, we went back through the wardrobe back into the dungeon where we’d first found it, regained our in-character composure, and agreed never to speak of that adventure again.

 

[mrpopstar]

In my mind, suspension of disbelief in a game is often when something happens where you stop having the characters take it seriously, as if they suddenly realize they’re in a game because one too many odd things have been tossed into the story stew.

For me, in my history, it was the session that our Dragonlance party ended up in Narnia. It started off seriously, a la a classic Gygaxian genre-bender, until our uhh...very simple-minded half-ogre panicked at Mister Tumnus and cleaved the faun in half. Most of us having grown up reading Lewis, seeing a beloved childhood icon go out like that set us off in an odd way and the adventure became totally derailed. Instead of quickly returning home, we ended up going to war with the White Witch (my fire specialist Druid proving an apt opponent for her) and then against Aslan as the evening drew on and we grew more tired and disconnected from our connected from our characters’ reality (looking back now, that must be how visitors to Westworld feel). Finally, with Narnia a smoky pile claimed for the gods of Krynn, we went back through the wardrobe back into the dungeon where we’d first found it, regained our in-character composure, and agreed never to speak of that adventure again.

You dissociated from your dissociation in order to cope.



That's so real.

 

[Laurefindel]

My willing suspensions of disbelieve is damaged when I hear "its only 30 feet down!?! Screw the rope, I jump, it will be quicker!"

It's funny, I don't have an issue with the mechanical effect (i.e. abstraction of hp), but the thought of a character casually jumping down 30 feet because its player knows it can take the 3d6 damage bugs me enough to shake me out of my immersion.

 

[Nagol]

It has happened a few times over the decades. The worst I can recall was an Aftermath campaign billed as a standard post-apocalyptic campaign set in the Mississippi delta region.

We created characters using the character creation system provided; the fall of civilization was ~20 years prior, characters can be contemporaneous or even pre-date the collapse. One player built an older PC with several high-tech skills including Pilot: Fixed-wing and decided he was a fighter pilot from California that got downed and never went back. So we're sailing along the Mississippi with about a 5-mile river width and deep enough to support giant fish that can swallow boats whole when we explore a shaft down into a secret area...

And discover what we thought was the world was one of the 20-mile domes on The Starlost.

 

[toucanbuzz]

When I read the module ahead of time and immediately go for the secret door where the treasure is located, only to find out the cheating DM made some changes and instead there's a paper bag filled with dog poop, and I can't cry foul because then everyone will know I read ahead, but I want the rest of the players to know the DM is a cheater, and it totally ruins my immersion when he plays this way.

 

[Bitbrain]

About the only thing that really breaks my suspension of disbelief is that longbow attacks are based on Dexterity instead of Strength.

 

[Fauchard1520]

This is probably why I'm such a "killer DM". I never do this. If the PC's pussyfoot around for too long, tough kobold nuggets! The Evil Cleric finishes and all my players PC's now have to make a Con save to see how long it takes them to die because of the poison.

What's your technique for telegraphing the "ticking clock" to your players?