D&D General The History of 'Immersion' in RPGs

D&D historian Jon Peterson has taken a look at the concept of 'immersion' as it related to tabletop roleplaying games, with references to the concept going back to The Wild Hunt (1977), D&D modules like In Search of the Unknown, games like Boot Hill, and Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood speaking in Dragon Magazine.

Immersion and Role Playing in the 1970s

The idea that role playing involved a property called "immersion" occurred to the early adopters of the 1970s fairly early. The earliest e...

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[Mannahnin]

It can, if one approaches the game session as being a time to switch one's brain off for the evening - which can sometimes be a very welcome thing to do!

There's times when I'm quite happy to knock back a beer or two and just let other people do the thinking.

That's valid, but not usually my favored way to play. I think the last time I completely switched off that way and took a backseat in a session, our party took a wrong turn fleeing a wraith in Stonehell and wound up in a dead-end room. A party member lost two levels and the rest of us were lucky the DM was feeling merciful and it wasn't worse.

Usually I wind up volunteering or being drafted into being Caller, more or less.

 

[Thomas Shey]

So you're calling me dishonest because I have a different understanding of roleplaying than you. Nice.

I really don't know what else to say when someone says they're roleplaying but are, as best I can tell from what you've said, ignoring part of the established traits of the character. If that's not what you're doing, and I've misunderstood, then I both withdraw what I said and apologize. If it is what you're doing, then I stand by it.

 

[Hriston]

I really don't know what else to say when someone says they're roleplaying but are, as best I can tell from what you've said, ignoring part of the established traits of the character. If that's not what you're doing, and I've misunderstood, then I both withdraw what I said and apologize. If it is what you're doing, then I stand by it.

What a low score establishes about my character (among possibly other things defined by the rules of the game) is that a penalty is imposed on ability checks with that ability. How that affects my roleplaying is that I try not to declare actions for my character that will result in me having to roll that ability. I wouldn't call that ignoring the low score, and I wouldn't call it not roleplaying my character. This all doesn't have a lot to do with immersion except that the hindrance suffered by my character due to the low score is also a hindrance to me as a player, so that I and my character are having a similar experience.

 

[Lanefan]

That's valid, but not usually my favored way to play. I think the last time I completely switched off that way and took a backseat in a session, our party took a wrong turn fleeing a wraith in Stonehell and wound up in a dead-end room. A party member lost two levels and the rest of us were lucky the DM was feeling merciful and it wasn't worse.

Usually I wind up volunteering or being drafted into being Caller, more or less.

As player I almost always end up as party treasurer (which is fine, as otherwise I'd end up doing the mapping and I do enough of that as a DM) and thus I'm still engaged at the table; but I don't need much of a brain to write down what we find.

 

[Thomas Shey]

What a low score establishes about my character (among possibly other things defined by the rules of the game) is that a penalty is imposed on ability checks with that ability. How that affects my roleplaying is that I try not to declare actions for my character that will result in me having to roll that ability. I wouldn't call that ignoring the low score, and I wouldn't call it not roleplaying my character. This all doesn't have a lot to do with immersion except that the hindrance suffered by my character due to the low score is also a hindrance to me as a player, so that I and my character are having a similar experience.

But that's the gig; I think attributes mean more in most cases that just what die rolls you have, and that's particularly true with any mental and social attributes.

 

[MichaelSomething]

It's actually quite easy to play a character with low INT. Just drink ten minus your INT cans of beer before the session starts!

 

[Hriston]

But that's the gig; I think attributes mean more in most cases that just what die rolls you have, and that's particularly true with any mental and social attributes.

You can have that opinion, but that doesn't mean that someone who doesn't share your opinion is ignoring their character's established traits.

 

[Thomas Shey]

You can have that opinion, but that doesn't mean that someone who doesn't share your opinion is ignoring their character's established traits.

Since its my opinion, then it shouldn't be surprising that its also my opinion that's what they're doing, should it?

 

[Hriston]

Since its my opinion, then it shouldn't be surprising that its also my opinion that's what they're doing, should it?

No, it isn’t surprising at all that you hold such opinions. As long as it’s clear that’s what they are — you’re opinions. Just like it’s my opinion that playing your character’s ability scores is not a good technique for immersive roleplaying.

 

[Lanefan]

Just like it’s my opinion that playing your character’s ability scores is not a good technique for immersive roleplaying.

I gotta say, I don't get this.

Part of what informs the immersive roleplaying you're embarking on, be it a character on a stage or a character in an RPG, are the stated or pre-set attributes of the character you're about to play.

In a stage-acting situation the script notes often have some guidelines as to what (in theory) makes a character tick, and if they don't the director sure as hell will. Maybe it's noted in the script that your character walks with a pronounced limp, for example; or that he's 95 years old and hard of hearing. You-as-actor are then more or less expected to use these guidelines - perhaps among other things - to inform how you approach portraying the character.

Same thing goes in an RPG, only here those informing guidelines don't come from a script or a director but instead are provided by some numbers on a page.