Gaming and fantasy

[Dr Midnight]

There's a somewhat similar thread here, but I believe this is on a different enough bent. This is about that flavor you get from epic fantasy, and how it sometimes gets lost in how you play the game.

Two nights ago, I was up in a nice wooded area with a friend of mine. We were outside under the bright moon, enjoying some altered consciousness (Eric's grandmother: that means we'd just drunk some nice wholesome root beer floats). We started talking about RP'ing, and I pointed to a dark shape in the garden.
"What is that?"
My friend says "Uh... a goblin?"
Right then, we started imagining. Sounds pretty stupid now, but you know how root beer floats make everything seem profound? Bear with me here. Well, we began imagining that everything around us was mystic and fantastical. The house was a keep, the forest was enchanted, and there were quests to be undertaken. The world took on a different slant. We were adventurers in a world we were exploring.

After a while, one of us would take the role of DM: We were standing at a fork in a path in the woods. I'd say "To the left, the road slants downhill, towards the cliffs of Lorrift. You can hear the breaking of waves on the distant rocks. To your right, the road winds into the gray mists of the haunted forest of Mistmere..." and so on. It was all perfect, it was all exciting, everything was mystical and new.

The point is that I found the FEEL that I've been missing from roleplaying for a long time. I had it when I started playing years ago, I get it when dressed up at a ren faire, I got it when I used to LARP (lynch me, please). It's the giddy excitement you get when your imagination is completely immersed in the trappings of the genre. It's suspension of disbelief. We sometimes forget what that suspension feels like, when we go without it for a while.

Do you FEEL the character and the world around him/her when you play, or are you in my sad situation- just showing up to roll the dice and see if you can make level 7 from tonight's xp bounty? Do you care, either way? Where do you find the feel you're looking for?

I'm consumed with the need to find that feel again in tabletop roleplaying. I want to know how.

 

[LostSoul]

Do you FEEL the character and the world around him/her when you play

Totally.

I think the key is to ignore the rules and let your imagination take over.

It's different when I DM, though... I feel like a performer trying to give the players a good game more than I feel the world.

 

[Dr Midnight]

Re: Re: Gaming and fantasy

Totally.

I think the key is to ignore the rules and let your imagination take over.

It's different when I DM, though... I feel like a performer trying to give the players a good game more than I feel the world.

Huh. It's the other way for me- I have a much easier time imagining and suspending disbelief when I DM. It's probably why I love doing it so much.

 

[shurai]

The way of Zen is in letting go. Let go of your attachments to your character's xp total. Don't worry about whether he lives or dies. Or rather, do not hang your enjoyment of the game on his success, instead, care for him as a person. Find yourself inside this person and look out from his eyes, and imagine what it is like to live in his world.

Then you'll find what you've lost again.

 

[ogre]

shurai has it right, that is the key.
Things that help:
Demand a 'live' table. All discusions when the game starts are in character (within reason of course), or your character is spouting nonsense. You'll need breaks every hour so players can 'stepout' I guess. I don't, but most others seem to need this ;-)
Play by candle light! WOW, what a cool atmosphere this makes. Make sure each person has at least 1 if not 2 candles.
Roll any CHA skill checks when the interaction starts, slide the skill check number within the sentence while staying in character. Such as "So, my fine sir, how much for the magic armor, I say with a 23" Then just continue in the roleplaying mode.
Music, ahhhh. The best part. Try watching a movie without music and notice how bland it can be. Music without words is the best. Mood stuff, with minimal beats. Though irish and celtic stuff is good for town settings.
Description. Try having the players close their eyes when the DM is describing the area. Helps them visualize much better.
Just some thoughts...

 

[Pielorinho]

Isn't it sad when you need root beer floats to recapture that childlike sense of wonder and excitement?

Of course, it just bolsters my theory that children are in a constant state of having drunk way too much root beer floats.

Ahem.

It's definitely something I try to achieve in my game, but it's difficult: the evocative scene. Sometimes it's planned -- the PCs stumble across a group of thugs performing a midnight raid on a wizard's shop, and they must fight in the shadows of alleyways and canals. Sometimes it's unplanned -- the PCs cast a detection spell and realize the demon is spying on them, so they chase it through the midnight woods while it taunts them and terrifies them with illusions and mindcontrol tricks.

The key, I think, is to make the dice and the rules less important than the description. And description can be a lot of things:
-Verbal description ("The moon is full and heavy in the eastern sky. By its light, you can barely see footprints in the mud by the barn door.")
-Body Language (when speaking as a suspicious, not-terribly-clever NPC, squint and jut out your lower jaw a little bit to the left and hunch down a bit)
-Props (when the PCs finally encounter the illithid, pull out a miniature and say, "Shimmering into existence next to the soldiers, you see this figure!")
-Multimedia (play a looping sound file of echoing, dripping water when the PCs venture into a damp cave)
-Environment (drink lots of root beer and game in the woods).

I really do think it helps to view gaming as cooperative storytelling. If everyone is cooperative and gets into the mood, you can do some really cool stuff.

I heard someone talking about acting recently. He said that if you weren't willing to make a total jackass of yourself, you'd fail as an actor. I think the same thing holds true for gaming: if you aren't willing to be a fool, you'll never be able to really get into the wondrous groove that really good gaming is in.

Daniel

 

[Desdichado]

Sounds obvious: play with that friend, out in the woods, with root beer floats!

 

[WSmith]

Her is my take as of late:

Geoffrey posted a XP table based off Star Frontiers. It was very simple like every player can gets 2 pt per session/adventure/level/whateveryouwanttogiveXPfor. If you do something overly heroic, you get three, if you are a bump on a log you just get one. here it is:

1st level characters need this many XP: 0
2nd...5
3rd...10
4th...20
5th...30
6th...45
7th...60
8th...80
9th...100
10th...150
11th...200
12th...250
13th...300
14th...350
15th...400
16th...450
17th...500
18th...550

So your next obvious question is, "...but WSmith, what about XP costs and item creation feats?"

warning: semi-sarcastic rant to follow, it is my opinion so take it or leave it.

I say, "you are supposed to be adventurers, right? Forget about spending time and money making a wand of magic mimicing. Go out and see the world and adventure, not craft. Negotiate a peace treaty with the leaders of desert nomadic tribes. Infiltrate the tower held by sinister forces to rescue the Elven madien, who by ancient prophecy is foretold to bring down the Orcish empire. Sail upon airborne ships to cities governed by Cloud Giants. Delve deep into the ruins under the mountain to search the fallen halls of the dwarf for magic runes of ages past that reveal the secret to slay the obsidian dragon.

To me, THAT is what D&D is about. Not item creation feats and XP costs. (Disclaimer it is IMO, so please don't feel obiligated to tell me that others feel that magic item creation should be a part of D&D. I am just trying to help out Dr. Midnight out of a rutt by giving my opinion.)

In all the years of playing different versions of D&D, I don't remember any of my or my friends magic users wanting to create magic items. That is my experience, might not be everyone's, but it was mine. In those years, the game was about adventure. That is the direction I am heading back to.

2. Get out and take a canoe trip. Go camping along the seashore at night, so you can fall asleep to the sound of the crashing waves. Try setting up a watch during your camping trip. Nothing ignites the immagination like sensory overload!

3. Play paintball. Yea, it stings a little, but it sure is fun! A good way to immerse your senses into a quasi-combat type situation.

4. Find things that are adventurous! Ever been to the Statue of Liberty? Go see it. How about Nantucket? If you have been there, go back, but this time just take what you can fit in your backpack.

Where am I going with this? Well, hell I don't know. After the first one about item creation feats, I kinda lost track. I guees I am trying to cite things I have found fun and refreshing to help rest my imagination yet excite it too.

 

[mmadsen]

Sounds obvious: play with that friend, out in the woods, with root beer floats!

I'm not a float-head, but that does seem like reasonable advice -- at least if you're, ahem, drinking root-beer floats already. Or, to keep a fantasy theme, play while enjoying Turkish Delight. (Look up Turkish Delight on-line. I've read that it was quite popular at Oxford while C.S. Lewis was there...)

 

[LostSoul]

I think you have to try and picture the world from the eyes of your character. Let the rest go and just let your mind slip into it. Do whatever you have to do in order to get to that state of mind; for me, I can listen to some chill-out music or read some Hemmingway. Then I can see the world in terms of emotions.