Pathfinder 1E How do you make your game world more immersive?

[Manbearcat]

Oh. You meant that kind of immersive. Ok, I make horrible jokes that are not funny at all.

I don't have much to add beyond what the best and brightest at ENWORLD have already added (and are surely still to add). I'm sure techniques are pretty similar across the board.

My only advice would be this on descriptions of sensory information. Deliver them with gravitas, but do not ramble. Be concise and pointed. If your descriptions are too long and incoherent your players will glaze over, forget what you said, be pulled out of the setting and the entire point of the exercise will not just be for naught; it will actually be counterproductive to immersive interests. Go with simple but provocative descriptors, metaphors and similes:

- The moaning wind.
- The carrion stench of death.
- Clouds the hue of kiln-fired clay.
- The flowing robes were soft velvet, staking the claim of a leisured life, but the wet, crusted crimson said otherwise.
- His eyes were a predator's; sharp, aware, missing nothing.

Etc. Simple, concise but provocative. Challenge your players to respond in kind. With luck, time and training, they will learn the craft themselves, further enriching the whole.

 

[howandwhy99]

Well I laughed

 

[Manbearcat]

I'm glad I'm not the only person in the world with a horrible sense of humor

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm glad I'm not the only person in the world with a horrible sense of humor

Nope, there are at least three of us. There used to be 4 but George Carlan died.

Back on topic, I've found that past a certain point there is little a DM can do to increase immersion. Eventually it's up to the players to *want* to be immersed in the game world. If they don't want to, then you'll quickly get diminishing returns and lots of wasted energy from any attempts to increase immersion on your part.

One trick I do use are props. Especially Paizo treasure cards in a fancy box which serves as a treasure chest when the group nets a big score.

 

[pemerton]

In my own experience, rich descriptions as such don't do a lot. I think the stuff [MENTION=23240]steenan[/MENTION] mentioned is most important - especially getting the players to care about the world - and also NPCs (as [MENTION=78958]Empirate[/MENTION] mentioned). NPCs (in the broadest sense, including monsters, gods etc) are at the heart of engaging situation, for me at least, and if the situation is engaging for the players then I find you can get by on a pretty minimal basis of shared understanding of the sensory details of the world.

 

[Matthias]

I've made my games more immersive in the following ways:

1) Concealed and secret skill checks. Concealed checks are when the player knows his character is being tested, but may not immediately know the result (success or failure), the extent of the result, or the consequences of the result. I ask for the total bonus to apply, and then make the roll myself. Good examples are Appraise and Stealth skills and identifying monsters with Knowledge. Secret skill checks are made myself and without player notification. (It helps to inquire on bonuses on possible secret skill checks every time characters level up.) Secret skill checks allow characters to be tested without tipping off players that danger or opportunity is near. Good examples of these are Perception and Sense Motive.

2) Make the different cultures in your world make enough of a difference that it changes the way the game is played. Simple ways to do this are to have different prestige classes for different regions, have the different PC races get along in some regions and not in others, make your main monster threats regional (beyond the normal environmental factors of hot/cold, forest/desert, etc). Let arcane magic be accepted and embraced in some areas, and feared or even shunned as 'unnatural' in others. (Clerics, druids, and other divine casters should get along fine in all but the most magiphobic places, while bards may or may not receive leniency. But wizards and sorcerers had better tread carefully.) You should make players aware of possible negative baggage that comes from otherwise normal choices about character creation - if someone wants to play a paladin in Ravenloft he should be advised of the possibility of unforeseen consequences over and above what a paladin player might expect to deal with in any given setting.

3) Have NPCs that don't always do the wisest or most tolerable things from the perspective of the PCs/players. Especially with NPCs that accompany the party for any reason other than being a Leadership-assigned cohort or follower. The guide that runs away from any kind of trouble, the trapfinder who finds them the hard way, the brash aristocrat who tries to pick a fight the party probably has no chance of winning, and so on. NPCs who make bad choices, especially when it is consistent with their personality and values, makes them seem more like real characters rather than monsters which can talk.

 

[Felorn Gloryaxe]

Well I'm just gonna list some good things off to make your game more realistic.

• A Calendar - Having Dates, and holidays can make your game that much more real
• Make things happen even when PCs aren't around - For instance lets say a Man named Bofur owns a tavern the heroes go away for a couple months and come back to learn that Bofur no longer runs the tavern, it turns out Bofur had died from a heart attack and his son now runs the joint)
• Weather - Weather is well, weather. It can effect everything from the mood, combat, and travel.
• Make sure you are consistent - Without consistency you have nothing. Literally. Things must remain similar to what they are to remain believable. Make sure NPCs keep the same names and voices, building are in the same places with the same names/looks.