D&D 5E Immersion For Players

[Orikitone]

I'm currently DMing a group of 6 for Lost Mines of Phandelver and writing their next campaign up while they're crawling through it. It's four new players to D&D in general and three with an idea of how the game is played. The seventh mentioned is a 7 year old kid who will be joining us in the summer after school ends with a minor character which will grow with him over time.
My delima is trying to keep the four who have never played before entertained with ooc immersion. The campaign I'm writing "Wypool Arena" has a wizards tower/school that slowly drives the characters crazy by a music box tune playing in the background that gets louder the higher they get in the tower. Which brings two questions:
1) I need a suggestion for the music to play ooc for the tower. No words in the song, must be either creepy or annoying and I need to be able to have it on repeat.
2) is this a good idea to bring ooc role playing into the game? If not what are some suggestions to bring the game to life for the players?

edited for format*

 

[ccs]

1) play Disney's "It's a small world". Plenty annoying with or without words after awhile.

2) What is ooc roleplaying?

 

[Orikitone]

CCS: The group just plays right now with the rolls and doesn't really role play dialogue at the table. I'm trying to force them to play as the character instead of as the player.

 

[iserith]

I'm currently DMing a group of 6 for Lost Mines of Phandelver and writing their next campaign up while they're crawling through it. It's four new players to D&D in general and three with an idea of how the game is played. The seventh mentioned is a 7 year old kid who will be joining us in the summer after school ends with a minor character which will grow with him over time.
My delima is trying to keep the four who have never played before entertained with ooc immersion. The campaign I'm writing "Wypool Arena" has a wizards tower/school that slowly drives the characters crazy by a music box tune playing in the background that gets louder the higher they get in the tower. Which brings two questions:
1) I need a suggestion for the music to play ooc for the tower. No words in the song, must be either creepy or annoying and I need to be able to have it on repeat.
2) is this a good idea to bring ooc role playing into the game? If not what are some suggestions to bring the game to life for the players?

edited for format*

"Immersion" is a tricky subject because it can mean different things to different people. I suggest reading this article on the subject: The Immersion Hurdle. Personally, I understand it to mean "emotional identification with my character." This is something that is in my control as a a player and isn't easily influenced by the events at the table. I thus control my own "immersion." I encourage my players to treat it in the same way and periodically ask questions about the characters' emotional state and thoughts during play to get them thinking about it.

I wouldn't suggest putting a song on repeat that is actually annoying to the players. The impact of the music box can be handled easily enough with the DM's description and existing game mechanics. See the DMG, pages 258 - 260, for optional rules on Madness.

 

[thalmin]

What does "ooc" mean? Out of Character? Out of Combat? Out of Cheese? Out of control?

 

[Fimbria]

That's an interesting article, thanks for linking.

One trick that I've seen work and could work for the OP. When reasonable, assume that all player talk is meant to be in character. For example, one time the party discussed whether to kill a merchant and steal his wares. The DM warned us that the merchant was looking alarmed at this debate. We mollified the merchant, but from then on we took care to switch languages when plotting murder.

 

[Illithidbix]

CCS: The group just plays right now with the rolls and doesn't really role play dialogue at the table. I'm trying to force them to play as the character instead of as the player.

The groups I play with and run games for are very much focus on the acting/active approach to roleplay, speaking in character as much as possible; possibly because many of us are LARPers as well so are very used to it.

... HOWEVER this isn't the One True Way of Roleplaying (tm), despite what many people like us believe and I wouldn't encourage trying to force people to play in a style they don't feel comfortable with. Players and DMs wanting different things from games is why they don't work.
One of my players believes that you can focus too much on speaking in-character, rather than roleplaying your character through their actions.

The simplest way is to ask your players if they want to try speaking in-character more and to try and make the game immersive for all players. If they do, then awesome, lead the way by speaking to the in-character with NPCs.
If they don't want to, don't try and force them to.
I find finger puppets can be useful if you have scenes with multiple NPCs who speak.

Music and props can sometimes be cool and immersive, but some people do find it distracting (esp. if there are lyrics) and only works if the DM has it immediately to hand.

 

[Bawylie]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6UtKvnvtf6c

Bolero

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Disturbing music, you say?

Some selections from Death Cube K (Buckethead's ambient side project):
[video=youtube;G-iDrLYILas]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-iDrLYILas&sns=em[/video]
[video=youtube;XbvXidfr3y8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbvXidfr3y8&sns=em[/video]
[video=youtube;khOLZ-qGzuo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khOLZ-qGzuo&sns=em[/video]
[video=youtube;ec1AmTvZWGE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec1AmTvZWGE&sns=em[/video]
[video=youtube;HqVulRYILFI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqVulRYILFI&sns=em[/video]
[video=youtube;scF6jRSw2e4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scF6jRSw2e4&sns=em[/video]

 

[S'mon]

2) is this a good idea to bring ooc role playing into the game? If not what are some suggestions to bring the game to life for the players?

For in character roleplaying, just talk to the PCs in-character as your NPCs and expect them to respond in-kind. Don't worry about the quality of their roleplaying, but do try giving significant NPCs one distinguishing feature such as a mannerism, accent, deep or high tone, slow or fast speech, etc.

Edit: I'd say don't put a lot of pressure on the players ("You MUST roleplay!") but do give
bonuses for well-done roleplay such as low DCs on character-interaction checks.

BTW I've never seen a novice player refuse to roleplay; it seems to be more emergent
behaviour from long-time players who get set in their ways ("My old DM never made us talk in
character!"). Unless they're being obnoxious I recommend gentle encouragement, not lecturing.