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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 8819216" data-attributes="member: 16586">Fundamentally we are talking about at least 3 distinct elements:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Does the setting feel like a real place that I (if transported there) could walk around in, explore and investigate?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Does the character feel like a real person who is genuinely connected into the setting. Someone who lives there, has meaningful social connections and like responsibilities, desires, goals, etc. If we were to stop playing them, does it feel like they would have their own personal animus. A good test here is if I were to switch character sheets with another player at the table would the characters still feel fundamentally like the same character.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Do situations the characters find themselves in feel organic to the setting and the characters? Does it feel like the characters are naturally pursuing their aims? How contrived does it feel? Is the antagonism fundamentally honest? Do the relationships between characters feel like real human relationships?</li> </ol>Well to a certain extent these things can support one another we often have to make tradeoffs on where to focus our efforts on a cognitive level. Most games will feature some degree of all three, but our focus and attention will tend to be more specialized. It's not really that a game must be all one thing. Rather a game will not be all things maximally at any given time and we must choose what we wish to prioritize, not including any tradeoffs were making to like play a damn game.</blockquote>

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