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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7061230" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't remember that!I'm certainly ready to admit that my game is mostly low-brow. My models are Claremont X-Men, with the occasional aspriation to echo films like Excalibur and Hero.This is an instance of an alternative goal for play to puzzle-solving. I prefer it.A couple of comments on immersion:(1) It is quite compatible with the fiction being authored (by player or GM, depending on context) as part of the context of resolution. I know this to be so from experience. Here's one example, from a few years ago now:The paladin PC in my main 4e game was subject to an effect from an evil cultist - turned into a frog and therefore unable to attack or use powers until the end of the cultist's next turn. The player of the paladin therefore missed a turn in the combat - he didn't want his frog-paladin to move - and muttered about not liking it very much while the rest of the table made jokes about not stepping on the frog as the other PCs moved in to confront the cultist and her flunkies. The cultist's next turn duly ended, and the paladin was the next character in the turn sequence. I told the player of the paladin that his PC turned from a frog back to himself. The player then declared his action, which was to move into melee range with the cultist. And he said, in character, something to the effect that the cultist was now going to get it (while laying down a Divine Challenge as a minor action). The cultist replied something along the lines of "I don't think so - after all, I turned you into a frog!". And without pausing, the player of the paladin responded (in character), "Ah - but the Raven Queen [the paladin's divine patron] turned me back." And the paladin then proceeded to beat up the cultist. As part of emotional immersion in, and "inhabitation of", the PC, the player of the paladin has introduced content into the fiction - the reason why the spell ends (as per the mechanics, which make it an "end of next turn" effect) is because the Raven Queen frees her servant from the cultist's evil magic.(2) As a GM, it's really exciting and rewarding to see a player, who might have been taking a bit of a back seat in a scene while some other players (and their PCs) are driving things, suddenly sit up and declare some action with passion and determination, because the player cares about where the fiction is heading, or cares about how his/her PC will be placed within the fiction.There is a widely-described category of player who care mostly about fights - "Wake me up when there's a combat." I think one reason for this is that combat is a place where the stakes matter, and hence players get immersed. I think if that is expanded to other areas of the game, more players can get immersed in more parts of the game.</blockquote>

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