I am the type of a player who gets immersed very strongly. In larps it was pretty annoying sometimes, because if my character got angsty for some reason, I might just start weeping. Not the best thing to do among people who I never felt that close to in- or offgame.
In a tabletop game I get to live inside my head and listen to other people without having to worry about social patterns and feeling inadequate, like in larps (or some tabletop games that did not have a group that was such a good fit). I also need the right to step back and not be trapped in myself like in larps.. I felt like I had to be seen all the time, when I wanted just to observe. (Ok, anyone who saw me as the red alien in the Ed Woods larp would doubt this sentiment on my part ).

I feel that in tabletop games I get to be someone other than me more freely. When I had a character who was the leader of the pack, I felt like I had so much room to forget myself and experience someone else’s story. A good gm gives people the chance to let go of their social insecurities and stigmas and face challenges they never knew they could tackle. I do not want to play an omnipotent god or the coolest hero in town. I am more into “normal people” in their own world. But I want the experience of outdoing myself on a personal level.

My immersion starts from the first sentence concerning my character. The gm tells me: “your character should be someone who knows how to deal with intellectual dilemmas” -> I have someone in my head already, even if they end up becoming different from my original first glimpse of an idea.

Your description of the character coming to life on it’s own is very familiar to me. I often notice that my character is doing, feeling and thinking things that I would not have thought of, had I had to plan for them. It also helps me deal with events in the game that I was not prepared for or that somehow shook me. If my character has to do something that is out of my comfort zone, I get a bit more immersed and let her “run on her own” for a while. In some ways I am a rather conservative and “innocent” person, so that helps especially in the more cynical and dark areas of the story. (Though it’s hard to pinpoint where that line is).

I am a character player through and through. I like to play out social situations and get to know the other characters as people, not just as “tools to get the job done”. If the story concentrates on epic scale mysteries and you have to save the world too fast to have any or enough room for character development, I get uncomfortable and soon after that: unhappy. I do like the mysteries and the search for the right thing to do to fix the world, but I need to have room to approach all that from the characters point of view.

I must say that I am pretty low-key when it comes to the story arch and what I want from it. I would be happy playing out some mundane every day life stories. If a game turned out to be about five people working at a shop at the local mall, I would not mind. (Though I do hate customer service jobs ). The big epic stories can be fun and I understand their importance in the gaming world. But do I prefer saving the universe over saving the neighbors poodle? No.

This said, I do think games are supposed to take you out of your comfort zone and challenge you to take a leap.

The rules are a necessary evil for me and I do not like to memorize rule book pages. I do want things to follow a logic and to have the security of knowing that if my character has a stat, I get to use it. But other than that, it’s all about the immersion for me. (I can be really annoying when it comes to rules, I often have to ask which dice to roll etc, one more reason to like Vuosisata ).

I think that it’s better to have the rule book authority centered around the game master. Players are pawns for good reason and should stay that way (when it comes to the rules, not in other areas of the experience). All hail the gm. It keeps the gaming experience more laid back if players know their place and do not try to run the thing. This said, I do want the players to have control over the things they have been promised rulewise. And when it comes to immersion and internalizing the story, I want to have room to think for myself.

But there’s an another side to the rule book controversy. It’s all about who we are. People are different and should be allowed the room to be themselves. It’s the forcing of others that bothers me, not the interest in the ways things work. And the gm should not abuse his power. What has bothered me in the past about people, who as players take too much liberties in the interpretation of rules, is that they sometimes use rules as a shield. They want to control things and are unable to let go. They use rules to silence their doubts and insecurities in ways that end up suffocating other players, it ruins the fun. It’s all about the approach. Some people confront the gm about the events of the game. “That monster can not have just killed my pet, it’s unfair”. That’s just as annoying. Trying to run the game when you are supposed to enjoy and experience it, and let other people do so too, is the problem.

I would like to see experienced game masters as players. It would tell so much more about the person. The ability let go of the control must be something gm’s as players have always struggled with. It can be relaxing being the pawn, if you surrender to the idea. The way I see it, surrendering the control and stepping back to watch and listen, is a very important aspect of rpg’s. As long as you aren’t bullied towards it.

The gaming experience outside of the immersion is important to me too. I love seeing how other people play. It’s a very fascinating way to see the person from a different angle than normally. I am always interested to hear how other people think. I wish I could listen in on games. Even if I am talking a lot in character, I am always listening. And the way the gm runs the story is interesting on a more personal level, too. How a story unfolds when there are the players experiencing it and the gm running it, is just enthralling. It’s better than books and movies on so many levels. This from a book-addicted movie nut. People surprise me in such positive ways. I try not to feel like I am ruining it if I speak out too much. Vive la différence.