In the wake of releasing today’s podcast episode, “Towards Full Rules Opacity“, I thought it would be useful to report a little further on how things have developed in the week since I recorded and edited it. Remember, because Shieldbearer Patrons get the episode on early-access, the main show is a week behind my real-life thought processes.

PERSONAL Backstory

As I state in the episode, I seek a game where the players can visit a fantastic secondary Otherworld and believe in it as-if it was a real place, albeit a place different from the so-called “real world”. This is a goal of escape, yes, but also imagination and visualisation – what Daniel Jones calls “Otherworld-immersion”.

I had all but given up: I had convinced myself that realistically, I am not going to find players who want that kind of experience enough to experiment with the methodology needed to achieve it. I had also convinced myself that, due to time pressures and time zones, I was not realistically going to find a GM who would run such a game for me to play in.

And then I started playing Call of Cthulhu with Runeslinger – the host of Casting Shadows, and Daniel Jones recorded a fresh episode of Primaeval Fantasy talking about the route towards one of these goals. These events reminded me of both my strong desire and the potential routes towards these goals.

POTENTIAL STEPS

Today’s episode describes where I was last weekend and is worth listening to if you are wanting more explanation around what on Earth I am talking about. This post is about the personal journey that I am making and the steps I believe will likely help me shift my own RPG play towards this goal of Otherworld-immersed play.

The biggest step has already been taken in telling potential gaming companions – whether players or GMs – what I am looking for in my play. I am pretty flexible and fully recognise the need to play with the people in front of you, or “play with the table you’ve got” as I commonly express this idea. In other words, if folk don’t want it that’s ok as long as I know.

Developing this thread, I’ve mentioned this style to my face-to-face gaming group a few times and I think they probably don’t quite understand what I mean. If people have only ever played the “regular kind of RPG game” then, frankly, the chances are they’ve never really been deep into the Fantasy engagement of the hobby and so I am talking a foreign tongue.

The next step is to ask if we can shift play in the direction of lessening some of the other Eight Player Engagements to make more space for the Fantasy and Discovery engagements that I crave. My sense is that people are usually open to trying small shifts in the style of play if someone asks. That’ll take courage. I’ll also need specific tips.

SMALL TIPS

In the episode, I suggest first of all reducing the mechanical chatter and working to translate the “code” of the game mechanisms, dice rolls, and similar into description and dialogue. This is nothing particularly new for many gamers: instead of talking numbers and rules, you focus on speaking aloud the described actions.

Alongside this would be a shift towards more consistent use of the first-person and second-person descriptive perspectives. First-person for the in-character and as-my-character statements of action: e.g. “Sir Roderick pushes open the door” becomes “I push open the door.”

Second-person description is the purview of the GM but is already pretty established in my own GMing style. What I want to do is focus more on the senses other than vision, adding in The Alexandrian‘s suggestion of using three of the five senses in any description. I also want to limit the perspective of any description to strictly what the character(s) experience.

Next comes the idea of players rolling dice in the open and me, as GM, doing the math in my head instead of my habit of vocalising the process. This habit arose from wanting to help new players learn the rules but, in fact, distracts from the kind of experience I want to encourage at the table.

I have come to realise that the players don’t need to learn the rules if the goal is to remain Otherworld-immersed. Rules appeal to players who want the Challenge aesthetic dialled up, so that they can maximise the effectiveness of their tactics or approach. But they get in the way for Fantasy and Narrative aesthetic lovers, distracting from those engagements.

Thus, the biggest move would be to specifically ask the players to stop referring to the rules. In fact, putting the books to one side and playing purely as their character – simply trusting the GM to adjudicate the rules quietly – would make a terrific difference to the focus of the play. Instead of rules interruptions, the focus stays on the in-role play.

Ultimately, there is the suggestion that all the rules become opaque, taken “behind the screen”. Player character sheets could be revised into purely descriptive terms with the numbers removed. The dice rolls could be handled by the trusted GM. The rules adjudication is handled solely by the GM too.

But overall, I think these steps in this direction slide the Fantasy aesthetic towards increased focus. If the table has folk with other engagements that are important, great – but let’s dial down anything folk aren’t actually fussed about. For a player who enjoys the Sense Pleasure of rolling dice, well sure, let’s let them make the rolls. We can adjust as needed.

One-ON-ONE Play

One area of exploration which I was reminded of when playing one-on-one with Runeslinger in the Cthulhu game is the experience of one-on-one play itself. I have previously been leery of this because I thought it would feel weird and I wouldn’t play well in that style. Turns out that one-on-one was the most enjoyable player experience I’ve had.

One-on-one places the player’s focus on just their own character’s perspective. If we blend this with the desire for Otherworld-immersion, I believe we can marry the character and player perspective in a very powerful manner. Rules opacity is also easier for the GM to handle because there is only one PC sheet to adjudicate from.

TINY ROLEPLAY

I also feel there might be grounds for exploring some Tiny Roleplay sessions – micro gaming sessions of around 30 minutes – to help players get to the table more frequently. In busy lives, dropping online to play for 30 minutes is much easier to schedule. Because RPGs work best on the accumulation of play over many sessions, this may be a viable approach.

The idea, taken from solo play, is to play more often for shorter periods. Because I know it works well for solo play and the biggest complaint of players is that they don’t have time to play, my sense is that Tiny Roleplay could easily replace longer more-involved dedicated sessions with good success. Experimentation has begun.

Hope that makes sense – if not, well at least I summarised my thinking as of today.

Game on!