Verisimilitude and Immersion

Verisimilitude and immersion go hand-in-hand. Any time verisimilitude is violated, immersion suffers, and as long as the audience is in the grips of immersion, it is easier to maintain verisimilitude. But how do you, as a GM, achieve a sense of verisimilitude and immersion in your game? What do those words even mean?

Understanding Verisimilitude

Verisimilitude is related to realism, but the two are not synonymous. Where realism implies “as close to the real world as possible”, verisimilitude can be achieved in a setting that is wildly different from ours. The key is consistency; it is okay to violate the laws of reality, as long as you do so in a consistent way. If, in your setting, dragons are able to fly by riding waves of magic in the air, then those same dragons should crash to the ground if they enter an area without any magic. If, on the other hand, dragons fly solely through the use of their wings, then finding a way to paralyze a dragon's wings should prevent it from staying aloft.

To achieve verisimilitude, everybody at the table must have buy-in. The GM should make it known how the world works in her game, and the players have to accept it. After that, it is on the GM to make sure to follow those rules. The fastest way to remind your audience that your setting is fictional is to present it behaving in an inconsistent way.

That's not to say that events in your world have to be consistent. If you wish, you can create a setting where, once a week, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. However, you must have in mind a reason for this strange behavior.

The tricky thing with verisimilitude is that the depth of explanation required varies from person to person. While many people will be more than happy to accept that your world has three moons, some may be pulled out of the setting when the tides behave exactly the same as they do on our world of one moon. Verisimilitude is personal. These people are not wrong for wanting the tides to be different, nor are you wrong for not caring to go into that level of detail.

Nonetheless, problems arise when people have different levels of verisimilitude at the table. How do you address these problems? There are three ways.

1. Put in the Work

The first solution is to make your setting as consistent as necessary for the strictest standards at the table. If one player needs the presence of magic to have an impact on the setting's economy, then you can sit down and think it through. You can even seek that player's help, if he's willing, and work together to come up with a solution that he feels comfortable with.

For some GMs, this is an enjoyable process. Such GMs often have the strictest sense of verisimilitude at their table, so they rarely have to deal with players being jarred out of the setting. For the rest of us, however, this is a lot of work. It may also lead to an “info-dump”, where the GM overloads her players by presenting the setting in excruciating detail. In the latter case, it's important to note that the audience doesn't need to know the reasons behind everything, just to know that there is a reason. Whether that reason becomes known as the story progresses, or remains a mystery, is up to the individual group.

2. Hand-wave it

The second solution is to sweep the problem under the rug. You can pretend that there is a reason, even if there isn't, or even fall back on the old favorite “a wizard did it”. This is the simplest approach, requiring the least amount of work for an already-taxed game master. It is also the least satisfying, and potentially the riskiest.

If you never come up with a justification for why things work the way they do, you are increasingly likely to violate the unwritten rules of your setting. If your players have the same attitude toward verisimilitude that you do, this won't ever be a problem. For those of us unlucky enough to have players demanding more out of the setting, the hand-wave approach is playing with fire.

The tricky part is, the human mind loves to find patterns. Even if you do not explain why things are the way they are, the players are likely to come up with their own theories. When you inevitably violate those expectations, they will either adapt their theories to the new data, or they will rebel. The more they have to adapt expectations, or the less consistent the rules of the setting are, the more likely the players are to rebel. This could lead to a premature ending, but even if it doesn't, there are now people at the table who aren't having as much fun as they should be.

Use the hand-wave approach with caution.

3. Be Up-Front About it

At the end of the day, tabletop roleplaying is only a game. If it ever becomes a dreaded chore, it's time to step back and re-examine your priorities. If you genuinely don't want to put in the requisite time to create a perfectly-consistent setting, it is perfectly acceptable to be honest with your friends.

As long as everyone at the table knows what to expect, nobody should be disappointed. If your only code is the rule of cool, let everybody know that. Not everyone will be satisfied with this approach, but they can temper that dissatisfaction when given forewarning, and if it's too much for them, they can bow-out of the game before becoming invested.

Verisimilitude and Immersion

So why even bother attempting to achieve verisimilitude in the first place? It is a necessary component of immersion.

What is immersion? It is a deep investment in a setting. A player is immersed when he and his character become one being, when the walls of the gaming room fall away and he steps wholly into the setting. This does not mean that he genuinely believes he is his character (Blackleaf, no!), just that he can take on the role of someone new for the time being, to use the character as a means to explore another aspect of himself.

In order to become so deeply invested in a setting, there must be something to invest in. This is why verisimilitude is important: if the setting is inconsistent and blatantly fictional, it is almost impossible to immerse yourself in it. Rather than thinking “what would my character do in this situation”, you find yourself instead wondering why the world is behaving so strangely.

Why even bother with immersion? Because it is fun. If you find enjoyment elsewhere in the game, that's perfectly acceptable; there is no wrong way to play. For those of us who play these games as a means to explore different personalities, immersion is a blast.

How to Achieve Immersion

This is possibly the most difficult question in gaming. Immersion is, by its very nature, a deeply personal experience and thus varies greatly from individual to individual. However, there are a few means to maximize the chances for the players at the table to become immersed. The first has already been discussed: verisimilitude. What follows is a list of other tactics to employ; this list is by no means complete.

Use Props

For a player, it often helps to have something physical that is tied to her character. This could be a piece of jewelry such as a talisman or ring, a prop such as a wand or stuffed animal companion, or anything else she can imagine. It gives a physical signal to both the player and everyone else at the table that she is in-character.

The GM can also use props to aid immersion. Rather than narrating the players finding a letter, he can hand them a physical piece of paper to read. The more the events at the table mimic those in the game, the easier it is to achieve immersion.

Speak In-Character

Rather than saying “my character does this”, say “I do this”. Better yet, act it out (when reasonable). Referring to your character in third-person establishes a roadblock between you and your character, making it less likely to step into her shoes.

For the GM, referring to the players by their character names can be helpful. It also helps to speak as the NPCs, addressing the players as their characters. This establishes a precedent that pulls players into acting as their characters.

Be Descriptive

Compare “I move to the goblin and attack” against “I charge the goblin, axe raised overhead, and bring it down to cleave into the goblin's skull.” It is almost always better to describe the actions as they would be seen in the game. That way, not only is everyone imagining the same thing, but they are more likely to see the setting as a living, breathing thing.

Descriptions don't have to be flowery or long-winded. Typically, simple and straightforward is better. Make the action exciting, but keep the game moving.

Rolls Equal Actions

Rolling the dice can pull a player out of the setting, reminding him that he is playing a game. This isn't to say that the dice should never be rolled.

The trick is to only ask for dice rolls when the roll directly maps to something the character is doing. Rather than “roll to see if you know the dragon's weakness”, save the dice rolls for active efforts. Walking down a hall doesn't call for a perception check; use Passive Perception. Walking down a hall actively searching for traps or secret doors, that can be a perception check.

This won't entirely eliminate the game-factor, but it will mitigate it. By linking rolling the dice to character actions, the line between player and character becomes slightly blurrier, allowing greater chance at immersion.

Are You Immersed Yet?

Verisimilitude and immersion vary greatly from person to person. This has just been my take on the subject. Do you have different views? Other tactics for increasing immersion? Leave them in the comments!