Stop PERFORMING and Start ROLE PLAYING

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I like the idea that, when running a game, the GM wants Game of Thrones, and the players provide Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Take this scene for example, cuts to an ad where a demon lady brands a guy's ass.

I only managed to get this kind of immersion fully once when playing, and not to be over dramatic or anything, but I think being able to become that character actually changed me as a person. She was outgoing and optimistic, I wasn’t. Playing her made me more confident in myself, more willing to take risks, and helped me understand myself in a way I never had before. I loved that character, and she made me love myself a little more too.

Long ago, I created an (initially) background NPC character who was a paladin. Players were in a boat. The boat began sinking during a storm, and I thought right on the spot that the most believable thing that character could do was to prioritize everyone's safety before his own. He put the players on a lifeboat as water slowly dragged him down because he had been running around rescuing people in heavy armor. The one single phrase the players ever heard from him was "Go! Save yourselves!" before he pushed them away from the wreckage, as there wasn't enough space for him to get in the lifeboat too. All players kept trying to figure out from which temple that paladin had come, so they could bring offerings and tell the clerics what had happened. One of them became a paladin later on just because of that NPC. He ended up becoming a major NPC posthumously. One of my best bite-sized role-play moments, and all it took was to 'be' the guy for two minutes.

The thing is Brennan and Matt have come out and said multiple times "Look. We come from various levels of acting and improv. Of course our games are going to look and sound better... but that's not what is important. The important part is who we're playing with. Our friends. Don't play like we do it. Unless you can make it work. If so great. But just have fun. However you can with the world building and mechanics of D&D and other TTRPG systems." Not exactly that. But the fact they've said something even close to that is really good to hear.

That Sir Ian McKellen clip should be required watching for all actors and roleplayers alike.

As an actor and gamer, this is all so accurate. A lesson I learned during my time performing improv, was don’t try to be funny. Don’t TRY to make a moment happen. Be honest. LISTEN. Support the others involved with you. From that, a genuine performance will develop, one that is often amusing, and sometimes heartbreaking. The MOST emotional scene I ever performed in school was improvised on the spot, turned into three separate scenes that wove back and forth showing snippets from three points in time, and it was incredible. The whole room was in tears. And it all started because I reached for my keys on my belt, didn’t have them, so I made a different choice. Don’t force something, just feel it.

This reminds me a lot of "The C Team" on Penny Arcade from several years ago. The DM in that group had a very low-energy style. He didn't put on accents or go in for dramatic narration, but he ALWAYS played his characters straight. And I remember being really impressed that no matter how chaotic the party acted, or how outlandish the story got, the DM could always sell it in the end because he never stopped being sincere.

It's pretty appropriate for Blanche, because the character itself often seems to be "putting on a show" for others, she herself is theatrical.

"you need to realize what you are doing is not a performance for others, but an exercise in imagination for yourself." Aaaaaand subbed

The point about rules-lite RPGs is important. Simplicity isn’t a virtue by itself; the game needs to be simple in ways that matter and complicated in *ways that matter*. I will always point to AD&D 1e: it has comparatively simple character systems nested in complicated and robust campaign management systems. The best games trying to simulate something are able to figure out which mechanics ought to be complex and which should be streamlined.

But don't forget Blanche herself is putting on a performance. Her whole thing is trying to put on an illusion to the people around her. That's what Stanley clocks immediately.

There is nothing quite like being with a group of people who can be fully immersed in their characters. I still remember so many moments from a campaign I did 6 years ago because everyone was so into being their characters. It's unfortunate that in most games I've played since moving there has always been at least one or two players determined to have no semblance of immersion either because they are irony poisoned or because they refuse to read the rules and have to ask questions every 15 minutes.

That moment when your character does or says something you yourself didn't even think of doing or saying is when you know you've "done it right". Such an amazing feeling for you and such a surprise for your fellow players

This is so very valid. Normal role playing game sessions should be more about the player engaging in the game, THROUGH their character, and less about the player "acting" LIKE their character. I encourage my players to use the first person when saying what they are doing, like "I climb the wall" instead of saying "Torgus climbs the wall." I'm more focused on encouraging the players to BE in the headspace as their character, and less focused on them doing any voice acting and performance.

It's so, so hard to get my players to WANT to learn the rules well enough for any of this.

"It is not from the benevolence of the fighter, the ranger, or the cleric, that we expect our verisimilitude, but from their regard to their own interest." -Adam Smith, probably.

I had a moment at a game last week where my experienced players were rightly terrified to interact with a strange NPC (because they understand the rules of the system and how fragile their PCs are) but the new guy hadn't figures this all out yet (his 2nd game ever). His character acted in opposition of their concern and later he hung around after everyone had left to complain that he wanted more action out of the scenes. I tried to explain to him that none of the characters are heroes and multiple PCs have met their end LARPing as heroic characters until players realized we aren't playing Saturday morning cartoons the RPG. We're playing outsmart the invulnerable minotaur and escape with the McGuffin before bull cultists sacrifice us to the chaos gods.

Big agree, with one exception; it's ok to be greedy about that feeling as long as you're not diminishing that feeling from other people at the table, remember that everyone at the table wants to have fun too