Verisimilitude Carries Us as Far as We Want to Believe
The Space Players Need to Weave Their Own Beliefs in a Game
The Line Between Game and Story
Agency, Autonomy, volition, player "freedom," call it whatever you like. When you invite players into your world, they need the space to weave a personal narrative thread. The quickest way to dissolve verisimilitude(read: suspended disbelief) in your world is to remind them it's not their story.
When Dreams Have Volition
I fondly recall “tabletop” RPG sessions where the whole group remembers a virtual, ingame experience as tangible, visceral, almost real.
The party was in a sticky situation, crossing a river, split up between near and distant shores. Two players were stuck by a boulder in the middle, one helping the other after being abruptly peppered with arrows. An ambush pinned them down, and their options were dwindling.
Earlier that day, the group had made a thread of decisions to get here, fully embedded in the shared narrative world. A discussion with travelers along the road had hinted at trouble. Brash choices were made. Greed got the better of them. Now, another distant rumble denoted the arrival of some foreshadowed hulking beast approaching from…
