Larps rely on the players letting the game bleed into their lives and closely identifying with their characters.
Props need to reach a minimum level to support immersion, but maintaining immersion is a skill we can all develop.
The game cannot immerse you — you need to want to be immersed and accept the game as it is. We will always face the challenges of believing that a set or a place is something other than it is.
- the tarps are not actually stone walls
- the light bulb is a campfire
- the rope light is meant to suggest a burning fire
So we fill in the differences ourselves. We see a bulb meant to be a campfire and riff off it. We go “ooh, this is a warm campfire” and hold our hands near it.
We should talk about techniques that help us believe we are in another place. Everyone can use some help, and we all have ways to sell a scene. Discussing and sharing these techniques — and leaning into the feel of a scene — will help more people at events do this.
NPCs are asked to do this all the time, but players are almost never asked. We need to invite everyone who attends to participate.
Yes and
Suspension of disbelief
Deliberately targeting the npcs as people