16 Nov Immersion RPG – What I like to call my God Child

The Origins of Immersion RPG

I spent the formative years of my zitty teens crammed into small, dank, poorly lit man caves. (read: boy caves because our balls had still to drop and voices to deepen) throwing our lives away to the heroic battle that every lad must charge head on – the pursuit of women… OR ADVENTURE!!!!!!!!!!

We chose adventure as it was far easier and less embarrassing. Years and years went by like this, every Sunday night throwing dice on a table, squealing with sugar-filled glee as we pwn’d another noob Lich and found the phat lewts.

Again… and again… and again…. but you know what? This could only go on for so long. As we grew older and our minds turned to the rebellious outrage that is early adulthood, when all the world is out to get you and nothing is quite good enough. One man stood ahead of us. He fish-hooked our soft trout-like lips and demanded that we pay attention to his plan. We were weak and in need of leadership. He spoke to our souls and declared in righteous indignation… “THESE RULES… ARE CRAP!!!”

Oh how we soft trout lipped players of (…..will not name generic gaming system….) blanched at the thought. But where else would we turn? We had tried every system out there to try. Like hard hitting street drugs we all had our favourite, but would settle on the communal thought that we would go with the cheapest easiest drug to find so that everyone vibrated on the same level.

Like pen flicking, cheetos chewing, dice rolling junkies in a junkie hovel. We needs our fix mannnnnnnnn… What other choice we got?! And ‘Deus ex Machina’ that’s “god by machine” for you who are too lazy to wiki that stuff. The great and powerful One known only as Oggy descended from the heavens (his bedroom on the first floor) and laid down his ten commandments of Immersion (Disclaimer: There may be more rules than just ten).

What is this? A rules system with… more than one dimension? A rule system that doesn’t contradict itself? THAT MAKES SENSE?!?! Preposterous!! For the first time in paper and pen gaming history we actually watched our characters grow and feel…real. Like there was actual substance to the world. The rules (Which I proudly say I helped develop in small ways as a game tester) give a sense of great power and terrible mortality.

In cheesier RPG systems you would not think twice about taking on ten goblins. “My level nineteen Paladin will have no problem with these level 4 goblins, this is merely a trash mob to blow through,” you declared as you roll for initiative (which of course you’ll win).

But in Immersion if you see ten goblins, buddy I hate to break it to you…you better A) run B) hide C) Prepare for a ten goblin pig on the spit orgy cause what they will do to you ain’t pretty.

“Oh but how do I survive in such a chaotic and dangerous environment?” I hear you squeal… to which I reply “DON’T BE A RETARD!!!!!” Smarten up lads, this aint yo mamma’s cherry pie you’re nomming on. This is Mithril pie and it’s harder than a Golem’s cod piece. You get smart, you learn and you survive. The rules give depth and understanding like science tells us every day how much more complex existence is than we thought. It delves deeper and deeper until we have a full understanding and real vision of what gaming should always have been.

Let me repeat that. WHAT GAMING SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE BEEN!!! You get that? Think I’m biased towards my god child gaming system? A system that I have proudly watched grow and flourish? Well give it a go and you may just like what you see.

Or you can go back to popping zits and wishing for one more big boss fight so you can hit the next level and get some generic advancement to wrap your trout lips around.

Jet Liberson is one of the foundation playtesters of Immersion RPG. That means he was there at the very, very, very beginning. In fact, the first ever game of Immersion RPG was played with Jet (who played a very creepy demon-summoning, zombie-raising sorcerer named Hannibal Lancaster…*shudder*). He’s been gaming for…well…ages, and has tried everything under the sun, from World of Darkness (Vampire: The Masquerade, Demon: The Fallen, Werewolf: The Apocalypse) and AD&D, D&D 3.0, D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder. There’s others, but they’re lost to the mists of time and memory.

Interested in getting involved? Sign up to become a playtester!