I didn't join in with Ginger Stampley's Game WISHes because, well, I was late to the party, and all the cool kids were already at the table. I got my beer and ate chips, instead. But Ginger quit with the WISHes recently, because she got to number 100 and nice round numbers appeal to humans, and a fellow named Doc has started a new series called Game Dreams and I'm pulling up a chair for this round beginning with this post.

The first issue:

When Role Playing Games are discussed, the subject of first-person versus third-person character narratives sometimes surfaces. When you play a character, do you assume first-person, using your voice as his or hers, or do you use third person, simply describing what he or she is doing? Do you switch between first and third person, or try to adhere to one? When other players are in character, does the use of first or third person affect your immersion in the game?

I play role-playing games as if they were theater pieces, and thus pretty exclusively use the first-person except when talking about game mechanics (i.e., "You will feel the steel of my blade, foul creature!" vs. "I rolled a 9.") In my most recent group, we play up the melodrama of the characters (hey, we're playing 1930s Call of Cthulhu--the melodrama fits) and have settled into some pretty nice role-playing, from the frail-but-obsessed priest and the somewhat-deranged psychologist to my oh-so-practical-shoot-it-first-and-ask-questions-later ex-rum runner. None of us are going to win any Oscars for our performances, but staying in character as much as possible definitely increases immersion, if not verisimilitude, in the game.