A strange ritual, pt 1: Summoning immersion at the table

Written By Jason Robinson

This post is part 3 of 5 in the series A strange ritual: summoning immersion at the table.

Immersion, by design

I’m currently running The Lady Afterwards, an occult-horror tabletop role-playing game set in 1920s Alexandria, for some dear friends. Weather Factory have really outdone themselves here in terms of design and production; just look at this beautiful box filled with beautiful things:

Clearly, one of the design goals from the outset was player immersion — the boxed set includes not only weathered paper props & maps & handouts but lovely enameled pins & tarot cards & weathered dice… even a (narratively-relevant) scented candle!

From an experience design perspective, this serves (at least) a few purposes the moment the box is opened:

  1. Communicates the narrative tone (investigators! ancient mysteries! hidden knowledge!)

  2. Encourages curiosity and exploration (these objects can’t not be touched and pored over when you’ve got them in front of you!)

  3. Educates about the setting (1920s Egypt may be unfamiliar — what is a telegraph, even!? — and this invites players in)

  4. Creates ambience (sight & touch & smell help to create mood and memory)

Deeper down the rabbit-hole

As a Game Runner, I’ve often prepped by writing the story, or researching the setting, or crafting props to draw my players in — but The Lady Afterwards has already checked these boxes for me, with aplomb!

For this game, I’ve taken the opportunity to explore other ways to create a memorable and immersive experience for my players.

This is the first in a series of posts walking through the techniques I used and discuss what worked well (or didn’t!) and what I learned.

⚠️ SECRET HISTORIES PLAYERS: Wherever possible (without including content from the game itself) I’ve linked the files and resources I’ve created, in case you want to use them in your game! I welcome feedback or questions.

1) Dynamic lighting & sound using HomeKit scenes and shortcuts

2) A collaborative “murderboard” mini game introducing players to basic Secret Histories setting lore (coming soon)

3) A custom Notion database to help players track the people, places, and clues they encounter (coming soon)

4) Additional physical and digital props to support the storytelling (coming soon)

Design Context

There are a few things to note about this campaign that affected my approach to this project. Not everything I did here would necessarily make sense for another campaign, or another group of players:

  1. The Lady Afterwards narrative has a limited scope
    This is a nonlinear location-based adventure: this short story is designed to take place across one weekend in one city. Players have agency to decide which threads they want to follow within Alexandria and surroundings, but I’m not running an open-ended campaign.

  2. This is half “TRPG campaign” and half “Boxed Set”
    One of the greatest parts of this campaign is the full set of props and digital assets, like photos of characters the players meet. This enhances immersion, but immediately creates a sort of “Chekhov’s Everything” problem — if players stop into a store and I don’t  have a photo of the shopkeeper, it’s immediately apparent to the players that they have left the “true path” of the planned adventure. (My players are invested in great storytelling and have long experience separating player knowledge from character knowledge, so I decided not to worry about this.)

  3. My players are unfamiliar with the game’s lore
    The story is set in the world of the Secret Histories, a setting developed for the computer games Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours, also from Weather Factory. It’s a world of shadowy cults and strange gods and ancient rituals — the “Invisible Arts” which most mortal humans never see or acknowledge. Part of the fun of these games is peeling away the layers and slowly piecing together an understanding of the lore, even as your character is doing the same within the game. My players are largely unfamiliar with this context; I would have prepped the game differently if playing with folks deeply familiar with the setting.

The Game Runner, The Exile, The Dancer, The Bright Young Thing, The Aspirant. Not pictured: The Forge of Days.

Jason Robinson
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A strange ritual, pt 2: Dynamic lighting & sound