16:15:28 Thursday September 16 2004 • Note: This entry is in response to a Game Dream • 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? Dialogue is always in the first person. Our gaming group has historically been small, so the more experienced members of my group often play two characters at a time ("Hey! Someone needs to play a priest!"). As a result the first person voice is sometimes confusing, but not nearly as often as you might think. The most experienced players tend to have characters with well defined personalities so between the content, context, and tone of the statement it is very often clear which character is speaking. Accents (which I will discuss in Game Dream 7) also help tremendously. Descriptions of character actions tend to be in the third person. Again due to the possibility of having multiple characters to a player this is important to avoid confusion about where each character is located. First person is sometimes used to describe actions by players with a single character or where it is obvious. "I cast cure light wounds" clearly was an action by The Reverend Glen Drago and not by Sir Ariad Saint Claire. I am fairly comfortable with both styles of play, but one thing that will get on my nerves (and negatively affect my immersion in the game) is when players insist on turning dialogue into third person declarations. An answer of "my character says _____" to each and every line of dialogue quickly becomes tedious.