Given Circumstances Are Your Truth
As a recovering theater kid, I often think back to my time acting to see if any of the lessons learned about the crafts of stage and screen acting can be applied to my life now. As I’ve delved into the world of simulationism, one key phrase from my acting days comes back to me over and over again. That phrase is, “Acting is living truthfully within given imaginary circumstances.” Contra Nerdrotic and his crowd, acting is not simply “adult pretending.” Rather, it shouldn’t be adult pretending. Do some actors take that approach? Certainly, and their performances suffer for it. However, the most impactful performances come from actors who have convinced you that they are a real person acting as a real person would given the circumstances of the story. This is why Ralph Fiennes as Francis Dolarhyde from the 2001 film Red Dragon is the attached image. In Red Dragon, Fiennes portrays a deformed man who was abused as a child who develops a split personality called “The Dragon” that urges him into committing horrible murders. Fiennes is certainly menacing when the role calls for it, but he is also sympathetic in a way. He portrays Dolarhyde’s struggle for normalcy against The Dragon and, by extension, against the abuse and indignity that he suffered at the hands of his mother, grandmother and peers. Fiennes’ performance shows this trauma and the vulnerability beneath the killer.
Fiennes acted within the given circumstances of Thomas Harris’s novel and Ted Talley’s screenplay. They were his truth and his reactions were, or at least appeared to be, honest. When acting is pictured in this way, it almost resembles the structure of, well, a game. The reality of the script is a structure similar to a set of rules. A script is more restrictive than rules as it quite literally spells out a character’s every action, but the effect is the same. In a game you must complete the objective within the framework of the rules. In acting, you must accomplish the goals of the script in a manner that is honest. Now, obviously there are things that complicate these objectives. A weak script can be difficult to portray honestly even for the best actor. Bad rules can make games hard to play. Those are exceptions though and do not change the facts of what acting or gaming are. While this is all well and good, what does it have to do with RPGs specifically?
Taking a look at the rules of D&D, we see several given circumstances. We see that characters have limits on the weapons and armor they can use. They have a limit on how much they can carry. They require rest, nutrition and light. They also sustain injuries when hurt and can be killed. There are many circumstances that are explicitly laid out in RPGs. However, there are also implied circumstances. One of the best examples of implied circumstances in D&D can be found in the dungeon. A dungeon is a secluded, hidden location bereft of light and life, save for the particularly nasty beings that have adapted to survive in these environs. Although few adventures specifically state this, dungeons don’t have much in the way of provisions, supplies or shelter. What this means is that your given circumstances while exploring a dungeon involve the tracking of resources. You can only carry so much, so you can only bring so many supplies, so many weapons, so much armor, etc. Were you in your character’s shoes, you would be worried about whether or not you brought the right equipment, how many torches you have left, what you’ll be eating once you get hungry, etc. If it makes sense for you to think of these things, why would your character not think of them too?
The rebuttal is often that yes, while it is realistic to account for these things, it’s not “fun.” I’ve written at length about this before, but I think there’s an issue of time preference that people have with the concept of fun. In the moment, it might not be fun to realize that you’ve got four Orcs in front of you and only three arrows. It might be terrifying to you in fact. However, if you survive by thinking creatively and using the resources on hand, it is fun. It’s a unique experience created by embracing the circumstances on-hand. It’s a better experience in the same way that an emotionally truthful performance is a better performance. It comes down to what Alexander Macris calls a noetic appreciation. Rather than having to put aside what we know to be false, we can accept something as true because it contains truth. When you embrace the circumstances of the game as your truth and act accordingly, then you have achieved immersion.
This is a process and one that a lot of people struggle with. After all, there have only ever been a handful of individuals who are compelling actors. However, as with running games RAW and utilizing the other tiers of play, it is a process worth pursuing. It is something to strive for and to become better at as time goes by. In the future, I will discuss ways to help embrace the circumstances of play as truth, but for now I want to impress upon you, the reader, the importance of this idea. The rules, environments, settings, etc of your game world are your truth for the duration of play. You are in many ways at the mercy of your GM and your rules, just as an actor is beholden to a director and a script, but there is still power in your hands as a player to discover what truthful interaction with your game world looks like. Whether you realize it or not, living truthfully in your given game world is the ultimate expression of your agency as a player.
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