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in which they can re-assert their personal power and individual sense of worth” (p. 125). When I interviewed Mark from the Sorpraedor campaign he shared with me that just before joining the Sorpraedor campaign, he had suffered a personal tragedy. He felt that playing D&D provided him an escape to a world that was better than our own world—or if not better at least more within his control. Unlike the situation in his real life, Mark felt that in the gaming world our party of adventurers was equipped to handle whatever challenges were thrown our way. Even after years of gameplay and friendship, I had no idea that Mark had experienced the tragedy he mentioned until our interview. It did not come directly into the game, nor did Mark try to deliberately work out personal feelings though Cuthalion’s ingame actions. However, the sense of control that he had over the game world and the immersion he experienced in Sorpraedor allowed for a powerful escape from the AW.

Immersion in the setting, plot, characters, and social setting all work together to meet the social exigence of bringing together players to form a narrative. Narrative, as a rhetorical device, is used to bridge separateness and to provide a better understanding of our world and our lives. Role-playing, in a more general sense, may be used in counseling or educational settings to help participants understand situations in new ways. The application of the TRPG—as a genre of entertainment—may not be so direct. Nevertheless, the very ability to escape to a world over which one has some control, where one can set things right and be a hero, is itself a powerful social force. Thus, a social motive that involves connecting with people to make sense of the actual world is not actually at odds with the notion of escapism.

While all of these factors are important to the TRPG, it is important to recognize that they are not all generalizable. As I have noted, gaming sessions that are isolated events do not evoke the same kind of immersion as those of longer running campaigns. Without this in-depth immersion, the players may not feel the same type of escapism or connection with their lives that might be true for long-time gamers in a common social group. In addition, the gaming style of a group or particular player may lead them to be more immersed in one aspect of the game than another. These differences in style may also affect the story as it evolves from the gameplay. For example, although it was a one time adventure, when I DMed Speaker in Dreams (Wyatt, 2001) I provided a story hook for a player that I knew would be interested in her character’s backstory. I told her that her character’s mentor was in the town where the adventure took place and that she was there to visit her. The NPC who I determined was the mentor was the victim of a kidnapping in the story and thus this bit of backstory both changed the trajectory of the adventure and added to the story. Similarly, Scott created a backstory for a character named Blaine that would later enter the Sorpraedor campaign. Blaine’s true lineage, unknown to his player, was connected to one of the key nobles in the Sorpraedor world. However, this particular player was not the type to be overly immersed in the character. Therefore, unlike the story of Mary and Maureen, this particular point in the story was left unexplored.

Some gamers and gaming groups may be more interested in progressing the storyline, while other may want to explore territory, and others may be primarily interested in developing their characters. The degrees of immersion in each of these areas vary. However, what does seem to apply to TRPGs as a whole is the potential for each of these kinds of immersion. That potential may go unrealized in a particularly unsuccessful gaming session where players do not bond, fail to follow clues that lead them in interesting directions, or allow themselves to be drawn in by any number of distractions. For example, when I attended NC State Game Day, the one-time TRPG session was not immersive at all for me. In this case it