Fuck immersion: Stop trying to make me smell my game
My game nights smell like pork spring rolls and canned vodka mixers, as God intended.
Immersion has always been a big part of tabletop gaming, for better or for worse. For a long time it was used to defend some exceptionally bigoted views, and simply having women in positions of strength and power would often be enough to break the immersion for weak-hearted men. While some arguments on immersion, both pro and con, still revolve around various bigotries (y’all are casting fireballs but people of color in medieval fantasy break immersion? Skill issue.) much has been made of the aesthetic immersion in whatever game one plays. Whether this is lighting, costuming, music selection or—for some godforsaken reason—the smells at the table.
While scrolling Instagram I was served an ad for ScentedRealms—a smell-o-vision machine slated for crowdfunding later this year. Again, the idea of immersion comes up, one of taglines for the product cheekily declaring that it will bring the fourth sense into the fifth edition. It’s billed as not only a novelty but a luxury, meant to be displayed alongside LCD gaming tables and hiding the kind of vaguely damp smell that even the nicest game rooms can’t seem to Febreeze out of their basement.
