Theater of the mind IS minis IS immersive

Back in the days when I was still into gaming theory, I came up with my own little thing called “metagaming points of contact“. You had to give simple things fancy names, I guess 😉

What those metagaming points of contact were, essentially, is the number of times you have to leave the realm of imagination (theater of the mind) to do things in the real, flesh-and-bones world at the table (like moving around minis or rolling dice). The more points of contact you have, the more “meta” a game is, and the less immersive.

That was the theory. It had one major flaw, though.

Watch children play with figures or dolls, and you’ll see that their play is deeply immersive despite “points of contact”.

Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no distinction between playing with minis and theater of the mind IF you really allow yourself to become a kid again.