TARDIS: Tabletop Augmented Reality for Dynamic Immersive
Storytelling

Abstract

In tabletop role-playing games, players experience a shared story, coordinated by a game master. This relies heavily on immersion, social interaction, and creative freedom. We explore how VR can increase immersion without undermining these other qualities. We placed players into a CAVE VR system to display virtual environments (VEs) on the walls and floor without requiring glasses that might impede social interaction. We varied how closely VEs matched the game setting described verbally, from reflecting its general atmosphere to being true to details, and investigated impact on immersion, distraction, creativity, and role-play. Players feel more connected to their characters when seeing what their characters would see, but abstract, atmospheric VEs led to fewer problematic divergences and more creative freedom. Surprisingly, medium matching levels were often criticized because players could trust neither what they saw nor their “cinema of the mind”. Our findings help integrate VR into shared collocated storytelling.