True Immersion *

1. True Immersion *

   #1

   (admittedly, the title could be better but couldn't think of anything)
   
   You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?
   
   Roleplayers get to put them into tons of simulated situations and determine outcome, usually, with the roll of the die. Nothing real is ever put at risk, threatened, or challenged...and that is a good thing.
   
   But what kind of things do we have available that can mimic or at least give a taste of the events that your character can go through?
   
   I am not thinking of silly outrageous things, nor anything that could get anybody hurt, but there are many things that one can do in real life that may appropriately simulate our favorit pastime.
   
   1.  Go horseback riding. Try and swing a stick at passing trees at a walk or trot and see what kind of skill is really needed. (Scras will have to help with this one some more)
   
   2.  Try shooting a bow and arrow. Try hunting with it.  Try different types of different lengths.
   
   3.  Try to write with a feather, I mean quill.
   
   4.  Go flying in a private plane to simulate a flight spell or the soaring of a dragon.
   
   5.  Sky diving for the thought of trusting a float spell.
   
   6.  Don't use electricity at night. Use candles. Light these candles without a match or lighter.
   
   7.  Use these candles while trying to "pick a lock" or "fight an enemy." How easy would it be to do it while holding a torch?
   
   8.  Try and sleep outside with just a blanket.
   
   9.  Find some old recipes and give them a shot. Try and find something that is close to trail bread and try and live off of it for a day or two.
   
   10. Go to a renaissance fair and watch with educated interest and attention to detail the joisting, archery, sword fighting.
   
   11.  Take a horse drawn carriage tour.
   
   12.  Go spelunking. If a tour, think about no railings, no stairs, no electricity, and full armor.
   
   13. Try climbing a rope up the side of your house or a wall.
   
   14. Try to walk silently through the woods. Now do it in the dark.
   
   15. Try and sneak up on family in differenty environments.

2. True Immersion

   #2

   16. Try cooking over a campfire with nothing more than a frying pan and a sharp knife.
   
   17. Gather your own water from a creek or river. Don't drink tap or bottled water. Don't use the normal shower either, use a bucket of water from aforementioned creek or river.
   
   18. Quit using the telephone, instant messenger or email for a while. Communicate with hand-written letters only if you can't talk face-to-face.
   
   19. Get together with a friend and take turns on "watch" for a night. Try not to fall asleep.
   
   20. Go for a day long hike. Start at dawn and keep going until sunset. Imagine doing it for weeks at a time.
   
   21. Eat a simple food such as oatmeal or grits for every meal for a week. Wash it down with water only.
   
   22. "Tithe" 10%(or more if affordable) of everything you earn to a church or other charity.
   
   23. Get a friend to take a hike in the woods. Follow after a few hours later and attempt to track him. Now try it during a rainstorm.
   
   24. Go find a corn or hedge maze and find your way through it without the available map.
   
   25. Carve your own staff from a tree with a knife.

3. True Immersion

   #3

   26. Start technology from scratch. Make tools, without tools, to make tools.
   
   27. Seek omens in natural occurrences, and find the correct interpretation.
   
   28. Try and communicate with someone without a common language.
   
   29. Base a "scientific" theory only on what you can predictably experience and sense.
   
   30. Generate your own version of history, creation, &/or the true nature of the world, based only upon your own experiences.
   
   31. Carry water, without a prefabricated container.
   
   32. Chop wood with an axe. Get bonus points if you chip your own axe out of flint.
   
   33. Start a campfire without matches, lighter, or accellerant.
   
   34. Learn the correct way to wield a sword, wear armour, or keep either in good repair.
   
   35. Learn what plants & animals are edible, which are poisonous, and which have medicinal value. Try out this newfound knowledge.

4. True Immersion

   #4

   the one i hate the most
   
   36. get a suit of armour and try to sleep in it!!

5. True Immersion

   #5

   37. Go learn Kung Fu or other Asian Martial Art. Learn both the Hard and the Soft sides of the Art. Achieve a level of rank in the art before you stop and then realize that you have several levels of rank to go before you are considered modeately skilled. (If you are learning a belt ranking art, remember that Black Belt is considered "complete", and you need to advance with experience from there... so that would be in the 60 to 75% skill range)
   
   38. Learn two of the four Boxing, Wrestling, Savate, and Fencing. If you can, learn Western Halberd or Broadsword styles. This is learning the hard side of an arts.
   
   39. Go watch a non track and field pentathlon, then think about doing all of that. The one that is normally done is the 200-meter and 1,500-meter runs, the long jump, and the discus and javelin throws. The real Pentathlon was RidingPistol Shooting, Fencing, Swimming, Showjumping and Running.
   
   40. Learning tumbling to go with all that dodging and climbing. Now try doing some of that tumbling while wearing normal clothes, then trying doing it with a backpack on.
   
   41. Lace yourself up in a pair of soft boots (which are similar styles to those worn in most fantasy techs). Now go do things in them.
   
   Now for some MU training
   42. Learn Latin or some other Dead Language
   
   43. Visualize a cube hanging in the air infront of you superimposed over what you see. Learn to see the cube completely solid. Now make the cube rotate slowly.
   
   44. Learn meditative breathing process (diaphramic breathing, on a four count (four in, hold for four, four out, hold empty for four). The count is based on your heat beat. Now maintain this breathing for thirty minutes.
   
   45. Learn to hold your mind clear: Visualize a 100 on a black background. Every heartbeat, reduce the number by one, untill you reach 0. The catch? If you think of ANYTHING besides the number on the black field, the 100 is reset. If you hold your mind clear, you will discover that random thoughts and sounds and memories and mental comments will just appear.
   
   46. Learn to sit in a loose Indian style for sixty minutes without cramping up when gettin up. Once you manage to stay that relaxed for that position, do it while kneeling. Do not wear tight clothing. Learn why magic is performed in robes or while skyclad.
   
   47. Learn Soft Focus by staring at a candle flame for 60 minutes, while doing meditative breathing and the sitting. The best one is being able to hold the count in your mind and see the candle at the same time.
   
   48. Get a Tarot Deck. Memorize the picture and name of each card, as well as the associated meaning. Memorize the pillar patterns and the connections between the pillars and card.
   
   49. Get a copy of the Magician's Handbook and memorize the associations dealing with the following: Golden Dawn, Four/ Five Elements, Enocian, Zodiac, and all the plants, metals, smells, times, and other relations dealing with the zodiological symbols. That should be about 600 symbols and their relationship to memorize. (There are alternate groups which are completely functional... feel free to utilize those).
   
   (Okay, once you have completed 43-49, you might qualify for a continued apprenticeship. You are not even level 0 yet.)
   
   50. Try meditating on a full stomach. Try meditating while walking. now you know why an MU requires time and effort to cast.
   
   51. Identify 12 or more incenses by smell. Identify 12 or more mineral by sight (or touch), Identify every animal in a local zoo by its elemental association.
   
   52. Learn Chi Training in an Eastern martial art. Tai-Chi is the most accessible that way. It should only take you a year or two, after you are accepted by a teacher (which might take a year or two on its own).
   
   53. Learn Reiki to Level 2. That takes a weekend if you push it.
   
   54. Learn three tricks of Stage Magic, they must be of the slight of hand/ street magic variety. This will teach you the tricks to do proper magical florish, make things appear and disappear, and other things that people expect a magical person to do. It also teaches manual dexterity and concentration.
   
   55. If you get good at that, go rent a copy of Labrynth with David Bowie and get some balls to practice with. DO NOT START WITH GLASS. (I have yet to master this one)
   
   56. Learn the monarchial succession for a country with a history longer than 200 years. You also need to learn who was heir (or a potenial heir) at any one point in history. Now make sure to learn all their heraldic emblems.
   
   57. Learn to Sing. You have to entertain yourself somehow on those cold dark nights.

6. A couple more

   #6

   58. Memorize the formula for gun powder (just in case you ever get transported in time and space). Of course, you will need to learn what the components look like in their raw forms.
   
   59. Memorize the formula for concrete (just in case you ever get transported in time and space). Learn the raw forms. This formula will be more useful in the long run anywhere you go in history.
   
   60. Learn the plans for a ballista, catapult, and treboche. You never know when you will need a primitive weapon of much destruction when lost in time.
   
   61. Learn how to set up a still. Besides the recreational benefits, the process of distillation is useful in a variety of processes.

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