I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons for over 40 years. But I've never had the opportunity to experience tabletop role-playing games in such a sophisticated form as I did at this event.
Published at 6:30 am.
The interactive story is not only supported by a DJ who selects the music tracks, surround sound environments and sound effects, but is also enhanced by video projections and lighting effects. All this in harmony with the dramatic intensity of the scenes and scenes, the direction of which is determined by the decisions of the players. The immersion is total, so much so that one of our quest companions' smartwatch alerted him that he was experiencing unusually high stress levels! And as if that weren't enough, an illustrator traces the adventures that the players experience live and surprises with his creation at the end of the session.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Thomas Pintal has been a game director for over 35 years.
The man behind this ambitious fun project is Game Master Thomas Pintal, Multimedia Director at Moment Factory – he is responsible for the design of numerous productions around the world, including Vallea Lumina in Whistler, Astra Lumina in Los Angeles and the Grand Magic Hotel in Paris . Every year for almost 30 years, he has spent between 60 and 100 hours preparing for this role-playing weekend with his friends.
The event has developed into a happening over the last five years, with Thomas drawing inspiration from his work and working with colleagues to add multimedia elements to the experience. He draws no line between his professional life and his passion for role-playing games, the true engine of his creative energy.
At Moment Factory I work with a composer, a scenographer and motion designers. When we have creative meetings, I'm often like in a role play, I'm the game master, in the sense that we manage to set a direction in which I lead the team, like I lead a gaming table.
Thomas Pintal
“Everyone brings their energy to this kind of collective excitement,” he adds. This is what I call the convergence of ideas. »
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Thibault Libert is responsible for the scores and sound environments.
In the same way, he describes the way the players experience the adventure he presents to them, an exercise he calls “eternal collective brainstorming.” “Everyone starts to imagine the scene in their own way,” says the game director, who ran his first game in 1988. “It’s the power of imagination; We sit, we have dice, and yet we all imagine the same scene in our own way. When everyone reaches a certain state of excitement, everyone leaves reality. »
Essential sound ambience
However, there is no need to limit the contribution of sound environments if they are used judiciously. In fact, they are essential. The science-fantasy universe we immersed ourselves in would not have been as immersive without the amazing musical score and sound effects cleverly synchronized with our actions. Attentively behind his screen, Thibault Libert selects the most appropriate soundtracks and launches the effects that enhance the dramatic intensity. Thomas Pintal also has his own sound bank that he can use to amplify the players' emotions, especially in certain key scenes.
For me the sound is the most important benefit. In the story, when we enter a dark, gloomy forest, in the evening it is raining, we have to hear it, we have to hear the thunder in the distance. Everyone feels it, lives it, but imagines it in their own way.
Thomas Pintal
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The game system used by Thomas Pintal uses dice, but the gameplay is primarily narrative.
The game master will also control certain passages so that the music conveys the right mood at the right time. The breathtaking finale had to be experienced when the musical crescendo suddenly stopped, highlighting the drama of the death of an important protagonist even more clearly. Like in a movie, but more intense because you are living the moment yourself.
Thomas and Thibault spend dozens of hours preparing their sound elements. “I have a very cinematic profile in my approach to music,” explains Thibault Libert, who was working as a content producer at Moment Factory when he met Thomas Pintal. “Thomas gives me environments with a general sequence and a tree of possibilities that tries to cover all possible places in the game. At the beginning my contribution was intended as an exploratory approach, but by the second year I really understood how to work. » As proof, this year he bought light projectors that change color depending on the rhythm of the music and the sound environment.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Jean-Loïc Fontaine is made aware of the general flow of the quest that the players will experience, but he knows no more before beginning.
Adventure in pictures
Jean-Loïc Fontaine is another former colleague of Thomas Pintal at Moment Factory. During a chance discussion, the game master wondered if it was possible to bring the young illustrator to try to represent on paper or screen the ephemeral universe created during the annual role-playing weekend. He was only present at the finale on Saturday this year and chose watercolor as the medium to illustrate our adventures.
“I often try to capture the key moments,” he explains. It's a bit like creating a live model that takes short breaks of an hour or two. In role-playing games it's the same mental process, but in fantasy. You have to expend as much energy as possible and when a visual flash occurs, you have to find a way to illustrate and capture it. It's more like photography, a bit like improvisation, and it's super feeding for the imagination. »
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Jean-Loïc Fontaine illustrated the adventures live in watercolor.
Thomas Pintal wants to continue to improve the environment of his annual role-playing event and plans to do something new for the event's tenth anniversary in five years. “I want the role-playing, our role-playing, to grow in our way, our journey, and then we indulge in delirium,” he promises. Sometimes we talk about it and say, “What more can we do?” »
We want to experience it.