Game Dream #1: Voice

Doc has taken over the Game WISH, renaming it the Game Dream. Cool! Question 1:

When Role Playing Games are discussed, the subject of first-person versus third-person character narratives sometimes surfaces. When you play a character, do you assume first-person, using your voice as his or hers, or do you use third person, simply describing what he or she is doing? Do you switch between first and third person, or try to adhere to one? When other players are in character, does the use of first or third person affect your immersion in the game?

As a player, I usually go first person, dropping third person when — hm, just about never, now that I think about it. I do use third person when I’m talking about my character’s motivations, though, probably because I regard that as out of character information. I tend to muse on that sort of thing when I’m making decisions (“Hm, Paul’s awfully tempted by that, because of his love of France…”) both to give the other players an idea why my character might do something insane and so as to give the GM a hand. Since the musings aren’t something that’s visibly happening in-game, I drop to third person to express them.

As a GM — more or less the same, except that I always third person physical actions. I very rarely go third person for NPC dialogue, though. I’d rather use accents.