Can anyone recommend any books or articles that talk about the efficiency of spoken communication? Looking to deepen my understanding of how much data is lost/distorted in conversations, what spoken bandwidth can handle. Thanks!
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
My earlier tweet about language and spoken bandwidth is prompted by some thinking I have been doing about dungeon design. I'm using this image as an example. Let's assume the party is standing at point M with a torch. pic.twitter.com/85L1igYs3s
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
As a DM, you have to describe both the room and the hallways depicted. That includes the location of four doors and three corners. That's a fair amount of info to juggle. How much of that can the players actually process?
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
We don't often think about a dungeon as an information construct, but that's essentially what it is. A complex dungeon might be frustrating if only because it's a bear to process without drawing out the map as you go.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
A simple, somewhat linear dungeon might deliver a smoother, faster experience, though clearly at the cost of player agency. OTOH, if you root agency in a more strategic level (which dungeon do you pick?) you can get around that.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
Keep on the Borderlands does this well. The individual Caves of Chaos are kind of dull, but the point is not to make lots of small, interesting dungeons. The real payoff is the open-ended flexibility the adventure offers.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
In general, my experience is that communication outside of combat is a bit easier to wrangle. The pace is more leisurely, and tension not as critical to build. However, I also find that outside of combat a detail lost on the players is lost for good, absent a DM reminder.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
The approach I'm working on is to treat outside of combat actions as slower, leisurely combat. As a DM, I need to keep options top of mind. I'm leaning toward using more maps/props outside of fights, to help increase data bandwidth.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
In 4e and 3e, we did poster maps of encounter areas. In 5e, we do posters of regions. They're aimed at the strategic, non-combat portion of play. This approach also flavored by rebuild of the Nentir Vale.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
I want each region to be distinct, both in terms of geography and in narrative importance. Region X is home to villain Y and important to resolve threat Z. When the players are planning, they have a clear, distinct list of places to visit, and reasons to go to each.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
Taking this back to the dungeon, consider thinking of a dungeon or similar space along the same lines. You need more flavor and markers to make choices distinct. Use sound and smell along with visuals to make each option different.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
Keep information overload in mind. I suspect that more than three options makes things confusing, so consider keeping things simpler or use visual aids to manage non-combat action.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
I'm interested in doing research on this – hence asking for sources – but I don't think it's a factor that tabletop designers have paid much mind to. Which is surprising, given how critical spoken communication is for TRPG play.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
For myself, this leads to what be something of a funny reversal – minis and a grid for non-combat dungeon exploration, shifting to theater of the mind when a fight breaks out. It's not a place where I expected to end up, but I'm going to try it in my Friday campaign.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
Call of Cthulhu has a long tradition of out of combat handouts, aids, etc. One of its many redeeming qualities!
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
PhD linguist here. Human languages optimize between efficiency and redundancy to avoid information loss. So language is about as efficient as humans can possibly handle while limiting loss or distortion. Could say more if I understood more what you wanted Specific thing – what's the rate of retention on information, and is their an ideal concept/minute spacing? I know of the idea that you can keep about 7 things in short term memory, wondering if their is more specific detail on ideal communication approaches for stickiness
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
Memory prof here, there are a few different things going on in your question. 1. How much stuff can we hold in our mind in the moment? 2. How much of that stuff do we hold onto over the long term (i.e.more than 2 min)? And 3. What makes some stuff better than other stuff? 1. The Magical Number 7, Plus or Minus 2 (actual name if the paper!) answers the first question. About 7 stuffs, but what you consider a stuff and what I consider a stuff is based on our experience. New terms will not be as easy as familiar terms. Context matters a lot.
— Dr. Althea Need Kaminske (@DrSilverFox) August 3, 2018
2. Spacing and repetition of concepts is key! Allowing some time to pass (~2 min) before repeating a concept makes us work just enough to remember it, that we remember it better in the future. 3. Stories and social motivation. We're bad with abstract ideas and lists. We're great with people and motivations. So 2 or 3 stuffs related to people and motivations might be better remembered than 1 stuff of list items. Not all stuffs are created equal.
— Dr. Althea Need Kaminske (@DrSilverFox) August 3, 2018
Awesome! Thanks!
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
Vaguely related, but is that a heroquest board? it's a piece pulled from the ancient Dungeon Geomorphs set
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 3, 2018
