Theater of the Mind

Imagine people living on a moon whose only means of connection with the people on the planet they orbit is through dreaming of the planet without ever being there. At a quick glance this moon architecture may look familiar; if studied, it is a blurry facsimile, a dreamlike blur of buildings on the planet.¹

Not many contemporary Dungeons and Dragons campaigns happen in dungeons. And, while dragons are common, it is not a given to encounter them. What every campaign does have, rather, is world building. Many people are drawn to the game because it fosters community; players gather around a table to share food, collectively tell stories, and build worlds. The term ‘theatre of the mind’ is common around DnD tables. Players are asked to imagine gameplay and roleplaying scenes, often simply through descriptions provided by the Game Master (GM) without any imagery to support them. Outside of world building in movies, books, video games, or other industries, this could be the most approachable way to realize the magical world in one’s mind, and share it. The DnD format allows you to see people interact with the world, and even have them change it. I wanted to explore some of these worlds, so I reached out to GMs at Elm City Games and PunkOuter Games.

One GM² told me of a world where the ancient architecture was derived from sacred geometry and magical utilitarianism. Imagine form-follows-function masses in the landscape: a magic-first, people-second approach to designing buildings expresses the boom of magic, not too dissimilar from the industrial boom in the real world. Contrasting this barren image, the architecture built more recently is painted lavishly and exhibits elaborate stained glass. In this world, flowers keep evil at bay, so the architecture emphasizes saturation and flora. The tectonics become the magical defense system.

Another GM³ built a world where the form behind ancient and current architecture is coincidentally similar to that of the previous. Here, however, the older buildings are meant to evoke a minimalism that dictates a lack of magic, emphasizing the straightforwardness of fantasy-free construction. Though something mysterious affects the structures, they do not decay as one would expect and maintain an ethereal, abandoned-yesterday feel. The contemporary buildings of the world are haphazardly and precariously dangling on cliffs over water. The buildings look as if they were built by magic: fluid, colorful, and dense. The tectonics are the process of creating magic, connected by magnificent bridges to make them make sense.

I have played in campaigns based on the two worlds described above, but I did reach out to another GM⁴ who I have never met before. They approached their world with less in-game historical rigidity; the interesting part lies in how the architecture is built. The players are asked to imagine the average medieval city with a twist, where the walls have unrealistic angles and materials shift unexpectedly. It is what architecture would look like if one drew it with their eyes closed. The deconstructivist structures defy gravity. Where one would expect columns, they find nothing except some faint runes etched by wizards holding houses afloat.

Whether it is an appropriately magical alteration of Gaudí’s houses, a finished and expanded version of Rossi’s San Cataldo Cemetery, or a medieval take on a more structurally audacious recreation of Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao, there is architecture out there that might fit nicely in this theater of the mind. Every person sitting at that table has an idea of what these worlds look like, and it doesn’t have to be an exact match for their neighbors.

What I love about the game is that it allows people to imagine architecture that doesn’t exist, yet they still get to walk through it and tell stories that are shaped by it. One day, when they travel to a city in the real world, they might come across something that inspired their GM to design the world they have been playing in for years. The magic found in a world of wizards and dragons doesn’t seem far off from the magic found in already-built architecture around the world.

There are myths, there are stories, and there is so much lore that informs our collective world building. DnD seems like a way to explore the wondrous magic of real-world architecture around a table full of snacks and laughter. And above the table, it lets you see magic in the cities you explore.