An incredibly deep analysis of play

Over on Trilemma Adventures, Michael Prescott created A Taxonomy of Roleplaying Utterances which is set up like those ways in which sociologists or psychologists analyze communications and social dynamics by literally breaking down the general types of communications and tracking them over an analysis.

Then Prescott took a transcript of a session of an old school dungeon game and broke down the percentages and how things look from the GM’s side vs. (collective) players’ side of things. Then did the same with an episode of Critical Role.

I don’t think any playgroup should have to do this level of work, but I could see the larger companies PAYING someone to analyze a few sessions; maybe the difference between a group that’s loving their game vs. a group that is having a hard time with the system to try to figure out where the pain points are, either in advice or in actual structure of mechanics.

I definitely think there’s a value for anyone trying to understand the ease of understanding/using the rules in tracking how much goes into the “clarifying” stuff or rules debates. This stuff would be pretty much a gold mine for new groups or groups adopting a new rules set.

Anyway, well worth checking out if you’re into understanding the flow of play and design.