What is Information Architecture, and why does it matter to dungeon masters?

As dungeon masters, we are constantly bombarded with information. We need to keep track of the rules of the game, the setting information, hit points, NPCs, and all of the other bits and pieces that go into making a successful game. It can be easy to get overwhelmed and bogged down in all of this information. This is where information architecture can help.

Information architecture is the science of organizing content. This means that when there is a lot of data, information architecture can help to make it simpler for others to understand and use.

Whether you are intentional about it or not, you present information to your players every session in the form of maps, NPCs, backstories, monsters, environmental hazards, secrets, rumors, and even the menu at the local tavern. All of this information is competing for your players' attention, and you want to make sure that the information they are interested in is easy to find and use.

At the same time, dungeon masters are handling piles of information from the names of notable NPCs to monster stat blocks. You need only to look at my first DM screen to see how much information I was trying to juggle.

This is why information architecture matters to dungeon masters. By being intentional with how you present information, you keep yourself more organized and can remind players of what is important to their big goals.

For example, if you want to inspire the party to investigate a group of corrupt druids, but they seem satisfied with drinking and arguing with NPCs at the tavern, you might have one of the player characters save vs poison while the rest of the party notices the waiter dashing out of the tavern, dropping an empty vial of some kind of wild magic potion with a label in druidic.

Does the infected party member slowly begin turning into a pig until the party can find the druids and a cure? Either way, information has now been given to the party that inspires them to interact with your prepared content in a way that moves the story forward.

Being intentional with organization also invites you to think more creatively, instead of defaulting to the same session structure we often encounter.

For help thinking creatively, check out our episode on the LATCH System of Information Architecture, especially the second half when we apply it to D&D. We also made a free LATCH session brainstorming sheet you can use to generate ideas.

The goal of Dungeons & Documentation is to explore methods of organizing complex data across all fields of work and life and distill those methods into something useful for dungeon masters and players. In doing so, we hope to offer a method of information architecture to the D&D community that supports flexible and improvised gameplay without chaos or wasted time and effort for the DM.

What do you think? Do you have a system for organizing information in your games? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading!