Good morning1 everyone!
Many of you will know of Murphy’s Law:
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
~ Edward A. Murphy Jr.
And many of you will likely read this and think “My, what a pessimistic way of thinking!”, whilst others will be thinking, cynically “That’s just being realistic”.
Some of you may also be thinking “huh, there was actually someone called “Murphy” who said that. I thought it was just a folklore-y phrase, like Sod’s Law.”
Where did it come from?
Murphy’s law came from Edward A. Murphy Jr in the late 40’s, during rocket-sled testing. The event which caused this epiphany was where a technician installed some sensors backwards, leading to a failed test. His original quote, which was then truncated to be more memorable, was:
"If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way."
Which, again, seems a pessimistic outlook on the world at first glance, but is actually a gateway into an engineering principle called Poke Yoke.2
Poke Yoke is a system of design in which you take that first part of the longer version of Murphy’s law, and you fix it. You fix it so well that it becomes impossible to overcome the fix.
“If there are two or more ways to do something…”
That right there, that’s what we’re fixing with Poke Yoke. Let’s consider something many of you will be familiar with; a car wheel.3
When you take the wheel off of your car, you will probably be exposed to a great variety of Poke Yoke design, in the brakes, the callipers, the steering mechanism4. So, what is it?
Poke Yoke is the act of designing something so that it only fits one way - the correct way. You know that popular video with the children’s shape box, where every shape fits in the square hole? That’s the opposite of Poke Yoke.
So, back to the car wheel. Let’s ignore all the clever design and go straight to the hub of the thing - the hub!
Considering Murphy’s Law again:
“If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way.”
In the context of taking a wheel off a car, then putting it back on. What could be catastrophic here? Well, aside from not doing it up tightly - which nothing aside from proper instructions can easily fix - you could put the wheel on the wrong way around.
“But”, I hear you say; “The wheel does not fit the other way around! Even if you were silly enough to try, it wouldn’t fit! The bolts would not do up at all!”
and to you, I say: Exactly!
Poke Yoke design has been here. The wheel has been designed so that it only fits on one way, because if someone can fit a wheel on backwards, you have to assume that they will, and fix the problem at that root. Remember 5 why Analysis? Well, Murphy’s Law gives you a good root for that one: “Because they could”. This isn’t necessarily implying spite or intent, but the reason someone fitted a wheel on backwards, besides lack of instruction or knowledge, is because the wheel fitted backwards. That’s the engineering root of the problem.
“I came here for D&D content, I’m not interested in an engineering breakdown of the usefulness of colloquialisms!” ~You, maybe.
If indeed this is you, then fear not - you’ve gotten to the bit where I discuss how this applies to D&D adventure design!
How this applies to D&D Adventure Design
(Told you, again!)
When we design our adventures, many of us have a plan in our heads of how things are going to play out - you present the party with a sword in a stone which only the fighter can pull out because of their bloodline, and a Lich to kill with it. The plan is obvious to you that the fighter discovers their heritage through a vision as they draw the sword, and then they fight the Lich, which can only be slain by the sword. It works with backstory, the fight is set to be epic, you’ve pickedo ut the battle music and made the map.
But then, the players go off-script. The barbarian tries to remove the sword, fails, and the party decides to try and find the heir in the nearest city, instead of the fighter trying. There was the option to do something which resulted in catastrophic failure of the plan, and they chose to do it.
So, we can design a bit of Poke Yoke into the game. This means clear and obvious signals of what needs to happen. Here, we could have the barbarian and everyone in the party except for the fighter get pushed back. The Fighter instead hears faint music. We, as the DM, have engineered a clear way for the encounter to be approached, and telegraphed it properly. Because Poke Yoke doesn’t work if it’s not clear how it’s supposed to be used.
But, this leads to a big ol’ steamtrain of a problem. If you poke yoke the world, the party’s agency is gone - you’ve removed them from writing duty and they are now delegated to turning the page - put simply, you’ve created a railroad.
Poke Yoke is a tool which is used to achieve consistent and reliable results. D&D is a game where everything that matters is determined randomly. As such, you need to concentrate your Poke Yoke designs into the places where it really, really matters. Clutch points in the story which were inevitable, or which need to happen for the players and characters to get the much needed bigger picture in the world. Avoid using it anywhere where they should be free to do as they please!
An example of where not to use it would be the Lich fight. You might say “the only way to escape is to stab the lich in the heart with the sword”, but that’s only useful if the players and their characters know that. Instead, consider “The only way to slay the lich for good is to pierce it’s heart with the sword”. Then, if they neglect to do so, you can bring the Lich back for an encore later in the game - don’t force their hands!
Because a D&D version of this law probably goes more like:
“If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way, and it will be awesome.”
Thanks all!
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Or afternoon, possibly, evening, definitely not precisely 14:32 on the 12th of May 1962.
Among others.
Entirely possible I have been working on my car lately, prompting this line of thinking.
Depending on A) whether you have removed the front wheel and B) whether the vehicle has multi-axle steering.