Aphantasia is where a person to some degree or other doesn't have a mind's eye (something like 3-4% of people apparently). Some can't summon up any pictures in their heads, while others can only get very rough or fleeting sketches. Sometimes it's accompanied by not being able to mentally summon smells or sounds. And some don't dream visually.
For me, years ago before I knew it was a thing, it surprised me when a friend didn't like hearing about anything gross because they pictured it in their head -- and I thought that was strange (the being able to picture part, not the disliking hearing about gross things). Anyway, even having all the pieces, it just hit me tonight that for some (many?) people, Theater of the Mind actually meant seeing things in their head like being in a theater. I had always thought it just meant keeping track of things mentally!
So, anyway, what do you have going on in your head in TotM? How do you picture the other characters and monsters? Do you have sounds too? Does having miniatures interfere with it? Do you have nothing? When the DM or a player clarifies and the picture in your head was wrong, what is it like adjusting it?
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For me, any songs or voices I think about are just my voice in my head making them. Scent wise I can sometimes conjure up a rose, but that's the only one I've managed. Visually, it's sometimes like there must be some other part of my head keeping track of where everything is and feeding it to my more conscious side because I can still keep track of relative positions usually when playing or DMing and just describing things verbally. But seeing it? I just can't relate to that. Even for familiar people and things in real life the best I can get is a brief flash without much detail if anything (I can usually do better with trying to visualize a picture of them, than them themselves). As for dreams I definitely have visual dreams, but I have yet to remember later how the sound worked or if there were any smells.
For me, years ago before I knew it was a thing, it surprised me when a friend didn't like hearing about anything gross because they pictured it in their head -- and I thought that was strange (the being able to picture part, not the disliking hearing about gross things). Anyway, even having all the pieces, it just hit me tonight that for some (many?) people, Theater of the Mind actually meant seeing things in their head like being in a theater. I had always thought it just meant keeping track of things mentally!
So, anyway, what do you have going on in your head in TotM? How do you picture the other characters and monsters? Do you have sounds too? Does having miniatures interfere with it? Do you have nothing? When the DM or a player clarifies and the picture in your head was wrong, what is it like adjusting it?
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For me, any songs or voices I think about are just my voice in my head making them. Scent wise I can sometimes conjure up a rose, but that's the only one I've managed. Visually, it's sometimes like there must be some other part of my head keeping track of where everything is and feeding it to my more conscious side because I can still keep track of relative positions usually when playing or DMing and just describing things verbally. But seeing it? I just can't relate to that. Even for familiar people and things in real life the best I can get is a brief flash without much detail if anything (I can usually do better with trying to visualize a picture of them, than them themselves). As for dreams I definitely have visual dreams, but I have yet to remember later how the sound worked or if there were any smells.
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