He also talks about Rounding, Balancing and Complexifying.

Complexifying means ensuring there are at least 12 viable approaches to every problem. Rounding and Balancing means ensuring that none of those 12 stand out as the obvious or optimal one, so the PCs are free to pick any one of them, or even a 13th that I didn't think of.

The goal here is rich tactical complexity. If there's one obviously optimal approach, they're going to pick that one. If there's two, they just have to decide between those two. But if there's a dozen, and none of them stand out, they have the freedom to create their own solution instead of just following whatever I thought of.

And that, I think, might be the core goal of HTT: giving the characters (not the players!) the freedom to create. To create their own solutions, their own plans. Which could be anything.

Let me know if any of this rambling makes sense. I'm talking more about S. John Ross's ideas about HTT adventure design than about my own campaign here. Is it interesting that I share that process and my thoughts about it? Or should I just focus on the campaign itself and keep the rest private?

#httkingmaker

S. John Ross identifies 5 basic forms or root shapes that problems can have: Harmful, Imperiled, Misplaced, Failing, or Incompatible.

I feel a bit like everybody here is Imperiled. That may be a bit one-sided. The bandits pose a threat, the monsters pose a threat, the elves are a threat, and the ancient magic is a threat.

The only one with obvious other elements are the elves: they are themselves also victims of past events, and might be open to other solutions than simply violence. They might be Incompatible or Misplaced as well.

Also, the town is perhaps more Failing than Imperiled.

Then again, maybe the monsters are also Misplaced. What's driving them? I mean, the elves are, but how? Stopping the monsters doesn't have to involve killing them all; it could involve getting the elves to stop whatever they are doing.

So that's something I need to figure out: what are the elves doing? That's the thing that connects everything else: driving the monsters, destroying old outposts creating a power vacuum for the bandits to move into, and of course it's unleashing the ancient magic threat. And the elves might not be aware of that last one. Or maybe not all of them. Some elves might be so consumed by revenge that they're fine with it, but others might not. So there's different factions within the elves, and figuring that out might be the real heart of this campaign.

#httkingmaker

By his design method, victims don't have to be people. Anything can be a victim. So I guess the trade routes that died are also a victim. But it's also important that it's something the PCs care about, and they're a lot more likely to care about people than about a trade route. Until they start building their own little fiefdom, I suppose; then they might care a lot about that trade route.

So a list of potential victims for them to care about:

A relative who disappeared (with the last trade caravan or otherwise). If they're with the caravan, that makes the relative a better stand-in for the dead trade route.

Farmers and other people living in the area suffering from bandit or monster attacks. (I need to figure out some ways for the PCs to get to know these people, help them, build a relationship.)

The town itself of course; it's caught between the expansionist marquess on one side, and rising banditry and monsters on the other.

In the longer run, the victims may include:

The elves, who have after all been pushed out of their original lands, albeit a long time ago by now. But they're still resentful about it.

Everybody in this part of the world, once that ancient magic breaks loose. I guess this is a fight to save the world after all, but it's going to take time to figure that out. (Is it? Why am I saying that? That sounds very presumptive. Can the PCs discover this early on? Am I going to actively keep this info from them? That doesn't sound very HTT.)

#httkingmaker

I'm currently digging through my lengthy conversation with him looking for the right approach and the right tools to go about this, but it was a very long and wordy conversation where we touch on every topic related to RPGs, occasionally getting back on track again. So it's not easy to find.

He can be critical about stuff that doesn't appeal to him, but I did just come across this:

So wherever I start is fine, just refine until we get there. Let's give this a try.

One hint for how start that he gave was:

Not having started the campaign, it's hard to tell what they care about, but I think part of the campaign, especially the start, is getting to know people, so they'll care about them. People do live in the wilderness. There will be some isolated farms, maybe even a small village, eking out a living under harsh circumstances. These are likely early victims of monsters and banditry.

And maybe I'm going to give them some hints for helpful character backgrounds. Like someone's relative disappeared disappeared, and the PC wants to find out what happened. Maybe even save them.

#httrpg #httkingmaker