Some folks try my HTT workshops hoping that HTT is a shortcut or a hack or a "trick" for designing a "good" adventure.

It's not. An HTT module can be tedious just as an LTT one can be brilliant fun!

It's just a design style, that supports a playstyle, and plays well with adjacent playstyles.

Making something good is still up to you. 😆 But my workshops can teach you the bones and give you some tools.

#HTTRPG #TTRPG #AdventureDesign

There are a lot of topics where #HTTRPG Game Masters that I've known _lean_ a certain way, even though those leanings are not themselves HTT matters.

Most tend to appreciate genre-agnostic systems, for example (Hero, Fudge, etc) even though there's nothing intrinsically high-trust about them. Any trad system is suitable for HTT.

While it's important to separate those things from HTT for clarity's sake, I also need to be less apologetic about them.

#HTTRPG

In RPG adventure modules both old and new, it's rare (not unheard-of, but rare) for the adventure to offer the PCs a chance to help others directly.

Lots of indirect. Plenty of assurances that if the PCs Retrieve the Thingy and Defeat the Opponent, that helps.

In high-trust designs (both old and new) there are more chances to help directly.

Which is something I should probably mention more often than I have.

I need to remember my own reasons for loving scarecrows in RPG design. 😆

#HTTRPG

The challenges of describing #HTTRPG design include balancing negative and positive formulations:

"In HTT, roleplay is more likely to be tactical and less likely to be decorative," for example, squeezes BOTH in, while the use of "likely" indicates the spectrum.

Given my druthers, I'd only ever use the positive; that's the part I love and the part I design for.

But my druthers aren't usually relevant, so thank you to those who show patience with the negative side of the blather.

#TTRPG

Shorthand #HTTRPG #AdventureDesign is "prep for 12 approaches so the PCs can create the 13th."

It's not really that exact, but defining a problem in sufficient dimensions (logistical, political, interpersonal, etc) creates a playground with a lot of factual ingredients the PCs can use to make their own soup.

The design effort required goes _way down_ if the gameworld is _built_ for HTT. The world's own substrate of dimension makes problem design both stronger AND easier.

#TTRPG #WorldBuilding

@SJohnRoss every time I read one of these things that are snippets of #HTTRPG, I grow more intrigued. I can see that doing this will undoubtedly make me a better player and GM.

I yearn for a more complete guide.

Can someone who's not a white cis guy (or at least not the one I just blocked because he pulled a "gamers are the real persecuted minority" on someone) explain to me what the fuck "high trust gaming" is? Because from that guy's self-important morass of marketing buzzword drivel, it sounds like "just trust the GM to walk you through a wonderful land where player agency does not exist" and I want to know if this is some kind of dogwhistle, or if that one guy is just full of some kind of shit.

#httrpg #ttrpg

I'm doing a #HTTRPG design workshop with @SJohnRoss and it is expanding my tools for #ttrpg immensely.

I just watched someone presenting an adventure/campaign outline which I would just have accepted just two weeks back.

Now I'm going "There is no engaging problem to draw the PCs in, just a simple goal the players have to buy into." and "You talk about agency, but you only offer video game choices."

Might still be fun to play. Just talking about how *my* views are changing.