Reading for the next adventure I'm going to run. Trying to find the overall threads so I can understand the adversaries in order to run a more high trust game. I just realized the front men are the "law and order" faction of the conservative party in the world. Which makes the people behind the scenes the... Project 2025 folks? Something like that. Holy shit, this makes it easier and also more disgusting.

#ttrpg #gming #httrpg #uspol

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.

@SJohnRoss This answers all of my questions (that I was too afraid to ask) about #HTTRPG

Some ways of trying to describe #HTTRPG to strangers. It's mostly about #AdventureDesign, in a style that existed commercially (on the fringes) from the early 80s until sometime in the mid-to-late 90s, before disappearing from game retail.

I run Discord workshops that teach the basics of designing in this style. Even if you don't have an interest in HTT itself, there's plenty to pilfer for other styles. Just ask! Workshops are free, text-only, and 1-on-1. I'm ghalev on Discord.

#TTRPG

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:

There are a couple of ways I like to do problems but there's no WRONG way. Whatever gets you to one is good. I sometimes start LTT style, with a goal. I often start with a victim (but I run a lot of heroic games). There's no wrong starting place.

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:

pick a problem or a victim or a goal or something like that. Something they'd care about.

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

Recently I was fortunate to have a super interesting discussion ad-hoc adventure design workshop with S.John Ross, who has some very interesting ideas about adventure design, called High-Trust Trad. Trad meaning non-D&D, non-storygames, which is my sweet spot too (though I'm less purist); high-trust is a bit harder to explain, and I won't be able to do it justice here, but it focuses on the characters and how they approach the problems they encounter, the choices they make, how they interest with the various NPCs, etc. It should be roleplay-heavy, driven by in-game motivation, not by predetermined plot, mechanics or meta-game considerations.

A good HTT adventure is non-presumptive, which means it has no expectations about how the PCs will approach the various aspects of the problem. The adventure is made up of a cluster of problems, and for each problem, it should be trivial to come up with 6 different ways to approach it, and 6 more with a bit of thought. A limited list of options is not good enough.

From how I understand it, an HTT adventure is like a complex machine that's already in motion and will cause suffering unless the PCs can stop it. Which may involve discovering what the problem is in the first place.

S. John Ross's Toast of the Town is a great (and free) one-shot adventure that's a great example of HTT design.

He has a bunch of tools to help him flesh out the problems in his adventures. And he tried to explain them to me, and while I doubt I fully grasp them, I figured I'm going to try to apply them to my campaign ideas. Let's see how far I get.

#HTTRPG #httkingmaker

Toast of the Town

https://friendica.opensocial.space/display/8ffdf77c-1566-9451-7206-772219952777

@SJohnRoss These days a hashtag seems to be enough 😀

SJR: #HTTRPG
Internet: Oh, you mean #LTTPRG, I get it

@SJohnRoss So opponents should not be predefined in an #HTTRPG adventure?

What do you mean by "Conflation of the players with the PCs"? The players should not create their own characters?

@SJohnRoss
Could you provide more examples or elaborate a little more on each? I am just starting to get down the rabbit hole on #HTTRPG and feel a little lost 😅

@SJohnRoss thx to you Sir I just learned that I mostly run these days #HTTRPG scenarios. We learn each day 🙏 Although I'm not sure about the 'traditional' part, since my favourite mechanics recently is #gumshoe . But for scenario design, I am all in.
But it took me a long time. Gumshoe and the friendly GM inspired me to give high trust to players.

@SJohnRoss It occurs to me that some people (which is to say, me) end up focusing a lot on the "High-Trust" part of #HTTRPG and not at all on the "Trad" part, which I'm not sure I, personally, understand.

I'm thinking of things like Graham Walmsley's "Dying of St Margaret's" for Trail of Cthulhu. It has all the High-Trust hallmarks, to my eye, in the sense that it doesn't pre-suppose any solutions to the central problem -- but it does pre-suppose that there are no solutions; the bad thing is bad and no one can do anything meaningful about it. So maybe it doesn't count on the Trad front?

Anyway, if you'd care to offer any clarification on this, I know I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

@SJohnRoss I know, but I think when you're 12 realising system <> RPG is part of the evolution towards different gaming traditions. Particularly in the 80s with disconnected community. That's why I mention the rhetoric of the game. I only came across your #httrpg a few weeks back, so there's an unfolding of things I don't have the taxonomy down for yet.

@SJohnRoss Would you mind explaining “free of anything that would require the out-of-character attention of the players” part of #httrpg? I’m not sure I understand what that looks like in practice. Feel free to point me to anything you’ve already written.

@SJohnRoss Maybe I’m misunderstanding #HTTRPG, but it seems like they would fit. 🤷🏽 I better re-read. 😀

@SJohnRoss I've been following #httrpg for a while

@SJohnRoss what do you think some of the big things to keep in mind when designing this would be, to make sure it stays #HTTRPG and doesn’t fall into low-trust? Or phrased another way, is there anything unique about dungeons that makes the more difficult to support HTT play?

@SJohnRoss Your talk of #HTTRPG and #LTTRPG players and GMs is fascinating, and a little confusing because I’m trying to identify my place in that spectrum (IS it a spectrum?) and I feel somehow wildly swingy. What’s more, it feels a little I’m trying to work with both kinds of groups…