On the days when I allow myself #TTRPG posts, I will sometimes burble happily about Hammondal: Light of the Candle Islands, a fantasy city sourcebook/worldbook in progress. It's got a lot of Dwarves and puppet-people and ghosts and a hidden feline community and a talking sandwich (with a chip on his shoulder). The chip _doesn't_ talk, but that doesn't mean you can eat him.

See the entire map, and pan around and such at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j6qKRNRnhjDoJe2Ut7OWNBtC_4JBUcFP/view?usp=drivesdk #FantasyMaps #Cartography #HTTRPG #WorldBuilding

The phrase "Characterized Tactical Infinity" is what I refer to as "the tripod" of High-Trust Trad design. Each of the three words is equally crucial, and it's the navigational star in #HTTRPG to never sell off or trade down any of the three.

In other words, a piece of design that feeds "infinity" by starving the "characterizing-tactical," or that feeds "tactical" by starving "characterizing" or stifling "infinity," is usually 😰💔.

There's always more to it. But that's always there. #TTRPG

I love #TTRPG gameworlds with a clear, memorable menu of PC archetypes. And I probably won't pick one.

That isn't snark. I'm usually not going to "buy off the rack" and play a setting's pre-supplied types, but I AM going to create a character for _this_ campaign in _this_ moment in _this_ world in _this_ party. That's #HTTRPG 101.

Those archetypes set the rhythm. I'll never ignore them even if I'm not picking one.

I _don't_ like worlds built on the assumption that I WILL pick one.

Non-game material (banter, etc) is identical across the spectrum of trad. What varies from table to table is just how much non-game there is.

I like it, usually. In modest amounts, sprinkled throughout, I like it.

But if I'm personally playing in a low-trust game? I effing LOVE it. It becomes my _lifeline to roleplaying,_ so it becomes my favorite part of every session and I hope for more of it.

Another thing that isn't trust, but that trust changes for me. #TTRPG #HTTRPG

There were a handful of designers in the 90s who crystallized who I wanted, and didn't want, to be, re trust.

Chris McCubbin said to me, at a convention, about a fantasy RPG book he'd done: "When you're designing that kind of material, you have to aim for the lowest common denominator."

I still think Chris did some very good stuff. GURPS Callahan's, for example. But in that moment he became one of the avatars of Low-Trust.

#HTTRPG #TTRPG

One of my weird hobbies these days is trying to figure out exactly when Chaosium published their FINAL high-trust trad adventure.

My working assumption is "as early as 1993 for Call of Cthulhu," but I haven't nailed it down.

#HTTRPG #TTRPG

And yeah, I know most of the posts about #HTTRPG #AdventureDesign are irrelevant to most #TTRPG interests here ... but, this is my grotto into which I shout for the pleasure of the echo, and it's my sincere hope that someday, when I find my counterparts (I haven't given up), having this record of thoughts will amuse. 😅

There are a lot of paths "in" to a given piece of #TTRPG #AdventureDesign. None of them right or wrong. Whatever works.

If you're designing for #HTTRPG it can sometimes be useful to take a very abstract, high-level path, and recognize two kinds of problem: something unwanted is _imminent,_ or something unwanted is _happening right now._

If you know what _stakes_ the PCs will groove on, that's often enough to spin the whole process into motion, because that gives you the shapes of "unwanted."

I'm enjoying all the mapping I'm doing this weekend, but I _crave_ a reading break with an inspiring high-trust trad adventure.

Fortunately, I keep finding new-to-me examples by digging into old game-lines I hadn't fully explored back in the day, but that's a finite supply. This is why I keep hoping to find just one. new. designer publishing work in this area. Then I could just devote myself to promoting them, stop faffing around with trivialities and be a knight in their service. #HTTRPG

@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.

A #TTRPG I've had on a back-burner is a space-opera inspired by a campaign I loved as a player (made with that GM's blessing).

It's #HTTRPG of course, but it's not just about _solving_ problems, but _interpreting_ them according to the guidelines of a Space Corporation, thus perverting each problem.

Once you understand your playstyle, whatever it is, you can evolve it upwards, or outwards, as you please (I'm an upwards guy myself). It makes me very happy and I hope to return to it someday.

Also, outside of #HTTRPG, I'm very interested in ANY form of #TTRPG where the gameplay is wholly diegetic or close to it (measured in importance, attention, and minutes). I'm interested in any RPG that can be played by roleplaying (alas, most are just played _while_ roleplaying, which isn't my bag).

While I feel that high-trust trad is my "charge" to preserve, at least in the museum-exhibit sense, I love any game that gives nothing to the player, everything to the character, or tries to.

You can tell I aim for clarity, because my basic standard for centrality in problem design is that, for a problem to qualify as "central," I must be able to enumerate, prior to playtest, 12 comparably-viable approaches to solving it.

Naturally, I call this the Half-Dozen Rule.

Clarity. Is me. 😂

I mean, those who read my last blog post know WHY I call it the Half-Dozen Rule, but that doesn't make it any less dumb that I do.

#HTTRPG #AdventureDesign #TTRPG

I do feel like no matter how many times I type some version of "Trust is a spectrum of emphasis; there are no unique gameplay elements at either end of that spectrum," it renders in invisible pixels. This would explain why explaining HTT to LTT gamers often feels like trying to explain the difference between weather and climate to a petroleum lobbyist 😅

#HTTRPG

@SJohnRoss once I figure out HOW to run a game #HTTRPG I reckon I will feel right at home. I just don’t know what that looks like yet. Any guidance you can point at welcome. 👍

Most of the adventures I'm working on right now are, probably unsurprisingly, built around my favorite (and most-potentially-trusty) "adventure verbs." The one built around "redirect" is one I'm excited to playtest first. "Redirect" is a verb that doesn't get enough love 😊

It's also got a quasi-cartographic theme (though properly speaking it's about itineraries rather than maps) so that's just fan-service from me to me 🙄 #SelfIndulgence #AdventureDesign #TTRPG #HTTRPG

Very frustrating: reading an adventure that _begins_ in a high-trust mode but _constricts_ as it goes, ultimately funneling the PCs to a prefab end. 😓😬

It's not the low trust that frustrates. I'm well used to that. It's the _tease._ Like "I thought you and I would be PALS, adventure! Then you do me this way?" #AdventureDesign #HTTRPG #TTRPG

A slippery but still-useful distinction between High-Trust Trad and Low-Trust Trad is that HTT can be played entirely by roleplaying, while LTT can be played entirely _while_ roleplaying. #HTTRPG #TTRPG

While #HTTRPG is commercially dead, Trad itself limps along at the corners of the hobby, possibly for the long haul ... But it's definitely reached the point where if I see a new RPG with an exciting premise, I assume it isn't Trad unless the adcopy really makes it clear that it is. There's been what feels like a growing number of ... "Traddish?" games, where the Storygame elements are minimal. Those adapt easily to Trad play, so I keep an eye out for those, too.

Last night I wrote a pretty large essay on how to frame an endeavor in Applesauce, and ... it was good. Felt like a space alien wrote it, but, a _nice_ space alien.

#HTTRPG #RPGDesign