Comment on “That on Which You Should Be Working”

Eagerly awaiting more along these lines.

I haven't had the problem for a long time of working too much on "listmaking content"... but I definitely struggle to create and present motivations, cultures, ideals. I feel I simultaneously go too big and too small. "Too big" means I know there's a war breaking out in the next realm over, but I have (some) trouble working through all the consequences that will have on the world (including how the rulers of this realm, where the players are, will respond.) "Too small" means I can come up with motivations for individual people, or small groups, but can't quite grasp how they would achieve that w/in existing power structures, hierarchies, etc.

More familiarity with history is the best antidote I've found so far. Drawing on real-world instances of ambassadors, troop movements, native tribes encountering colonial settlers for the first time, and using that to inform:

1. facts: how does this particular kingdom's governance function, effectively or not, to extend authority from king down to peasant? where are the routes over this mountain range and how does that constrain the num. of armies you can field?

2. "insertion points": in what location, time, and manner can a motivated group -- PC party or otherwise -- alter the facts? what do you have to do to bring a case before the law? convince someone to join you as a follower? be knighted? brew a wine and enter it in a competition?

"Adventures" -- I use the term loosely -- fall naturally out of the combination, I think. It's just endless work to build up the facts and the points into a world, or derive the former two from the latter!