I’ve been grinding along, writing several encounters every day and re-arranging them into a more coherent sequence. It’s slow work, as each encounter needs to be thought through carefully. The trickiest part is coming up with the point of conflict at the end of each encounter. The point of conflict is what forces Arthur to choose between options. Sometimes the point of conflict is obvious; sometimes I just cannot figure out a good point of conflict. A good one provides the player with a difficult set of choices. Normally I’m happy with just two options, but occasionally I come up with three.
I finally solved the problem with the False_Honest personality trait. You will recall that it proved almost impossible to evaluate, because it required two encounters. The first has Arthur making a promise; in the second, Arthur’s promise is called due, but somehow he has good reason to break his promise. This structure just doesn’t work, because there’s nothing to trade False_Honest off against.
The solution is to replace False_Honest with a new personality trait: Bumbling_Competent. I had considered something along the lines of “Kingliness”, but eventually rejected that. This new definition refers to how well Arthur handles problems, especially military problems.
I must now go back through the entire set of encounters and define delta values for Bumbling_Competent. My current encounter list has 159 encounters.