Goin on my expericen of doing this in RQ and HW, not HQ, but...
> Currently I write out a complete plot outline -- secrets,
> puzzle solutions, and all -- and set up all the contests that
> I can anticipate in advance.
And when I did this, I then found that the players did something different, and I'd been wasting my time.
"Puzzle solutions" may be a part of the difference in style here. That sounds like the sort of room in a D&D dungeon where you have to figure out to turn the statue and put the rod you found three rooms back into the slot while opening doors 4 and 6. If I'm wrong, then I apologise in a grovelling manner for infesting the list with such a thing, but how you do those with no pre-prep is easy - you don't.
> If you don't prepare plots and NPCs, how do you compensate
> for the lack of them?
You don't have a lack of them. Because you make them up as you need them. And this is a lot easier in HQ than in RQ...
Let's say the theme (too vague to be a plot) is "the clan healer needs
to go to the nearest temple, you're her escort". So you'd work out the
*relevant* skills for the healer. We don't care what her combat ability
is. We do care if she's a stunning 20 year old, or a granny with 10W3 in
Gratuious Insults. If the players pick a particular way of interacting
with her, you may find out more.
"I try to impress her with my knowledge of leatherworking."
"What a coincidence, that's a hobby of hers, too." - or, "shame her
dad's a Master, she isn't impressed. She might offer to introduce you,
though..."
You figure out where the nearest temple is, and an idea of what's on the way, and what's nearby. Then the players say what they want to do about it. Skip the encounter on the way? Leave the road to investigate the dragon-newt ruin, dragging her along?
Say the temple's in a city - they decide to go shopping. Or drinking. Or to find the local champion and challenge him to a duel...
So you invent what they find, invent an ability or two, and go with the flow.
I also drop in a few things they weren't expecting and didn't effectively request, like an encounter with a recurring villain who thought he'd come here to get away from them, or an old friend who's visiting the place to try to solve *their* problem/plot.
Maybe they get her to the temple and find it's under "attack" (needn't be physical). Or it's not there? Or it's had a change of management, and the new lot hate her?
Imagine how the locals will react to these people turning up. Resentment? See a sucker and make money from them? Just shut your eyes, look at the city, and watch the locals react. Pick one that looks like fun.
What's going on locally that's nothing to do with them (yet)? Local festival? Rumours of a thief, or a monster? Plague of frogs?
And I made up all that lot as I typed....
> What prevents them from
> getting stuck on some problem you posed to them without
> figuring out at least a couple of solutions yourself?
Nothing. If you pose that sort of puzzle. You can use an NPC as a mouth-piece if this is a problem, of course. Better yet, two NPCs, one of whom comes up with suggestions that are (usually) bad ones.
> And what's the Pool?
An alternative rules system, very rules-lite.
> This remark interests me as well. Are there types of
> scenarios, players, or narrators for which improvisation
> simply won't work?
Narrators who can't, or don't have the confidence to, improvise.
Players who wait to be pointed down a path.
Scenarios that you're in love with and want them to be guided
through....
And scenarios written along the lines of "when the PCs have done X, then
as a result part II will be triggered..."
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