What's the worst thing, and make that happen -

I don't, because in general I consider "The worst thing that could happen" pretty much End the plot thread. The worst thing that could've happened to Frodo is that he died, failed to throw the Ring into mount doom, or became corrupted by the Ring and became a villain. That's not useful.

I prefer "What could happen that's very interesting".

For me so far the most productive way of advancing a story is to find an event in which the solution to a problem includes a new problem.

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That's fun. There's an RPG called Mouseguard that uses that resolution. If a character fails at something, they succeed at their task but get a complication. I.e. if they are a messenger carrying something important, and they are try to jump across a narrow river, they succeed - but the object they're carrying falls into the river, and they have to retrieve it.

Rechan said:

I don't, because in general I consider "The worst thing that could happen" pretty much End the plot thread. The worst thing that could've happened to Frodo is that he died, failed to throw the Ring into mount doom, or became corrupted by the Ring and became a villain. That's not useful.

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How the heck isn't that useful? Frodo nearly does become a villain under the influence of the ring and nearly fails in his quest. At the last moment he is ripped from that fate by Golum, and thus ends the ring. Middle Earth no longer needs to contend with sauron and can focus on fighting the remaining forces of evil and cleaning up.

Lillith1991 said:

How the heck isn't that useful? Frodo nearly does become a villain under the influence of the ring and nearly fails in his quest. At the last moment he is ripped from that fate by Golum, and thus ends the ring. Middle Earth no longer needs to contend with sauron and can focus on fighting the remaining forces of evil and cleaning up.

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The whole maxim's point is to make the worst thing happen. Not to smply have it be a risk.

By the very nature of a character starting out on a quest, the risk of failing that quest is there. A character's death is always a risk (well, depending on genre).

These things did not happen. Therefore they don't qualify.