Plots in a Sandbox

Janx said:

Excellent clarification of what the OP probably meant.

If you take a trip to deepest darkest Africa to explore some lost tomb, you're probably going to be out of tough and gone for a while.

While not literally locked up in chains, the person is tied up with business and cannot simply alter course and jump back stateside right away.

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Its like owning a house in a depressed housing market and you're mortgage is underwater. (I know this feeling too well).

On a slightly related note:

In my current sandboxy campaign, I've had a few possible opportunities for the PCs to set down roots in a base of operations of their own. I'm not sure if they ever follow up on that, given the other quests they've already seemed most interested in following (in-character), but it led me to start thinking hypothetically about how run sandbox adventures for a group that is more or less in stationary, fortified area. An area I might add is only about the size of the village.

So I started thinking about Birthright campaign style that incorporated Skill Challenges to simulate the passing of time with regards to situation reports about their locality, its upkeep, and any dangers or opportunities looming.

The skills Nature, Insight, and Streetwise would seem to be the best choices for this. Luckily most of the PCs are great at these skills, so they might do well in a encounters based around a fixed operations site.


C.I.D.

Good GMs don't railroad.

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Ah. So there are no good GMs running Living Forgotten Realms?

I think rather that a good GM's techniques are well suited to whatever game he or she happens to be game mastering.

If indeed that other fellow's view of the dungeon matter was the same as Cyronax's and Janx's -- then my point was spot on. It's your choice of assumptions, the "locking up" in the first place, that is the actual problem.

There is nothing at all else compelling anyone to get "bogged down" in what the original game called "a good dungeon". It is not incumbent on everyone else to have that problem just because you do.

Ariosto said:

If indeed that other fellow's view of the dungeon matter was the same as Cyronax's and Janx's -- then my point was spot on. It's your choice of assumptions, the "locking up" in the first place, that is the actual problem.

There is nothing at all else compelling anyone to get "bogged down" in what the original game called "a good dungeon". It is not incumbent on everyone else to have that problem just because you do.

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Aristo, you're twisting my words, much like I've seen you twist many other posters words across multiple threads (all with the term 'sandbox' in the title).

I don't think I had the 'problem' of getting bogged down. It was just a tendency that my various groups preferred smaller sites for exploration. I have read that common view many times on various gaming forums. Its not a right or a wrong type scenario. I was just referring to a method --- 3.5's Return to Castle Greyhawk --- that provided some guidance about avoiding that bogged down feeling.

Or else I'm just a bad DM, because that's what it seems like most of your arguments breakdown to Aristo.

C.I.D.