D&D 5E D&d is not a good sandbox?

[Tony Vargas]

How do you prevent too many long rests. How do you allow just enough short rests?

What's that got to do with a sandbox?

Heh. Play balance of any sort can seem almost antithetical to the style, and it does actively repudiate the very idea of encounter balance. Class balance can still be nice to have, though, especially as you have fewer tools to tailor the experience to give everyone their 'spotlight time.'

One thing about a sandbox is that, as the DM, you simply don't need to worry about what an "appropriate" challenge is- that's up to the pcs to decide.

You may have to worry about telegraphing the level of challenge, though, if you don't want to cycle through PCs too much, nor plow through too many too-easy encounters.

Placing 'level appropriate' encounters in the PCs path can strain credulity for some. So can telegraphing encounter levels.

There's always something to 'worry about' as a DM.

 

[Rhenny]

Actually, during the playtest, I ran the Caves of Chaos with my group as a sandbox. They decided everything and they actually freed an orc from one of the prisons, escorted him back to his clan. Then, they found out that the two orc clans used to be one and the prisoner's chief had just lost a sacred totem that would have given him power over both clans. Of course the other clan secretly stole the totem and their chief was pushing to take over both clans. The party of adventurers decided to help the first orc chief find the totem so they had a plan to have the first orc chief call a potlatch with all of the orcs. Then, while they were all celebrating, the party snuck into the other clan's caves and explored to find the missing totem.

None of this was staged or scripted and we had a blast.

Right now, in my Princes of the Apocalypse campaign, that's becoming pretty much a sand box too. The party is only 4th level and they are inside the Air Cult temple. They are bluffing their way through it. Pretty soon they'll probably meet Windharrow and then Aerisi. They won't have a chance to kill her or him, and if they escape to the lower levels, I wonder if the party will give chase? If they do, they'll be in way over their heads unless I get them to level up a few levels. The excitement for me is that I don't really know what they are going to do nor if they will actually survive. That's what's great about sand box.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I think if you are playing a sandbox, and want some resource attrition, you probably want to restrict long rests to a safe place like an inn, or change the recovery rate to short rest overnight, and long rest = 1 week. Over time I have come to dislike the 5e short rest/long rest class split, I think it makes balancing the classes out unnecessarily difficult. A house rule with a party wide short rest mechanic would be better, I feel.

Just one point about sandboxing in general. I've found it helps dramatically to have a formal "retreat" mechanic in place. We use a group luck check, lets the party bail out of an encounter (and sometimes transition into a chase). The cost is a luck point and possibly some other setback. This has been terrific for me as DM and exciting for the players - I can throw anything that makes sense at the party - and they can engage with it, or not, but knowing that if they get in over their heads, there is (usually a very good chance of) a way out.

 

[Rhenny]

Just one point about sandboxing in general. I've found it helps dramatically to have a formal "retreat" mechanic in place. We use a group luck check, lets the party bail out of an encounter (and sometimes transition into a chase). The cost is a luck point and possibly some other setback. This has been terrific for me as DM and exciting for the players - I can throw anything that makes sense at the party - and they can engage with it, or not, but knowing that if they get in over their heads, there is (usually a very good chance of) a way out.

Great idea Psikerlord#. That sure beats trying to mop up a TPK or figuring out a sly way to get the PCs out of a jam by coincidence or DM fiat. This is kind of like plot points, but with a limited use. I could see making this a party resource (like with Edge of the Empire Star Wars Light Side/Dark Side Points). Could even add other uses...

 

[S'mon]

My 5e online game is an open-world sandbox, but it's not entirely a 'status quo' sandbox - I fairly often have encounters tailored to party level, partly because that's what the available wandering monster tables are designed for. So eg when the party decided to go on a quest to destroy the Black Sun Gate I was using a lot of ca EL 10-12 encounters, matching party level.

You can have sandboxes that are entirely open world and entirely tailored, like Elder Scrolls III, and this is a way to get around the level-up issue. Generally the 'zoned' approach of low and high CR/level zones works better for immersion - eg the area around the Black Sun Gate was one of powerful magical energies.

Currently my party are 12th-14th level and command their own fleet; with 3 warships and 200 warriors (down from 280 before the last battle) - significant encounters are with enemy armies! It's still entirely open-world; they can take their forces whereever they want and decide who to fight, who to seek to recruit, etc.

 

[RotGrub]

I know some people really like playing d&d as a sandbox. However it seems to me that the rest mechanics have never worked well for that style of play. Am I missing something or are some people just trying to fit a square peg into a round hole?

The rest mechanics do suck. The concept of the adventuring day sucks too. I thought the game would be a little more modular by way of the PHB and not relegated to the option ghetto of the DMG. Of course, even the options in the DMG don't go far enough. Sadly, it's near impossible to find a game as a player that isn't using the default resting mechanics.

 

[devincutler]

my 2 cents is that D&D and similar class/level games are usually not very good for "unstructured" sandbox gaming. There is a certain almost video game type advancement going on and certain creatures stop being a threat early on, building a playable sandbox that is keeping to some kind of theme can get wonky. points of light really had us frustrated early on in 4th, 5th didnt seem to fix it much, bounded accuracy somewhat helps, but doesnt save it. I would recommend a "structured/restricted" sort of sandbox, made level equivelant with enough plot hooks to make it seem "open"

At 1st level, my PCs fear the wilderness. At 12th level, the wilderness fears my PCs.

 

[the Jester]

The rest mechanics do suck. The concept of the adventuring day sucks too. I thought the game would be a little more modular by way of the PHB and not relegated to the option ghetto of the DMG. Of course, even the options in the DMG don't go far enough. Sadly, it's near impossible to find a game as a player that isn't using the default resting mechanics.

Huh. I've yet to find one that is using the default resting mechanics. Just goes to show you, experiences vary.

 

[Maxperson]

There is nothing meta about a character assessing approximate strength of an enemy, it is something that we all are inherently capable of to varying degrees and it only makes sense that sentient creatures in-game would also be able to do so. As to the "come back in x amount of time when we are more powerful", that is not something that should be asked or answered. There might be a way for the PCs to kill that giant in non-traditional ways for example. Or, as mentioned they could choose to come back when they have worked themselves up to that metaphorical UFC level that I mentioned. Whether or not it is weeks or years in-game for them to be capable depends entirely on how the game is run.

There is nothing meta about TRYING to assess the approximate strength of the enemy. They will fail a lot of the time, because D&D is full of things that look far more powerful than they are, or are far more powerful than they look. PCs that have never seen such creatures will assess them incorrectly without other information that may or may not be available.

 

[happyhermit]

There is nothing meta about TRYING to assess the approximate strength of the enemy. They will fail a lot of the time, because D&D is full of things that look far more powerful than they are, or are far more powerful than they look. PCs that have never seen such creatures will assess them incorrectly without other information that may or may not be available.

Yup, same can happen in the real world, (though there are some abilities in D&D that are supposed to give some "factual" info about a creature). When it happens in a D&D game especially, it can lead to some of the greatest reactions and stories for all those involved.

On the other hand, depending on the world in question, some players go the way of being very cautious about this kind of thing, researching and observing, etc and it makes sense that it pays off most of the time (their characters are likely good at this stuff).