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D&d is not a good sandbox?
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<blockquote data-quote="Rod Staffwand" data-source="post: 6860772" data-attributes="member: 6776279"><p>Sandbox gaming is about dynamic player agency--that the players can dictate the goals, methods and even pacing of their adventuring. Obviously players want their characters to be at full strength as much as possible. This is especially true in a sandbox where an inadvertent level-inappropriate TPK encounter could be right around the corner. On the other side of the equation is the DM's desire to challenge the players, which often means foiling their ability to recover resources. A big flaw of 5E is to not address this natural tension and give DMs advice on how to navigate it.</p><p></p><p>A case in point might be the newbie DM who creates a great little Lost Crypt dungeon of 6-8 encounters with a boss monster at the end. The DM carefully budgets out the encounters with XP and CRs and is very proud of all the work that went into it. The PCs go through it and do fairly well but then, instead of facing down the skeletal knight at the end, they retreat to take a long rest before the final battle. The final encounter isn't that hard and a refreshed party will wipe the floor with it. What's the DM to do? Let the anticlimactic showdown happen as is? Retcon the final encounter? Retcon the Lost Crypt so that it's restocked enough to suitably and conveniently drain the PCs once again?</p><p></p><p>In such a scenario the DM could certainly conclude that 5E doesn't support sandbox play or, make it very easy. There are solutions, of course, but the rules don't do a very good job of explaining how to tackle attrition and rest management in content design. Which is odd, because D&D adventuring is traditionally attrition based. It's not like 3.X or 4E rest mechanics didn't suffer from the same destabilizing tension. The 3.X-era 5MWD is the poster child of the issue. The trickiness of 4E and 5E is the addition of the short rest which gives an even easier to pull off rest mechanic.</p><p></p><p>For my sandbox game, I do the following to make it work (more or less):</p><p>1. Use slower rest rules. Having 6-8 resource-draining encounters per day is absurd in my campaigns.</p><p>2. Never create static (unchanging) situations. I'll rarely track events outside of the PCs' experience but once they enter a 'zone' and start interacting with it, all the major elements will pursue their goals as they see fit. The classic dungeon setup of the monsters waiting patiently in room B-5 while the monsters in room B-4 are dispatched is the biggest culprit here.</p><p>3. Stretch out random encounters. A random night encounter at the PC camp might just be 1d6 kobolds. Do they attack? Of course not. They throw stones and mocking laughter just outside of sight for hours at a time. Do the PCs pursue them into the night? If the kobold taunts are true, the whole tribe might be out there or on its way. Another encounter during a rest might just be a dragon's roar unsettlingly close. Don't just attack the party, disrupt the party.</p><p>4. My current setting is magic-lite which goes a long way towards curbing convenience and exploration magic like rope trick, create food and water, endure elements, etc. I've managed to get the party to hurry through inhospitable areas as a result.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rod Staffwand, post: 6860772, member: 6776279"] Sandbox gaming is about dynamic player agency--that the players can dictate the goals, methods and even pacing of their adventuring. Obviously players want their characters to be at full strength as much as possible. This is especially true in a sandbox where an inadvertent level-inappropriate TPK encounter could be right around the corner. On the other side of the equation is the DM's desire to challenge the players, which often means foiling their ability to recover resources. A big flaw of 5E is to not address this natural tension and give DMs advice on how to navigate it. A case in point might be the newbie DM who creates a great little Lost Crypt dungeon of 6-8 encounters with a boss monster at the end. The DM carefully budgets out the encounters with XP and CRs and is very proud of all the work that went into it. The PCs go through it and do fairly well but then, instead of facing down the skeletal knight at the end, they retreat to take a long rest before the final battle. The final encounter isn't that hard and a refreshed party will wipe the floor with it. What's the DM to do? Let the anticlimactic showdown happen as is? Retcon the final encounter? Retcon the Lost Crypt so that it's restocked enough to suitably and conveniently drain the PCs once again? In such a scenario the DM could certainly conclude that 5E doesn't support sandbox play or, make it very easy. There are solutions, of course, but the rules don't do a very good job of explaining how to tackle attrition and rest management in content design. Which is odd, because D&D adventuring is traditionally attrition based. It's not like 3.X or 4E rest mechanics didn't suffer from the same destabilizing tension. The 3.X-era 5MWD is the poster child of the issue. The trickiness of 4E and 5E is the addition of the short rest which gives an even easier to pull off rest mechanic. For my sandbox game, I do the following to make it work (more or less): 1. Use slower rest rules. Having 6-8 resource-draining encounters per day is absurd in my campaigns. 2. Never create static (unchanging) situations. I'll rarely track events outside of the PCs' experience but once they enter a 'zone' and start interacting with it, all the major elements will pursue their goals as they see fit. The classic dungeon setup of the monsters waiting patiently in room B-5 while the monsters in room B-4 are dispatched is the biggest culprit here. 3. Stretch out random encounters. A random night encounter at the PC camp might just be 1d6 kobolds. Do they attack? Of course not. They throw stones and mocking laughter just outside of sight for hours at a time. Do the PCs pursue them into the night? If the kobold taunts are true, the whole tribe might be out there or on its way. Another encounter during a rest might just be a dragon's roar unsettlingly close. Don't just attack the party, disrupt the party. 4. My current setting is magic-lite which goes a long way towards curbing convenience and exploration magic like rope trick, create food and water, endure elements, etc. I've managed to get the party to hurry through inhospitable areas as a result. [/QUOTE]
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