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How do players know they are in the "wrong" location in a sandbox campaign?
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<blockquote data-quote="devincutler" data-source="post: 7094326" data-attributes="member: 6684551"><p>A problem often arises in trying to telegraph difficulty to players in game. A great example of this is...</p><p></p><p><strong>HOARD OF THE DRAGON QUEEN SPOILERS:</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p></p><p>In HotDQ your 1st level, newly rolled up PCs come to a town being ravaged by an ADULT blue dragon. The PCs are expected to rush to the defense of the town. But it is a known issue with that scenario that many PCs simply want to flee, and the scenario never gets started without the DM intervening and telling the players "it's OK".</p><p></p><p>I can recall a lot of low level dungeons where the background or rumours involved high level monsters (i.e. rumours of vampires where none exist or rumours that an ancient dragon used to live up there). I can recall low level adventures where the townsfolk proclaim that no one has ever returned from X. All of these should, logically discourage low level PCs.</p><p></p><p>A sandbox DM has to be very careful to avoid trying to make his level appropriate threats sound tougher than they are just for dramatic effect. Once the PCs cannot rely on your clues, the whole thing goes out the window.</p><p></p><p>So, sandbox telegraphing is a very fine art that can actually swing both ways.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="devincutler, post: 7094326, member: 6684551"] A problem often arises in trying to telegraph difficulty to players in game. A great example of this is... [B]HOARD OF THE DRAGON QUEEN SPOILERS: [/B] In HotDQ your 1st level, newly rolled up PCs come to a town being ravaged by an ADULT blue dragon. The PCs are expected to rush to the defense of the town. But it is a known issue with that scenario that many PCs simply want to flee, and the scenario never gets started without the DM intervening and telling the players "it's OK". I can recall a lot of low level dungeons where the background or rumours involved high level monsters (i.e. rumours of vampires where none exist or rumours that an ancient dragon used to live up there). I can recall low level adventures where the townsfolk proclaim that no one has ever returned from X. All of these should, logically discourage low level PCs. A sandbox DM has to be very careful to avoid trying to make his level appropriate threats sound tougher than they are just for dramatic effect. Once the PCs cannot rely on your clues, the whole thing goes out the window. So, sandbox telegraphing is a very fine art that can actually swing both ways. [/QUOTE]
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Community
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How do players know they are in the "wrong" location in a sandbox campaign?
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