How much prep do I need for a sandbox?

[OchreJelly]

Since you mentioned Nentir Vale, I assume this is for 4E, or you're at least willing to mine 4E material?

I've found that the published adventures have a lot of "other encounters". These are typically like random encounters with a little bit of extra spice or hook thrown in. I recommend mining those and keeping that info handy.

The nice thing about 4E IME is that it's easy to run monsters right out of the MM. You can have it open to the page and just go! This lends itself nicely to sandbox.

If you're a DDI member, the encounter builder might also be invaluable to sandbox. You can quickly put together balanced encounters based on party level / size.

 

[OchreJelly]

Bringing this into 4e, if you have a character who is a specialist in the War Pick, and the group finds a magical war pick every three levels or so (and never finds a magical longsword), the players will pick up on the fact that they are getting catered item lists - that, regardless of where they go, they'll get the same (or very similar) treasure.

You can use 4e to sandbox, but for the reason above, I'd drop the treasure packets system. I think a good way to do it would be to factor in Weapon, Armour, and Neck-slot enhancement bonuses into regular PC progression. Mike Mearls mentioned this just before 4e released. This way, the magical items you gave out would only be the "weird" ones, not truly catered to any specific character build. You could even give out magical weapons/armour - just have magical items in this houseruled game of yours grant only the property bonus, the daily/encounter powers, and the bonus damage on a critical hit (a character with a non-magical weapon that got an enhancement bonus would only deal the extra d6s on a crit, not the d8s or d10s some weapons grant).

I actually would find a way to integrate the "item wishlist" and parcels suggestion in the DMG with a sandbox approach. One way to do that would be to reward players that do research either through history checks, or RPing to learn about which ruins are rumored to have which treasures. This way you allow players to be rewarded with items that fit them, and it also feels a bit more organic in the process. If the players learn that the dwarves used to make the "magical picks of sundering" in the now "Lost Mines of Ooogosh" then the pick wielder can take that as a hint that the item he wants would be found there.

More generally though, the parcels serve a similar function to wealth-by-level guidelines of the previous edition. You could really deconstruct it. I don't even feel obliged to give it all out over the course of a level if it doesn't feel right.

Heck in my game, I have 3 parcel lists I'm currently working off of. Some of the previous ones I haven't completed rewarding items from just from the sorts of encounters they are having (presently lots of skill challenge encounters and wilderness encounters with animal type monsters).

Another more organic approach is to put more emphasis on quest rewards for parcels. I have found the "NPC will enchant an item of level X of your choice" to be a popular option.

 

[LostSoul]

I actually would find a way to integrate the "item wishlist" and parcels suggestion in the DMG with a sandbox approach. One way to do that would be to reward players that do research either through history checks, or RPing to learn about which ruins are rumored to have which treasures.

Here is the system I am using:

If you want to find a specific magic item, you can go and hunt it down. Even if it's way outside your level. The system will work like this:

• You tell me what you want, and what level it is.
• I give you a minor quest to get it (the level of the Quest is the level of the item).
• I roll 1d4 and subtract that from the level of the item. That's the level of the encounter where you can find the item. (If you want a level 14 item, the encounter range will be 10-13, just like the treasure parcel levels where you can find a level 14 item.)
• You look for rumours, legends, or any information that will lead you to the item. You can also make an appropriate skill check to see if you know where one might be; DC is Hard of the level of the item. If your PC doesn't know, you can consult a sage.
• Then you go and hunt it down, if you want.

edit: Thanks for all the advice in this thread, it's good.

I have a decent handle on how to handle things it seems. Now I need to:

-create some "rival" NPC adventuring parties
-create some natural events (celebrations, eclipses, strange happenings, etc.)
-figure out how some of the more important beings in the setting deal with each other.

I have King of the Trollhaunt Warrens; I think I am going to retrofit it to fit within the Vale. That means rumours of trolls on the warpath now, and I putting Etheran Therund in there somehow. Hmm... I have an idea of how that might work. We'll see.

 

[OchreJelly]

Trollhaunt is a good one. Thunderspire is also pretty open-ended. With a small bit of tinkering I was able to make it so that the major adventure locales could be approached in any order (aside from the last one). There's also lots of room to flesh out certain areas and the DDI add-on indeed fleshed out many of the sub-areas.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

This.

Plus have one or two mysterious groups who are working behind the scenes. Then as the PCs find clues and debate the meaning of the clues keep track of these ideas that the players have given you and run with it.

Smetzger wins! Back when I ran campaigns that used very few modules/published adventures this is exactly what I did. Make up some seemingly interesting (but really cardboard/boring) stuff. Let the players babble about it for as long as they were interested and steal their best idea as the truth.