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Community
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*Pathfinder & Starfinder
It needs to be more of a sandbox than a railroad?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6380468" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>On this particular issue I'm with Umbran. One reason is that there is a fairly well-established approach to RPGing - indie-style play based around the scene/situation - which is neither sandbox nor railroad/linear.</p><p></p><p>In indie-style play the GM frames all the conflict, on the basis of cues/hooks provided by the players during PC-build and earlier episodes of actual play. And the resolution is not-prescripted (and is not simply win-or-die, which is the standard D&D approach to non-prescripted outcomes).</p><p></p><p>The players, for instance, will generally decide who the villains are (ie who their PCs are opposd to). But the GM decides when those villains come calling (GM authority over scene-framing).</p><p></p><p>This is not sandbox - eg the players don't frame the scenes, nor decide where their PCs go. The GM is not purely reactive, but rather is constantly putting pressure on the players via framing the PCs into circumstances of conflict. But where the players go and what quests they undertake is not pre-scripted, and hence it is not a railroad.</p><p></p><p>Nor is it somewhere on a notional spectrum between railroad and sandbox. It is its own thing.</p><p></p><p>The only D&D adventures I know of that approximate to this sort of presentation are some of the Penumbra d20 adventures (over 10 years old now).</p><p></p><p>Robin Laws presents similar sorts of adventures in the HeroWars Narrator Book. And this is how I use published D&D adventures, but in means that in most cases I have to disregard the author's own presentation of the adventure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6380468, member: 42582"] On this particular issue I'm with Umbran. One reason is that there is a fairly well-established approach to RPGing - indie-style play based around the scene/situation - which is neither sandbox nor railroad/linear. In indie-style play the GM frames all the conflict, on the basis of cues/hooks provided by the players during PC-build and earlier episodes of actual play. And the resolution is not-prescripted (and is not simply win-or-die, which is the standard D&D approach to non-prescripted outcomes). The players, for instance, will generally decide who the villains are (ie who their PCs are opposd to). But the GM decides when those villains come calling (GM authority over scene-framing). This is not sandbox - eg the players don't frame the scenes, nor decide where their PCs go. The GM is not purely reactive, but rather is constantly putting pressure on the players via framing the PCs into circumstances of conflict. But where the players go and what quests they undertake is not pre-scripted, and hence it is not a railroad. Nor is it somewhere on a notional spectrum between railroad and sandbox. It is its own thing. The only D&D adventures I know of that approximate to this sort of presentation are some of the Penumbra d20 adventures (over 10 years old now). Robin Laws presents similar sorts of adventures in the HeroWars Narrator Book. And this is how I use published D&D adventures, but in means that in most cases I have to disregard the author's own presentation of the adventure. [/QUOTE]
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Community
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It needs to be more of a sandbox than a railroad?
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