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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6565921" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>There were quite a few good parts to this, but I pick this one out because it relates back to my last post responding to [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION]. MUCH of what goes into the average 'sandbox' is really preloading of meta-game considerations. They are simply 'baked into' the setting. I didn't quote the later paragraph where you describe things like dropping plot hooks at the right moment, but this is all very classic DM behavior. Often it takes the form of a collaboration between the players (who obviously DO NOT want to stumble into a certain-death situation) and the DM. The PCs finish looting the 'starter dungeon' and go back to town to 'look for some action'. They hang around in various low-class dives plying their social skills until wonder of wonders a battered survivor of the last ill-fated expedition to the level 5 dungeon staggers in! I have yet to hear of the DM who had a guy stagger in and rolled randomly for which of the 20 nearest lairs he had a map to regardless of whether they were within the capability of the current party. No Sir, this guy JUST HAPPENS to have knowledge of a perfect place to go grab some better loot! </p><p></p><p>This is not to say that a group which is determined to achieve self-immolation cannot go off and trek into the distant giant-infested mountains and be slaughtered by galeb-dur at level 1. Of course you CAN, and there's some level of charm there, but in a sense the sandbox itself, by its very nature IS the illusion, not the reality. The reality would be much much less fun.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 6565921, member: 82106"] There were quite a few good parts to this, but I pick this one out because it relates back to my last post responding to [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION]. MUCH of what goes into the average 'sandbox' is really preloading of meta-game considerations. They are simply 'baked into' the setting. I didn't quote the later paragraph where you describe things like dropping plot hooks at the right moment, but this is all very classic DM behavior. Often it takes the form of a collaboration between the players (who obviously DO NOT want to stumble into a certain-death situation) and the DM. The PCs finish looting the 'starter dungeon' and go back to town to 'look for some action'. They hang around in various low-class dives plying their social skills until wonder of wonders a battered survivor of the last ill-fated expedition to the level 5 dungeon staggers in! I have yet to hear of the DM who had a guy stagger in and rolled randomly for which of the 20 nearest lairs he had a map to regardless of whether they were within the capability of the current party. No Sir, this guy JUST HAPPENS to have knowledge of a perfect place to go grab some better loot! This is not to say that a group which is determined to achieve self-immolation cannot go off and trek into the distant giant-infested mountains and be slaughtered by galeb-dur at level 1. Of course you CAN, and there's some level of charm there, but in a sense the sandbox itself, by its very nature IS the illusion, not the reality. The reality would be much much less fun. [/QUOTE]
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