I think I get where you are coming from, and to be absolutely honest it's far more gamist than most people I've spoken with would have me believe about sandboxes.
I have ALSO been told I don't understand those terms enough to use them but yeah, I think in this case I would agree it's gamist.
I created a world (again with or without player input) then pitched it they agreed to play it and now in game they are controling where we go... but I have safty rule guild lines... like not killing a family member out of nowhere, not doing some very brutal things I wont put to words now... but I am also a horror writer (not published yet) and I can tell you I can narrate a brutal scene I would not want at my table.
Much of the time when sandbox play was invoked, there was a heavy element of choices and consequences.
I do agree with this too, just not that every consequence has to be the same... choosing the orcs or the dragon doesn't mean the other just goes and kills everyone. Consequences are important... but as you said 'gamesit' the game has to be fun both during and after those consequences.
someone has cards I think roll20 has them somewhere too about things that can or can't be done in games... but we just talk it out sometimes like adults and sometimes like 'mature' 13 year olds.
As in, you have the choice to ignore a problem, but the consequences will affect you regardless. Note that the consequences aren't always personal; not investigating a local farmer's disappearance might not affect the PC directly but only mean the village is now a ghost town when the PCs pass back though 6 months later.
yeah I have totally done that... I will raise you one better, I had a ghoul that they were pretty sure used to be the clerk at the alchemist shop...
I see no reason why a nameless bunch of NPC deaths isn't perfect. I could even have it be named cared about ones but I would spell that out "Hey, if you ignore X that puts Y in danger" although I rarely have to be THAT direct with it.
I think this is an issue especially when the PCs are "special" and other bands of heroes, guards and sellswords don't exist to pick up your slack.
that's a world thing... weather adventure... or hunter... or some other not murderhobo term is a 'thing' in this world or not changes things... can "Hey that other 4th level group of adventurers did it and are not the heroes of the town" work or not is dependent...
When you are one of maybe a handful of wizards in the region, you tend to get the "great power/great responsibility" ethos tossed in your face.
yeah. but not everyone plays peter parker... sometimes you get Lobo "with great power comes great fun" but I think over all my PCs end up somewhere inbetween those two.
It actually seems refreshing to consider that occasionally other adventuring parties exist and clean up the messes you missed or even get to your score first. You aren't the heroes of destiny, you're just a bunch of people who live on a diet of adrenaline, luck, and healing potions.
I rarely if ever (anymore) do 'destiny' pre 9th level, and even then I don't do it every campaign that hits 9+
I'm usually a narrative DM, the cultists you fight at level one will lead to fighting their demon lord at level 15+. But honestly, a campaign set in a frontier full of monsters, dungeons and evil plots but also rival adventurers competing for your business seems like a refreshing change of pace.
I have run both in sandbox form (in different degrees)
I even pulled a BIG fake out recently. I totally foreshadowed the lord of the lands was a strahd with the serial numbers filed off... at level 4ish when they found out he was a vampire nobody was shocked... they all figured they would level up, and someday have to face him.
then around level 7ish I had his 'daughter' send them an invitation... and they found out from her (who was plotting to overthrow him) that he had some super divination ability that was broken into to Foresight, and Prescience (I thought I gave away the trick with this one) foresight lets him look into moments of the future all the time (so no surprising him) and Prescience let him go into meditation to view possible futures (think Dr Strange in infinity war) BUT she knew his weakness... he can not see others with Prescience in these visions or what they do... so since she inhearted them she was a blind spot (how did this not give it away) and she told them of a way to become a temporary blind spot.
she then told them that she wanted/needed them to be a distraction, call the guards from his summer keep and then she and others would strike...
so we get to this and the PCs are 100% sure that 'not strahd' is going to kill her leaving them with this knowledge and being 'the only ones' to stop him...
but not only does she kill him but she kills his whole bloodline (except her 3 children and there father) and all of his main Lts... (The PCs handled 1 of them) then the PCs got a letter thanking them, from the lord... this was all according to plan, and it warned that this "golden path" he forced the world down was one of the only ways it survived... a threat was coming that could use prescience... that when he started this 15,000 years ago he HAD to become undead to guide the way. To force people to find these ways around prescience... 1 in 50 today can be, when he started it was 1 in a million. Then he told the PCs in this letter "Now the job is yours, I am at rest. Thank you... make sure the world is not destroyed, that we have a chance..." (He was based on the god emperor of dune) so a PC asked "when is this threat coming?" and another asked "Who or what is it..." then trailed off into other plot hooks they already had.
I told them good questions, now how are we going to find the answers...
the answer was the enemy was AT LEAST 200 years off... the PCs were not destined to stop it... only 1 would most likely even live to see it (unless they changed that somehow) but they could set up and make sure THOSE WHO WILL BE DESTINED have what they need...
the campaign ended due to an out of game personal tragedy. but twist of they didnt have a BBEG to fight but they get to set up for some future group to do it was amazing while it lasted.
Like you though, there better be a quest giver or three in that tavern before the game becomes Arsonists and Agitators.
yeah...