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What do hirelings have to do with sandbox play?

Quick drawing maps is supported by the tools I've used (I used Roll20, played around with Maps) but you get this weird dichotomy where something that works perfectly well during an in-person game on a mat is not really enough for an online.

Which then begs the question of why there's the belief that more than one play style is not given equal airtime. They don't go really into detail on different campaign styles, none of the DMGs ever have as far as I can recall* because for purposes of the book there's no need to do so. They do...

I think you have to squint really hard to see story now in 4E any more than other editions, but I agree. I don't want a story now game, that's one of the reasons I play D&D.

It seems like you're getting caught up in the use of the word "story" and putting too much emphasis their use of it. If you look at the adventures section, it's just general advice on how to present and tie together encounters and how to wrap things up with an emphasis on more than one possible...

If @Reynard believes my game is a sandbox then I'm confused. I went back and reread the campaign building guidelines and I don't see anything in the DMG that dissuades DMs people from running sandboxes, quite the opposite. The encounter design is pretty straightforward and doesn't really affect...

Is something like Curse of Strahd a sandbox to you? I haven't read the module but when we played it we had some intro scenes, told the basic end goal that if we wanted out of Ravenloft we'd have to deal with Strahd and then were just given a map. But we all knew the end goal and the encounters...

It's group dependent and I find that the larger the group the worse it is. Playing online also seems to make it worse for some reason.

I can say that Minecraft is a sandbox because what people do is restricted by the rules of the game but there are no real goals other than the ones that are 100% established by the players. In my games I'm still establishing the goals, even if I dangle multiple goals. I'm also applying...

I don't care about the source as long as the monsters are fun, engaging, and relatively well balanced.

I think the rules are designed to be simple and easy to implement, but like most things it's up to the people playing the game to decide how it really works. On the other hand the specific wording of the alarm spell does indicate that it's not sound emanating from the point the spell was cast...

I don't consider my campaigns a sandbox. On the other hand, I populate the world, set up factions with their own goals and agendas, set up an intro session or three and then let the players decide what they're going to pursue. When a particular chapter/story arc ends I ask them what they want...

Even video games that let you pursue your goals in any order or have a world where you can go anywhere at any time is still an open world game if it has predefined quests and goals. So Skyrim, or more recent games like the Horizon or Far Cry series are open world games because even though you...

What would you consider a sandbox video game?

I've explained what I think and why.

How many styles are they supposed to include? There are only so many pages for this you could allocate, it's better that they focus on one specific style because, once again, this advice is targeted at new DMs. It's training wheels until they can figure out their own style. This idea that DMs...

Umm ... it's supposed to represent a person new to the game (the guy) listening to someone who doesn't know how to give concise highlights about lore of the Forgotten Realms and going on and on. Apparently my attempt at humor missed.

You stated "These things are required". I disagree. You can include them if you want but they are not necessary.

Do they? I've never cared for random encounter tables, I choose enemies and monsters that fit the area the PCs are likely to encounter. I don't even know what faction relationship maps are, I just make notes on different factions and goals. Random/procedural generation? Nah. I'd rather use my...

I think the lore glossary was a good idea, there's a tendency for people who have been with the hobby for a while (not just grognards) to make references to a lot of things. Heck, the modules and core books make such references on a regular basis. It's hard for someone who has been playing for...