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The players were able to tolerate the status quo. It wasn't an issue until it was yanked out from under them. I do agree that the status quo setting can also be limiting to what a player can and can't do. This can be done literally. Take a road from town a to town b and fill the...

Don't get me wrong, taking a train ride can be a fun adventure too, especially if there's a lot to do on board, the scenary is nice and I'm looking forward to the destination.

Status quo sandbox worlds are much like our own but with a little more stasis and stability. Where medieval technology and cultures have lasted more than a few hundred years. Where magic allows for century spanning races. Where in many cases the gods/demons/monsters hold society back from...

But the players didn't want to do any of that. They just wanted to make a quick pit stop into town before going back into the jungle to explore. The freedom they had before, to just stop into town and keep the dog happy, is gone now thanks to a rail put up to impede their current action. They...

The difference is that the players are in charge of when they want to save the world. It's their plot. They are going to foil the villains, not vice versa. They are going to change the DM's world (for better or worse, it's up to them and their alignment), rather than the DM pulling the rug...

A railroad is not just about what characters can do, it's also about what's going to happen in the world around them, especially when those actions affect the character. What about self motivation? That's part of making a character. Characters have goals and objectives even in a world where...

No you can't. That's not how I setup the hook in that example. But that's the only dog that knows how to defeat the evil king. And he has self esteem issues and runs away frequently. But the DM just has to add 'suspense' and put the only potion maker in the world in danger.

It's not about the option to do something, it's about the option to avoid something. When you can't avoid it then it's a rail. It's an edge you can't get around. The consequences are inevitable. And it's not black and white. Some hooks may involve events that may never unfold, or may take...

My mistake. I knew when I posted on the other thread that it was going to sidetrack the original post, which was meant more for describing your general game styles and what problems you've had with sandbox play. I guess I'll report this thread and ask the mods to delete it.

Take this example: A player wants to buy a potion that makes her pet dog pretty. The only place she has bought this potion before was in Little Town. She arrives at Little Town to discover that the potion maker is in mortal danger. She wants to keep buying potions from this guy. There's...

Have you developed or played in any worlds where people frequently come back from the dead? What was it like? I'm thinking of an entire economy revolving around the concept. Using D&D 3.5 rules, any NPC over a few levels would have enough cash for a reincarnation. What if the key to escaping...

The future is tomorrow's present, and today is tomorrow's past. It's interesting to see the level of medieval stasis in a DM's world, and I think it's important for gauging how the status quo can change. You can have a world where life sucks. It was a crapsack for the hero's father...

I don't follow you here. In this case, the motivation to restore the mine is power and the satisfaction of saving the world, at least this part of the world anyway. Whichever group takes over the mine will now grow in power all thanks to the heroes. The status quo has changed for the...

Sorry, I meant to say I'm defining it as negative in relationship to the character, not necessarily the player. Some players might love to see their characters tortured within the game world, but it's still torture to the character. Later in your post you mention how I am labeling things as...

The thing about analogies is that they aren't always perfect. :) Players aren't puppies, but GMs still reward players. There are positive methods and negative methods. Players can see progress when they accomplish their own goals, or they can see changes if they fail to accomplish someone...

Forked from: Dookie in the Sandbox?

DMing is like obedience training. There are positive rewards for good behavior, like a pet or a treat, and there are negative rewards for bad behavior, like a swat on the nose with a newspaper. Most obedience trainers would not encourage negative rewards. Event based world evolving games are...

There's no need to wait 20 to 40 years. That's the magic of our hobby.

Another thing I dislike about The Empire Strikes Back is that it established a serial nature to the series. What if Star Wars sequels had been very episodic, opening the idea of future stories that do not need a chronological order? In fact, what if Star Wars had become a TV series instead...

I'm guessing if they had land speeders they'd use them instead. "These tracks are side by side. Sand people always ride single file to hide their numbers...and, um, they don't ride dewbacks." Pretty sure they just wanted to sell more toys. Explain it however you want, but that's not MY Star Wars.