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I refer you to this earlier post of yours. I was being challenged by another poster about how "character-centric play" was being defined in my conversation with you: I directed them to you because it was clear from our conversation that you had a working understanding of what character-centric...

I understand the frustration, and I agree that mischaracterizations from any direction don’t help move the conversation forward. In my experience, both here and at the table, it’s more productive to focus on the substance of ideas rather than the tone or repeated reframing others may bring. When...

I got you covered on this. Having three or four things is not quite how folks who have been running sandbox campaigns have been doing things for the past couple of decades. That issue has long been covered by a bunch of folks, including myself. For example Blackmarsh (free download) Or my...

Decent adventure, unfortunate name. It not a classic but I found it to be a decent adventure that makes quite a bit of sense. The mining rules are not bad either. The interesting wrinkle is the addition of rival adventuring parties.

At this point, I think we’ve reached the limits of a productive exchange. I’ve done my best to explain how I run living world sandbox campaigns, how sandbox campaigns function in general, how the world reacts independently, how player choice drives the action, and how the referee adjudicates...

It seems like the issue is being framed as if proponents of sandbox campaigns believe some external authority mandates this approach, as if we’re saying “this is the only real way to play.” That’s not the case. The point is that when you choose to run a sandbox campaign, you commit to a...

I’ll be straight with you, I’ll answer your question, but I do want to point out something first. The way it’s phrased feels like it assumes I don’t accept other valid playstyles unless I say so here. That makes it harder to write a clean answer. I’m not upset, but I think it’s important to...

To show an example here is a post made by one of my player two week in a campaign using D&D 5e in my Majestic Fantasy Realms. Note the rumor they got was a result of the group stopping in the tavern in the village of Hawksleigh and asking around for news. The scribbles are notes by the players...

From what my players have told me is that when they see me looking at notes, it makes the world feel real to them. They say it gives their choices more meaning, because they know I’m not just making things up based on what they’re doing. The world was already had things going on before they...

You say you're not criticizing, only describing, but when you describe the sandbox approach as "reducing player capacity," leading to "less knowability," and being "more railroad-y," that is an evaluation. These are judgments about how play operates and how agency is preserved. Describing...

Oh boy the limitations of text. I was kidding you. Sorry about that. Seriously your post is on point and I encourage folks to share their approach. For one thing I started top down with the world while you picked out a regional map. Because of that some folks may find what you do more...

Seriously? ;) My original blog posts are still up here https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-make-fantasy-sandbox.html The bulk of the posts are on building out the Island Piall/Pyade as an illustrated example of how the different steps works.