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Not really. I'm still rewarding XP for completing a quest; I've just used the card as a red herring.

I read the article fine, thank you, but RC, you're missing my point entirely: why does what is written on the card have to be the quest? There are two things being discussed in this article and they are no more related than the fact that they both deal with the generic concept of quests.

You're probably right. Sh*t, I'm sorry.

You just had to bring furries into this, didn't you?

Does it? Where does it say that players must receive a reward for completing what's written on the card? What if I give the players a quest card saying, "deliver X for Y and receive Z in payment," but I don't assign any story XP to completing the mission on the card, instead, I assign story XP...

Even in a Sand Box, the DM can write out cards for the players based on their goals. For example, if one player sets up a backstory involving a lost heirloom, the DM can provide them, at the appropriate time, with a card detailing what they would have to do to recover it. Really, I find the...

KC, I think many sandbox-y campaigns run the way you described. Often, in my experience, players like a focused beginning to establish the party's relationship, followed by spending a period sandboxing it up, developing their characters and the world, followed by a period where they resolve...

Hussar, that's a good point about Trek. Your point that Kirk and friends were trapped in their weekly scenario without the ability to just say, "screw this," and leave does make Trek a weak example of a sand box style campaign. I was really only thinking about it in the sense of setup and...

Does a sand box style campaign need to last for years, though? Granted, if you're planning on playing a set of characters for years and years, the sand box style is probably going to make things a lot easier, but does that make it a poor style for a short campaign?

I think using modules to determine whether or not there was a prevalent or more prevalent sand-box style isn't very effective. For example, many of the modules that Hussar cited can be slotted into a sand-box style campaign with little or no modification. After all, sand-box style doesn't...

Mourn, that's true, but the stories, especially The Hobbit, are told from their (the hobbits) perspective, and they are the major protagonists. We really only get inside the heads of two characters, Bilbo and Frodo, and they are both pretty reluctant heroes.

Hussar, it sounds like you want your campaign books to be like Mysteries of the Moonsea or Flashpoint: Brak Sector,which is one of my favorite source books and infinitely adaptable BTW. I get the impression you want a campaign book that provides you with just about everything you need to run a...

This is a good point, and you're right, group stability does play a huge role in the length of a campaign.

Maybe it would be more correct to say that early D&D was more focused on ongoing narratives, while the later versions of the game have focused more on contained narratives. For example, Gygax, Arneson, and Greenwood's, along with many other early adopters' campaigns are supposedly continuing...

Not just that, but he seems to be one of the only "Greats" to not see reprints. RE Howard and HP Lovecraft are to be found in any bookstore. I've seen reprints of DeCamp, and B&N released She and King Solomon's Mines in those nice hard bound volumes. I think even Lieber is getting reprinted...

Good point about Oz, but remember, Baum tried his hand as a Naturalist/Realist writer (as well as an Indian hating journalist, but that's for another thread) before writing the Oz books. Also, Oz was immensely popular; it was the Harry Potter of its age (or more correctly, Harry Potter is the...

I just let people make Knowledge (Arcana) checks against a suitable DC (often just eyeballed on the spot) and pretend like Identify doesn't exist.

The popularity of Naturalism and Realism at the time, as well as their seeming to be published in much greater numbers and variety at the time. It seems like for a brief couple of years, interest in science and the real world pushed interest in the fantastic to the corners. I should adjust my...

Red Dawn was, of course, an expression of its time's fears while also an expression of American heroic ideals in counter to those fears. Rambo played off largely the same feelings. I think political suspense and spy thrillers like Clancy have been popular for almost as long as the modern...

I'm sure you can also make a case that Vietnam, the Oil Crisis, and the heating up of the Cold War all led to mindset amongst the American public that craved escapism and a return to more clear lines between good and evil. This may have led to the rise of Fantasy as a popular genre and category...