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I'm in a Dark Heresy campaign right now, and I have a copy of Rogue Trader right here at my desk. Sabathius is basically correct. In DH, the players are members of an Inquisitorial team. You are troubleshooters tasked with rooting out corruption, heresy, alien machinations, etc. In RT, you are...

You've traced a logical circle right back to my original point, in my first comment in this thread, lo those many posts ago. That point: Using story structure is not the same thing as railroading. Yes, some adventure writers have written railroady adventures. And I agree with you that that's...

I would argue that this "distressing" number of players has been conditioned by a lifetime of books, movies, graphic novels, oral storytelling, and other fictions, which are all based upon certain story-structure fundaments. (These in turn are ruled by certain basics of human perception and...

RC, I've come to the conclusion that you and I are not in disagreement about anything other than terminology and perhaps a different emphasis in GMing style. That said, I don't think your definition is shared by a lot of people who adhere to the sandbox philosophy.

Fair enough; sorry I used the word "random." How about "unrelated to the events of the campaign?"

Boy, I totally agree with you. But I don't see how the sandbox philosophy gives you the best toolkit to run this kind of game. I totally think this would come off much better using the story structure toolbox. Fair enough. But the randomly-placed spooky ruined castle on the hill is a feature...

Agreed. What I'm saying is, if you start the campaign with, say, three or four adventure options out there for your players, and they pursue one of them, afterword you presumably want them to still have three or four options. One way to achieve that is to create three or four new options...

I thought about the relation of "sandbox" to "plot" style games, as defined by the accord I've reached with RC, a bit over the weekend. Please note I am headed definitively into YMMV land here; I'm not asserting that my preferences are superior or that anyone else is wrong in their philosophy...

I put them where they'll do the most good. That's usually in the primary, but not always. If my primary's on an even number and there's a useful tertiary that's on an odd number, I may well bump the tertiary.

So in other words, in a sandbox, there are multiple potential plots; one or more of these may play out depending on what the players choose to pursue. (Note my use of the words "potential" and "may".) In a "plotted" game, there's a single major plotline; it plays out on the basis of player...

RC, I agree with you completely, at least in the broad strokes. It's hard to imagine any reasonable person disagreeing, frankly. I suspect that a big stumbling block in this conversation centres around the concept of "outcome"; I think people are often imagining different things when they use...

Haven't read it yet, but the book has been very widely (and I think positively) reviewed in the mainstream media.

One thing I think is being overlooked is that the PCs are a party, whereas the higher-level NPC is (usually) solo. As a group, the PCs may be able to accomplish things the NPC can't. That does beg the question of why the NPC can't gather a group or hirelings to help him do the task himself, or...

Yeah, there's no doubt at all in my mind: Even for gamers who spend heavily, RPGs are an incredibly good entertainment value . . . .

I was having this problem last week--not specifically the fora, but when I entered the community through the main community landing page, which is what I have bookmarked. I never followed their advice to close my browser; usually simply reloading the page did the trick. I haven't had the...

There's an interesting article here: Roleplaying Tips for game masters for all role-playing systems This answers a slightly different question: Why does the BBEG keep sending minions out to defeat the PCs (who inevitably keep failing to do so), instead of just doing it himself when he's high...

Worth pointing out that PCs are no longer randomized for D&D. You buy them in packs 3, with all three visible. There are six different packs with each release, with three or four releases a year. These are useable for villains and NPCs as well, depending on your requirements of course. Only...

Um, sure. Wouldn't that be true for any of the sites discussed on this thread?

I have a couple of those big mouse mats--the ones that cover the entire centre of your desk. Sometimes you can get CCG play mats that are basically the same thing. They have a fabric top (usually with some pretty graphics); the bottom is a layer of soft black rubber. I lay them out upside down...

Soo . . . You're saying there is an objective level of uncertainty at every decision point, which is equally understood by the players and the GM? OK, but how is that relevant? I was talking about whether knowing about the end-game constitutes railroading.