Search results

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.

Since a link wasn't supplied, I had to search the thread. @pemerton is probably referring to this. While not a definition, as he is saying what BW is not, the phrasing implies that it’s a campaign that focuses on place, the locations in the world, and journeying, the act of traveling from one...

Understood and all good here! :D I understand what you are saying and the emotion behind it. But consider this. My day job is developing motion control software at a company that manufactures metal cutting machine. Often, they can run into the six figures making it a major investment for our...

One of the side effects of how I run my sandbox campaign is that the campaign works out fine for players who don't have any goals or strong beliefs for their characters. They are mostly reactive in how they handle things. They generally pursue straightforward objectives like asking where the...

Thanks for the clarification. One of the reasons I posted the excerpts from the books was to make sure folks were on the same page about what conflict meant in my post. And to stress I wasn't talking about in the sense of conflict = combat. But in the sense that BW/TB and the above mean it.

Yup which is one of the reasons that made the series a classic. Real people are trying to live out their lives in a world with very different rules for its universe.

I've reading the recent discussions and it caused me to reflect on the different approaches that drive tabletop campaigns, especially after some recent discussions about Burning Wheel, Torchbearer, and traditional sandbox play. I wanted to share some thoughts about fundamental philosophies but...

I think Terry Prachett's Discworld is a good example of as setting that had a consistent logic but a utterly fantastic foundation unmoored in anything we would call realistic. He co-authored GURPS Discworld and the book has this to say. Then goes to discuss specific elements of this like...