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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7211772" data-attributes="member: 6801286">To me running a sandbox is kind of like designing a themepark. Its about littering the world with all sorts of wonderful things that the players may want to investigate. Not just by giving the players plot hooks, but also by giving the players this feeling of adventure and discovery. And to me the only way to do that, is by not filling in every detail on a world map. I think there should be plenty of room for new things to be discovered, and a sandbox is defined by how much the players do not know about the world they travel. The world is not a movie set, where merely wandering off the set shows that there is nothing to the side. Instead, there's exciting things to see in every direction they look.However, just because the players have freedom, does not mean that the campaign doesn't have structure. You can still have a story, still have plothooks, quests and nodes. But the players decide what nodes they visit and when.But it also means that the world needs to react to what the players do. This is I think where motivations and goals become very important. I'd argue that all types of campaigns can benefit a lot from solid motivations and goals, but this is especially true of a sandbox. What do the villains do when the players don't come to stop them? What is their next move, and what are the consequences? What do the villains do when they suffer a defeat?With a sandbox campaign you also have to think carefully about how important your npc's are to the plot, and what would happen if the players decided to kill them early. Ideally I think you want to craft your plot in such a way that it can still run its course, even if various characters are killed, or if the players ignore the plot. It also means adapting the plot to where the players want it to go. If for example the players want to build a base, it makes sense to involve the base into the plot.What I did for my current sandbox campaign, is introduce a big bad that cannot be fought directly, but with lesser big bads that can die at any time, without ruining the plot. I basically have a handful of expendable villains that can enter and exit the spotlight at various points in the campaign. The same is true for potential allies of the players. The plot does not hinge on these allies being alive, and occasionally an ally will die for dramatic purposes. But by the choices the players make, certain allies can grow to become important characters in the plot, which means I won't just kill them off so easily (unless the players make a terrible mistake and cause them to die). Any character in the campaign is expendable.I don't think I could boil the secret formula to the perfect sandbox campaign down to just a few easy catch phrases. But if I were to try:-An open world with plenty of room for discovery and adventure.-The world reacts to what the players do.-Random encounters.-Any character is expendable.-Allies must be gained through dedication by the players to win their loyalty.-No quest is mandatory, but there are consequences to everything, even to ignoring/refusing a quest.-The plot goes to where the players are. The players are the main characters and the plot appears around them.-The players are free to build their own base, start their own enterprise, form their own fleet/army.</blockquote>

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