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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8163631">Well, in a style like this, there are lots of things the GM knows in advance. He doesn't know what is going to happen though. He just knows that the brother is dead. Maybe when the player gets their he tries to resurrect him. Or maybe the player character goes on a murderous rampage after. There are all kinds of places that could lead, that the GM does not know. But you are right he knows that a successful search for the brother would yield knowledge of his death. By your description of the PbtA approach, it sounds like the setting detail (the brother being alive or dead) is being baked into the player setting that as a goal for the relevant check. If that is how things are done in PbtA, that is fine. People are happy who play those games. My point is, in a sandbox, framing this way, is setting up the outcome, and something you wouldn't do. In most sandbox games a player saying he or she wants to look for their brother isn't going to be distilled into one roll or action. It would like be a number of efforts at tracking down rumors, clues, etc. And there would simply be no assurance that he is alive at the end of that (nor would most people in a sandbox consider an outcome where he is dead as futile (if anything they might be suspicious that it sounds overly dramatic, especially if it involves any of the details you mention above, but I like drama in my sandbox). Also this is just one possible outcome. What makes it exciting is it is an unknown on the player side. One possibility is he is dead. Another possibility is he is alive and waiting there to meet his brother again. Another is he is alive but filled with resentment towards his brother. Or we could even take a page from Death Duel and have him find a coffin upon ending his search, only to later discover his brother faked his own death and has been living wretched existence as nameless wanderer later on. There are all kinds of potential outcomes to "I go look for my long lost brother" in a sandbox. But as a player in that kind of campaign, I don't expect to shape the outcome. I get in other styles of play, and in some RPGs, the expectation is different, and that is fair (and maybe there is an OSR adjacent sandbox style that does that as a lot of the PbtA fans seem to be interested in Old School stuff recently). All those styles are fine by me. But what I am describing is the more OSR rooted, sandbox and living world approach. In this, I really do think the brothers status as alive or dead, would be something that players would expect the GM to decide, and they wouldn't see that decision as infringing on their agency.</blockquote>

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