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<blockquote data-quote="Guest&amp;nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8166445"><p>I think in that case, for the kind of sandbox Rob and I were talking about, the key constraint is you are limited by what your character can do in the setting. Other than that, you want maximal freedom. So if the player announces out of the blue, I walk over and kick the county magistrates son, that is where things are going to go (even if it seemed like they were on their way to help the magistrate deal with a local threat). So I think this is a style that embraces interruptions of flow and takes pleasure in the players surprising you. Personally that is what I like about it because it makes my job easier. This kind of sandbox is very hard to run, if the players are not taking initiative (to solve that problem, Estar often talks about applying training wheels if the players are having a hard time finding a direction). But when they do take initiative you are able to sit back and react to it, which I find enjoyable. It is sort of like, well I didn't think we were going to have a session about the players becoming local bullies trying to take over a little frontier town, but I guess that is what is going to happen (and it forces you to think on your feet in interesting ways----i.e. does that mean I should put together a party of heroes who hears about this and comes to take them on? Things like that).</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Guest 85555, post: 8166445"] I think in that case, for the kind of sandbox Rob and I were talking about, the key constraint is you are limited by what your character can do in the setting. Other than that, you want maximal freedom. So if the player announces out of the blue, I walk over and kick the county magistrates son, that is where things are going to go (even if it seemed like they were on their way to help the magistrate deal with a local threat). So I think this is a style that embraces interruptions of flow and takes pleasure in the players surprising you. Personally that is what I like about it because it makes my job easier. This kind of sandbox is very hard to run, if the players are not taking initiative (to solve that problem, Estar often talks about applying training wheels if the players are having a hard time finding a direction). But when they do take initiative you are able to sit back and react to it, which I find enjoyable. It is sort of like, well I didn't think we were going to have a session about the players becoming local bullies trying to take over a little frontier town, but I guess that is what is going to happen (and it forces you to think on your feet in interesting ways----i.e. does that mean I should put together a party of heroes who hears about this and comes to take them on? Things like that). [/QUOTE]

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