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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8166618" data-attributes="member: 82106">I'm rather unclear on this point! Every sandbox, at some level boils down to a 'menu', that is it is some sort of collection of 'interesting situations' which are scattered around on some sort of 'map' (these could actually be anything, they are dungeons/lairs/terrain typically in most D&amp;D games which are spread on a literal map). By dint of exploration and decision making the players select (or maybe stumble upon) some of these 'situations', or possibly learn about them and select them explicitly (IE they get a treasure map, they follow it instead of selling it). I'm happy to be proven wrong, but this is the fundamental architecture of a sandbox in every case AFAIK. Certainly players can have their PCs simply 'dig into' any old random spot on said map and hope that they will unearth something. It is likely the GM will respond with some sort of material, although it isn't guaranteed. I would include social situations and such in this as well. The PCs could decide to go find the local Thief's Guild, even though it isn't included in the GM's material. Either they will find something, or they will find out there is no such organization, yah! Now the party thief starts one... So, yes, you may not have to explore, but then again you could simply derail any old arbitrary module/AP and do the same things, right? In either case the GM has to decide how to respond. So, I'm not sure how this kind of 'digging' would specifically characterize a sandbox.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8166618, member: 82106"] I'm rather unclear on this point! Every sandbox, at some level boils down to a 'menu', that is it is some sort of collection of 'interesting situations' which are scattered around on some sort of 'map' (these could actually be anything, they are dungeons/lairs/terrain typically in most D&D games which are spread on a literal map). By dint of exploration and decision making the players select (or maybe stumble upon) some of these 'situations', or possibly learn about them and select them explicitly (IE they get a treasure map, they follow it instead of selling it). I'm happy to be proven wrong, but this is the fundamental architecture of a sandbox in every case AFAIK. Certainly players can have their PCs simply 'dig into' any old random spot on said map and hope that they will unearth something. It is likely the GM will respond with some sort of material, although it isn't guaranteed. I would include social situations and such in this as well. The PCs could decide to go find the local Thief's Guild, even though it isn't included in the GM's material. Either they will find something, or they will find out there is no such organization, yah! Now the party thief starts one... So, yes, you may not have to explore, but then again you could simply derail any old arbitrary module/AP and do the same things, right? In either case the GM has to decide how to respond. So, I'm not sure how this kind of 'digging' would specifically characterize a sandbox. [/QUOTE]

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