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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8166882">I am having a little trouble following the language of the AW example. It might just be late, but I don't feel I absorbed the meaning well enough to comment. For the second one, it isn't that is is different from my notion of sandbox, but it is different from how I would run a sandbox in a few key ways I think (but again I may just not be following the meaning that well). The first thing is the bit about the ghosts in the forest. In my game, the players wouldn't propose that kind of thing, and I wouldn't materialize it based on their proposal. I don't think that makes it less of a sandbox, but I do think if you were to run a sandbox with say OSR gamers, they wouldn't be expecting that to happen. Another area is the way you used Fiat for the ship. Again, I may have misread, but it sounded like you just decided something happened, out of a desire for future scenarios (I could be misremembering as I don't have the page open in another window). But I generally use Survival (Water) for ship travel and if the captain fails, then something would happen. If I did use Fiat, it wouldn't be in service to a future scenario I want to happen, but because of something I feel ought to happen based on events. For example if they had just fought with a bunch of Lady White Blade's students, and cut of their heads...I may have decided Lady White Blade sent three Flying Phantoms after them, and attacking when they are traveling by sea might be a good time to take them by surprise. So by fiat I might decide a vessel carrying the flying phantom approaches. I would probably roll for the crew to see if they notice (if any PCs had saiid they were being vigilant, they might notice)....if no one notices a surprise midnight attack might occur on the ship. The third way your approach seems different is you talk about scenarios, and they seem like events or encounters that are pre-planned which you deploy. I don't really do that. It is possible I am misunderstanding you here, if I am, let me know (again it is getting a bit late for me). But when I do encounters, especially from travel, I use tables and I draw of things local to the area. So if the players fail a Survival Roll as they are passing through Fan Xu Prefecture on the western side of the canal, and I roll on a table and get Local Sect 1d10 disciples, I would look at the map, see that the nearest sect is Long Ma Hall (and escort company), and then start to think about why the Long Ma Hall people show up, how they show up, etc. The biggest thing to me is the why. If the players haven't done anything particularly unusual in the region, I would probably setting on the Sect's priority as the guiding principle (they are an escort company, trying to do good in the region and essentially fight crime-----so they probably approach the party in a friendly but stern way and request to inspect their carts. An encounter like this could be friendly, hostile, maybe even just be an opportunity for the sides to trade rumors, or be totally pointless. Where I think this kind of encounter is useful, and it is useful in a lot of ways, but where it would be useful in terms of agency is its meaning does shift if the players happen to have contraband. And if you are using your encounter tables like this constantly that can work great (because there isn't just Long Ma Hall but also patrolling inspectors and even potential encounters with higher ranked magistrates). Not sure how well this answers your question. Nothing you are doing strikes me as bad, or as not sandbox.I would probably really need to see it in play to say for sure. You aren't using a hex map, but I don't always use hex maps, and I don't think they are a requirement for sandbox---personally I just like them because they are a good way to measure distance over travel. It would certainly certainly be maybe a little unorthodox for some more 'traditional' sandbox players (and just using traditional for convenience here, not for any greater meaning). I also think, unless I misunderstand you, some of those scenario situations might be a little canned. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I've done that myself in my own sandboxes. I did a series of adventures keyed to an encounter table for instance (here: <a href="https://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/wuxia-inspiration-blood-stained.html" target="_blank">WUXIA INSPIRATION: BLOOD-STAINED ENCOUNTERS PART ONE</a>). I think this stuff is good to throw in once in a while, and as long as the players are free to not engage it, I don't think it violates sandbox principles. But I have encountered enough players who might bristle at it, that it is worth mentioning. Keep in mind, my own style is probably pretty unorthodox for a lot of OSR and sandbox people. So take my opinions with that grain of salt in mind. For example I literalize fate in my games. In the wuxia setting it is literally part of the cosmology and the cycle of rebirth, but I do it in all my settings where I  just believe in the power of these cosmic coincidences that crop up in play. And I often use tables to make fate a concrete thing, though secret, in the setting (and that is one of the places where I give myself more leniency to introduce intrusive elements: things I might personally find too heavy handed for sandbox for example, but maybe dramatically interesting).</blockquote>

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