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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pickin_grinnin" data-source="post: 6550308" data-attributes="member: 6697674">Though it depends on what types of players I have and how comfortable they are with the concept, sandbox games are my preferred way of running campaigns.This is how I tend to do things:The world continues to turn and things happen regardless of which choices the characters make.  Everything doesn't revolve around them.  What happens in the campaign is dependent upon what they choose to do with it.  If they decide to run around, kill things, and gather treasure, that's fine.  If they decide to open a tavern and have all their activities centered in one town, that's fine, too.  If they decide to establish a library, or find a way to explore the planes, or establish their own colony, that's fine.  My job is to present them with a world and (most importantly) use the internal logic of the world to determine what affect their actions have and what challenges they encounter.DMing a sandbox world necessitates a fair amount of flexibility and ad-libbing.  Not all DMs are comfortable with that, and not all players enjoy that sort of thing.  When I get the opportunity to run a sandbox campaign, I spend a lot of time talking to the players about what that means, and explain that the burden of having exciting things happen falls partly on their shoulders.If you run a pirate game, one sandbox element I would suggest is establishing shipping lanes for the various countries and ports.  Make yourself a map that shows all the standard shipping lanes, and come up with all the specifics of the ships that run along them.  Establish rough shipping timetables, what each ship carries, what cargo is most valuable in which ports, etc.  Create a lot of ships, along with well fleshed-out captain NPCs and notable crewmen.  Put the detail into each ship that you would put in a dungeon or castle for a land-based adventure.  As your characters sail around, have them encounter ships based on which shipping lines they cross, and what times they cross them.  Part of the challenge for the characters should lie in figuring out all the shipping patterns and timetables so they can more easily find their targets.  They also need to learn what goods they can sell in each port to maximize their profit.  Don't give them this information - make them learn it through research, trial and error, etc.  Make sure that they have to worry about their food, water, and other supplies on their ship.  Make them pay attention to upkeep, repairs, crew staffing levels, etc.  These are all things real pirates have to consider.</blockquote>

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