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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Fighter-Cricket" data-source="post: 6708446" data-attributes="member: 32852">I think a (not THE) very general definition of sandboxing and treasure hunting (at least in the tradition of 0Ed) has to do with resource management and a kind of grittiness. Somehere have already mentioned things as encumberance, managing mundane but hugely important items like torches, rope, rations etc. How you manage your HP is also a theme here. You don't have that much of it and you have to be very careful how you explore. You don't want to find yourselve in a nest of Owlbears because even if you survive you won't have a fun time exploring the presumably treasure filled forest afterwards. So managing different layers of the game is a central part of the classical sandboxing experience. That is the "bigger picture" somebody did mention earlier.You can have sandboxy treasure hunting in 4E, quite easily even. But it won't be the gritty resource management simulator I tried to describe above. Sandboxing in 4E will be more of a free narrative experience. You have your rope and your torches and maybe even your 10 feet pole and you will use them to tell a story about how you enter this cave you stumbled upon and how you prod the ground for traps etc. But you won't worry so much about unseen traps or about the time after a fight because you will be refreshed. With all your HP at its max you can go deeper, explore further, see more of the sandbox, find more threats and maybe even aquire more treasure. The ride only ends when you see your Healing Surges drop - but this will take some time.tl;dr: 4E sandboxing and treasure hunting can last longer than in previous editions and will be more of a narrative experience instead of counting down your rations, torches and blister patches.</blockquote>

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