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<blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 8693602" data-attributes="member: 86653">The secret is it takes far, far less time. And it's dramatically less stressful. You don't have to constantly worry about what you'll do if they go left when they &quot;need to&quot; go right or try to peek behind the curtain. So much easier not to bother with that nonsense. I've played and run for decades and the easiest time I've ever had running a game was a West Marches open-world sandbox. I didn't have to prep the entire thing, only what was close to the PCs...about a day's travel. As long as I knew what was there, I could improvise based off that prep. Make some wandering monster tables, some locations, some factions, give them a few clocks, and let the PCs loose. Every time they bumped into something the world changed and reacted. They did most of the work for me. No rails and no pre-written story. All I had to do was have the established world react. So smooth and easy to run. The players had a blast and they had agency.Exactly. You don't have to do that work because the players will do it for you. You just need to make it interesting. That's basically what the full context of that clip from Brennan Lee Mulligan is talking about. The character wants the quick and easy locating of their family but the player wants that to be an interesting and engaging gaming experience. The referee just has to put enough logical obstacles in their path to keep them both satisfied. His use of the word rails is unfortunate, because that's not what he's actually talking about. The fact that he put air quotes around the word rails is telling.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="overgeeked, post: 8693602, member: 86653"] The secret is it takes far, far less time. And it's dramatically less stressful. You don't have to constantly worry about what you'll do if they go left when they "need to" go right or try to peek behind the curtain. So much easier not to bother with that nonsense. I've played and run for decades and the easiest time I've ever had running a game was a West Marches open-world sandbox. I didn't have to prep the entire thing, only what was close to the PCs...about a day's travel. As long as I knew what was there, I could improvise based off that prep. Make some wandering monster tables, some locations, some factions, give them a few clocks, and let the PCs loose. Every time they bumped into something the world changed and reacted. They did most of the work for me. No rails and no pre-written story. All I had to do was have the established world react. So smooth and easy to run. The players had a blast and they had agency. Exactly. You don't have to do that work because the players will do it for you. You just need to make it interesting. That's basically what the full context of that clip from Brennan Lee Mulligan is talking about. The character wants the quick and easy locating of their family but the player wants that to be an interesting and engaging gaming experience. The referee just has to put enough logical obstacles in their path to keep them both satisfied. His use of the word rails is unfortunate, because that's not what he's actually talking about. The fact that he put air quotes around the word rails is telling. [/QUOTE]

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