Melan
Explorer
I don't see why that is a problem.
"There is the sound of great horns as several orcs appear on the cliffs, from behind boulders, and more emerge from crevices you never suspected were there. Even a swift look tells you they must number more than 150, and that you are completely surrounded with no possibility of escape. Some carry crude bows, pointing in your direction."
"We lay down our arms and surrender."
"The leader of the orcs, a giant clad in filthy animal skins grins as he calls out, 'Carry these humanlings to the mines, now they will pay for what they did to our brothers at Sheragod.' They strip you of all belongings except clothes, and bind you together with heavy iron chains. To the beating of drums and the clashing of cymbals, you are marched towards Zul-Bashire, stone fortress of the Shadow from Beneath."
The intent of sandbox games is not to kill PCs randomly all the time (although that's good fun now and then, for both DM and players); it is to keep the game moving fluidly in an open environment where the players have a strong influence on the direction of the campaigns. Horrible dictu, I could imagine a sandbox game where death is very rare, and loss is more along the lines of capture, loss of equipment, or other unpleasant consequences (e.g. as in Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga). And of course, and encounter can be completely different from a face-to-face combat encounter. If the above example had been with 6d6 wolves, the PCs may have seen the pack stalking them from a worryingly close distance. If it had been with a dragon, it could have surprised them and demanded all their treasures (or flattery). And so on.
Of course, if hypothetical 1st level PCs (who, OTOH, have no business straying far from civilisation) attack the 240 orcs, there are always new character sheets in a prepared DM's folder.
"There is the sound of great horns as several orcs appear on the cliffs, from behind boulders, and more emerge from crevices you never suspected were there. Even a swift look tells you they must number more than 150, and that you are completely surrounded with no possibility of escape. Some carry crude bows, pointing in your direction."
"We lay down our arms and surrender."
"The leader of the orcs, a giant clad in filthy animal skins grins as he calls out, 'Carry these humanlings to the mines, now they will pay for what they did to our brothers at Sheragod.' They strip you of all belongings except clothes, and bind you together with heavy iron chains. To the beating of drums and the clashing of cymbals, you are marched towards Zul-Bashire, stone fortress of the Shadow from Beneath."
The intent of sandbox games is not to kill PCs randomly all the time (although that's good fun now and then, for both DM and players); it is to keep the game moving fluidly in an open environment where the players have a strong influence on the direction of the campaigns. Horrible dictu, I could imagine a sandbox game where death is very rare, and loss is more along the lines of capture, loss of equipment, or other unpleasant consequences (e.g. as in Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga). And of course, and encounter can be completely different from a face-to-face combat encounter. If the above example had been with 6d6 wolves, the PCs may have seen the pack stalking them from a worryingly close distance. If it had been with a dragon, it could have surprised them and demanded all their treasures (or flattery). And so on.
Of course, if hypothetical 1st level PCs (who, OTOH, have no business straying far from civilisation) attack the 240 orcs, there are always new character sheets in a prepared DM's folder.

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