Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Rallek" data-source="post: 4015744" data-attributes="member: 8463">Unless I'm running a 1-3 month &quot;mini-campaign&quot; to fill a gap between &quot;real&quot; games, I always run sandbox style games. My players expect (read as: DEMAND) that kind of freedom and depth. They want to know where the coins are minted, where the mines that produce the gold are, where the grain in the bread they're eating came from, and why The Three-Legged Dog seems to have a better wine cellar than it should. Of course you have a number of plot-hooks to dangle and see if the party wants to go that way, but having them make their own fun (if that's what interests them) is just fine too.When it comes to Sandbox games, world-building that actually makes sense, and (in my opinion) 3e in general, one has to give E6 a try. My group recently started using E6 rules, and we're never going back to &quot;normal&quot; 3.Xe.If you're not using E6, what I would advise is that you build for the first 10 levels of play or so, and then increase downtime. Once the PCs can comfortably handle the biggest &quot;regular&quot; threat in the region, they spend more time building up their resources and spreading their influence. They may still spend 90%+ of every session adventuring if that's their thing, but the adventures that they take on now are the kind of threat/quest/opportunity that may only come along every year or so. Once they hit lvl 15 or so, they may only go &quot;Adventuring&quot; every 3 in-game years or so. If they keep playing past that, maybe they only get lvl 20+ adventures ever 5-10 years. In my opinion it's time to think about retiring the characters and starting some new ones. The new ones can be retainers/hirelings/apprentices of the old ones, or completely unrelated. This lets them keep building the history of the setting through progressive generations, and see the long-term effects of things that earlier characters have set into motion. It also allows you to pull some treasured past characters out of &quot;retirement&quot; to deal with a major threat to the setting every once in awhile. That can be a blast.As always with this hobby, YMMV.EDIT: I once had a group become titled landowners who started an organization that later became the dominant alchemical guild in the region. They later played &quot;Robin Hood&quot; types dedicated to the overthrow of the &quot;repressive&quot; guild structure that their former characters had put in place earlier... they actually met their former characters as antagonists several times. That was a fun series of games.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rallek, post: 4015744, member: 8463"] Unless I'm running a 1-3 month "mini-campaign" to fill a gap between "real" games, I always run sandbox style games. My players expect (read as: DEMAND) that kind of freedom and depth. They want to know where the coins are minted, where the mines that produce the gold are, where the grain in the bread they're eating came from, and why The Three-Legged Dog seems to have a better wine cellar than it should. Of course you have a number of plot-hooks to dangle and see if the party wants to go that way, but having them make their own fun (if that's what interests them) is just fine too. When it comes to Sandbox games, world-building that actually makes sense, and (in my opinion) 3e in general, one has to give E6 a try. My group recently started using E6 rules, and we're never going back to "normal" 3.Xe. If you're not using E6, what I would advise is that you build for the first 10 levels of play or so, and then increase downtime. Once the PCs can comfortably handle the biggest "regular" threat in the region, they spend more time building up their resources and spreading their influence. They may still spend 90%+ of every session adventuring if that's their thing, but the adventures that they take on now are the kind of threat/quest/opportunity that may only come along every year or so. Once they hit lvl 15 or so, they may only go "Adventuring" every 3 in-game years or so. If they keep playing past that, maybe they only get lvl 20+ adventures ever 5-10 years. In my opinion it's time to think about retiring the characters and starting some new ones. The new ones can be retainers/hirelings/apprentices of the old ones, or completely unrelated. This lets them keep building the history of the setting through progressive generations, and see the long-term effects of things that earlier characters have set into motion. It also allows you to pull some treasured past characters out of "retirement" to deal with a major threat to the setting every once in awhile. That can be a blast. As always with this hobby, YMMV. EDIT: I once had a group become titled landowners who started an organization that later became the dominant alchemical guild in the region. They later played "Robin Hood" types dedicated to the overthrow of the "repressive" guild structure that their former characters had put in place earlier... they actually met their former characters as antagonists several times. That was a fun series of games. [/QUOTE]

Verification