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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DestroyYouAlot" data-source="post: 4024495" data-attributes="member: 36618">Do that.  You got it right the first time.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />In a pinch, you can always try and distract them - dangle something shiny and pre-planned that you've been keeping in your back pocket in front of them, hope they'll bite.  Sometimes they'll be stubborn (*snort* - "sometimes"), and you'll still have to either  a) run whatever it is on the fly (TAKE NOTES WHEN YOU DO THIS), and if it's not as super-awesome-and-cool as you envisioned it, well, the players don't know that, or b) figure out why they can't go there.  Sometimes the door's just locked, whatever.  *shrug*My advice on sandbox campaigns:  True, there is a LOT of work involved at first - to steal a 3e-speak term, it's very "front-loaded."  Unless you're Super GM, there's no way you can detail everything to any appreciable level, so do a little work on a LOT of stuff.  If you have access to any old Judges Guild stuff, take heed - it's a bazillion quick blurbs on NPCs, businesses, locations, groups, whatever.  When it comes up, you'll be able to take the minimal prep work you've done on [X] and spin it into something more substantial.  Moreover, if you have a shallow understanding of a large area (town, dungeon, wilderness area, whatever), you'll be able to "see" how the whole thing works as a whole, and then "zoom in" mentally on any one point when you need to. I mentioned it already above, but TAKE NOTES.  LOTS OF THEM.  ALL THE TIME.  Without doing an inordinate amount of work before ever actually getting to play the damn thing, you'll be able to get maybe one town pretty fleshed out as far as major shopkeeps, authority figures, guildmasters, etc., but when you have to go down the road for a minute, you'll end up spinning some <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> out your ass.  WRITE IT DOWN.  Preferably as it spills off your tongue.  The next time the PCs run across whatever it is, you'll at least be able to sort back through your session notes to find out that the third farmer on the left is named Sven and has one arm.  Quests.  Jobs.  Hooks.  Whatever; the idea is, have a lot of them hanging around.  Don't bother developing much for them; just spin up a sentence or two to dangle in front of the party, and a sentence or two more that they'll find out if they look.  The rest, you work out as needed.  The thing you want to avoid at all costs is a bored party - bored parties go around looking for things you haven't touched yet, and poke around behind the scenery.  They have an amazing knack for that.  You'd rather they go for something you've at least considered for five minutes on your lunch break.  And, while - from one point of view - I'm all for "it's there whether you look at it or not," the actual details of what "it" is can be freely changed depending on the needs of your campaign.  You're getting off the railroad - that's GREAT - so this is where you get to inject your story bits.  If the party knows that there's bugaboos to hunt in the Bugaboo forest, they'll probably go there at some point.  And they should find bugaboos no matter when it is (or what the relative challenge is - if bugaboos are too tough for them, well, hey, you warned them).  However, if there's an NPC you want to meet, guess what?  He's now an avid bugaboo hunter.  If there's a nifty little dungeon crawl you dreamed up the other day?  The entrance is now in bugaboo forest.  The idea is that the framework for the world is what it is - the details, you simply can't fill out ahead of time.  So you fit things where they fit.  (I know this seems counterintuitive when we're going for sandbox play, but this is how it can actually work, and you still get to hold down a job and see your family on off days.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )It's also been mentioned that you can either make certain wilderness areas "safe" for low-level parties, or take the 1e approach and have everything be totally burly and crazy outside the town walls.  I'm in favor of a mixture of these techniques, but there is something to be said for the latter technique - at first, the party can only make short expeditions into the wild, so you have them on a short leash, and you can detail just ahead of them.  As their "operational range" increases, so does the area you've got detailed and - eventually - memorized.  YMMV - like I said, I tend to mix the two approaches - but don't discount the latter approach entirely (as I understand it, Wizards has taken quite a shine to it, lately <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ).The beauty of sandbox play - whether it's a whole region, or a hardcore old-school megadungeon - is that it's a changing environment that takes a LOT of initial investment from you, but that you can use for YEARS, and it takes less and less effort from you to maintain the environment (as you come to know it intimately and be able to run it by reflex), so you have more time to concentrate on the big picture - your focus can gradually pull back as the PCs grow in power, until they're doing the stronghold thing, you're moving political groups around, and they're thinking about maybe taking Loki down a peg or two.  Good luck.Dannyalcatraz mentioned regional encounter tables - +1.Products (most of which have already gotten plugs, but these are my picks):  As mentioned, AEG's toolbox.  The 1e DMG - how anyone can run a FRPG without this at the table is beyond me.  Book of Lairs, I + II.  Anything Judges Guild (Wilderlands stuff especially, but it's all minable for material.)  Dungeon mags (old ones especially, they're more site-based).  WSG, DSG, 2e Campaign Sourcebook, 2e Worldbuilder's Guide.</blockquote>

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