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<blockquote data-quote="bento" data-source="post: 4032486" data-attributes="member: 36597">That's how my players have been getting around.&nbsp; I'm running a desert setting, so having caravans travelling from destination to destination, makes it very easy for my characters to feel like they can easily find where the adventures are.&nbsp; Caravans also provides excellent sources for buying and selling goods, gathering information and locating experts.&nbsp; When an adventure presents itself, the heroes &quot;hop off the train,&quot; go through the encounters, and be back for dinner time. I disagree with the railroadiness.&nbsp; My players can choose when and to where the caravan travels.&nbsp; If they want to get to the city, they wait at the oasis or caravanasari for the next caravan to pull in and ask them where they are heading.&nbsp; If anything, a caravan provides players with goods and experts they wouldn't usually be able to access unless they were in a large city.&nbsp; My pitch for a good source material for a desert setting sandbox is Necromancer's Mesopotamia book.&nbsp; About half the book is devoted to six site-based encounters and one larger city / dungeon crawl.&nbsp; The encounters can be introduced in any order, and they all range between EL7 to EL11.&nbsp; I'm relying on this book as well as the Sandstorm supplement for most of the adventures in this arc.Speaking about dealing with a variety of challenges, I have an idea for running a higher-level encounters for my players.&nbsp; I'm planning an EL14 for my 7th level party.&nbsp; My plan is to introduce the encounter with some CR9 NPCs asking the players for help.&nbsp; I'll give the players the NPCs to run during the melee portion of the encounter, with the idea that the NPCs are expendable.&nbsp; Has anyone ever done this - run a &quot;special guest-star&quot; NPC for a high-level encounter in order to help the party avoid a TPK?&nbsp; Does it work out like you expected?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="bento, post: 4032486, member: 36597"] That's how my players have been getting around. I'm running a desert setting, so having caravans travelling from destination to destination, makes it very easy for my characters to feel like they can easily find where the adventures are. Caravans also provides excellent sources for buying and selling goods, gathering information and locating experts. When an adventure presents itself, the heroes "hop off the train," go through the encounters, and be back for dinner time. I disagree with the railroadiness. My players can choose when and to where the caravan travels. If they want to get to the city, they wait at the oasis or caravanasari for the next caravan to pull in and ask them where they are heading. If anything, a caravan provides players with goods and experts they wouldn't usually be able to access unless they were in a large city. My pitch for a good source material for a desert setting sandbox is Necromancer's Mesopotamia book. About half the book is devoted to six site-based encounters and one larger city / dungeon crawl. The encounters can be introduced in any order, and they all range between EL7 to EL11. I'm relying on this book as well as the Sandstorm supplement for most of the adventures in this arc. Speaking about dealing with a variety of challenges, I have an idea for running a higher-level encounters for my players. I'm planning an EL14 for my 7th level party. My plan is to introduce the encounter with some CR9 NPCs asking the players for help. I'll give the players the NPCs to run during the melee portion of the encounter, with the idea that the NPCs are expendable. Has anyone ever done this - run a "special guest-star" NPC for a high-level encounter in order to help the party avoid a TPK? Does it work out like you expected? [/QUOTE]

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