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Message: <blockquote data-quote="werecorpse" data-source="post: 7155157" data-attributes="member: 55491">My technique is to try and use story arcs of various length and antagonists goals.Sandbox elements of the game are mainly antagonists and goals (small, if any, story arcs). So they might be a tribe of orcs and their goals might be any of raid local farms or merchants, conquer a village or plantation, defile an elven temple or summon a demon. Destroying or routing the tribe might be a 9th level adventure but defeating the raids might be 1st, protecting the village or temple might be 3rd or 5th, disrupting the summoning say 6th or 7th.Another sandbox element might be a nest of basilisks - their goals might be simpler so an interaction could be meeting a hunter (2nd) dealing with a pair kicked out of the nest and trying to establish a new nest at the bottom of the monastery's vineyard(3rd), or eliminating the nest(5th)- so when the characters "encounter" these threats you can decide what type of threat they are presenting.For story arcs I tend to have some elements that are pretty much just foreshadowing and also a number of steps that the enemy have to take to achieve their nefarious goal, a vague idea of what level these would be appropriate to intersect with the player characters and what happens if they do. For example say I have as a BBEG a lich trapped somewhere trying to escape and finish a ritual to wake the tarrasque. I might decide that to escape the prison the lich needs a few maguffins, a special book, the bones of someone who killed it last time and the fresh hearts of some supernaturally magic resistant creatures. So I create a mid level-BEG who is the lich's servant who:1. Hires some goblins to break into the tomb of Sir Julip and steal his bones (level 2 adventure)2. Does some favour for the thieves guild so they steal the book from the collection in the temple (level 4 adventure)3. Offers some bounty to the party to capture a mind flayer (level 8 adventure)I shepherd them toward an adventure of the freeing of the lich (say level 9) when the lich gets free but success for the party is if they can kill some of his allies and discover his evil plan.Then the party is likely to be more proactive chasing the Lich or trying to thwart his plan. If the party fails to deal with him then at some point when they are in their high teens level wise omens will direct them towards the Lich riding his tarrasque to destroy the capital.An important thing about story arcs is to have one that ends. Not every bad guy needs to be fought at the the culmination of the campaign. Having a smaller arc about a battle for supremacy of the thieves guild is fine - the players can defeat the master rogue and end his plans to blackmail the regent at say 7th level. This doesn't prevent them from getting caught up in the plots of the Lich etc. but it does help them feel like they have achieved something concrete - that what they do actually matters, not that whatever they do the BBEG plot just steamrolls along.Also let the players thwart the odd plot at an early stage - you then have to think about what does the antagonist do now? Maybe nothing, maybe the good guys have defeated him for the moment and you need to come up with another foe. That's ok too IMO.</blockquote>

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