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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 6611233" data-attributes="member: 22779">Kinda sorta.&nbsp; If the players, for example, want to spend time, I dunno, starting a bar in the city of Fort Castle, and if they ignore the plot hooks and Fort Castle will be destroyed by Doctor Tendril, there's a pretty strong push for the party to get involved with Doctor Tendril.&nbsp; IOW, because the DM has so many things going on, hooks can't be damned because any hook that is ignored may very well turn around and bite you on the ass.IOW, the players are now pretty much obliged to deal with the DM's hooks before they contend with any of their own because the DM's hooks will make the PC's personal goals unachievable.&nbsp; Which is why I challenge the idea that it's really a sandbox when the DM has that many NPC's who have such large, campaign changing goals which, apparently, can only be dealt with by the PC's.There's only so much time at the table.&nbsp; If the DM has ten different plot lines going on, there simply isn't any time for player driven content.&nbsp; To me, a sandbox is largely player driven and DM reactive.&nbsp; The players want to do X, Y and Z, based on the characters they have created and whatever bells and whistles they want to play with in the setting.&nbsp; My character in a recent Dark Sun campaign wanted to restore his family's wealth and position and I managed to convince the rest of the party to hitch their wagon to my star.&nbsp; Much of the campaign has been driven by that with extremely little occurring outside of that primary goal.&nbsp; Here's a way to think about it.&nbsp; For me, in a sandbox world, if the PC's didn't exist, the world would more or less continue the way it has been.&nbsp; The PC's are the destabilising force in the world.&nbsp; It is their goals and their attempts to achieve those goals that is going to reshape the world.&nbsp; In a more linear game, the DM sets goals for NPC's that will change the game world and the PC's are there to stop them - the PC's react to the DM, rather than the other way around.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 6611233, member: 22779"] Kinda sorta. If the players, for example, want to spend time, I dunno, starting a bar in the city of Fort Castle, and if they ignore the plot hooks and Fort Castle will be destroyed by Doctor Tendril, there's a pretty strong push for the party to get involved with Doctor Tendril. IOW, because the DM has so many things going on, hooks can't be damned because any hook that is ignored may very well turn around and bite you on the ass. IOW, the players are now pretty much obliged to deal with the DM's hooks before they contend with any of their own because the DM's hooks will make the PC's personal goals unachievable. Which is why I challenge the idea that it's really a sandbox when the DM has that many NPC's who have such large, campaign changing goals which, apparently, can only be dealt with by the PC's. There's only so much time at the table. If the DM has ten different plot lines going on, there simply isn't any time for player driven content. To me, a sandbox is largely player driven and DM reactive. The players want to do X, Y and Z, based on the characters they have created and whatever bells and whistles they want to play with in the setting. My character in a recent Dark Sun campaign wanted to restore his family's wealth and position and I managed to convince the rest of the party to hitch their wagon to my star. Much of the campaign has been driven by that with extremely little occurring outside of that primary goal. Here's a way to think about it. For me, in a sandbox world, if the PC's didn't exist, the world would more or less continue the way it has been. The PC's are the destabilising force in the world. It is their goals and their attempts to achieve those goals that is going to reshape the world. In a more linear game, the DM sets goals for NPC's that will change the game world and the PC's are there to stop them - the PC's react to the DM, rather than the other way around. [/QUOTE]

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