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<blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 5305974" data-attributes="member: 21169">I used to be a good one-shot GM, ten years ago, but my style seems to have changed. Recently I've been getting very sandbox-y. My most recent session was supposed to be a oneoff but it just morphed into a sandbox-y campaign.Partly it's because D&amp;D encourages this with its Monster Manual. I either run D&amp;D or superhero and they are quite different in terms of the amount of opposition available in the world. In a superhero game there just isn't that much opposition out there that can challenge the PCs. In D&amp;D you have books and books full of weird, dangerous freaks. Step outside your front door and you're rolling on a random encounter table. D&amp;D worlds are deeply weird, monster-laden places, where adventure is to be found all over the place. In fact you don't really need to write adventures for D&amp;D. Map, monsters, reason to kill em, treasure - that's all you need.Books full of monsters, an area map, an idea about which monsters are found where, a few colorful NPCs, and a list of good, evocative names. That is literally all you need for a campaign.So the fact that I'm running D&amp;D now is part of the reason for the change. I've always liked having a fairly large amount of setting material prepped before I start. Even for a oneoff, I've always liked to have an idea of the universe it's set in, what bad guys are out there, even if they don't appear in the session.Superheroes are much more forced though, they can't be leisurely about who they whack. Bad guy is trashing Manhattan, you have to go stop him now. No sandbox. But with D&amp;D you've got all these monsters holed up in their holes, wandering their appropriate territories - elves, unicorns and dryads in the forest; wolves, goblins and ogres in the hills and so forth. The players can look at the map and choose where to go, mostly monsters aren't causing immediate harm the way they do in superhero.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Doug McCrae, post: 5305974, member: 21169"] I used to be a good one-shot GM, ten years ago, but my style seems to have changed. Recently I've been getting very sandbox-y. My most recent session was supposed to be a oneoff but it just morphed into a sandbox-y campaign. Partly it's because D&D encourages this with its Monster Manual. I either run D&D or superhero and they are quite different in terms of the amount of opposition available in the world. In a superhero game there just isn't that much opposition out there that can challenge the PCs. In D&D you have books and books full of weird, dangerous freaks. Step outside your front door and you're rolling on a random encounter table. D&D worlds are deeply weird, monster-laden places, where adventure is to be found all over the place. In fact you don't really need to write adventures for D&D. Map, monsters, reason to kill em, treasure - that's all you need. Books full of monsters, an area map, an idea about which monsters are found where, a few colorful NPCs, and a list of good, evocative names. That is literally all you need for a campaign. So the fact that I'm running D&D now is part of the reason for the change. I've always liked having a fairly large amount of setting material prepped before I start. Even for a oneoff, I've always liked to have an idea of the universe it's set in, what bad guys are out there, even if they don't appear in the session. Superheroes are much more forced though, they can't be leisurely about who they whack. Bad guy is trashing Manhattan, you have to go stop him now. No sandbox. But with D&D you've got all these monsters holed up in their holes, wandering their appropriate territories - elves, unicorns and dryads in the forest; wolves, goblins and ogres in the hills and so forth. The players can look at the map and choose where to go, mostly monsters aren't causing immediate harm the way they do in superhero. [/QUOTE]

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