D&D (2024) DMG 2024: Is The Sandbox Campaign Dead?

[Umbran]

I don’t think they ever have done, nor TSR before them.

This.

The DMG has not really taught people how to sandbox in the past. Why is not doing it now a major issue?

 

[Lanefan]

I think one of the unspoken aspects is that Sandbox is easier to run with a lower power lower mechanical base with high power options.

Sandboxes are easier when PCs and monsters are weak but equipment and circumstances are strong.

The base agency of the players is low.

Disagree. The whole point of sandboxes is that player agency is high, relative to an adventure-path or scripted-campaign setup.

This is why they worked better with older editions and revivals. After 2000, RPG got too complex and mechanical for new DMs to run sandboxes.

For this the blame - yes, blame, not credit - lies squarely at the feet of the designers.

 

[Reynard]

The DMG has not really taught people how to sandbox in the past. Why is not doing it now a major issue?

I have mentioned previously that i don't this this is particularly relevant.

However, the 2014 5E DMG includes a bunch of tables and other information that is directly useful in sandbox play that the 2024 DMG does not include. I am not surprised people don't know this, because the 2014 DMG is criminally under read -- despite lots of people criticizing it without having any idea what is in it.

 

[Epic Meepo]

If I look at Curse of Strahd as an example, I actually found the sandbox elements of it kind of annoying. ... We never had the option of saying "Gee, it's too bad that this place sucks but nothing we do will really change anything in the long run so let's go over there." ...

In fairness to Curse of Strahd, creating the false impression that you have agency but not actually giving you the option to leave is probably the most on-point thing a Ravenloft module could do.

 

[mellored]

Doesn't that suggest that the DMG should spend MORE time on it. After all, campaign adventures like Strahd or Rime tell the GM how to run that kind of game. The DMG section on that could be short. But without a official sandbox campaign, the new DM is relying on the DMG.

"Sandbox campaign" doesn’t make any sense.... if it's a campaign then it's not sandbox.

But the DMG includs Forgotten Realms in the "official" sandbox setting.

Also the Monster Manual provides more ideas and possible story hooks for you to the monster.

 

[TiQuinn]

"Sandbox campaign" doesn’t make any sense.... if it's a campaign then it's not sandbox.

But the DMG includs Forgotten Realms in the "official" sandbox setting.

Also the Monster Manual provides more ideas and possible story hooks for you to the monster.

They used to be called Campaign Settings, not just settings. A campaign can still be a sandbox, it's just one that's driven primarily by what the players want to chase after, and the setting gives as much information as necessary for the DM to create a campaign tailored to the players.

 

[TiQuinn]

Double Post. Ignore.

 

[Oofta]

Random encounter tables.
Faction relationship maps.
Tools for other random/procedural generation.
Sandboxes require all of these things.

Do they? I've never cared for random encounter tables, I choose enemies and monsters that fit the area the PCs are likely to encounter. I don't even know what faction relationship maps are, I just make notes on different factions and goals. Random/procedural generation? Nah. I'd rather use my imagination.

Or we just have a very different definition of sandbox.

 

[mellored]

They used to be called Campaign Settings, not just settings. A campaign can still be a sandbox, it's just one that's driven primarily by what the players want to chase after, and the setting gives as much information as necessary for the DM to create a campaign tailored to the players.

Semantic aside.

There is one in the DMG.

 

[Remathilis]

Random encounter tables.
Faction relationship maps.
Tools for other random/procedural generation.
Sandboxes require all of these things.

Encounter tables are world specific. I mean, maybe you can make some generic low/high level forest, hill, mountain, etc ones. Similarly, factions are also world specific. The DMG does have generators for settlements, weather, stuff like that (although more is always appreciated). The issue I see is that things you're asking for are setting specific rather than generic for the DMG.