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

It depends. Its not either or.

Campaigns we have had:

Dungeon Crawling (Rappan Athuk)
Exploring/Archaeology (with a side of business as in selling artifacts)
Trade Empire/Spy Thriller/Adventuring
Politics/Business.
Planar Incursions
Spelljammer/Business/Pirates.
etc .etc.

I was just talking about my games; there has never been any demand to have detailed business dealings from my players. I'm sure there are many ways to play the game.
 

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I usually find that people play D&D to do things they can't do in real life. So running a business is pretty much something we could all do if it interested us, and is pretty much a game in itself. I have a family member who likes exploring, so they explore in real life. And the other thing D&D lets them do that they can't do in real life is make the world better.

But running a business, like running a kingdom, if you do it conscientiously, is really just work, very hard work, and no fun at all.

There's running a business and then there's running a fantasy business, in a game. The first is obviously hard work (though it helps A LOT if you actually like it). The second can absolutely be done for fun, laughs and a great D&D experience. One of the best campaigns I ever ran had all the PCs be different employees/administrators of Morgrave University.
 
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There's running a business and then there's running a fantasy business, in a game. The first is obviously hard work (though it helps A LOT if you actually like it). The second can absolutely be done for fun, laughs and a great D&D experience. One of the best campaigns I ever ran had all the PCs be different employees/administrators of Morgrage University.
Yup. It's not like D&D combat is anything like real combat (at least, I hope not. Combat is messy).
 



But running a business, like running a kingdom, if you do it conscientiously, is really just work, very hard work, and no fun at all.
I guess that's a matter of how much magic you have at your disposal, and if corporate law and ethical boundaries are set by a tyrannical lich emperor or a benevolent half-elf king. My players sure had fun developing their corpse re-finishing bulk sell business, "the freshest zombie material in the region".
 

I would say this, having ran sandbox games I think the Greyhawk section is a good start. While random generator lists, more detailed information, and advice would have required too much space for many modern and new DMs. To me you would need a campaign book (that is how I used them anyways) or a DM advice book. Something like the Lazy DM series of books (which are great) by Michael Shea . I have been playing since 1980 with the same group and while I will say we prefer sandbox like games , we occasionally need a push or maybe get on short railroad trip to get us going or in a particular direction. It requires a willing DM who has the time to do the work ( and it is more work than running published adventures or campaigns), players who can recognize how to make it easier on said DM. It really requires a great group willing to to do the work. I also think it requires more information and advice than they could provide in the DM's guide, without bloating it.​
What is strange about a sandbox game is that we were playing it organically before we ever heard of such a term. We played modules but usually they were one offs with different characters. I ran one in the Forgotten Realms and my friend ran one in his own world. I changed so much of the Forgotten Realms, outside of using Volo's guides for the North and Waterdeep I just used names and maps! One campaign started in the Dalelands and I made of most of that and what was in Myth Drannor. My friend had his own world which means he had to do even more work. I remember when we first saw the term we thought that was how you played by default. And even playing as long as we had we still would run into points when we found ourselves floundering for direction as what should we do now. Often times we would pause and start playing Marvel (FASERIP), West End's Star Wars, Champions, V&V, Call of Cthulhu, Gamma World, Boothill, or Top Secrete. Play that for a while and jump back into D&D, refreshed.​
My point is you really need a separate book to really give Sandbox a proper explanation for new DMs and players. We kind of played it by default as we didn't access to a lot of the modules most stores we had mostly sold boxed sets or hardbacks only. Now players have much more access to stuff and they are steered to published materials and that is fine and probably easier than Sandboxing.​
 

My wife and I were talking about RPG campaigns over lunch today, and a thought came up.

Eleanor Roosevelt is reputed to have said that "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." I'm not sure that campaign plots don't go in the other direction.

One of my favorite campaign books of all time is The Traveller Adventure. Using only mild spoilers, I can say that it's a sci-fi campaign sandbox travelogue with lots of vivid personalities and worlds to explore... but the motivating idea behind the plot is just a bit of local corporate skulduggery. Players have lots of freedom to wander and create their own connections, and there's no preordained climax.

Contrast that with the near-rage I've felt in reading Mongoose Traveller's more recent Mysteries of the Ancients. There are some sandboxy elements, it's true: worlds and people are presented, with some background and incidental rumors, events, and ideas... but there's a very strong railroad built in, steering the PCs from one location another, ensuring that Great Events Will Happen, and NPCs Will Explain Them, before the Characters Are Sent Elsewhere.

I remember old-school dungeons for their "people" (okay, monsters) and their "events" (well, really more the shape of the dungeon complex itself). Steading of the Hill Giant Chief was one of the first adventures I ever purchased, and the G/D/Q sequence is still famous in the hobby today for its locations... not any sort of intentional resolution. Even linear convention scenarios like The Tomb of Horrors or The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan were more about interesting situations for the PCs to encounter rather than prewritten experiences for them to have.

Basically, a lot of modern campaign books seem to be written by frustrated novelists. They want to tell a world-altering, grand epic, rather than sketching out a place in which the players can create their own story. I'm sure there are valid commercial reasons for the shift (Big Events sell, grand ad copy is more likely to motivate) and potential social/cultural explanations involving style of play and desired amount of direction by casual players. But that doesn't mean I like the result.

And, of course, I'm sure there are notable exceptions (and I'd love to hear about them).
 

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