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

[mamba]

No. Not enough to pay wages, keep the lights turned on, and give a return to investors. Not even close. They can’t release a new PHB every year.

They don't have to, the old PHB keeps selling to new players

 

[mamba]

I think you can argue that Bastions is meant to expand and support sandbox play in the same vein as level titles.

in the same vein of not doing it at all, sure

 

[mamba]

If someone has put you on ignore, then they shouldn’t be able to see your thread, let alone post in it. Right?

I don't think so, they just do not see their posts, they still see everyone else in it

 

[MichaelSomething]

That reason being twofold:

a) it quickly becomes obvious when playing online how much work the DM has to put in preparing maps and encounters etc. and so there's a certain degree of soft-edged pressure to go along with it
b) corollary to this, it also quickly becomes obvious that if-when the players do go somewhere unprepped the online systems don't lend themselves well to drawing quickie maps on the fly such as one can do on a chalkboard or whiteboard

(side question: do any of the online RPG platforms yet support using a digital art tablet in real time to draw maps, such that what the DM draws on the tablet immediately appears on the players' screen? Relevant in that it's light-years easier to draw with a pen than with a mouse).

I personally never had trouble making up maps in Roll 20. A few squares and circles and you got a battlefield!

You could also upload/purchase general maps/tokens for the odd curveball.

 

[Oryzarius]

It seems to me that WotC has the perfect opportunity to address this issue within their publishing line. They would love to sell core-like rulebooks on a regular basis, but can't update their core products on the same kind of schedule as, say, car manufacturers or couture fashion mavens.

So why not make one of their big hardbacks be a "sandbox workshop"? Offer a reasonably confined setting, say a barony or the like, with points of interest and major NPCs described. Then talk about how to create a setting that responds to the players rather than expecting a pre-choreographed plotline. Offer lots of sketches of possible adventures and consequences, perhaps with different chapters for different components of plot ("Settling the Wilderness", "Peacemaking Among the Nobility", "Delving for Secrets", etc.). Provide a set of evil factions within the setting, and stat them up at differing levels of ability for whether the PCs take them on early in the campaign or neglect them until later (when they've had time to fester and grow). Offer goals and timelines for those factions, with the way they'll alter the setting if unopposed (and what new adventure seeds are sown by those actions). And, of course, invite DMs to make it their own by picking, choosing, and innovating.

In other words, make it a DMG-supplement which specifically focuses on teaching sandbox-building, but with typical D&D art and production values. I already run sandboxes, but I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Then we're in the same boat when it comes to what is required for qualifying as a sandbox. I don't know why random encounter charts are a requirement, even if I can see why they might be handy for some people.

I don’t see why the absence of random encounter charts in the DMG is indicative of anything. For all we know, they are included in the Monster Manual.

 

[Reynard]

I don’t see why the absence of random encounter charts in the DMG is indicative of anything. For all we know, they are included in the Monster Manual.

We don't have the MM yet. All we have to go on is the DMG.

 

[Oofta]

I don’t see why the absence of random encounter charts in the DMG is indicative of anything. For all we know, they are included in the Monster Manual.

I'd be surprised if it's even there. But approximately 10 minutes after we have the MM online somebody will make one with a list of monsters and CR by filtering and copying the web page.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'd be surprised if it's even there. But approximately 10 minutes after we have the MM online somebody will make one with a list of monsters and CR by filtering and copying the web page.

That's not a great reason for it not to be included in a book. People make their versions of lots of stuff.

 

[Oofta]

That's not a great reason for it not to be included in a book. People make their versions of lots of stuff.

Never said I didn't want it, just that I don't expect it.