Imaculata
Hero
Yes, some of the best ideas often come from the players themselves. My sandbox campaign includes plenty of mysteries, and my players often discuss out loud what they think is going on. And sometimes they come up with better ideas than me. But while the campaign is still in progress, I can change it anyway I like.
Recently one of my players came up with a brilliant idea. I had informed the party that a dwarven pirate culture used ancient magical runes to allow certain buildings to be guarded against the big bad in my campaign. But not only that, it also allowed these buildings to materialize in the realm of the dead, which is like a creepy mirror version of the surface. So one of my players said out loud:
"Maybe if we can discover the secret of these dwarven runes, we can ward our own base, and materialize it in the realm of the dead as well. That way, we'll have an excellent safe haven to attack the big bad from, and we can take the fight to him!"
Now I had already planned some plot surrounding the original creator of these runes, but the idea that they could manifest their own base in another dimension, had not occurred to me. It was brilliant, and it is an idea that I will be taking into account as I develop the story further.
Recently one of my players came up with a brilliant idea. I had informed the party that a dwarven pirate culture used ancient magical runes to allow certain buildings to be guarded against the big bad in my campaign. But not only that, it also allowed these buildings to materialize in the realm of the dead, which is like a creepy mirror version of the surface. So one of my players said out loud:
"Maybe if we can discover the secret of these dwarven runes, we can ward our own base, and materialize it in the realm of the dead as well. That way, we'll have an excellent safe haven to attack the big bad from, and we can take the fight to him!"
Now I had already planned some plot surrounding the original creator of these runes, but the idea that they could manifest their own base in another dimension, had not occurred to me. It was brilliant, and it is an idea that I will be taking into account as I develop the story further.
. It is a lot easier to start somewhere more isolated to limit the initial choices for the players, and give all the characters some time to interact. On the same note, if you make travel daunting in the beginning, and obviously time consuming it makes the choice to simply head off in an opposite direction less likely. It also generally adds to realism because players typically are much more likely to simply send their characters off on a week long trek than they would be if they actually had to do it. Now, once things are all fleshed out and the character motivations are more clear, feel free to give them that airship that they can take to the Megalopolis, but not day 1 IMHO.
