Hey Everyone,
I've been pretty much out of gaming since 4e came out. I've played in a few games and have read the rules, getting ready to run my first game in a long time. I have a world that I've created and I want to sandbox it. Anyone have experience running this type of game? Any general tips or advice would be appreciated.
I have plenty of experience running a 3.5 sandbox for my pirate campaign, which is probably not all that different from running a sandbox in 4th edition, apart from the rules. What I did was make a simple world map that highlights important places and cities that are commonly known. But I left everything else open. There could be plenty of stuff that isn't on any of the official maps (or on my map for that matter). But as the players would discover new things, I would update the map accordingly.
I then created multiple random encounter tables. Random encounters for on land, near the coast, at sea, underwater, in the city etc. These are my backup. I roll for a random encounter for every hour of travel (or when I want something exciting to happen), and most of these encounters are not combat encounters. In fact, some of them allow the party to make discoveries, such as a hidden weapon cache, a swamp, a castle, or even rare discoveries, such as a lost city. Other encounters are flavor encounters that just set the mood, or include obstacles, that require a skill check or an important choice.
I kept the plot very open. I made sure I had the names for plenty of characters, with short descriptions of their appearance and personality. I made sure there were always multiple plot threads going on, along with minor side quests mixed in. I then left it entirely up to the players to choose their adventure. The main plot was never bound to any specific location, so I could simply move important events to wherever the players happened to be going. For each city, I made a list of all the characters and stores in it, and also the names of the stores, and the names of the people that owned them. I would never be caught off guard. If the players were looking for a tavern, I always knew the name, and the names of the owners.
To emphasize the exploration aspect of my sandbox game, I made a map for each major landmass. These maps were not much more than a grid, with a rough silhouette of the land. Then as the players explored the land, and I rolled random encounters, I filled in the details.
I also worked out various cultures for my campaign. I didn't want the cliche races of elves, dwarves and halflings. So instead I worked out entire cultures, and made custom weapon lists for each race. Basically, each culture had their own specialty, and this was reflected in their weaponry. This made it extra exciting for the players to visit new lands, because that meant more equipment to spend money on.
Seafaring, and ship upgrading, also became an important aspect of the game. Wherever the players went, they could find and buy new upgrades for their ship. These upgrades would become more and more important, as the ships of their enemies would also improve, and they would face greater challenges.
Lastly, I threw in a random weather table (for which I rolled each day), and also kept track of the movements of legendary sea monsters. And now you have one big sandbox that lives and breathes.
All this is a lot of preparation. But totally worth it.
But, that's really not that long. At the FLGS we routinely get people returning the D&D who've been away since the 90s or 80s! 
