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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ravenheart87" data-source="post: 6356136" data-attributes="member: 79274">To start a sandbox campaign just work out a smaller area (eg. a town and nearby lands), then you can expand later. All you really need is places and NPCs with their issues and relationships, don't write scripts - the story will write itself once the players jump in. Take notes what they did and then think about what consequences it will have in the world, how will the various NPCs and factions react to their deeds. You will need to improvise a lot and your sandbox might become a huge mess after a while, but it's a glorious and fun mess. Random encounter tables, rumor tables and hood adventure hooks are very useful. If you want to see a good sandbox setting, I can recommend the free BlackMarsh supplement, the Points of Light books from Goodman Games, the Hex Crawl Classics line from Frog God Games, and the granddaddy of all sandbox settings: the Wilderlands of High Fantasy from Judges Guild. I'm going to run a campaign in the latter once the new City State of the Invincible Overlord is out in November.As for dungeons, I keep a map in my possession and let my players draw their own maps, although I do help if they make a huge error during mapping. If they really want to have a more tactical view I make a sketch about who stands where, but only rough. Also note that the characters can't really make the calculations in a six second round about where to throw exactly a fireball to avoid the flames. Tell them to use common sense and use objects as targets. Some abstraction is required, but it's a bit more realistic and faster than calculating squares on the battlegrid.Dungeons are pretty boring if they are presented as labyrinths with encounters. I like them as living and breathing environments, like Moria or the city in R. E. Howard's Red Nails. A good dungeon has interesting places you can explore, weird <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> that will confuse the hell out of you and (usually monster) factions that live there and can use the PCs for their advantage or can be used by the PCs. Check out Caverns of Thracia, Dark Tower, Citadel of Fire and Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor for good examples. I can also recommend Dungeon Alphabet from Goodman Games, it's one of the most entertaining book ever written about making dungeons interesting.I hope I could help.</blockquote>

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