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Message: <blockquote data-quote="edhel" data-source="post: 6356202" data-attributes="member: 20296">My general advice first, based on my tastes and experience:1) Plan the campaign from the antagonists' viewpoint. Don't make assumptions about PCs actions. You are creating the premise for adventure in a sandbox, not a story and definitely not the plot. Those are created through play. Your PCs should have something they care about, and then have the "enemy" threaten that.2) This one's a matter of taste, but: Make your plot revolve about something relatable and/or human. Don't make your plot revolve around some McGuffin that trapped a chocolate dragon soul 5000 years ago. Your antagonists may be powerful but they can also be very human and petty. Maybe the wizard wants revenge on his half-brother who now rules the kingdom. Maybe he wishes to be an enlightened tyrant and maybe he's actually right, but his methods are heavy-handed and terrible. All that fantasy stuff around the goal are just tools for achieving something PCs can wrap their heads around.3) Track time. Just print out a calendar and mark down major events. Have down time. Have 'special days' - e.g. the most magical day of the year, "Christmas", even birthdays.4) The antagonists have limited resources, limited information, and will react to PCs meddling with their plans. There should be envoys, assassins, messengers, misdirection, kidnappings, threatening letters and all that fun stuff. The antagonists might be in plain sight but unreachable due to their political or magical power. They might have lieutenants that are true believers but not bad people. Create problems that can't be solved by killing people.5) There's good advice online helping you run a sandbox successfully:<a href="http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/05/method-for-making-d-sandbox.html" target="_blank">A Method For Making A D&D Sandbox</a><a href="http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.fi/2010/01/sandboxes-and-roguish-work-ethic.html" target="_blank">Sandboxes And The Roguish Work Ethic</a>6) There's good advice helping you become a better storyteller and improviser:<a href="http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/storytelling-king" target="_blank">The Storytelling King</a><a href="http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/stephen-kings-third-eye" target="_blank">Stephen King's Third Eye</a>7) Create plot points. Ideally they're small adventures that can be dropped almost anywhere in your sandbox.8) Don't get too attached to your ideas, and don't overprep. Just prepare to improvise - collect weather tables, random item charts etc.9) Involve your player in the creation process. Let them decide their religions and home regions. Almost everyone should also have family since it's a good source for drama.10) Have consequences for the PCs actions. Make them sometimes choose the lesser of two evils. If there's something happening in the background, make the players understand what's happening through the events inside the game world. Show don't tell.There's nothing wrong with borrowing ideas. There are no new ideas left. What matters is what kind of impact they have on your players: What is at stake? Who wants what and why can't they have it? What are the short and longterm consequences of the PCs actions?There's a lot of stuff (most of it quite bad, IMHO) written about Forgotten Realms. You are not tied to it. You can invent your own Neverwinter. If the PCs just visit the city, you can just sketch it lightly, and add more detail as time goes on. If you need a map, you can find one easily on google images.Dungeons are great. They're a limited space for adventuring and really easy to handle. Don't get too tied to the exact layout of the dungeon. The '<a href="http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Five_Room_Dungeon" target="_blank">Five room dungeon</a>' is a good rule of thumb for any game. Google for more information about dungeon design. They ARE fun. Remember that they aren't just places underground, but any space that limits PCs movement.</blockquote>

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