D&D 5E Do You Prefer Sandbox or Party Level Areas In Your Game World?

So these are two approaches that campaigns can (and do) use. They have various names, but I'm using these names. I've used both approaches in the past.

Obviously there is more nuance than the definitions below, but these are two possible extreme ends of the poll when voting feel free to choose whichever end you tend towards, or embellish in the comments.

Sandbox -- each area on the world map has a set difficulty, and if you're a low level party and wander into a dangerous area, you're in trouble. The Shire is low level, Moria is high level. Those are 'absolute' values and aren't dependent on who's traveling through.

Party -- adventurers encounter challenges appropriate to their level wherever they are on the map. A low level party in Moria just meets a few goblins. A high level party meets a balrog!

Which do you prefer?

 

[MGibster]

Which do you prefer?

In my heart I prefer Sandbox. But for Curse of Strahd, I had to take great care to remind players that they can potentially encounter threats beyond their ability to deal with. Which raised the tensions a bit, but in D&D I find most players just charge in headfirst with the idea that the DM isn't going to throw something at them they can't handle.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I string unrelated modules into a long-term campaign, adapting them as necessary for relevance to the players and their characters.

My style has been called "sandbox" in the past, inasmuch as I have like 40 years' worth of modules so wherever the players decide to go I have something that will work, but I'm not sure I agree with that classification.

I picked Sandbox in the poll anyway, even though IME a true sandbox is the most disaster-prone style of gaming. If the players don't have grand plans and interests for their characters, for example, a lack of overarching plot tends to lead to a lot of frustration and players/characters diddling around.

 

[overgeeked]

By coincidence, I was just reading an old but relevant article by the ever insightful Angry GM

So you’re quoting someone who’s advice is to slap the sh!t out of people who express the opinion I did. “Cute”.

Some of us want the verisimilitude of a world, not the constant reminder it’s a game.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Adjusted Sandbox. Moria always has a Balrog, but if an under-levelled party wants to go there they get the assistance of a powerful NPC Wizard and a chance to escape.

 

[Puddles]

In my humble opinion, this is actually the wrong question to ask. I say this because if the reality of the sandbox is that players are only expected to go to an area once it becomes level appropriate, are the 2 methods really all that different?

Instead I would say the question to ask is: “does the party have the chance to face encounters both below and above their level?”, and I think DMs should strive to answer “yes” with bonus points if it is the party that gets to call some of the shots, (for example, when chasing the villain they are given the chance to take a shortcut through the swamps but doing so risks them encountering dangerous creatures above their level). You can achieve that with either approach. I use a hybrid of the two.

I also think with the way creatures are designed in D&D with set CR, it doesn’t really matter which approach you take. The most deeply unsatisfying experiences I’ve had with the “world levelling up” in computer games, is only when it’s the “creatures” themselves levelling up. For example, I hated that system in Oblivion and Final Fantasy VIII. But that would be the equivalent of a level 15 party facing “level 15 goblins” which isn’t what’s happening typically in D&D. If the players encounter a level appropriate number of goblins at levels 1 and 5, the fact that there was only 3 of them the first time and they took multiple hits to go down, whereas they faced a dozen the second time and heads were flying with every strike is going to make the players feel badass and the world believable.

Lastly, I try to make the party encounter a dragon as early as they can in the campaign, (in my current campaign, they did so at level 3). They don’t come into direct combat with it, but witness it do something destructive from afar. Having the players witness something like this early on, let’s them feel like the world is full of dangers round every corner, and when they are powerful enough to defeat it, the payoff should be very satisfactory for them.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Sandbox so strongly I wish there were an option for “Super-Yes-We-Are-Serious-About-It Sandbox”.

Individual adventures can be customized to a party, but when a world is customized to them it completely eliminates the primary draw of D&D to me, which is exploring a world that exists independently of my character and interacts with my character based on its own proclivities.

In other RPGs my position isn’t necessarily the same, but in D&D its Sandbox with a Vengeance.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So these are two approaches that campaigns can (and do) use.

I do not agree with this thesis. There are many more than two. A campaign does not have to be location based at all.

 

[Zardnaar]

Generally sandbox but kind of a mix.

 

[WarDriveWorley]

A mix of both. The world shouldn't be locked around expectations of the PC's capabilities, but instant deathtraps aren't super fun either. Generally what I do is have a baseline sandbox with certain set encounters based off the area. I tend to scatter encounters that are tough enough to cause the players to legitimately worry. As an example, let's say that to the north of the base city are some plains that hold some centaur tribes, gnoll raiders, and the tower of a mad lich. If the party moves into the area with the intent to try and stop the gnoll's raids they're likely to meet level appropriate encounters. However if the party decides it's going to push towards the lich's tower I'm going to throw high er level encounters that will pose a threat which (hypothetically speaking) should dissuade the party from pushing on and if it doesn't then that's on them.

 

[Helldritch]

Sandbox all the way. Players should learn to flee when it is necessary.