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Message: <blockquote data-quote="takasi" data-source="post: 4864557" data-attributes="member: 20194">Sorry, I meant to say I'm defining it as negative in relationship to the character, not necessarily the player.  Some players might love to see their characters tortured within the game world, but it's still torture to the character.Later in your post you mention how I am labeling things as black and white.  If you have that impression I apologize.  I have tried to say that most games are a mix of styles.  In this example, there is a pace to how the environment marches on and who it marches on.  If you look at the timeline for existing campaign settings, many of them exhibit 'medieval stasis':<a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MedievalStasis" target="_blank">Medieval Stasis - Television Tropes & Idioms</a>If someone was buried and woke up 100 years in the future, how much would have really changed?  10 years?  1 year?  1 week?Here are some tropes that some DMs who favor event driven games frequently use:<a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DoomedHometown" target="_blank">Doomed Hometown - Television Tropes & Idioms</a><a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RefusalOfTheCall" target="_blank">Refusal Of The Call - Television Tropes & Idioms</a><a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive" target="_blank">The Call Knows Where You Live - Television Tropes & Idioms</a><a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitle024v6ql5duby?from=Main.YouCantGoHomeAgain" target="_blank">You Can't Go Home Again - Television Tropes & Idioms</a>The nature of the GM is that he knows what's beyond the 'fog of war'.  He has to make secret decisions.Some players may enjoy that to a certain extent.  As a player it's not as fun to roleplay in character if I have too much out of character info (especially if I designed that out of character info).This is where the setting design is important. DMs may present a Peaceable Kingdom; for a game in which the Heroes can save the world from impending doom.  DMs may also present a Wasteland, for a story in which the Heroes ca restore their world.  Many worlds have a combination of both, but I think for sandbox play it's easier to have a Wasteland.This can be viewed from a small scale too.  For example, let's take a look at a mine.  In one example the mine could be a Wasteland, currently nonfunctional and overrun with monsters.  If players choose to clean it up then it can be prosperous again.  Or this could be a mine in a Peaceable Kingdom, but there are rumors to be investigated about cults and monsters plotting to destroy the mine.  If the characters do not act then the mine will be lost.  In the second example there is much more pressure on the players to act.  Whether something is a railroad or not depends on how much pressure is on the players to act.  Some players are more tolerant of pressure than others.I've had a fun time at conventions rolling up characters and doing nothing but sitting around a fake tavern talking about adventures and learning about a DM's game world.  YMMV.I apologize if I sound like I'm insisting on anything.  That's not my intention.Which examples are you referring to, and in what way are they less free?If all of the players and the DM really, truly wanted to play in a world where this is possible, then sure, why not?  Sort of like a monstrous medieval version of the Wild West.  You don't like someone then kill them.  No one else seems to mind.  It's every man, woman and child for themselves.Now let's say they don't really want that.  What they want is to be chased.  They want to change the world in a negative way.  They want to be villains.  In this case the negative becomes the positive.  They want to play Grand Theft Auto in a D&D world, racking up sheriff badges as they go on a killing spree.  They are changing the world, but at their own pace and freestyle.</blockquote>

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