Examples of good sandbox campaigns

[Mercurius]

As a followup to this thread in which I discuss my basic idea for an upcoming sandbox/metaplot hybrid, I'm wondering what examples are out there--published or really good websites--of sandbox settings.

A few that I know of and own:

- Wilderlands of High Fantasy
- Lost City of Barakus
- Vor Rukoth
- Kingmaker (Pathfinder)

Of course any number of settings can be used this way, but I'm particularly looking for those designed with sandboxing in mind, that go into great detail with numerous encounter possibilities laid out as well as hooks for larger plots and adventures - all or none of which could be used. Lost City of Barakus seems especially good in this regard (I've only just skimmed it so far).

What else comes to mind? Any edition or level is fine.

 

[pauljathome]

As a followup to this thread in which I discuss my basic idea for an upcoming sandbox/metaplot hybrid, I'm wondering what examples are out there--published or really good websites--of sandbox settings.

A few that I know of and own:

- Wilderlands of High Fantasy
- Lost City of Barakus
- Vor Rukoth
- Kingmaker (Pathfinder)

Of course any number of settings can be used this way, but I'm particularly looking for those designed with sandboxing in mind, that go into great detail with numerous encounter possibilities laid out as well as hooks for larger plots and adventures - all or none of which could be used. Lost City of Barakus seems especially good in this regard (I've only just skimmed it so far).

What else comes to mind? Any edition or level is fine.

Ptolus is brilliant for an urban campaign. Expensive, mind

The Kalamar setting has a fair bit of material that is somewhat sandboxy.

For Pathfinder, Varisia as a whole is pretty sandboxy. Its the setting for several adventure paths and there are lots of modules set there too. It combines into a pretty good whole with lots of places well detailed and lots of things from the Adventure Paths that one could hook into

 

[griffonwing]

For the new HackMaster or HackMaster Basic setting of Tellene, Frandor's Keep has enough campaign materials to last you several months of play. Many plothooks.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Barakus is excellent.

The original B4: The Lost City can be pretty good as well if you use the actual city below the pyramid that makes up the bulk of the module.

There's also some other classics: Keep on the Borderlands, Dwellers of the Forbidden City, and Vault of the Drow (though the last does have a "mission" focus, and thus may be a good hybrid example).

 

[RedShirtNo5.1]

Vault of Larin-Karr is smaller in scope than Barakas, but is also a very good example of hybrid.

Wilderlands struck me as basically pure sandbox, but maybe I'm misremembering. Nod and Hexcrawl Chronicles would be more along the same lines of basically sandbox.

 

[the Jester]

The World of Greyhawk, especially Gygax' boxed set from the mid-80s.

 

[S'mon]

Lost City of Barakus is the best I know. Lost City of Gaxmoor was a good ruined-city sandbox, but don't trust the (3.0e) stats, it basically needs re-statting.

Edit: Vault of Larin Karr is pretty good, but my players did start mocking the 'matrix' design, where every lair seems to have an Underdark entrance. Also needs careful (re)statting, I regularly crushed my PC group while running it for 4e. Might have been ok with a tough 6-PC 3e group. The biggest problem is the huge variation in power level of encounters. Barakus solves that issue through the constricted level range.

Edit 2: Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh is great! A much overlooked gem. Really nice wilderness sandbox with tons of dungeons etc. C&C stats but easy to convert.

 

[jeffh]

The original Dark Sun boxed set struck me as very sandboxy. Not just in that it was a box and involved lots of literal sand, but in that the books were full of little adventure ideas and potential encounter areas, with just enough details to get a good GM's imagination going.

EDIT: Lamentations of the Flame Princess has two hexcrawl-oriented settings out, Isle of the Unknown and Carcosa. Some people swear by them, though the one review I've read of Isle of the Unknown was rather mixed.

BTW, all of the above are written with older editions of D&D in mind (the original Dark Sun was for 2E AD&D, and the LotFP products are written with "retro-clones" and particularly Swords and Wizardry and their own Weird Fantasy Role-Playing in mind, both of which resemble the original 1974 edition). If you're willing to improvise to the extent you need to to run a sandbox anyway, I figure stats should be no biggie, just keep the monster books for your preferred edition handy.

 

[Quickleaf]

I might be pushing the bounds of known RPGs, but Hidden Kingdoms does a great job of setting up an arthurian style sandbox. A thread about the game with pictures: Original D&D Discussion - Hidden Kingdom

As far as a sandbox/metaplot hybrid, wouldn't the original Ravenloft adventure be a prime example of that? It had a tight setting focus, Strahd was the ultimate bad guy, but there were many possible motives for Strahd and for the PCs.

 

[Razjah]

Eberron works very well for this. You can easily lift the setting and ditch most of the mechanics if you want to run and earlier version of D&D or another game like Savage Worlds.

For Eberron you have Xen'Drik- for your jungle exploration (may be spelled wrong), Sharn (for city adventures), the Mournland- largest dungeon above ground, and more.