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<blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 9471210" data-attributes="member: 463">This can happen with sandboxing if you (a) don't use guard rails (b) your players aren't very good/competent/suited or (c) You're&nbsp; not very competent and run a boring sandbox. I've seen all these. But I run OSR style games where very often we get fantastic moments and drama, so I know it's doable. I think the most important thing is players who treat it as a living world, and GMs who are flexible and adaptable to player plans. My last session (Shadowdark) there was some great stuff when the players realised they were in the tomb of a Necromancer Queen in life allied to the Orc horde (they worked this out via research on the murals plus good rolls) then when they met her ghost the half orc player said she was an emissary of the (actually long dead) orc horde here to renew their ancient allegiance. Advantage on CHA check, success - and a deadly encounter became a friendly chat. It was awesome. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> But other players would never have thought to try that, probably never even made the connections, and whined when the OP monster killed their PC.One thing about OSR games is that they tend to favour flexible thinking over rules knowledge and number crunching. My successful author &amp; military veteran players do very well in Shadowdark compared to modern D&amp;D editions, whereas my aspergery (even more than me) min-maxer player dislikes the lack of crunch and the high lethality. But in a different ruleset like 4e she's the dominant player.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="S'mon, post: 9471210, member: 463"] This can happen with sandboxing if you (a) don't use guard rails (b) your players aren't very good/competent/suited or (c) You're not very competent and run a boring sandbox. I've seen all these. But I run OSR style games where very often we get fantastic moments and drama, so I know it's doable. I think the most important thing is players who treat it as a living world, and GMs who are flexible and adaptable to player plans. My last session (Shadowdark) there was some great stuff when the players realised they were in the tomb of a Necromancer Queen in life allied to the Orc horde (they worked this out via research on the murals plus good rolls) then when they met her ghost the half orc player said she was an emissary of the (actually long dead) orc horde here to renew their ancient allegiance. Advantage on CHA check, success - and a deadly encounter became a friendly chat. It was awesome. :D But other players would never have thought to try that, probably never even made the connections, and whined when the OP monster killed their PC. One thing about OSR games is that they tend to favour flexible thinking over rules knowledge and number crunching. My successful author & military veteran players do very well in Shadowdark compared to modern D&D editions, whereas my aspergery (even more than me) min-maxer player dislikes the lack of crunch and the high lethality. But in a different ruleset like 4e she's the dominant player. [/QUOTE]

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