How Large should a Sandbox be?

[Raven Crowking]

I would do the first, nestle it in the middle of the second, sketchily do the second, and start play. You can flesh out the second while your players are still exploring the first.

If that makes any sense......?


RC

 

[Shades of Green]

I would do the first, nestle it in the middle of the second, sketchily do the second, and start play. You can flesh out the second while your players are still exploring the first.

If that makes any sense......?

Hmmm... So I might want to flesh out one island first and the rest of the islands later on... Or maybe even a part of the starting island...

 

[Raven Crowking]

Hmmm... So I might want to flesh out one island first and the rest of the islands later on... Or maybe even a part of the starting island...

Exactly.......And this is the suggested method in the DMG 1e, btw!

 

[Shades of Green]

My intention is to start with a single island for low/mid-level adventures, then add an island or two to the north for higher-level adventures. The northern islands will be frozen year-long (as they won't be warmed by ocean currents) and be infested with high-level monsters (white dragons, mammoths, wholly rhinos, rogue fire and water elementals and clockwork constructs); they'll be there for high-level adventures; a nearer and more reachable island will have hordes of snow orcs and a mid-range mage's tower. They'll be reachable either when the PCs buy or build a seaworthy ship (or steal such a ship from the snow-orcs for the nearer island) or gain Teleportation at level 9.

So up to, say, level 7-10, the game would be confined to one big island and a few smaller islands adjacent to it.

 

[Storminator]

A good sandbox doesn't have well defined edges. Players should feel like wherever they take their PCs to is still inside the sandbox. So if you want your sandbox small, put all the really interesting stuff (as defined by your players - not you) very close together. That will keep your players from wandering all over the place.

PS

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

A sandbox should be large enough that even when you find things the cat put in it you can just avoid that area and keep playing.




Actually, I think that even works as a serious analogy.

 

[Janx]

A sandbox should be large enough that even when you find things the cat put in it you can just avoid that area and keep playing.




Actually, I think that even works as a serious analogy.

I was going to say a sandbox should be big enough to have room to play in.

As the man says, it might need to be a little bit bigger than that...

 

[S'mon]

It's best to give the sandbox edges that make sense in-game: the ocean shore, high mountains, etc. Eg my Duskmoon Hills sandbox is bounded by a windswept plain on the west, mountains to north and east, and marshes to the south. A bridge over a river leads to a road that runs between the plain and the marshes to the rest of the realm, where the PCs usually come from.

 

[Shades of Green]

Do you think that an island around the size of the Isle of Dread (but partially settled and partially wilderness instead of mostly wilderness) would be a good enough sandbox?

 

[Scribble]

Do you think that an island around the size of the Isle of Dread (but partially settled and partially wilderness instead of mostly wilderness) would be a good enough sandbox?

At least until your PCs get bored of what's happening on the island, and manage to aquire a boat of some type.