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How to ease players into a sandbox style?
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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5792992" data-attributes="member: 54877"><p>The response thus far have been mainly about changing the sand. With a group of mostly reactive players, I find it more important to think about changing the box. You want options in the sand, preferably a lot of them, though with most of them not pressing and some of them mutually incompatible. You want limits from the box, and this will cut out a great deal of the analysis paralysis in reactive players. Limits are freeing.</p><p> </p><p>It's the 6 year-olds with crayons experiment all over again. Don't go into a 1st grade class and ask them to "make art". Half of them will freak out so much about the medium to use, that they won't even consider the subject matter. And even if you give crayons and paper and say, "Draw something," you'll have analysis paralysis. But on the other hand, you don't give them a single green-yellow crayon, a piece of cardboard torn off a box, and ask them to "draw a picture of their mother, in a realistic style." That one kid on the second row may amaze you, but mostly this will fall flat. What you'd rather do is give them a box of crayons, several sheets of paper, and say something like, "Draw a picture. Make it of your house, your friend, your pet, or something else that you pick." Very few 1st graders will be paralyzed for long with that kind of choice.</p><p> </p><p>Of course, you'll probably want to frame your choices in the sand as hooks or even bangs, and do that mostly in game. It's natural. Framing your limits in the box can be done that way, but with reactive players, I find it useful to frame some of it outside the game. The classic example is a sandbox limited to a single large city. We talk about it usually as something to help out the DM in prep work, but it also serves a useful purpose in framing the choices the players must make:</p><p> </p><p>"We can't travel 2 weeks to the plains of Garbonzo to get the fabled healing plants. So if we need some, we'll have to hire someone to get it for us, buy it from herbalism shop, or break into the tower of the Mad Mage and steal his." </p><p> </p><p>And then if someone on a totally unrelated story offers them some of the plants for a reward, instant hook. It's the limits of the box that makes that work.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5792992, member: 54877"] The response thus far have been mainly about changing the sand. With a group of mostly reactive players, I find it more important to think about changing the box. You want options in the sand, preferably a lot of them, though with most of them not pressing and some of them mutually incompatible. You want limits from the box, and this will cut out a great deal of the analysis paralysis in reactive players. Limits are freeing. It's the 6 year-olds with crayons experiment all over again. Don't go into a 1st grade class and ask them to "make art". Half of them will freak out so much about the medium to use, that they won't even consider the subject matter. And even if you give crayons and paper and say, "Draw something," you'll have analysis paralysis. But on the other hand, you don't give them a single green-yellow crayon, a piece of cardboard torn off a box, and ask them to "draw a picture of their mother, in a realistic style." That one kid on the second row may amaze you, but mostly this will fall flat. What you'd rather do is give them a box of crayons, several sheets of paper, and say something like, "Draw a picture. Make it of your house, your friend, your pet, or something else that you pick." Very few 1st graders will be paralyzed for long with that kind of choice. Of course, you'll probably want to frame your choices in the sand as hooks or even bangs, and do that mostly in game. It's natural. Framing your limits in the box can be done that way, but with reactive players, I find it useful to frame some of it outside the game. The classic example is a sandbox limited to a single large city. We talk about it usually as something to help out the DM in prep work, but it also serves a useful purpose in framing the choices the players must make: "We can't travel 2 weeks to the plains of Garbonzo to get the fabled healing plants. So if we need some, we'll have to hire someone to get it for us, buy it from herbalism shop, or break into the tower of the Mad Mage and steal his." And then if someone on a totally unrelated story offers them some of the plants for a reward, instant hook. It's the limits of the box that makes that work. [/QUOTE]
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