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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 5793320" data-attributes="member: 20323">[MENTION=83796]nedjer[/MENTION] I meant "jobs board" in the loose sense of quest-givers who provide PCs with paid opportunities which they are free to decline, usually with no repercussion. Sorry if I was unclear or misinterpreted you.[MENTION=463]S'mon[/MENTION] Well, definitely those 4 choices were on the players' radar screen. After the previous adventure, they knew it was a bi-directional portal and that Mechanus and Beastlands were relevant to their quest. There was also talk among the party about whether they should return to the NPC and re-assess what was happening. And a couple of humorous comments about bringing order to Sigil's sewers. So, I was more providing a reflection and reminder than anything new.But, stepping back, are you suggesting that listing options in the attempt to focus and limit choices actually has the opposite effect in that obscures the 'expected' route for linear players? <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid    :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" />[MENTION=54877]Crazy Jerome[/MENTION] Does capitalized CHOICES means "meaningful choices" not of the "left or right" or "in which order" variety?  It sounds like you're saying I should give the players more information to clarify just what the consequences and stakes of their choices are. I've been hesitant to throw more info at them because they've got a lot of info already that they're having difficult keeping straight - which I thought was contributing to their analysis paralysis.While I've done a bit of sandboxing before, most of my history with DMing leaned far more to the adventure path style. So, yes, there's a good chance I need to relearn stuff too. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" />Now that's a really interesting point!On the face of it, you're suggesting explicitly explaining consequences of choices, but you've also incorporated time limits into the choice. Do you think time limits specifically are a handy technique to transition players gradually from an adventure path style to a sandbox style?Oh I would love this! Really the game is just getting underway, but that's something to shoot for. To be clear, in my Planescape game I discussed with everyone before starting that their PCs had some connection to an NPC prophet who was creating a movement of unprecedented proportions. So there was a hook from the get-go, and there most definitely is a meta-plot which is insinuated into most smaller areas of exploration.It went something like this: Hey small world that we all know each other. Let's play D&D!Who's gonna DM?X and Y would like to play since they both DM games already and seem to DM a lot.I volunteered, saying I would love to run a Planescape campaign. Short description of Planescape.Everyone said it sounded fun.I e-mail the group with a bit more info, then give some guidelines to making PCs, including that they all should have a connection to the fey prophetess Karadja (blahblahblahPlanescapeissexyblahblahblah). @<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/members/janx.html" target="_blank">Janx</a>  I'm with you so far. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Hey, this is Planescape, the WHY is the biggest part of the adventure. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Now I'm trying to navigate this grey zone where there the players haven't solidified much in the way of goals for their PCs (as they're coming from an adventure path style), but I am trying to hook them into adventures using "chinks in the reactive gamer armor". If that makes sense.</blockquote>

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