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Message: <blockquote data-quote="robus" data-source="post: 8108877" data-attributes="member: 6801558">I’ve noted elsewhere that I think the sandbox-railroad spectrum marks the extremes of the exploration pillar. A setting book seems like perfect format for presenting a sandbox. Give information on all the locations, monsters, major npcs and villains that populate the setting and let the DM and players develop a story from all those goodies.A railroad is not for anyone of course (except for perhaps choose your own adventure games <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=":)" /> ).But the happy medium path is the linear adventure, here the DM is provided way points through the adventure but the players actions are able to determine the actual route. In my mind, those way points are the villain imposing themselves on the world (regardless of where the PCs are, or who they’re talking to). Basically each way point is the hook to the next stage of the adventure. And don’t make it so fragile that the PCs have to connect with a certain NPC for the next stage to be “unlocked”. The adventure should keep raising the stakes as the PCs draw near to the final showdown.</blockquote>