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<blockquote data-quote="Skallgrim" data-source="post: 4782296" data-attributes="member: 79271">Also, depending on the &quot;speed of play&quot; of your group, preparing a sandbox can simply be more like a &quot;shrub&quot; adventure than a &quot;tree&quot; adventure.&nbsp; Rather than having prepared a long and dependent series of encounters, interaction, and descriptions, you might be able to prepare short chains of linked encounters.&nbsp; Once the PCs have committed to one of these branches, most of your prep can focus on the choices on that individual branch.If a flightly and indecisive group is giving you problems by constantly shifting focus, look at ways to keep them from backtracking.&nbsp; In one way, this IS railroading, but in another, they still have a wide variety of choices, but none of those choices &quot;resets&quot; them to the first group of options.&nbsp; I know that sounds &quot;gamey&quot;, but in the real world, making some choices means not being able to make others.&nbsp; It's possible to &quot;direct&quot; PCs through having realistic consequences and resource constraints, rather than artificial plot constraints.Also, I wouldn't be afraid of simply using narration to handle a lot of PC exploration in &quot;undeveloped&quot; regions.&nbsp; You can be really cheesy with this &quot;You look for days and find nothing.&nbsp; What now?&quot;&nbsp; On the other hand, if one guy starts up a bar fight when you have nothing prepped, I don't see anything wrong with describing colorfully how the fight is resolved.&nbsp; The PCs are usually Big Damn Heroes and are probably going to win a bar fight anyway.Again, to some DMs, this smacks of railroading, but on the other hand, I've actually played in groups which INSISTED, despite no one enjoying it, in roleplaying out an &quot;equipping&quot; session, rather than just deciding what they wanted to buy and spending the gold.&nbsp; There's a balance between DM narration and party narration, and you can often slide it one way or the other during the game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Skallgrim, post: 4782296, member: 79271"] Also, depending on the "speed of play" of your group, preparing a sandbox can simply be more like a "shrub" adventure than a "tree" adventure. Rather than having prepared a long and dependent series of encounters, interaction, and descriptions, you might be able to prepare short chains of linked encounters. Once the PCs have committed to one of these branches, most of your prep can focus on the choices on that individual branch. If a flightly and indecisive group is giving you problems by constantly shifting focus, look at ways to keep them from backtracking. In one way, this IS railroading, but in another, they still have a wide variety of choices, but none of those choices "resets" them to the first group of options. I know that sounds "gamey", but in the real world, making some choices means not being able to make others. It's possible to "direct" PCs through having realistic consequences and resource constraints, rather than artificial plot constraints. Also, I wouldn't be afraid of simply using narration to handle a lot of PC exploration in "undeveloped" regions. You can be really cheesy with this "You look for days and find nothing. What now?" On the other hand, if one guy starts up a bar fight when you have nothing prepped, I don't see anything wrong with describing colorfully how the fight is resolved. The PCs are usually Big Damn Heroes and are probably going to win a bar fight anyway. Again, to some DMs, this smacks of railroading, but on the other hand, I've actually played in groups which INSISTED, despite no one enjoying it, in roleplaying out an "equipping" session, rather than just deciding what they wanted to buy and spending the gold. There's a balance between DM narration and party narration, and you can often slide it one way or the other during the game. [/QUOTE]

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