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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5585204" data-attributes="member: 54877">I see it as important how well the system handles the "questionable" bands. Stuff right around the party level, they can handle. Things way off the scale, they know aren't worth it, or they can't. So that gets right back to what sandboxes have always done, which is make information a prime currency. You don't go into the Pointy Mountains at 4th level, because everyone knows that Supercalifragilistic the Venerable Red Dragon lives there. Or if you do, it is sneaking, not to fight, and even then it is a huge risk. (I'm not opposed to risks. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/angel.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":angel:" title="Angel    :angel:" data-shortname=":angel:" />) But where you need system help is on the margins. There ends up being two or three times as many lizard men in the Foggy Swamp, as the party thought, and a few of them are tougher than the party wants to attempt right now. This is the kind of situation that, if played straight, no fudging on mechanics or information gathering, can easily mislead the party into thinking they are doing just fine, right up until a key fight. The more a system allows for escape from borderline fights, the more it allows the DM to handle information in a more naturalistic, in-game fashion, rather than using implicit mechanical clues or explicit metagaming--while still pushing the players hard.  This, in turn, means that the ridiculously easy fights--avoided for a long time due to caution, get handled at a more engaging time in the partys power level. Of course, not all sandboxes are run in that manner, but it is in the ballpark of what Keep on the Borderlands encouraged.  Sandbox to me means that the party is allowed to make lots of choices, including the ones that may hang them.  I want to give them rope, but I want them to see it for the rope it is. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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