D&D General Let's talk about sandboxes, open worlds and hexcrawling

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think I appreciate sandboxes more than my players, probably because I like worldbuilding. Fact is tho, my players work better with a medium-to-heavy railroad. I may add more sidequest for them to do if I have the time, but they wont come up with ''wants and needs'' for their own character. But, they are ok with that, so so I'm I.

 

[Reynard]

So, this comment may not really be sandbox specific, but it came to mind anyway...

If you have a lot of hooks for things to do, how you you get them to take downtime at all?

I have players who are hero, white-hat types. If there's currently an unresolved plot hook that looks like a problem that needs solving with any urgency, they are going to follow that rather than take downtime. I am currently playing an Artificer, a class with some very cool and specific uses for downtime - but there's a bunch of plot hooks out there that see pretty time-critical, so I myself don't want to stop to brew potions or whatever, because... someone gets eaten by something nasty if we do that.

So, in your sandbox, how do you make space for downtime?

I think treating problems more realistically with long timelines is a good way to go. Maybe the Baron Darke is an evil bastard, but he is still the rightful ruler of the Barony. The PCs can't just kick down his door and kill him. They might need to engage in long term intelligence gathering and espionage in order to prove he is evil. Or, sure, there are bandits on the Forest Road, but they are there because they have been ejected from their land by a corrupt official. Wiping them out is not only not justifiable, it won't solve the problem.

In other words, if you want the players to take their time, not every plot Hook can demand immediacy.

 

[the Jester]

So, this comment may not really be sandbox specific, but it came to mind anyway...

If you have a lot of hooks for things to do, how you you get them to take downtime at all?

One thing I rarely see mentioned in this context is wintering. If winter is harsh, wandering around in the wilderness is likely hazardous and very uncomfortable. Most winters are instead used for downtime in my campaign.

Also, you can have stretches of adventure that take long periods. Simply having months pass on the road can encourage the pcs to spend some time between adventures, because it doesn't feel like important stuff is happening every single game day.

 

[ninjayeti]

I am thinking about running a hexcrawl as my next campaign and have put together some thoughts on how I will run it. Obviously this is all theorycrafting, so I welcome any input.

Long Rests
I don’t like one encounter adventuring days, so my idea is to have short rests take 8 hours and long rests to require 72 hours (+24 hours for each additional HD recovered) in a SAFE location. This mechanic will require the party to return to civilization with some frequency and hopefully give the campaign a feel of distinct expeditions rather than randomly wandering around in the wilds. A “day” should still be (very roughly) 6-8 encounters, but it might be two weeks of random encounters while exploring or it might be a targeted expedition to clear out a dungeon with 5 or 6 encounters over a short span. Ideally, this will balance the utility of long rest and short rest classes.

The PCs will also have the opportunity to clear some locations as a “base camp” for further exploration. This will be an important objective later in the game.

Mix of Random Encounters, Locations of Interest, and Dungeons
My plan is to have 3 or so proper “dungeons,” 6-8 points of interest (some combat, some noncombat) plus random encounters within the sandbox to give it variety. It is fairly limited in scope, but once the PCs finish the area they can move on to a deeper region.

Breadcrumbs
Encounter areas will have clues pointing to additional areas. I don’t want the campaign to feel like methodical hex clearing so I want finding points of note to lead to other important areas.

Travel vs. Exploration
Exploring a hex takes twice as long as just traveling through it so once PC’s have explored an area they can move through it more quickly to new areas.

XP is for XPloration (see what I did there?)
You level up from finding stuff and achieving objectives instead of killing and looting stuff. I am still working on rules for avoiding encounters, but I would like it to be an important strategy.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I've never run or played in a sandbox, so there's that. But I recently started outlining two sandbox campaigns. Mostly for my own amusement...

...but also because I'm running Dragon of Icespire Keep from the Essentials Kit, which is a sort of quest-driven mini-sandbox set in Phandalin. And I'm honestly finding Phandalin somewhat dull. I like my fantasy clearly fantastical, and Phandalin is very quotidian in it's details. So to help inspire me, I started compiling all the adventure locations from Essentials Kit, Starter Set, and the 4E Neverwinter Campaign Setting. When you put all the pieces together, the Neverwinter region is chock full of exciting adventure.

I'm doing something similar for Daggerford. Mike Schley created a Daggerford regional map (which you can buy from his website) for use in the 5E Dungeon Master's Guide, but it was apparently cut before publication. I've taken that, the D&D Next adventures Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle and Scourge of the Sword Coast, plus the 1E adventure Under Illefarn and the 3.5E camapign Under Illefarn Anew (an amazing resource; Google it), mixed them all together, and then advanced the timeline to be contemporaneous with the current 5E adventure paths. It's an embarrassment of riches.

As I thought about how to turn those sandboxes into playable campaigns, a few common elements emerged:

• Rumors that lead to adventure sites filled with treasure and magic are the primary hook. I think part of the fun of sandbox play is that it's player-driven. But players shouldn't be stumbling around in the dark without a flashlight. It's our job to provide adventure around every corner.
• Villains and villainous factions get fronts in the style of Dungeon World, so if left unchecked they dynamically change the world and the peril grows.
• Downtime as a regular part of play. There's a great series of articles on alphastream.org on how to make better use of the downtime rules.
• Details are left blank in the style of 13th Age so they can be customized for the players. For example, I might have bandits raiding the Trade Way, but I only decide that they're in the employ of the Zhentarim when the rogue PC tells me he's on the run from the Zhents.
• A central theme that's stated upfront to the players. For example, in the above Neverwinter sandbox, it's clear that civilization is in great peril, and so the theme that emerged is civilization vs savagery. Daggerford is more about civilized factions vying for control of the region. I use those themes to select monsters, quests, and NPCs which reinforce it.

 

[toucanbuzz]

I ran Paizo's Kingmaker during my "skip 4E" phase, and found it to be my go-to model for free-form exploration (here's a hex map with some hidden dungeons and adventure zones) with some focus (conquer the frontier and build a kingdom). I've never truly run a "here's a map, go f-around for a bit" campaign.

So when I run "sandbox," I gravitate to things like Curse of Strahd (open map, underlying objectives) and my remake of Pool of Radiance (here's the ruins of Phlan and surrounding areas, liberate them) as both fit a limited scope map + free form exploration + underlying campaign focus.

 

[Reynard]

Another thing to keep in mind is that level/power does not necessarily translate to influence or political power. Just because the PCs have wandered around raiding tombs and hunting monsters for a year and are 9th level doesn't necessarily mean they have any say in the running of the government. Unless, of course, they have geared their advancement toward such a goal.

Old versions of the game assumed a transition to leadership and political involvement as the PCs leveled up. 5E does not. As such, NPCs won't automatically kowtow to the PCs just because they have hit 9th level.

 

[the Jester]

XP is for XPloration (see what I did there?)
You level up from finding stuff and achieving objectives instead of killing and looting stuff. I am still working on rules for avoiding encounters, but I would like it to be an important strategy.

If pcs in my game overcome a dangerous encounter without combat, they still gain xp for it. They have gotten xp for outrunning a migration of digesters, for parlaying with innumerable potential deadly foes, and even for romancing slaadi. In some cases, they might get more or less xp for one type of solution or another, if one is especially easy to achieve, but basically, if you 'defeat' a CR 5 monster by making friends with it, you earn the xp for defeating a CR 5 monster.

That said, if there's no danger involved, there's no xp. You don't get xp for the merchant and his guards simply by buying his wares.

 

[Xetheral]

I find that making sure the PCs have a base or stronghold of their own is fantastically helpful in a sandbox game. For one thing, it anchors the sandbox around a fixed point, providing a soft constraint on the size of the sandbox. For another, it provides built-in motivation for the PCs as they seek to protect and upgrade their home, increasing the variety of adventure types beyond just "which plot hook should we bite on this week?" It can also provide more strategic depth to the campaign by forcing the PCs to weigh the risk of leaving their stronghold undefended if they venture far afield in pursuit of other goals. And activies such as overseeing new construction, training new hirelings, or taking advantage of stronghold facilities (e.g. research in the library, gear upgrades at the forge, spell development in the lab) gives the PCs a reason to stay put occasionally, which naturally weaves downtime into the game.

 

[clearstream]

So -- what's your take on sandbox D&D campaigns?

My take is that sandbox campaigns are helped hugely by increasing the duration of rests. I'm using 3-days long, 1-day short, and 1-hour breather (spend HP), which can be repeated only after an amount of time equal to the rest duration has lapsed (so one long rest per 6-days, in effect).

Consequences include

1. High-level spells such as Resurrection are far less available, which has a lot of positive ramifications as well as making them feel appropriately rare and powerful;
2. When travelling long distances, every night's rest is not a long rest;
3. The durations are long enough that I find it easy to plausibly advance the plot if characters are resting egregiously often;
4. Attritional encounters can at times matter (character resources are not always so easily recovered).

Aside from that, distinctive NPCs with interesting motives seem key. Players should remember them, fear them or relate to them; and their motives should allow them to flexibly respond to whatever gambits the characters attempt. It helps to have a sense of what resources they can call on.