Litterboxes: Tell us about your crappy Sandbox experiences

[S'mon]

And so I quit that game, and that was that. I don't think any more sessions of it were run, and that sandbox's world was abandoned.

Sounds more like a railroad than a sandbox, though?

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Sounds more like a railroad than a sandbox, though?

I agree, but the GM still called it a sandbox all the way through.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I aak not sure where in the rail/sand/litter this falls but I played in a d&d grand theft auto where we had a large city map and the dm had 50 plot hooks from lv 1-lv 6 spread out through 12 or 13 pre planed npcs

We all started as low lifes or down on our luck lv 1 pcs who were connected to one of the criminal groups...

Game went boom when the dm off hand mentioned kobolds attacking a caravan and we spent a whole night tracking a non exstant plot hook.

Never did get to 3rd level in that game

 

[KiloGex]

I dunno. I think this one's at least partially on you. Sounds like serious miscommunication to me. Now, it could just be that they were dim, but not telling them what's in their backpacks unless they specifically ask doesn't scream "good GMing" to me.

They had started the entire campaign with nothing but scraps of cloth for clothes, and then in one fell swoop had been freed from their prison, handed a bag each and told "this is everything you'll need to survive. Head east until you meet up with the caravan." At this point, I'm not going to give them a detailed list of everything they have. After all, if someone hands me a bag the first thing I'm going to do once I'm not fearing for my life is check what supplies I've been given and see what I need to ration. Next, after being told to go east, I'm going to find out which direction is east.

Maybe I was just going on what I would have done as a player, though.

 

[KiloGex]

This led our party of 1st and 2nd level characters into the dungeon below the castle where we found a "lich" rise out of a vat of slime, lob a 10d6 lightning bolt at us, and promptly lots of running and WTF?! comments became apropos.

At that point in the campaign, I just wanted a fresh start. This was more an act of mercy (for me, as much as it was for them) rather than the pangs and turmoil of a sandbox.

 

[Fox Lee]

I agree, but the GM still called it a sandbox all the way through.

Maybe it's... a litterboxcar?

[EDIT]
Myself, I've never really played a sandbox game (at least not on a tabletop). Generally we drive with "character based plot", which is to say the GM hangs an existing plot on the character hooks everybody else gives them. Though we also have a very reliable instigator in our ranks who can always stir up some action, for better or worse.

Interestingly, the instigator got a bit worried about his behaviour and made a more subdued character, just in time for me to start running WotBS I used one of the other PCs' backgrounds to shove them along Scouring when they slowed up, but then - heading into act 2 of Shelter, where it's genuinely a sandbox - I basically sat my instigator down and said "seriously, I'm gonna need you to start some [events]!" ^_^;

Still waiting to see how it turns out, though the player was happy to take a more forceful role. His character is developing from a repressed church-boy paladin into a savage scion of nature, so it works rather well for him to become more pro-active as he goes along.

 

[S'mon]

They had started the entire campaign with nothing but scraps of cloth for clothes, and then in one fell swoop had been freed from their prison, handed a bag each and told "this is everything you'll need to survive. Head east until you meet up with the caravan." At this point, I'm not going to give them a detailed list of everything they have. After all, if someone hands me a bag the first thing I'm going to do once I'm not fearing for my life is check what supplies I've been given and see what I need to ration. Next, after being told to go east, I'm going to find out which direction is east.

Maybe I was just going on what I would have done as a player, though.

Again, sounds more like a railroad than a sandbox. I suspect the players lapsed into passive railroadee mentality and assumed the DM was taking care of all the details, like what was in the bag and which way was east. So there was a big miscommunication problem.

 

[BenBrown]

Again, sounds more like a railroad than a sandbox. I suspect the players lapsed into passive railroadee mentality and assumed the DM was taking care of all the details, like what was in the bag and which way was east. So there was a big miscommunication problem.

I don't really see it as a railroad, but I honestly don't see the point of not telling the players what's in their inventory unless they specifically ask. Going through the contents of the bag is one of those things like cleaning your weapons or making sure your shoes are tied that are glossed over since, while its impact on verisimilitude is nice the first time it happens in a book or movie or a game, after that it becomes tedious. Again, put it down to miscommunication.

 

[KiloGex]

I don't really see it as a railroad, but I honestly don't see the point of not telling the players what's in their inventory unless they specifically ask. Going through the contents of the bag is one of those things like cleaning your weapons or making sure your shoes are tied that are glossed over since, while its impact on verisimilitude is nice the first time it happens in a book or movie or a game, after that it becomes tedious. Again, put it down to miscommunication.

I agree that is was a piece of minutia that I could have simply glossed over and said "OK, sit you sit down and this is what is in your bags" but I was hoping that they would take the initiative on this one. And in terms of them heading the correct direction - They purposefully headed south instead of east for some reason. Even when I asked "are you sure you want to head that way?" the 'leader' of the party said that he did in fact want to head towards the gnoll populated grasslands. At that point the adventure was botched and it was worth just hitting the restart button.

 

[S'mon]

I agree that is was a piece of minutia that I could have simply glossed over and said "OK, sit you sit down and this is what is in your bags" but I was hoping that they would take the initiative on this one. And in terms of them heading the correct direction - They purposefully headed south instead of east for some reason. Even when I asked "are you sure you want to head that way?" the 'leader' of the party said that he did in fact want to head towards the gnoll populated grasslands. At that point the adventure was botched and it was worth just hitting the restart button.

This sounds about as far from sandbox play as it's possible to get.