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<blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 5169572" data-attributes="member: 21169">Interesting. There's no point in a sandbox when the PCs have a clear objective, eh?My current thinking on campaign structure, inspired by The Enemy Within scenario series for WFRP, is that what works for most games is 'narrow-wide-narrow'.Piratecat has proposed this as a structure for adventures - the start is fixed, the ending (probably a confrontation with the BBEG) is also set, but what happens in between, how the PCs get from opening to denouement, is up to the players.I think a similar plan works for campaigns. At the start the players don't know anything so they are much more willing to, and indeed should, be led by the GM. Once they hit the middle, the players know enough to make their own decisions, so they can wander about, poking whatever interests them. Eventually though, a decision will be made, about who to ally with, who to thwart, how to go about it and so forth. The identity of the BBEG and/or MacGuffin will become apparent. At that point, the pacing speeds up and the game becomes linear again. The players' course is now easier for the GM to predict - they have a clear objective, they have the weight of past actions upon them, and the personalities of the PCs have been clearly established.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Doug McCrae, post: 5169572, member: 21169"] Interesting. There's no point in a sandbox when the PCs have a clear objective, eh? My current thinking on campaign structure, inspired by The Enemy Within scenario series for WFRP, is that what works for most games is 'narrow-wide-narrow'. Piratecat has proposed this as a structure for adventures - the start is fixed, the ending (probably a confrontation with the BBEG) is also set, but what happens in between, how the PCs get from opening to denouement, is up to the players. I think a similar plan works for campaigns. At the start the players don't know anything so they are much more willing to, and indeed should, be led by the GM. Once they hit the middle, the players know enough to make their own decisions, so they can wander about, poking whatever interests them. Eventually though, a decision will be made, about who to ally with, who to thwart, how to go about it and so forth. The identity of the BBEG and/or MacGuffin will become apparent. At that point, the pacing speeds up and the game becomes linear again. The players' course is now easier for the GM to predict - they have a clear objective, they have the weight of past actions upon them, and the personalities of the PCs have been clearly established. [/QUOTE]

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