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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Pros and cons of a sandbox game, and what to do about them?
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<blockquote data-quote="yakuba" data-source="post: 7207371" data-attributes="member: 6698582"><p>Some of these are already covered by other posters:</p><p></p><p>1) Decide on a overarching campaign focus, e.g, inter-dimensional invasion, overthrow the evil empire, get rich or die trying. Get buy in on this idea from the players before beginning to build your campaign.</p><p></p><p>2) Start the campaign with a definitive act which should open up several paths for further explanation. Don't just have everyone meet in a tavern, or, if you do, set it on fire.</p><p></p><p>3) Until it becomes clear your players are willing to run the show, always try to lay out 2-4 plausible paths that the players can choose to follow. Pay attention to the choices they make so you can get an idea of what they want to do.</p><p></p><p>4) Use player backgrounds, histories and known contacts to create scenarios in the campaign.</p><p></p><p>5) Show your hand. Make sure that you give reasonable hints as to what lies ahead. If there's bandits in the woods, then people in town and on the road should be talking about them. If the BBEG is a 11th level fighter maybe he's known to have killed a giant single handedly. You're moving away from a world where it's your job to make sure everything is killable, so make sure that you're telegraphing danger levels in a much more transparent manner.</p><p></p><p>6) Keep winding the clock. Have 2-4 important plots that connect to the overall campaign, and make sure that they have a timeline which progresses irregardless of the PC interactions with those plots. Let these events be significant enough that they make the nightly news in your world and the PCs can find out about them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="yakuba, post: 7207371, member: 6698582"] Some of these are already covered by other posters: 1) Decide on a overarching campaign focus, e.g, inter-dimensional invasion, overthrow the evil empire, get rich or die trying. Get buy in on this idea from the players before beginning to build your campaign. 2) Start the campaign with a definitive act which should open up several paths for further explanation. Don't just have everyone meet in a tavern, or, if you do, set it on fire. 3) Until it becomes clear your players are willing to run the show, always try to lay out 2-4 plausible paths that the players can choose to follow. Pay attention to the choices they make so you can get an idea of what they want to do. 4) Use player backgrounds, histories and known contacts to create scenarios in the campaign. 5) Show your hand. Make sure that you give reasonable hints as to what lies ahead. If there's bandits in the woods, then people in town and on the road should be talking about them. If the BBEG is a 11th level fighter maybe he's known to have killed a giant single handedly. You're moving away from a world where it's your job to make sure everything is killable, so make sure that you're telegraphing danger levels in a much more transparent manner. 6) Keep winding the clock. Have 2-4 important plots that connect to the overall campaign, and make sure that they have a timeline which progresses irregardless of the PC interactions with those plots. Let these events be significant enough that they make the nightly news in your world and the PCs can find out about them. [/QUOTE]
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Pros and cons of a sandbox game, and what to do about them?
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