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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5406966" data-attributes="member: 42582">Maybe. For me, "exploration" tends to presuppose something already there to explore - in this case, a character - whereas I'm happy for my game to involve building and testing the PCs. The PCs have a backstory which is part of the input, but their character isn't something pregiven - it is something that emerges out of play.I agree with you that adding elements responsively reduces sandboxing. But I don't think it therefore increases linearity/railroading (not necessarily, at least).I'll proceed by reference to the following quote:I envisage a sandbox as permitting the players to explore, via their PCs, more-or-less well-defined places.In a responsive game, this isn't the case, as the places aren't just waiting there to explore. Instead they are introduced (not exclusively, but in the way I play mostly, by the GM) in response to actions taken by the players.That's why I don't think of it as a sandbox.But it is not linear, because - before the fact - no one knows which places will be visited or what will take place. That is because as a GM I can't respond until the players have their PCs do something - and because I don't always know what this will be, I don't always know what my response will be.Well, I've tried to bring it up a few times in this thread and the "GM by the nose thread", including with actual play examples and an illustrative quote from Paul Czege. But only The Shaman seems really to have picked up on the point.I should also add - I don't see the way I play as anything very radical in practice. I'm sure that lots of others run similar games. It's only at the level of describing or theoretically analysing what is going on that brings out the difference from sandboxes and linearity/railroading.I think it is more like a sandbox than it is a linear game, because player choices drive the direction of play. But the responsive aspect on the part of the GM is quite different from a paradigmatic sandbox. In some ways its closer to <a href="http://inky.org/rpg/no-myth.html" target="_blank">No Myth</a>, although I do use a degree of backstory that pure No Myth would eschew.</blockquote>

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