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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 9678340" data-attributes="member: 22779">Heh.&nbsp; I did play Everquest for a very short while many, many years ago.&nbsp; But, I do recall dying a HELL of a lot, even in the &quot;easy&quot; areas.&nbsp; But, again, this is the way this thread has always gone.&nbsp; Sandboxing is this elusive target that exists in a quantum state of design where it can be all things to all people as needed.&nbsp; Any attempt at defining the term Sandbox is met with endless obscurement of the process and any clarification is met with the outraged howl of, &quot;How dare you question my playstyle&quot;.&nbsp; Thus the &quot;exhausting&quot; part of this thread.&nbsp; Sandboxes are living worlds where the DM defines the world before play but never changes to world to suit the characters, unless, of course, the DM decides that it's okay to rewrite the world to suit the characters.&nbsp; <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/erm.png"&nbsp; class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":erm:" title="Erm&nbsp; &nbsp; :erm:" data-shortname=":erm:" />&nbsp; There is absolutely no story contained within a sandbox, despite the fact that we have various characters with motivations and plots surrounding them which will play out over time at the DM's whim.&nbsp; But, nope, that's not a story at all.&nbsp; <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤷" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937.png" title="Person shrugging&nbsp; &nbsp; :person_shrugging:" data-shortname=":person_shrugging:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />&nbsp; All events and scenarios within the sandbox will be derived as a logical result of the initial parameters of the sandbox, except that random encounter generation, i.e. proceedural content creation, is key to running a sandbox, meaning that that event your characters encounter on the road between Town A and Town B might be a completely randomly generated event with zero actual connection to the logic of the world.&nbsp; That troll has just sprung fully formed from nothing and set upon your campsite.I liked it better when we defined sandboxes as any campaign where the players generally have considerably more freedom to explore the setting than in a more linear campaign.&nbsp; All this other stuff about &quot;living worlds&quot; and &quot;internal logic&quot; and whatnot is just so much smoke and mirrors.I just have to say though that I am SOOOO sorry I thought that mentioning that it's far easier to get a sandbox off the ground in a No-Myth game than in something like traditional D&amp;D.&nbsp; :sigh:&nbsp; I honestly didn't think that that was terribly controversial.&nbsp; The fact that all the sandboxers in this thread talk about their thirty+ year old sandboxes kinda proves my point.&nbsp; My next sandbox will literally start with less than a page of notes and a single map.&nbsp; No 18 page pdf detailing hexes.&nbsp; No 300 page setting bible.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 9678340, member: 22779"] Heh. I did play Everquest for a very short while many, many years ago. But, I do recall dying a HELL of a lot, even in the "easy" areas. But, again, this is the way this thread has always gone. Sandboxing is this elusive target that exists in a quantum state of design where it can be all things to all people as needed. Any attempt at defining the term Sandbox is met with endless obscurement of the process and any clarification is met with the outraged howl of, "How dare you question my playstyle". Thus the "exhausting" part of this thread. Sandboxes are living worlds where the DM defines the world before play but never changes to world to suit the characters, unless, of course, the DM decides that it's okay to rewrite the world to suit the characters. :erm: There is absolutely no story contained within a sandbox, despite the fact that we have various characters with motivations and plots surrounding them which will play out over time at the DM's whim. But, nope, that's not a story at all. 🤷 All events and scenarios within the sandbox will be derived as a logical result of the initial parameters of the sandbox, except that random encounter generation, i.e. proceedural content creation, is key to running a sandbox, meaning that that event your characters encounter on the road between Town A and Town B might be a completely randomly generated event with zero actual connection to the logic of the world. That troll has just sprung fully formed from nothing and set upon your campsite. I liked it better when we defined sandboxes as any campaign where the players generally have considerably more freedom to explore the setting than in a more linear campaign. All this other stuff about "living worlds" and "internal logic" and whatnot is just so much smoke and mirrors. I just have to say though that I am SOOOO sorry I thought that mentioning that it's far easier to get a sandbox off the ground in a No-Myth game than in something like traditional D&D. :sigh: I honestly didn't think that that was terribly controversial. The fact that all the sandboxers in this thread talk about their thirty+ year old sandboxes kinda proves my point. My next sandbox will literally start with less than a page of notes and a single map. No 18 page pdf detailing hexes. No 300 page setting bible. [/QUOTE]

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