NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 8429862" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!Just a little tid-bit that stood out to me....when this was said...(not singling you out here, Oofta, just found it an interesting statement I wanted to comment on <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )Thing is, imnsho, every campaign is a "truly open sandbox" unless the DM has a habit of saying "No, John, your Fighter doesn't decide to attack the thug. In stead, you let him go with a warning to never come back"...in which case, yeah, not a "sandbox". But every other campaign where the DM isn't doing stuff like that (re: deciding things the PC's do or don't do, regardless of Player desire)...is a "sandbox".The part about wanting an over-arcing story is probably true...at least it is in my experience as well. But here's the thing... a "story arc" is from the Players and their PC's point of view.To equate to real life, think about something that happened to you recently. Maybe you almost got in a car accident a few days ago, or maybe you overheard a loud argument between two people as you walked to work/school, or maybe that odd girl who kept to herself just got fired. See those things? Those are "story arcs" that you didn't (or chose to not) get involved in. Same thing a fantasy world. Your PC made his Dex Save to avoid getting hit by a run-away horse cart? Story arc averted. Ignoring that loud argument you heard? Story arc ignored. Choosing to not pay much attention to that odd girls firing? Story arc dodged.That doesn't mean that these "story arcs" aren't going on. They still are...from the perspective of the horse-cart owner, the two people arguing, and that poor odd girl who just got fired. That your PC isn't currently involved in them and you, the Player, are sitting there thinking "This is kinda boring...there's no over-arcing story going on, simply means that you didn't pay attention or get involved.Anyway, I thought it interesting to point out that, for me at least, there are TONS of "story arcs", or at least potential story arcs, going on in my campaign constantly. These stories are just "untold" is all. But every "sandbox" game has them simply by default of how D&D and RPG's "work". Well, unless your DM tells you what and how your character does something...but then you're not really playing an RPG I guess.This idea of "sandbox v story-arc" is related to a DM being able to decide what he wants, when he wants. The DM is in control of everything in the game...except the PC's. The DM can choose to ignore rules, use rules, or make them up...or anything in between. The DM can not choose what a Players PC does (baring obvious in-game things like a Mind Control spell or something). Because of this, imnsho, every game played is a "sandbox"...and every game has a story-arc (often many). And this duality hinges on the DM being in control of EVERYTHING...except the PC's....and it hinges on the Players being in control of EVERYTHING their PC does...except when 'mind-controlled'. That's how RPG's work and how we end up with a story that starts of going down the path of ABCDE and somehow, at the end, we end up with X-14-Purple-Cow. To me, that's a glorious thing! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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