D&D 5E Sandbox Noob Needs DM Advice

[dpkress2]

I have a sandbox world that I am running. There are a few adventure sites with hooks and such.

Of course the party just wants to walk in a random direction and explore the area around the village. An area where there is exactly nothing. I'm not really in a position to shift the adventure locations as they are very dependent on already established major land features. Not to mention the land that their village is on is quite literally a barren desert devoid of most everyhthing.

I have random encounters charts so there is that.

Is it dumb to let the party explore and just find NOTHING. Seems boring and weird.

What do you guys do?

 

[Nagol]

I'm a sandbox GM for D&D.

It isn't dumb to let the group explore and find little. It's a style of gaming.

My best advice is to make sure the group understands that you're running a sandbox and you are OK with the group exploring areas with little to no content if that's really what they want to do. The good news is it shouldn't occupy much table time since there's nothing to find!

If you are uncomfortable with the players "wasting time" in this way, you can spend some time constructing other things for them to find -- effectively special versions of random encounters that contain new versions of hooks leading the PCs back to more fruitful areas: helpful NPCs, notes/journals on old corpses, a sphinx with a riddle, whatever.

 

[iserith]

You'll probably want to have a discussion with your players to tell them that it is a sandbox and they can wander around do whatever, but that the meaty content is behind the adventure hooks you present. Then offer to help them come up with reasons their characters might want to engage with said hooks.

It's possible they think the definition of a sandbox is NOT taking the adventure hooks and just wandering around. So a conversation to make sure you're all on the same page is probably a good idea.

 

[Oofta]

How about just a simple "You've heard no rumors of anything happening in this area, and despite spending several weeks searching you find nothing of interest"

Basically don't play it out, just let them know that they can wander around barren desert all they want, but all they will find is a whole lot of nothing. I think the attitude of "wandering in direction X" is a response to certain types of video games that encourage exploration and discovery. There's nothing wrong with it, but they do have to understand that some places are just what they appear to be ... boring.

On the other hand, is there any reason they couldn't find something? At first it's just random encounters, but if you can learn to improvise they can discover their own plot hooks. Or take some encounter/organization/BBEG and put them where they are going. So it turns out that The Black Castle(tm) was just a big trap and Lord Evil-Doer was really residing in an underground fortress hidden underneath the wasted dunes.

I decided long ago that nothing was set in stone until it was revealed to the players. Even then sometimes they are simply mistaken or were being mislead.

 

[Blue]

I have a sandbox world that I am running. There are a few adventure sites with hooks and such.

Of course the party just wants to walk in a random direction and explore the area around the village. An area where there is exactly nothing. I'm not really in a position to shift the adventure locations as they are very dependent on already established major land features. Not to mention the land that their village is on is quite literally a barren desert devoid of most everyhthing.

I have random encounters charts so there is that.

Is it dumb to let the party explore and just find NOTHING. Seems boring and weird.

What do you guys do?

Let them. Announce that they have spent 3 week going around. They haven't encountered any resistance of note (or worth XP) but they did find "various hooks to locations of adventures" (hobgoblin scouting tracks to the west, etc). They have a good map including water sources and shelter for an X day ride around the outpost. (Rewards for the time spent.) Also, during that time, the following happened "X, Y, Z plots based at their home town that have advanced with time passing".

That takes the first 5 minutes of the session. They then have the rest of the session to do something interesting.

Remember with a sandbox you can and should easily gloss forward on time not spent on interesting things.

Something a bit more controversial - forget wandering monsters as a generic concept. 5e is a boring game at 1-2 encounters a day, all it will do is waste session time and give XP for little risk. Only do it in highly risky places, where there may and likely will be other encounters happening. There is can both set the tone (dangerous place) as well as work on 5e resource management attrition.

 

[Patrick McGill]

When I do a sandbox I always have a "box of stuff" (a folder on my computer) where I throw random adventures and encounters that I don't have places anywhere. Going through Drive Thru RPG, the DMs Guild, or elsewhere on the web where there are a ton of free short adventures or encounters and any time I find one i like I throw it in there.

If the adventure is heading into bore-zone, I do a quick check through in there and throw something out that I can make appropriate for the place they're checking out.

Some people, however, enjoy having the empty spaces where you don't find anything. Unfortunately I don't get a lot of time to play so I try to make sure each session has something meaningful in it.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Instead of there being nothing in the direction they wander, let them find something. It can be one of your random encounters or something more elaborate. Whatever it is, it will be better than nothing. And I would recommend you plant little seeds in whatwver they find that point back to the story hooks you’ve already established.

So maybe they find a secret enclave of criminal refugees hiding in the desert. But one of them is actually an explorer who knows about the anciemt ruins you want the PCs to check out. That kind of thing.

Don’t be afraid to make stuff up as needed. Just remind yourself...it’s ALL made up.

 

[Mort]

What do you guys do?

1. As other posters have said, there's actually nothing wrong with the players finding nothing - just fast forward the narrative. Unless the players really want to explore the emptiness, because hey why not?

2. On the other hand, just because there's nothing for the playersto find, doesn't mean that something won't find them! Is there someone from a prior adventure mad at them? If they haven't made anyone mad yet, does one or more of the PCs have anything in their back story about being wanted, chased or otherwise pursued? Perfect opportunity for someone or something to go after the players. In other words, if the players aren't going to the action, bring the action to them.



Sent from my SM-G930V using EN World mobile app

 

[LordEntrails]

See these:
- How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox
- Node Based Scenario Design
- Don't Prep Plots

 

[Blue]

For those advocating to throw something at them anyway, isn't a big part of the idea of a sandbox that the characters are choosing what to encounter. If it's a magician's force of "either pick one of these places I have already picked, or pick somewhere else and I'll pick for you" - it seems to go against giving the players choice that that defines a sandbox vs. more traditional play.