D&D 5E Sandbox Play

[Jim Williams]

I'm kinda astounded nobody's dropped a link to the West Marches yet...

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Ray Winninger's Dungeoncraft articles in Dragon magazine also presented an excellent framework for creating your own sandbox for play. What makes the articles so useful is that Mr. Winninger not only describes the process but also runs through it twice to show examples of the plan in action. You can find these articles online here -http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/dnd/dungeoncraft/

That is a spectacular map!

 

[Rune]

Man, I loved those articles.

 

[Blue]

I think the single most important thing is having PC backgrounds/stories that connect with the world in some way and offer non-immediate cues for action: ie my father's sword is rumoured in be those hills, some of my elvish kinfolk are to the north, etc. This will the push for the players to want to get out and do things - and find clues to where the things/goals they want are. And of course being a sandbox, the players have more choice to work out amongst themselves where they want to as a party.

I think the key role of the DM is make the world dynamic (especially with regards to villians etc), to make the encounters/adventures/dungeons you use mesh well with world, the and work with the players to see where they are wanting to go. It helps if the DM knows where the PCs are going to go in the next session!

Excellent advice. The character need to WANT to interact with the world. They need their own motivations and have hooks that they can follow.

Have things happening in the world. War to the west, demonic incursion of the enemies in the south, evil vizier guiding the king, etc. Regardless if the PCs interact with them (or are even of a level to interact with them), have things happen. Making the world dynamic like this can really get the characters interested and wanting to dive into something, and then you can flesh it out.