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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rabbitbait" data-source="post: 6506929" data-attributes="member: 60100">I'm a subscriber to the rule of three as well. Three clear choices always works well for me. I like starting out with a well detailed world - I'm currently setting up a campaign in Eberron based 30 years after the events caused by my last campaign. I picked a town I want the campaign to begin in and have asked the players to create well rounded characters with decent backstories. I'm happy for them to write new world history or add NPCs etc if it helps them to do so. I make sure that each of them has a number of NPCs that are important to them and that may provide opportunities to drive plot.Then from there I will design an overarching plot for each of the characters based on either their background or their goals, as well as some world spanning plots. The first game will be the hook to get the characters together and from there there will be three clear themes they can pursue. Or they might choose to go in another direction altogether.Once they have decided what they want to do I can design more detail in that direction. I think a good sandbox shouldn't have players scratching their heads around what to do as they have no real reason to get involved, it shouldhave them scratching their heads over which mission is the most important that they must do and how they should prioritise their competing demands. After each big mission concludes try to have another decision point where there are three main options.I think the big secret with this is to be willing to scrap what you have planned if the players decide to go in another direction altogether. This is what happened in my last game which lead to the players overthrowing the church of of the Silver Flame in Thrane. Totally unplanned by me, but happened while other parts of the campaign I had designed were going on. Apologies for errors in spelling etc - I wrote this on a phone.</blockquote>

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