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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Prism" data-source="post: 6507002" data-attributes="member: 9501">Lots of great ideas in this thread - its my favourite type of play. Just one thing to add that has worked really well in some of our campaigns. Just because there is no major plotline to follow there can certainly be a strong campaign theme. Two of our best campaigns have been based on the themes of exploration and another on survival. You can then help the players build a suitable character/backstory for such a sandbox.The exploration theme worked well because we and our whole village migrated to a new, exciting and dangerous land. Our characters all had different story reasons to embrace such a theme. One wanted to make a name for himself, another find ancient relics from the previous fallen civilization, another dark magics. The group was given the first few missions to get them used to the new land but after that's it was up to the players to advance their stories. What is important here that the characters bond together over the first few levels so they are willing to help each other with their own quests down the line. We took this one to 14th level (3e)The survival them created an instant bonding of the characters although most of them were evil alignment. They were stuck in a chaotic recently fallen city (Ched Nasad if you want to look it up) and we simply had to survive until we could find a way out and it was totally up to us how to do that. The DM threw all sorts of stuff at us but in general unless we needed to fight we mostly looked to hide or flee. As typical though of an evil group, once the party escaped, the bond weakened and the characters went their own way. It actually made a lot of sense as when a sandbox campaign is over the players tend to decide rather than a predetermined story. We made it to 8th level (3.5e)Someone earlier in the thread mentioned Murder in Balders Gate. I found this to be a really good sandbox-ish style adventure. Not a totally open city adventure as you were often given 'jobs' to do but you could pick who you worked with and which jobs you took on. The more jobs you took, the darker they got so really it was about finding the line in the sand that the party was unwilling to go past. A test of character if you wish. Good stuff. We played this one in 4e</blockquote>

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