Sandbox Setting?

[Ariosto]

... the DM needs to have all that prepared ...

As far as I know, Greenwood's Forgotten Realms campaign -- like Arneson's Blackmoor and Gygax's and Kuntz's Greyhawk -- started small.

Then again, Greenwood started envisioning his world before D&D -- back in 1968 -- as a setting for fiction. Stafford's Glorantha and Barker's Tekumel also long preceded the role-playing games.

Trying to match right off the bat even the fraction of detail in the 1987 FR boxed set, which drew on almost 20 years of development, would be a heck of a task. As I suggested above, I don't favor starting with anywhere near that much worked out in any case.

I think one important aspect is that the players choose the level of risk that they want to face.

Yes, that is essential to the campaign concept! Informing that choice is an important part of strategy.

 

[steenan]

For me, a sandbox setting/campaign has a few more defining characteristics:
- No significant NPC background activity. The parts of the game world the PCs don't interact with don't not change in any major way when the players focus on something else.
- No strong motivation. Sandbox contains many hooks, but none (or very few) so strong that players can't refuse them without betraying their character concepts.
- Wide range of levels of challenges. Whatever the party will face at level 20 is there when they are level 1 - so it is necessary to carefully choose who you fight and who you avoid.

 

[kevtar]

I started playing D&D again after an 11 year hiatus between 2ed and 3ed. Prior to this break, I only DMed twice. After the break, I was the full-time DM for my sons and their friends. As you can imagine, as a dad/husband/worker/student, I didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to DMing. A sandbox approach has really helped out a lot, but I think it requires adopting a certain approach to the game.

Here's how I do it.

1.) I start out by drawing a map.
2.) I'll put features and cities on the map, but not a lot of detail - just enough to drive interest.
3.) I'll write down some general information about each place. Usually something that will serve as a plot hook.
4.) When 4e came out, I started tying in areas to encounter levels. That way, if the PCs felt like tangling with Yuan Ti, even though they were at lower levels, they knew where to go. If they didn't, they knew what to avoid.
5.) - and this is the most important part - I would let the PCs decide where they wanted to go, what they wanted to do, etc. They're ideas and exploration determined how the campaign would unfold. This meant I was doing a lot of improvisation, especially in tying plot-points together, but it's a style of play that my players and I really enjoy.

So my suggestion is start with the macro level stuff in planning, and fill in the micro level stuff when playing.

 

[vagabundo]

To me it is simply the ability to go off the beaten track. As long as the PCs have meaningful choices, the freedom to make choices and meaningful impact from those choices then it is a sandbox. The rest are implementation or style details.

You could have a simulationist sandbox where the PC's are just cogs in a big machine that would run even if they were not there; the machine can be a complex fantasy setting or a small village, but things happen. The PC could choose to encounter villians or delve in places that are very deadly to them - the whole machine is level independent.

A more focused sandbox scales back on the possibly deadly nature of the world. It focuses more on the PC; things still happen - the wheel of time turns - but encounters would be a in a range of challenges that the PCs could handle. PC's could still die but there is no challenge within reach that is immediately deadly. It is still a sandbox as the PCs can do what they wish and have an effect on the landscape of your setting.

 

[S'mon]

The Wilderlands is a huge published sandbox setting. The Wilderlands of High Fantasy box from Necromancer was the most comprehensive version.

The Vault of Larin Karr by Necromancer details Quail Valley, a smallish sandbox.

Rob Conley's Points of Light & Points of Light II detail a variety of sandbox settings.

The 4e DMG discusses 'location-based mega-adventures' which are basically sandboxes.

 

[Jack7]

There are already a lot of good responses so no need for me to reiterate those.

To me one of the most important factors with the sandbox is that players do not have to necessarily proceed in a linear fashion from mission or adventure to any other related adventure. That might seem initially self-evident but it isn't until you get used to the style. You can pick up and put down related or unrelated interests at various times, as it suits the needs of the players and DM.

Adventures in a sandbox may or may not be related, but they are not temporally fixed, moving from A to B to C in any particular order, or even timeframe.

I do however in my sandboxes have things constantly in motion. If the party is adventuring at point Alpha, then points Bravo and Delta are not static, but operate like they would in real life. They do not sit around stoically waiting on the "heroes to appear," and only then go into motion.

Populations and events and places are in constant motion and activity in relation to wherever the PCs are operating, or not operating. Unexplored places do not sit around statically waiting on the players, they have their own business to attend to with or without them. That to me is part of the process by which certain areas change and attract or repel new exploration. One day an area may be quiet and uninteresting, the next week it is bustling with immigration or movement or combat engagements or trade or covert activity. Things constantly changing makes a sandbox alive beyond just character involvement.

 

[kitsune9]

Actually, if you all would like to see what one DM did, here's a 5 or 6 part blog called the West Marches using Sandbox style.

ars ludi » Grand Experiments: West Marches

This is the kind of material that I look for in the rpg blogs. Enjoy!

 

[ggroy]

Back in the days of 1E AD&D, Greyhawk was losing its luster for me and it was a few years before the Forgotten Realms "grey box" was released. In those days I had a lot of time and patience to create my own "sandbox" worlds.

Typically I started off with something from Greyhawk or other sources like various movies or cartoons with a sword/sorcery or fantasy type setting. Maps were relatively easy to make up, without too many intricate details and minutiae. Towns and cities I typically didn't draw up the details in map form. Stuff happening usually was typical restricted to a local area.

If the players did something extreme like going to a dragon's lair in the mountain as level 1 characters, I typically changed the encounters. Instead of a huge dragon, they would see that the lair is empty. But on the way back down the mountain, I sent the weakest wyrmling I could find to attack and rough up the party. Frequently one or two player characters would end up unconscious.

These days I just use an off-the-shelf "everything + kitchen sink" setting like Pathfinder's Golarion, which doesn't have much canon and other baggage yet. I don't have as much time and patience to make up my own campaign worlds these days.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The sandbox setting can be interesting for a while, but eventually the PC's will get tired of nothing but desert terrain and seek greener pastures.

 

[robconley]

The big issue of running a sandbox style campaign is generating the detail to handle the unexpected direction the PCs go.

Based on the work I did on the Wilderlands, Wild North, and both Points of Light the following steps could get you enough detail with two weeks worth of evenings at 2 hours per. Or 24 hours however you divide it up. This includes maps.

Points of Ligh
Goodman Games
Goodman Games

Bat in the Attic: How to make a Fantasy Sandbox

1. Using one page sketch a world or continent map
2. Label important regions
3. Write one page of background giving no more than a handful of sentences to each region.
4. Pick an area roughly 200 miles by 150 miles
5. Grab a 8.5 by 11 sheet of hex paper.
6. The scale should be so that it represents a 200 by 150 mile region
7. Draw in mountains
8. Draw in rivers
9. Draw in hills using them to divide the region into distinct river valley
10. Draw in vegetation (swamps, forests, desert, etc)
11. Decide to place Population Locales note their race this includes social monsters
12. Decide to place Lairs (locales tht revolves around a home of monsters)
13. Decide to place Ruins (locales that revolves around a site)
14. Decide to place miscellaneous locales. (anything that doesn't fit a above.
15. Name your geography (don't forget islands)
16. Write a Half Page background describing the region and it's history.
17. Write a paragraph describing each named geography
18. Write a paragraph describing each Population Locale
19. Write a paragraph describing each Lair (you could get away with a stat block)
20. Write a paragraph describing each Ruin
21. Look at your notes and come up with two to four plots that ties one or more locales together. Write a paragraph or two on each.
22. For each population locale come up with three to five encounters. They should be a sentence each.
23. Come up with 6 to 12 general encounter for the region as a whole. Should usable in any area of the region. They are a sentence or two each.
24. Pick the 4 or 6 most important Population locales and draw a quarter page sketch map of the settlement.
25. Pick the starting population locale and draw a full page map of the settlement. This is the "Home Base"
26. Use Medieval Demographics to get an a idea of how many shops are in the town.
27. Pick or create 6 or 12 important buildings. Write a paragraph each.
28. Scan your descriptions for NPCs or noted monsters. Write a two sentence about each. The first a one line with minimal stats the second one sentence. This is your roster.
29. Pick the 12 most important NPC or Monsters
30. Write a paragraph describing each and fully stat them.
31. Pick the most six common encounter type. (City Guard, Border Warders, Bloody Hand, Orcs) Write a paragraph and fully stat them.
32. Scan your description for any regional organization and write a paragraph on them. Fully stat the most common encounters involved with them.
33. Make up a rumor chart with 10 to 20 items that feeds the players into the encounter and plots you created in above.
34. 34. Identify major regions and create a random encounter chart for each (monsters, wildlife and NPCs)