D&D 5E Do You Prefer Sandbox or Party Level Areas In Your Game World?

So these are two approaches that campaigns can (and do) use. They have various names, but I'm using these names. I've used both approaches in the past.

Obviously there is more nuance than the definitions below, but these are two possible extreme ends of the poll when voting feel free to choose whichever end you tend towards, or embellish in the comments.

Sandbox -- each area on the world map has a set difficulty, and if you're a low level party and wander into a dangerous area, you're in trouble. The Shire is low level, Moria is high level. Those are 'absolute' values and aren't dependent on who's traveling through.

Party -- adventurers encounter challenges appropriate to their level wherever they are on the map. A low level party in Moria just meets a few goblins. A high level party meets a balrog!

Which do you prefer?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I am kind of surprised sandbox is winning so dominatingly in the world of adventure paths etc...

Adventure paths aren't in the poll.

 

[Maxperson]

Sandbox. The world is not aisle 7 in Walmart.

No kidding. Walmart shoppers will kill you.

 

[Ovinomancer]

I am kind of surprised sandbox is winning so dominatingly in the world of adventure paths etc...

Keep in mind that you'd be hard pressed to get a majority of those people to all agree to the same definition of "sandbox."

 

[Ovinomancer]

Adventure paths aren't in the poll.

Sure they are -- they're in the option where encounters are keyed to party level.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sure they are -- they're in the option where encounters are keyed to party level.

That's not an adventure path. Encounters are keyed to the story/narrative.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I am kind of surprised sandbox is winning so dominatingly in the world of adventure paths etc...

Because (most) sandbox world really just have multiple paths that makes it seem like a sandbox IME.

 

[Emerikol]

I always find this an odd statement, because it seems strange to me to be hung up on when things are made up -- before the game sometime or during the game.

Well, if God were running the game, it wouldn't matter. Humans though are limited in their capacities and from what I've seen ad libbed games lack the depth of a well designed world. YMMV.

I think this is really more a stand in for a feeling of "fairness" in the world -- if the GM is being held to what they made up beforehand, then the players can, through smart play, get a "leg up" on the GM. This looks a lot like classic keyed dungeons, where the GM is expected to stick to the key and 'neutrally' adjudicate action. Thing is, this isn't obviated by ad-libbing, although I'll agree that there's a lot of opportunity for Force here, especially in a game like D&D where the GM has all the authority levers over the fiction. So, I get the idea of preferring the GM have fewer opportunities to deploy Force, but this really doesn't have much to do with when the GM makes things up.

I don't think it is getting a leg up on the GM. I also think on some occasions the DM is forced to ad-lib. If you ask the bartender an off the wall question then you have to adlib an answer.

I realize though that there is a play style that paints my style of play a certain way and uses words like Force. I see it more as the DM is adjudicator of the actions of things not under the control of the players but as an adjudicator there is a reasonable expectation of fairness. The DM is expected to play the NPCs/Monsters/enemies as unique individuals that have their own attributes and their own plans and fears. To play them with only the knowledge they would have and not with the knowledge the DM has.

The DM is called upon to be a character actor and play a role many times over. Doing a good job is keeping those roles separate.

 

[Emerikol]

Perhaps I should say what I mean by sandbox....

The DM preps an area, the sandbox, with many possible adventures. The PCs then do whatever they want within that area. The difficulties may increase the farther out you get from a homebase or even the deeper you get in some dungeon.

 

[payn]

Perhaps I should say what I mean by sandbox....

The DM preps an area, the sandbox, with many possible adventures. The PCs then do whatever they want within that area. The difficulties may increase the farther out you get from a homebase or even the deeper you get in some dungeon.

Sounds a lot like some of the Paizo adventure paths ive run.

 

[Emerikol]

Sounds a lot like some of the Paizo adventure paths ive run.

Perhaps Paizo has put out some sandbox style adventure paths but those where you go from module to module to module are not. Now you may put a Paizo adventure path in your sandbox and the PCs may choose that path amongst others but the path itself is not a sandbox by itself.