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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Beginning of the End" data-source="post: 5124875" data-attributes="member: 55271">The "Holy Grail" nature of the sandbox campaign, for me, lies in two things:(1) It is the one thing that traditional RPGs offer that other forms of entertainment simply cannot compete with.(2) What attracts me to the hobby is specifically roleplaying: Making choices as if you were a character and exploring the outcomes of those choices. The sandbox campaign is, in many ways, the purest form of what I'm looking for because it allows for any choice without artificially negating any of them.I think tabletop RPGs only truly succeed when the narratives are created from the actions at the gaming table. In any other format, RPGs are playing a cheap second fiddle to other forms of entertainment.The existence of the cult is a situation.A plot, on the other hand, is a sequence of events.The problem you're having is that you're looking at a session after it has already happened. And, from that POV, you're right: In retrospect, all game sessions have a plot. The game session has happened, and at that game session A happened, then B happened, and then C happened -- and that's a plot.The distinction to be drawn between a railroaded scenario and a non-railroaded scenario, however, is not about plot -- it's about pre-plotting. Railroading happens when the GM negates a player choice in order to enforce a preconceived outcome.It's inaccurate to describe "sandbox" as the opposite of "railroad", because you can have non-railroaded scenarios within a campaign structure that isn't a sandbox.For example, let's imagine a Shadowrun campaign in which every session Mr. Johnson brings a new mission briefing: Everyone at the table understands that this is the mission the GM has prepared, and that's the mission the PCs are going to be playing through. But there's nothing stopping that mission from being designed in a non-linear fashion.A sandbox, OTOH, is what happens when you extend the <a href="http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/prep-scenario.html" target="_blank">Don't Prep Plots</a> methodology to the entire game world. Or, to put it another way, a sandbox is what happens when the freedom of PC choice is extended to include the selection of scenario. Or, to put it a third way, the entire campaign world is treated as a single non-linear scenario: It becomes a single situation to which the PCs are free to respond in any way they choose at any time.It is true that, in a sandbox campaign, the GM is not responsible for providing a purpose, focus, or theme.However, you're forgetting that the GM is not the only one sitting at the table: In a sandbox campaign, the players are primarily responsible for providing purpose, focus, and theme.(At least in general. In reality, it would be more accurate to say that the GM is not solely responsible for them. He will still have a collaborative impact on them.)That's because computers are too stupid to respond to creative input from the players. Fortunately, tabletop RPGs are not run by computers: They're run by intelligent and creative GMs. (Or, at least, we can hope that that they'll prove to be intelligent and creative.)Which circles me back around to my original point. This is precisely why non-linear design in general and the sandbox campaign in particular the Holy Grails of tabletop RPGs: They're the only form of play in which tabletop RPGs unquestionably reign supreme.</blockquote>

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