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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 5130893" data-attributes="member: 18280">Well, then, look at the West Marches example.  There is plenty of "fixed set" because the environment is (largely) fixed.  What can be done is sharply limited, not by the GM's decision as to what the PCs should do, but by the nature of the environment itself.  Which is rather the same thing one experiences in the real world, which is the point, AFAICT, of a sandbox game.In order for options to exist, there must be both (1) context, and (2) the ability to choose.  Context includes both availability of information and consequence.  Without context, you might as well roll randomly for every action.  No one in this thread, AFAICT, is suggesting that a sandbox should not have context.  Well, maybe Umbran...... <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid    :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" />  That consequence is a necessary part of context is why I am against fudging in the game.  Let the dice fall where they may!  The ability to choose requires that options not be pared down to a single path.  Without that ability, what remains is determinism.  Frankly, if I wanted to follow a predetermined course, I'd read a novel.  If I wanted to drag others down a predetermined course, I would write a short story.I.e., the major difference between a sandbox DM and a linear DM (AFAICT, IMHO, and IME) is that the linear DM asks "What should the players do?" while the sandbox DM asks "What can the players do?".  Both questions offer structure, but they offer different kinds of structure.  The sandbox structure offers the players freedom of action (within limits), whereas the linear structure offers the players freedom from the need to make choices (also within limits).  The linear structure offers the GM the most room for creativity in terms of creating plot, whereas the sandbox structure offers the most room for creativity and economy in creating environment (in that the environment will be reused, and multiple areas of various difficulty must be crafted).Now, if any sandbox person (a Tusken raider, perhaps?) wants to tell me I am "not extreme" enough, let him or her speak.  (Shrug)  Perhaps I have fallen victim to the fallacy of the unbounded middle.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" />RC</blockquote>

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