Sandboxes, Pool of Radiance, and my new campaign

[Doug McCrae]

I'd say you got yourself a sandbox, Jasperak. Multiple adventures prepped, players can freely choose from among them - that's a sandbox. What marcq describes is also a sandbox imo, a more 'sandbox-y' one, where the players have even more freedom.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Did you find that a problem because you going more for an adventure path style, the direction they wanted to go wasn't prepped as much, or the direction they wanted to go was either too difficult or too easy? Or another reason I may have missed?

The problem was in my head. Just because you tell yourself "this is a sandbox" doesn´t mean that your brain stops functioning as usual. Humans are creatures of habit, and all those story-based campaign left certain imprints on my DM-style that were hard to overcome.

DMs like certain parts of their world, and don´t like others. They prefer certain locations and concepts. In a sandbox, you have to watch out for unconsciously acting on those preferances, overriding the players goals. As we say in German: Gefahr erkannt, Gefahr gebannt - a.k.a. if you know about this, you´re halfway there not to have it happen.

EDIT: IMPORTAND - Don´t overlook the awesome adventure "Monument of the ancients" by Brian R. James and Matt James in Dungeon 170. You won´t need the story for a sandbox, but the cool background descriptions and maps will help you a lot. THIS is what should have been in Moonsea.

 

[Jasperak]

Don't have lengthy pre-planned arcs - ignore the 4e DMG 'super adventure' advice to have each arc/locale take up an entire level. Prep arcs/locales each with 1-3 encounters; with everything immediately accessible to the PCs being within their scope. For 4e with 1st level PCs that means keeping everything EL 1-5, with a fairly even spread across those levels. You can include clues to easier or harder missions but everything should be potentially doable straight off by a skilled and lucky party.

WOTC had a cool series of articles years ago called Vicious Venues and Random Encounters which were themed locations with a handful of encounters. I've downloaded most of them and have used some in every setting/campaign over the past six years or so.

My favorite (and most used) one is called Denizens of the Stone Bog that pits the PCs against Gargoyles (EL5), a Ghast and Ghouls (EL5) in an abandoned cemetery, Bog Mummies (EL7), and a Green dragon (EL7) in the heart of the bog. Now this one would be considered mid-level yet be available in the beginning, but with the caveat that another party went there and never returned. Plus I have located it 24 miles away with many other locations closer, within a day of travel. Hopefully the players would get the hint that other locales would be more in line with their power.

Since I have made the campaign map with 3 mile hexes I have found that setting up a full encounter area like this seems to work well. I can easily see how the above encounter area would fit within a single hex.

Interestingly enough as a DM I had run more adventure arc type campaigns, but as a player MUCH preferred sandbox type games with lots of "sidetrek" adventures. I can say I am having a lot of fun setting this up.

 

[Jasperak]

The problem was in my head. Just because you tell yourself "this is a sandbox" doesn´t mean that your brain stops functioning as usual. Humans are creatures of habit, and all those story-based campaign left certain imprints on my DM-style that were hard to overcome.

DMs like certain parts of their world, and don´t like others. They prefer certain locations and concepts. In a sandbox, you have to watch out for unconsciously acting on those preferances, overriding the players goals. As we say in German: Gefahr erkannt, Gefahr gebannt - a.k.a. if you know about this, you´re halfway there not to have it happen.

EDIT: IMPORTAND - Don´t overlook the awesome adventure "Monument of the ancients" by Brian R. James and Matt James in Dungeon 170. You won´t need the story for a sandbox, but the cool background descriptions and maps will help you a lot. THIS is what should have been in Moonsea.

I know that I am a controlling DM. I have had one of my players (an actor in a local theatre) tell me about a year into a campaign that I should be writing fiction. I took it both ways and rightly so. He enjoyed the setting and the pace and the interweaving of plot lines but felt it more Dragonlancish than Greyhawkish. With this new campaign area I hope to fix my deficiencies and act more as a referee and less as an author. I save the author hat for my fiction.

 

[Jasperak]

/snip to reply in general

That is why right now I no arc planned. I hope to play off of the players motivations and goals and craft the area situation to encompass their needs and desires.

I have never liked the sandbox that starts with the DM asking, "What do you want to do?" I plan on giving some of the PCs a mentor that can guide them, offering them the council and proclamations (like PoR), and asking for a quick background that lists a goal or motivation (like Dragon Age). I hope that with all of those options, that the PCs start with a direction and have many opportunities to change course to something more appealing or continue on the same direction.

A website somewhere (maybe Gnome stew) listed a 5x5 adventure matrix that would help link seemingly unrelated adventures into something like an arc. I think that after a few adventures if the players are more interested in following an arc that I could find a way to link them into a more cohesive story. Only time will tell.

 

[Sammael]

There´s also the old moonsea supplement, but it´s... uh yeah. Just stay away from that. Download the manuals for Pool of Radiance from Replacementdocs and use those. On the cover, a red plume and a zhent are fighting each other using a loaf of bread as a weapon. That should tell you anything you have to know about THAT book.

Alright, I just had to check. I knew I had Moonsea in PDF form and, sure enough, the two are fighting with a loaf of bread.

I think I have the old PoR manual somewhere. Any other suggestions for Moonsea source materials? One of my campaigns is currently set in Sembia, but a number of hooks they will receive will be connected with the current Zhentarim expansion in the Moonsea, which affects Sembia quite a bit, so I'm sure they'll visit the region eventually.

 

[Jasperak]

/snip to reply again in general

This is all excellent advice which leads me to ask, do you or anyone else know of a supplement (print or PDF) that discusses the theoreticals of designing a sandbox. One that goes beyond what your bullet-point blog post you linked to earlier. Or is it really this easy to do?