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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5291933" data-attributes="member: 59082">You know, I'm vaguely familiar with the Western Marches but will give it a more detailed look. Another good reminder.Anyhow, this sounds good--especially the last two sentences. I think the key of the sandbox is combining a sense of familiarity ("we've travelled along this road before, oh yeah, there's the bluff over there with the waterfall") and spontaneity and mystery ("who is that shadowy figure on that bluff?"). The familiarity creates the context in which the spontaneous new idea has impact.Wow, this looks great--I just downloaded it.A couple things. First, I think our ideas of a "sandbox" are slightly different, or rather I think you well present the classic sandbox but my view is that it is more of a spectrum and doesn't have to conform so strictly to a definition. I suppose in what you describe what I want is "sandboxy" or "elements of sandbox" rather than a strict sandbox campaign. Secondly, I don't believe that being a participant and the architect of the world are inherently antithetical or mutually exclusive. As a long-time world-builder and writer, I find that part of the fun of this sort of creating is the sense of discovery, as if I am not building the world but discovering (and "chronicling") a world that already exists. This relates to what Carl Jung termed the "collective unconscious" and my feeling that fantasy art--at its best--is tapping into something much larger than the discursive fancy of the individual mind; it is tapping into a much greater wellsbring of myth and archetype. So in relation to your comment, I find that I am both the architect and explorer (or participant) in my "created" fantasy worlds. Actually, the building (architecture) is a process of discovery, which is why it is so pleasurable. So what I am trying to do is bring that "wonder of creative discovery" into the gaming process, so that it occurs while both preparing and playing a campaign.This is an interesting point. Not to "jack" my own thread, I just finished Ursula K Le Guin's The Dispossessed for the first time, which happens to be the same age as D&D (and myself!): 36. One of the things that struck me about this amazing novel is that this sort of novel--a true novel of ideas--is rarely if ever written any more. There is no technological gimmickry, no violence, no cliche or facile characters. I am of the view that something has been lost in the artistic realm, in the last 30-40 years, especially congruent with technological development. We have Avatar and other technological "masterpieces" (or monstrosities, depending upon your viewpoint), but we don't have many The Dispossessed, or if they do they are marginalized by more glitzy media. Of course it has always been this way to some degree, but I think the trend has become more extreme. But that's really another topic.Ah, OK. Interesting idea. By the way, I am teaching a class in Worldbuilding in the winter. Should be fun!Wow, great table! Have anymore? An email would be grand: jonnybardo at yahoo dot com.I like your combination of "random rolls and imagination." That is what I'm going for.Not sure what you mean here? (And who is Frank?).</blockquote>

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