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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaro" data-source="post: 5927820" data-attributes="member: 48965">Unless the rate at which randome encounters is the exact same, everywhere at every time... then he isn't. He's setting up choices for the PC's to make to determine their own pace. If the chance of encountering dangerous monsters is the same in a fortified town during daytime as it is in the Bone Hills at night... that's a poorly constructed sandbox.  Right, and again if every area at every time has the exact same encounter chances and monsters... then yes you are controlling the pace... but then you aren't playing in a sandbox. You've created an environment where choice is meaningless and that is definitely antithesis to the ideals of a sandbox. A better question is why the Flowered Meadows during the daytime have the exact same chance of encounters and the exact same monsters (because otherwise difficulty is also a factor of choice) as the Dreaded Marsh of the Hag Queen? If they don't then right there the PC's have a choice in the pacing of encounters.   Oh it is controlling pacing... it's just not controlling it in a (well constructed) sandbox.  No, placing more monsters does not guarantee more encounters. The PC's can find ways to avoid the encounters, they can go in a different direction, start fires to force the monsters back out of the area, hell they can hire some henchmen and hirelings to go clear some of that area out for them. You're assuming that there's only one answer to the situation... and my players are much more creative than walk in a straight line from encounter to encounter and fight.  He's influencing it, which I said awhile back... but it's the PC's and chance that are actually controlling it. The DM can make this harder or easier but without going to extremes (and basically stopping the sandbox from being a sandbox) he doesn't control it.  I said players and randomness set it, you keep trying to ignore the fact that I acknowledged randomness as a factor along with the PC's and I think I've pretty well demonstrated how the PC's control the pacing in a real sandbox through their choices. Again unless the DM goes to extremes, in which case he's not running a sandbox the PC's and randomness dictate pacing in a sandbox. You have yet to give a concrete example of how the DM controls (not influences) pacing in a sandbox environment.</blockquote>

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