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Showing maps to exploring players, yer or no?
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<blockquote data-quote="Galladrick" data-source="post: 6592569" data-attributes="member: 6793983"><p>More information is vital in a sandbox game. I wouldn't even be above giving the players the difficulty (generally) of areas on said map. </p><p></p><p>In a sandbox, while there is more freedom, this means nothing if there aren't really any choices to be made... there's only one way out of the forest, etc. Knowing that certain places are a certain way is no guarantee whatsoever that they are actually that way, but it's nice to be able to plan in a sandbox, because that is more a part of the style than a narrative driven game (I think). </p><p></p><p>Example: Four characters have set up an HQ in an abandoned bandit cave in the Lands of Light. They've learned there are bounties on all sort of skins in the area offered by a baron. The most expensive are in the yeti in the mountains and the crocs in the swamp. If they decide to enter the Duke's Swamp in order to find crocodile skins, it is entirely possible the entire area has been flooded and destroyed, with perhaps even an undersea nation moved into the flooded swamp. This is a bait and switch, however, and in my opinion, sandbox style games depend on trust. The players MUST be given all information that they might conceivably have in order decide how to go forward. This relationship may well REQUIRE the DM to reveal the setup of the lands at the beginning, even if only in a general way, so that the players don't think you are going to jump them with a GOTCHA choice right at the start. This isn't fun for the players, in my experience, unless it is providing a story element that begs to be resolved (say the swamp flooded because of a magical experiment gone awry, and the wizard responsible is somewhere under the waves, shifting the sandbox into narrative mode: save or recover the wizard, neutralize his experiment either by destroying or deactivating it)</p><p></p><p>In a more formally structured game (or even a less formally but none-the-less structured game), I think a fog of war is justified at minimum. Beyond this, I like to give players the benefit of the doubt with their character's knowledge of the game world. If they are playing more scholarly types, perhaps revealing more info to them or letting them know that they are familiar with said material even if it's not immediately relevant.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Galladrick, post: 6592569, member: 6793983"] More information is vital in a sandbox game. I wouldn't even be above giving the players the difficulty (generally) of areas on said map. In a sandbox, while there is more freedom, this means nothing if there aren't really any choices to be made... there's only one way out of the forest, etc. Knowing that certain places are a certain way is no guarantee whatsoever that they are actually that way, but it's nice to be able to plan in a sandbox, because that is more a part of the style than a narrative driven game (I think). Example: Four characters have set up an HQ in an abandoned bandit cave in the Lands of Light. They've learned there are bounties on all sort of skins in the area offered by a baron. The most expensive are in the yeti in the mountains and the crocs in the swamp. If they decide to enter the Duke's Swamp in order to find crocodile skins, it is entirely possible the entire area has been flooded and destroyed, with perhaps even an undersea nation moved into the flooded swamp. This is a bait and switch, however, and in my opinion, sandbox style games depend on trust. The players MUST be given all information that they might conceivably have in order decide how to go forward. This relationship may well REQUIRE the DM to reveal the setup of the lands at the beginning, even if only in a general way, so that the players don't think you are going to jump them with a GOTCHA choice right at the start. This isn't fun for the players, in my experience, unless it is providing a story element that begs to be resolved (say the swamp flooded because of a magical experiment gone awry, and the wizard responsible is somewhere under the waves, shifting the sandbox into narrative mode: save or recover the wizard, neutralize his experiment either by destroying or deactivating it) In a more formally structured game (or even a less formally but none-the-less structured game), I think a fog of war is justified at minimum. Beyond this, I like to give players the benefit of the doubt with their character's knowledge of the game world. If they are playing more scholarly types, perhaps revealing more info to them or letting them know that they are familiar with said material even if it's not immediately relevant. [/QUOTE]
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