Slaughterhouse - Sandbox Equivalent for 4E

[TheAngryDM]

@Korgoth:

Basically, the way I have been using it (and you might find a better way for yourself) is this. First I setup the zone map. I use the zone map as a guide to map the dungeon. When I map the dungeon, I basically leave it unpopulated. The key just says things like: Room 1 - Red Room, Room 2 - Prison, Room 3 - Big Statue Room, etc. Meanwhile, I am building the zone stat blocks, factions, and rosters. So, in the end, I have an unpopulated map on one hand and the guidelines to populating it on the other.

Using the roster and the stat block, I then place encounters around the zone in places that make sense. For instance, the main entrance will be guarded so orc guards will be there. The living quarters will have lots of minions. Etc.

Then, the party shows up and causes trouble. Now, I repopulate the map. Whatever experience pool I have left is used to populate the area as if it was brand new. Except that, of course, when I place encounters, I do so in a reasonable, logical way. For instance, the depleted orcs will consolidate their forces a bit (expecting another attack) so the guard room will now have a heavy encounter in it, possibly with a unique leader type creature. The rest of the orcs are also tightly packed in the living quarters to maintain their defenses. I don't concern myself too much with which specific orcs were left alive on the last attack (except unique, named creatures). I just behave as if I am building an entirely new dungeon with the caveat that the dungeon is now "on alert" or whatever.

Hope that helps. But ultimately, you're better off looking at the tools and finding an organization system that works well for you, just like everything else in D&D. Currently, my 60-zone super dungeon is a big empty dungeon map (built on a big zone map). I'm only now generating zone stat blocks and rosters. Of course, I also had lots of specific ideas when I mapped the place, so I know roughly what is going on where. But that's the classic chicken-and-the-egg problem of DMing. You can't use a step-by-step process because all of the ideas influence each other. Some places were mapped knowing they would be an orc lair or an infernal fane and so the map shows that influence. Other places are more generic and look like something just recently moved in and took over. That, too, adds flavor.

 

[TheAngryDM]

Oh, sure, it's unrealistic, but it points to a more realistic problem. That is, the party doesn't have a major incentive to do much, or to explore everything. The DM could do a lot of work that goes unused. That's often a sandboxy problem, though, so I'm guessing people who are OK with the sandbox style already are totally fine with doing stuff that the party never ever sees.



It's got some solid potential, and a lot of versatility, it just needs a bit more fire under the seat for the consequences of resting. "Monsters come back" works for a long-term sandbox game, but for a short-burst concentrated experience, it's just getting in the way, since there's a goal at the end of all that noise.

@Kamimaze Midget:

Forgive me if this sounds a little 'angry', but ultimately, driving the game or the PCs forward is not my problem. The encounter building guidelines in the DMG do not provide an incentive for the players to fight the monsters. Instead, they are there to let you build an encounter when you need to put one in your game. The DM running the game is still responsible for creating quests, motives, stories, personalities for factions, and so on. This is just a mechanical tool for managing the setting and the antagonists. Of course, exploration can be a motive, but its not something that every party enjoys as a motive.

Slaughterhouse isn't good at all for anything in the short term. As I mention briefly in the article, I wouldn't dream of using this system for any site that wasn't meant to involve at least three experience levels, and even then, it might just get in the way.

This is just one more tool for the DM to put in his tool box and pull out when he needs it, like a power drill. When you need to put a hole in something, a power drill is the best tool, but if you need to pound in a nail, you probably want something more hammer-like and less drill-like. Specifically, this is a big, expensive tool, like a gas-powered power washer. Its big, its heavy, it drinks a lot of gasoline, and its a pain to lug out of the basement and connect up. You wouldn't use it everytime you want to wash your car, but when you need to clean a two-story house, its a hell of a lot easier than a ladder and a sponge.

Slaughterhouse won't swoop in and solve your problems, either. Yes, if your party uses the nova-rest cycle, they will be frustrated by their inability to make progress in the adventure (because they can't whittle things down one encounter at a time) and that might solve the problem. When repopulating the dungeon, if you keep ramping up the difficulty of the encounter at the door that the party keeps grinding to the point where the difficulty is too much for even a full nova. ("Hey, look at that, all of the orcs in the dungeon were waiting for you this time, good luck.") that could also solve the resting problem. It might not, though, and I never intended it to fix the nova-rest problem. But I suspect, with modification and paired with other tools (time pressure, strong motivations, ramping up difficulty, monsters hunting the party down instead of letting them retreat and attacking them when they sleep), it is one more way to tackle the problem.