Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9733642" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Glad to have been of help, then.Now I can't help wondering what things shake out if someone tries to mix styles but bungles one of the two.Like if you try to inject a narrative arc into a well-done sandbox game, I imagine that wouldn't push things into "wasteland" territory--but it might feel like a railroad running through otherwise lovely terrain. Conversely, if someone with lots of experience with sandbox-y games but little with linear games tried to merge the two, I could see it ending up like a wasteland, as they overcompensate for their experience with sandbox with too much emphasis in the other direction. Seems more likely though that it would be the former. Really rich and varied world that the group isn't actually permitted to interact with because Plot Says Otherwise.Conversely, I think a wasteland is very likely for a GM used to linear-heavy games if she tries to do a sandbox or mix sandbox into her otherwise very linear game. I'm reminded of an issue that a LOT of failed attempts at MMOs have, where they proudly state that they "don't hold your hand" and have a "wide-open world" where you "make your own fun": they end up feeling like dead, empty worlds, because having tons of locations one can visit...with nothing to actually do there other than see them and maybe do some resource-gathering, isn't actually that interesting or compelling. So the "rails" will seem like the only path that goes anywhere interesting, and the linear GM may come away feeling frustrated and lost because they don't see what they actually need to do to make a sandbox environment stimulating and engaging.</blockquote>

Verification