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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 5086789" data-attributes="member: 9053">I think this is a good point: the notion that sandbox and storytelling are diametrically opposed to each other is at the very least an oversimplification. In my estimation, a good GM and a good campaign will have elements of both.I also own Burning Empires...and I think it's a very odd duck of roleplaying games. It is highly structured and controlled gameplay, which makes you think it's going to be railroading, but at the same time it's all about player choices and what to you do in a particular situation. It is definitely one of the most unusual RPGs I've ever come across, and does a good job of throwing most game theory on its ear.To address another point, in the Burning Sky campaign, for example, the first few adventures are somewhat railroadish, as they definitely take the group in a very specific direction. At the same time, within that framework, they offer tremendous freedom as to how to get there.In the Scouring of Gate Pass, the group has the goal of getting the Maguffin and then getting out of town heading in a particular direction. That is bordering on railroading on the surface. The reason the adventure worked for me (and I've run it successfully for two different groups) was that given that context, a group is given given complete freedom as to how to accomplish that. The adventure suggests several options and gives enough information to the GM so that they can react quite well to what a particular group wants to try.At the same time, it presents a number of set-piece encounters that the group is likely to go through, which again may make some groups think of it as a railroady adventure. At the same time, my two different groups avoided some of the encounters and did some others entirely out of order for what the adventure assumed would happen...and it worked out just fine.The Fire Forest is even more of a structured game environment (an almost entirely artificial one) but it also offers tremendous freedom in terms of the choices the group is offered. I think some groups might simply have a problem with how they are forced to make those choices.I would classify Burning Sky as more of a storytelling adventure path, but it is definitely not a linear approach...groups are given a lot of freedom about how to get to where they need to go, but ultimately some may not like the notion that there is a particular direction to go in the first place.So it isn't just as simple as an either/or scenario to be certain. I would say that the only thing that's definite about a story telling game is that there is a story...something larger than the group and something that exists outside of it going on.</blockquote>

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