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<blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 8245340" data-attributes="member: 16586">[USER=85555]@Bedrockgames[/USER] That seems like fairly anodyne sandbox play to me. The sort of stuff I would do when running RuneQuest, Godbound or Stars Without Number. Lots of high level detail, but pretty impersonal stuff. That's not meant as an insult either. It's a tradeoff. We all have a limited amount of energy and it has to go somewhere. Both away from the today and at the table we need to prioritize. One thing I will say is I do believe you can have quality sandbox play while being mindful of the process and creative decisions you are making. It just requires playing the setting with integrity. You can absolutely make decisions for an NPC based on your prep and your sense of the situation without seeing them as having their own volition. I know because I have done it for years in a variety of games. I think my biggest issues, both in the commentary in this thread and also historically, from living world proponents comes down to what I see is a lack of acknowledging the cognitive limitations all us must deal with and what I personally view as a fairly reductive view of their own play. Basically my personal experience both with other GMs (I have played with and talked to in person) as well as in online communities is a sense that they have found the secret sauce. That they are literal Mentats who do not operate under the same limitations we all face. There also seems to be an erasure of the messier elements of running a game that do not fit their aesthetic goals. Stuff I cannot help but see when I run or play a game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Campbell, post: 8245340, member: 16586"] [USER=85555]@Bedrockgames[/USER] That seems like fairly anodyne sandbox play to me. The sort of stuff I would do when running RuneQuest, Godbound or Stars Without Number. Lots of high level detail, but pretty impersonal stuff. That's not meant as an insult either. It's a tradeoff. We all have a limited amount of energy and it has to go somewhere. Both away from the today and at the table we need to prioritize. One thing I will say is I do believe you can have quality sandbox play while being mindful of the process and creative decisions you are making. It just requires playing the setting with integrity. You can absolutely make decisions for an NPC based on your prep and your sense of the situation without seeing them as having their own volition. I know because I have done it for years in a variety of games. I think my biggest issues, both in the commentary in this thread and also historically, from [B]living world [/B]proponents comes down to what I see is a lack of acknowledging the cognitive limitations all us must deal with and what I personally view as a fairly reductive view of their own play. Basically my personal experience both with other GMs (I have played with and talked to in person) as well as in online communities is a sense that they have found the secret sauce. That they are literal Mentats who do not operate under the same limitations we all face. There also seems to be an erasure of the messier elements of running a game that do not fit their aesthetic goals. Stuff I cannot help but see when I run or play a game. [/QUOTE]

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