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<blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 5042754" data-attributes="member: 66434">Good general advice. &nbsp;I think one issue that some might have wrapping thier mind around the dynamics of sandbox play is that when players are given complete freedom to make thier own choices and those choices have a major impact on the play experience that not all of them will always be a positive thing for the PC's. The freedom to make meaningful decisions comes with the possibility of making big mistakes.&nbsp;For example, in a free sandbox environment the players can go wherever and do whatever they please. Thier decisions will determine if they have an exciting action packed adventure, or spend the game time dithering over plans, goals and other things. With regard to PC action the DM does not control the pacing of the action, the players do. &nbsp;Somewhat connected to this, the DM does not owe the PC's a certain guarantee of action, treasure or experience. A linear campaign assumes the PC's will mostly follow the trail provided and in return for following that trail they get action, experience and loot. A sandbox campaign provides all of that but the players can ignore or walk away from these things at will.&nbsp;So when players just walk away from an adventuring area to &quot; go walkabout&quot; they will encounter whatever is reasonable for the areas they wander through. This can easily and often does result in the party gaining less experience and treasure than they would have gotten had they investigated the opportunities that were available.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ExploderWizard, post: 5042754, member: 66434"] Good general advice. I think one issue that some might have wrapping thier mind around the dynamics of sandbox play is that when players are given complete freedom to make thier own choices and those choices have a major impact on the play experience that not all of them will always be a positive thing for the PC's. The freedom to make meaningful decisions comes with the possibility of making big mistakes. For example, in a free sandbox environment the players can go wherever and do whatever they please. Thier decisions will determine if they have an exciting action packed adventure, or spend the game time dithering over plans, goals and other things. With regard to PC action the DM does not control the [I]pacing [/I]of the action, the players do. Somewhat connected to this, the DM does not [I]owe [/I]the PC's a certain guarantee of action, treasure or experience. A linear campaign assumes the PC's will mostly follow the trail provided and in return for following that trail they get action, experience and loot. A sandbox campaign provides all of that but the players can ignore or walk away from these things at will. So when players just walk away from an adventuring area to " go walkabout" they will encounter whatever is reasonable for the areas they wander through. This can easily and often does result in the party gaining less experience and treasure than they would have gotten had they investigated the opportunities that were available. [/QUOTE]

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