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What separates a sandbox adventure from an AP?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6553763" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>A published adventure inevitably is going to pose some sort of challenge or situation for the players to confront (via their PCs). If the players aren't interested in this, then there will be a problem. But that applies equally to a sandbox module.</p><p></p><p>If I turn up with (say) the City of Greyhawk boxed set, and my players want to play a pirate game rather than a city game, there will be a problem. The fact that the adventure setting is a sandbox doesn't change that.</p><p></p><p>I don't see how this is any different from dealing with the fallen paladin. "You don't want to confront the fallen paladin, but rather want to overthrow the king? Then you'll either have to suffer improvisation or wait til next week."</p><p></p><p>In both cases, the issue - from the GM's point of view - is finding something interesting to your players.</p><p></p><p>But that doesn't change the fact that a module can be written to allow the players to decide what their PCs' goals are, and what counts as success. As a practical matter, though, it probably has to be shorter than a traditional dungeon module - if not in actual page count, then in number of challenges it presents. Roughly, these should be the intro, the foreshadowing and then the crunch - because anything more than that and you've got stuff that isn't really responsive to or reflective of player choices. (And this is the problem with Heathen as written that I mentioned - filler encounters that don't introduce or foreshadow, but are just time-wasters that do not provide the players with any chance to make meaningful choices or engage with their PCs' goals.)</p><p></p><p>Another module that I think supports player-driven play is the Penumbra d20 module Maiden Voyage. I recently ran that adventure using Burning Wheel - writeup <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?393493-Maiden-Voyage-(Penumbra-d20-module)" target="_blank">here</a>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6553763, member: 42582"] A published adventure inevitably is going to pose some sort of challenge or situation for the players to confront (via their PCs). If the players aren't interested in this, then there will be a problem. But that applies equally to a sandbox module. If I turn up with (say) the City of Greyhawk boxed set, and my players want to play a pirate game rather than a city game, there will be a problem. The fact that the adventure setting is a sandbox doesn't change that. I don't see how this is any different from dealing with the fallen paladin. "You don't want to confront the fallen paladin, but rather want to overthrow the king? Then you'll either have to suffer improvisation or wait til next week." In both cases, the issue - from the GM's point of view - is finding something interesting to your players. But that doesn't change the fact that a module can be written to allow the players to decide what their PCs' goals are, and what counts as success. As a practical matter, though, it probably has to be shorter than a traditional dungeon module - if not in actual page count, then in number of challenges it presents. Roughly, these should be the intro, the foreshadowing and then the crunch - because anything more than that and you've got stuff that isn't really responsive to or reflective of player choices. (And this is the problem with Heathen as written that I mentioned - filler encounters that don't introduce or foreshadow, but are just time-wasters that do not provide the players with any chance to make meaningful choices or engage with their PCs' goals.) Another module that I think supports player-driven play is the Penumbra d20 module Maiden Voyage. I recently ran that adventure using Burning Wheel - writeup [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?393493-Maiden-Voyage-(Penumbra-d20-module)]here[/url]. [/QUOTE]
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