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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 5168457" data-attributes="member: 2205">MerricB; I'm a little unclear; are we meant to answer the question that the thread title poses, the one that the body of the original post itself poses, or either/or?I think arguing about the semantics of what it means to be a sandbox is a fruitless exercise, and one that (some of us, at least) we've been down before to little avail.  What people mean when they say 'sandbox' is often quite vague, and difficult to nail down.  And, it may have lots of baggage from their experiences and home games.  I think whether or not you play in a sandbox or not has more to do with whether you like the theoretical approach and identify with the attitude than it does with any actual concrete elements of the game itself.  Plus, as Fifth Element alluded to, its often difficult to know exactly what's going on in the 'background' of a game; two GM's could be handling things very differently in their minds, and the players may not have any way whatsoever of telling from where they sit.If you want my advice, I'd not pursue that discussion at all, frankly, and focus on the other question that you ask.Although, sadly, I don't have nearly as much to say there.  My "technique" is to make stuff up really quickly.  It's not really so much a technique as an art that I do without a ton of thought.I do prepare for the unexpected, though.  Lots of potential NPC names, sorted by region, are essential.  A map with enough detail that I can tell where they could end up depending on what they do.  Maybe some old Dungeon Mag issues hanging around so I've got site maps handy that I might need to pick up in a pinch.  Statblocks of monsters or NPCs that I think might be interesting if the PCs fought, that I can have ready to go in case it looks like where they're headed could make such a thing happen.An older gentleman once told me that if you don't keep your apple barrel full, when you reach into it to get an apple, you'll come up empty.  This was specifically in regard to this type of question; I just make sure that I've got enough ideas crammed somewhere into my subconscious that I've got something there when I reach into it to grab an apple unexpectedly.  I read a lot of modules, not to run them, but just to see how they're constructed, what the ideas are, what kinds of locations, plot ideas, NPCs and monsters they've got in them.  Then, as needed, I raid this larder of raw materials to keep the PCs occupied.</blockquote>

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