D&D General Working on a new open world city "sandbox" adventure! What would entice you to buy it?

[Accaris]

You might vaguely know me, I made the Chronicles of Aeres setting. We're working on our next book which is a huge city to explore. A dark and dreary place with gothic overtones, many anachronisms, and a vibe somewhere between Guy Davis's the Marquis and Les Miserable.

What makes you interested in a city sandbox adventure? I already have 9 factions outlined, working on the rest.

 

[payn]

Nuanced factions, rumors, secrets, etc..

 

[KoolMoDaddy-O]

Side quests. Lots and lots of side quests.

My players are ruled by their whims. This one wants to earn some money, another wants to join a guild or criminal faction, and a third will become obsessed that some aristocrat is hiding something in his wine cellar and only good old-fashioned B&E will assuage his curiosity. I never have enough side quests or encounters ready to go immediately. What I want are quest givers, simple narratives (I'm ok with fetch quests), and many locations to explore -- sewers, tunnels, smuggler hideouts, mansions, secret temples, abandoned castles or ruins, etc.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Being good.

 

[Jasperak]

Side quests. Lots and lots of side quests.

My players are ruled by their whims. This one wants to earn some money, another wants to join a guild or criminal faction, and a third will become obsessed that some aristocrat is hiding something in his wine cellar and only good old-fashioned B&E will assuage his curiosity. I never have enough side quests or encounters ready to go immediately. What I want are quest givers, simple narratives (I'm ok with fetch quests), and many locations to explore -- sewers, tunnels, smuggler hideouts, mansions, secret temples, abandoned castles or ruins, etc.

Yes! If I'm shelling out for a sandbox, I expect to have usable and actionable stuff without doing the work myself. Look at the failures of AD&D2e and all their story-based stuff. Lots of great ideas but very little usable out of the box without leg work on my part.

 

[Clint_L]

All I care about in a setting are story hooks and side quests featuring characters with well defined motives.

 

[KoolMoDaddy-O]

Look at the failures of AD&D2e and all their story-based stuff. Lots of great ideas but very little usable out of the box without leg work on my part.

This was my biggest beef with 1e/2e Ravenloft -- it was all maudlin backstories for the darklords and yet very little stuff for the PCs to actually do. Give me some bullet-point strokes for NPC personalities and I can dramatize them on the fly, but what I can't improvise as quickly are maps, battles, and encounters.

 

[aco175]

I can see something that has a few story arcs going at the same time, or a series where a couple campaigns can be pulled from depending on where the PCs go. Have a few BBEGs that are doing bad things, give a few hooks out that the players can choose from but leave some open places where I can fill in stuff.

I like having shops with a paragraph describing it and another paragraph on the owner or a couple NPCs found there. A secret or two for each also is good to have and I can develop some if the players seem to like them.

I might be more willing to buy a place if it is in Forgotten Realms. Not a big deal-breaker, but something I might consider.

Names of places and people might be some as well. There is a lot to the feel of something and if I cannot say the names, then I need to convert them and do the work. I prefer more 'traditional' naming and feel with the Americanized Western-European, but if the rest is great then not a deal-breaker either.

 

[Ath-kethin]

What makes you interested in a city sandbox adventure?

Same thing that interests me in any adventure: an actual plot and defined things for the characters to do. If I have to provide all of the above myself, I can do that without buying anything.

You can even just provide it as a "potential sequence outline" or whatever. But for all the gods, please provide an actual adventure and not just a city sourcebook.

 

[Voadam]

For fantasy cities the statless Pirate's Guide to Freeport worked really well for me. An overall couple of big themes for the city (pirates, mercantile trade hub, banned dark cults) and a decently fleshed out background. Defined different wards with their own evocative themes and feels. Factions like the competing organized crime syndicates, various cults, different levels of city politics, the Watch, and so on. NPC figures and interesting establishments in each ward. Not detailed down to the level of every shop being a mapped out dungeon room, but details are there with room to breathe and riff. I felt comfortable when running the Freeport Trilogy module and the party went off script in the city.

 

[Catolias]

For me, managing a game for a sandbox city only works if the players know that they can visit every street and shop to be explored and get a sense that there are different vibes in different parts of the city. It has to be reasonably seemless and provide the goldilocks amount of detail.

Also, there has to be a clear sense on the city’s structure - politically (how is it managed?), economically and historically (why does it exist?), and socially (what are the parts of the city that keep it together?)

Oh, and maps, pictures . There have to be maps of the town, unique areas and the like to allow players to orient themselves

 

[Accaris]

For me, managing a game for a sandbox city only works if the players know that they can visit every street and shop to be explored and get a sense that there are different vibes in different parts of the city. It has to be reasonably seemless and provide the goldilocks amount of detail.

Also, there has to be a clear sense on the city’s structure - politically (how is it managed?), economically and historically (why does it exist?), and socially (what are the parts of the city that keep it together?)

Oh, and maps, pictures . There have to be maps of the town, unique areas and the like to allow players to orient themselves

Lots of random charts?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Generators. Lots and lots of generators.

Don't make me think up a name on the fly and expect it to fit into the world. That damned NPC that the players insist on interacting with might well be someone I'm stuck using for six years and, as The Adventure Zone showed us, you don't want that NPC to be named something dumb like "Barry Bluejeans."

I would rather have generators than actual hardcore detail. I don't want to be required to remember the name of the miller's eldest daughter on King Street. If it ever comes up, let me roll it on the spot and make a note.

Make the rest of the book full of stuff that's actionable and useful in games.

And lordy, make it well organized. Use Ptolus as your north star here, rather than the indifferently organized WotC books. If I can easily find what I'm looking for in a 600 page copy of Ptolus mid-game (and I can), think of how convenient a book half that size will be to use, when organized in a similar fashion.

Lots of reusable maps: This is what a sample shop's layout is, here's what a typical tavern looks like, here's some sewers maps, here's a thieves guild, etc.

 

[Tonguez]

First Cities need to have character, their own story and feel. City stories need three frames/aspects being: Past Threat/Issue - Current Issues - Impending Doom

Cities are also all about interesting factions to interact with, Factions should have interesting Power brokers (NPCs) and a network of motivations, desires and relationships that link the various factions to the cities story and provide hooks for PC involvement.

Then create Wards, and interesting locations for the Factions and Powerbrokers to be found.
BUT also remember that wards also need to have regular NPCs that are part of the life of the neighbourhood and have small street level stories but dont have to link to the Factions.
So yes Tables that let PCs create their friends and neighbours -the local shopkeeper, the pretty landlords daughter or the homeless beggar on the street corner.