I have copies of the Wilderlands and Points of Light books, and I've read Rob Conley's excellent "How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox" series.

The problem I'm having now is I seem to be having trouble getting my head around the workflow (for lack of a better term) of actually running the thing.  When I try to think it through I just keep coming back to "isn't this just roaming around and level grinding FFVII-style?"  I'm clearly missing something.

Can anyone point me to some GM-side logs or actual play reports or similar of a sandbox campaign in action?  I think it would help if I could see how it's done live.

Over on TBP on the d20 forum there is a thread of epic awesome entitled:

B/X Misadventures in randomly generated dungeons

and the sequel thread:

B/X Misadventures: Fellowship of the Bling Volume 2.


Once you start following the adventures of this group you will be hooked.

Pretty much everything on my site under the tag Actual Play
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/search/label/actual%20play that's also tagged "DnD" is about a sandbox.

Posts tagged "design" are frequently about how adventures or parts thereof are set up.

What game system are you using? The Kramerland threads in this forum are good examples of a sandbox campaign, although it never occurred to our gaming group to label this stuff as "sandbox". It's just how we play. We're currently using D&D 3.5 (with a hint of Pathfinder and BESM d20), but we've also frequently used AD&D.

Welcome to Kramerland...: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=13052 (D&D 3.5)

Welcome To Kramerland Part II...: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=17872 (AD&D 1e/2e hybrid)

Our group doesn't really just "level grind", though we do wander around quite a bit. We usually just roleplay a lot, and create missions for ourselves in order to accomplish an objective. For example, one of the PCs went on a quest to revive his dead NPC girlfriend. It took a very long time to achieve this objective, but even after succeeding at this goal, the adventure isn't over, as the PCs have enemies now that they didn't seem to have before. There's always something for the PCs to do.....whether it's to craft a magic item, revive a loved one, visit a friend, hunt an enemy, or whatever. The weird thing is, I rarely have a story line planned out beforehand. The story just kinda happens.

I sometimes use random tables for both treasure and random encounters, so even I don't always know what will happen next.

Quote from: daniel_ream;658132The problem I'm having now is I seem to be having trouble getting my head around the workflow (for lack of a better term) of actually running the thing.  When I try to think it through I just keep coming back to "isn't this just roaming around and level grinding FFVII-style?"  I'm clearly missing something.

What you're missing is that the GM is (hopefully) smarter and more creative than a computer.

I don't mean that facetiously. It really is the crux of the difference. If FF7 generates a random encounter with 8 skeletons, all the computer can really do is have you fight them.

If a GM generates a random encounter with 8 skeletons, then the GM can create a context for that encounter:

- The skeletons are collecting corpses from a nearby cemetary (why?)
- The skeletons are revenants of the goblins the PCs killed last week (and they're going to keep coming back until the PCs can figure out how to lift the curse their shaman put on them)
- The skeletons mark the mass gravesite of a recent genocide
- The skeletons aren't looking to fight; they want to hire the PCs to recover the treasures that were stolen from their graves

And so forth. Or maybe the PCs end up using a control undead spell to gain an undead army, but then the necromancer they belonged to comes looking for them. Or the local town tries to kick them out and the PCs somehow end up fighting a political campaign to give undead equal rights. (The creativity and flexibility of the GM also unleashes the creativity of the players, who aren't bound to the narrow input commands of a CRPG.)

QuoteCan anyone point me to some GM-side logs or actual play reports or similar of a sandbox campaign in action?  I think it would help if I could see how it's done live.

The log for my OD&D open table hexcrawl is massively out of date and very sketchy on the details, but you can find it here: The Thracian Hexcawl. A few incidents have been described in greater detail: Gems in the Belly, My Favorite Character Sheet, Update from the Crypt of Luan Phien.

Timelines are a godsend. They give you the impulse of motion for when things trigger. When you block out BBEG NPC's (big bad evil guy non-player character) day planner you find that that personality starts to breathe in response to the world. Regardless of being interrupted or left alone by the PCs, this NPC has a structured agenda with timeframes; it has reasons to do things.

Having reasons to do things structured with scheduled goal pursuit helps animate the character. If you fleshed out a personality with some adjectives (or scrying alignment or whatever) it goes from being more than a sack of XP with a schedule. That dynamic mix fires a character into life; it breathes with its own motivations and attitude. Soon it will write its own material and you'll have oodles of hooks for your players to dig in.

So, give us an important NPC in your world (not necessarily an antagonist) and flesh it out here. Note its position (setting importance), 2-3 personality adjectives, and general sphere of activity. Now add a goal or two, a scheduled routine and long term calendar plans. Go back and see how your dynamic your NPC is. See how it can breathe alone regardless of PC interaction.

Here's a quick framework so it's easy to understand and not as frightening:

Name: Father Pious Innocenti
Location: Keep of the Borderlands parish head cleric.
Personality: Calm, perceptive, opportunistic.
Duties: Perform parish weekly prayer service, tend to sick and dying rites, decide parish large projects.

Goals: Repair church roof, garner new wealthy patron, establish ecclesiastic school
Routine Schedule: Monday evening services, visit sick and dying during Tues-Fri days and afternoons (ask for donations and bequeathments), Saturday and Sunday open hours for consultation (and negotiation for higher level priest spell services)
Calendar: Fall, harvest blessing and harvest fair fundraiser. Winter, extra effort to visit sick and dying, push bequeathments hard. Spring, shop around for building contracts, push more festival fundraisers. Get a roofing contract by April at (almost) all costs! Summer, relax and trade spell services to travelers along with casual proselytizing, host longer weekend open consultation hours.

Easily can do this on a 3x5 index card, and now you have a semi-automated personality program. Front-loaded work gives you an NPC that just needs a nudge to snowball into something alive.