I´d like to say you are all wrong.

Because I´d like sandbox to come from military exercises. You know, the planning instrument, sandbox?

Quote from: BalbinusIf you misbehaved in Mr Mead's class, which you hit around age 8, he would shake you and scream "Sandbox or the halo boy? Sandbox or the halo?" Sandbox meant you had to stand in the sandbox during break and be ridiculed by the girls, halo meant you had to wear a tin halo during break and be similarly ridiculed. Whichever you picked, he gave you the opposite, or in one case I saw both.

I really didn't need to know about your childhood traumas, mate

Here's a bucket and spade, now go and have fun.

Sett is correct. The sandbox is a reference to military planning  exercises. The terrain was modelled into the sand, along with scale buildings and - if appropriate - vegetation.

-clash

I use the term sandbox to refer to a persistent campaign world that does not revolve around the PCs but that will react to their actions.

References anyone?

Quote from: walkerpReferences anyone?

Dude, this is not an academic dissertation but an everyday chat. The guy asked what a word means, and we told him the various meanings.

But just to humour you...

That reminds me, I have to change the cat's box...

Wait! I'm misremembering! It wasn't called a sandBOX, it was called a sandTABLE! Old grognards used a sandtable for their war games because military planners used them, but I don't think the term came from that now. It must have come from the child's play area.

-clash

Quote from: PremierDude, this is not an academic dissertation but an everyday chat. The guy asked what a word means, and we told him the various meanings.

But just to humour you...

um, DUDE, I was actually just curious if anybody had an actual reference point where the term sandbox was applied to gaming, either video or tabletop, because my understanding of the term (which Jrients encapsulated quite nicely) has no connection with the military planning use of the term, as far as I can tell (besides both being simulations).  

edit: now i see FlyingMice has changed that term to SandTable, so I think Sett is talking about something else or mistranslating.

sandbox is a term meant, as someone pointed out up-thread, to indicate a setting created by the GM without specific plot purpose.  In most cases, there are things happening in the world, independent of the characters, that will interest the characters and lead to campaigns.  It is, however, to simply exists in the sandbox without any long-terms or preplanned goals.

It comes from the idea that the created setting is like a sandbox - it has no specific purpose but allows for the participants to utilize the sand/setting in any way they desire for the purposes of creating fun. One set of children might use a sandbox for a construction site.  Another might try to build a city. The sandbox will become purposed by the characters.

In general, the GM would then react and attempt to build on the emergent goals as the players began to interact with the setting/sandbox - in other words, once the kids decided to build a city, the GM would provide cars and Popsicle sticks, whereas if they decided on a construction site the GM would provide tractors and dump trucks.

In my experience, other than playing in Living Greyhawk, this is the kind of game my groups defaulted to. The machinations of the world existed for us to explore and our "campaign" was an organic process.

And no, walker, I don't have a citation.  I'm only speaking from things I've seen on this and other forums/groups/etc.

Quote from: darIf only Dragon had done or Paizo would do an adventure sandbox instead of a path.

That'd be cool, although for a lot of people it would still be an adventure path, because you'd end up going to the areas as they're printed.

Quote from: James J SkachAnd no, walker, I don't have a citation.  I'm only speaking from things I've seen on this and other forums/groups/etc.

We agree on this definition.  I am just curious about the actual source of the term and when and/or how it got applied to gaming.

Quote from: ImperatorI really didn't need to know about your childhood traumas, mate

I was promoted a year and skipped his class, I just had to sit in it sometimes for handwriting practice.

So, they weren't my traumas, they were other people's, which is as close to a definition of comedy as I think one can find...

Well, I've also used it to describe all of the parts of a game (mechanics,setting...ect) that all players, including the GM, have acess to and can interact with each other through use.

Any parts of the game that are soley for the GM or excludes any player(s) is not "in the sandbox"