The RSG affair also raises the issue of how one goes about creating (or collecting) material for use in a sandbox game.

To many GMs today, it may seem obvious that the most efficient way to go about designing a campaign environment is to ensure that every room and its contents will get used in a way that they have planned. The apparent alternative is that the material -- and the investment in creating or acquiring it -- is "wasted" if events take another course.

On one hand, the players could have accomplished their chosen mission having seen but a small portion of the station. On the other hand, one idea they have is using it as their own base of operations.

In any event, I could certainly use it as a model for other instances of similar environments. For example, although RSG is currently a planetary installation, it began life as an orbital one. Not only might another Imperial Research Station employ a similar plan, but so might a site of a different nature.

Moreover, had the place been left in control either of its initial proprietor or of some NPCs who had their own agenda, it could have figured in subsequent interactions between the PCs and those entities.

I'm very much an improviser when it comes to DMing. I have to be careful not to paint myself into a corner, but usually it works well. I've been using Mythic GM Emulator recently, as well as some elements of Burning Wheel, and our hybrid sandbox is clicking along rather nicely.

One thing I'm bad about is forgetting that I already have an NPC with a similar name. In one campaign I ran a few years ago, I had a Merrick, a Maric, a Marcus, and maybe one other kinda like that. So now I keep a list on my wiki and *check* it before I introduce a new name.

When I've had campaigns with month-to-day RL-to-in-game ratios, we just leveled up when people had the XP. I didn't put them through training or any of that. The last time it happened, part of the blame was mine. I too often made the mistake of letting a scene hang on one person -- without making it clear that others should still be posting, even if they weren't in the direct spotlight. If you've got a player who suddenly goes AWOL or gets stumped for what to do when they're the main one interacting with an NPC, that can gum things up in a big way.

In my new, much more fast-paced game, we will probably still skip full-on training, or at least scale it way back.

Quote from: Dana;629646I have to be careful not to paint myself into a corner...

I've seen this phrase used many times by GMs (not just you, Dana), but I'm not sure I understand how one paints oneself into a corner in the context of a sandbox. Hopefully it's not derailing to ask how a GM paints one's self into a corner.

Quote from: Thalaba;629649I've seen this phrase used many times by GMs (not just you, Dana), but I'm not sure I understand how one paints oneself into a corner in the context of a sandbox. Hopefully it's not derailing to ask how a GM paints one's self into a corner.

My games are more of a hybrid sandbox, I guess, in that there's sort of an overarching plot (or several, in fact) that the PCs can pursue all, in part, or not at all. If they just want to wander from town to wilderness to dungeon and round and round again, that's fine. There'll be random encounters and rumors and whatnot. Parts of the plot may affect what they do -- if villains have overthrown the kingdom they're exploring, they might start to see burned-out villages or refugees -- but there's nothing requiring them to pick up on those leads.

I guess what I mean by paint myself in a corner is forgetting what stuff I've done before and contradicting myself or duplicating things. I want the world to make some kind of sense and to roll along on its own momentum, and if I don't keep track of different things I've introduced, dumb stuff happens. I can usually write my way out of it, but still, I'd rather not have to do that.

I dunno -- did that answer your question? Maybe I'm not really running sandbox. Heh. I've seen people use it to mean slightly different things.

Quote from: estar;627750I envy you, something about the way I referee my campaigns makes the player want to play each and every damn day. In my current campaign, I just now got them to consent, after 16 sessions, to fast forward six days while they waited for somebody armor to get finished.

The wargaming concept of the campaign turn comes in handy here.

In Flashing Blades, character career commitments are measured in months: a royal bureaucrat may be required 'to be at work' six months a year, frex. The month is my basic 'campaign turn,' for which I roll for events. I also ask the players what sorts of things their characters might be doing outside of pursuing their careers - relationships they're trying to build, places they want to visit, and so forth - and these get slotted into the campaign turns as well.

There's also the idea of an adventuring 'season,' like in Pendragon.

Quote from: Dana;629656I guess what I mean by paint myself in a corner is forgetting what stuff I've done before and contradicting myself or duplicating things. I want the world to make some kind of sense and to roll along on its own momentum, and if I don't keep track of different things I've introduced, dumb stuff happens. I can usually write my way out of it, but still, I'd rather not have to do that.

Hmm, yeah, I understand what you mean, but this rarely becomes a problem for me.  Part of it is keeping a written timeline, but a bigger part, I think, is that you work at visualizing the world as a real world, and visualize the NPCs as real people. If you let them come alive in your head; if you trick yourself into thinking you're talking about someone else, and not a fiction you created, then you end up just being able to visualize what they're doing or going to do next.

At least, I do... old magician's trick.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Dana;629656I guess what I mean by paint myself in a corner is forgetting what stuff I've done before and contradicting myself or duplicating things. I want the world to make some kind of sense and to roll along on its own momentum, and if I don't keep track of different things I've introduced, dumb stuff happens. I can usually write my way out of it, but still, I'd rather not have to do that.

Yeah, I think I see what you mean, too, though I suspect I haven't experienced this as you have. Anyway - sounds like a sandbox to me.