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A poll on preferred "medium" / regional sandbox size...

Any more prep than what you need for session #1 is overkill.

Unless you enjoy writing prep, in which case the answer is "prep all you want."

It's not really the size of the map, it's the density. If there are villages and dungeons and encounters every 1 mile, then it doesn't need to be big. If they're 100 miles apart then it does.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;926988It's not really the size of the map, it's the density. If there are villages and dungeons and encounters every 1 mile, then it doesn't need to be big. If they're 100 miles apart then it does.

Yeah I'm in the middle of writing a "sandbox setting" for others to use, and I've purposely left much as "open space" for the GM to drop whatever they like in.

I suppose I am thinking more in terms of variety of geography; plains/mountains/forests/jungles/deserts/water ways/coast, and so on, as that somewhat set, given there is a map (although, I suppose, not really, the map can always be inaccurate or only show major landmarks, etc).

But I certainly take your point, density is important.

My gut feeling is it will be more useful to err on the large side, then if a table doesnt want to use all of it, they can concentrate on a portion instead.

Quote from: Psikerlord;926989But I certainly take your point, density is important.

My gut feeling is it will be more useful to err on the large side, then if a table doesnt want to use all of it, they can concentrate on a portion instead.

These two consecutive sentences seem inconsistent.

If you err on the larger side, for a given product size you're inescapably going to be lower density.

To me the proper scope depends on the feeling you want to convey or the kind of game you want to run. A 30x50 sandbox meant for dense picaresque adventures can hold a couple of towns, a few castles, and a lot of (hexcrawlable) adventure seeds. A 200x200 sandbox gives me scope for multiple small nations with their own internal power structures, enough distance that news doesn't travel reliably, multiple distinct religious power structures, a few explicit major adventures, and lots of space to be filled in during play. Either can be summarized in about 4 pages of overview - but that lets me know at least how many hamlets or small villages are in each 6-mile hex for the dense map, with possibly a name or a single sentence about each or a paragraph about whichever one is expected to have some significance, but nothing smaller than the largest villages or small towns is documented for the broader map.

Tom

Quote from: Psikerlord;926989I suppose I am thinking more in terms of variety of geography; plains/mountains/forests/jungles/deserts/water ways/coast, and so on, as that somewhat set, given there is a map (although, I suppose, not really, the map can always be inaccurate or only show major landmarks, etc).

There are actually examples where all that would fit on a 100 x 100 mile map, for example parts of Peru or Kenya - from a desert to high mountains, and jungle or forest just over the other side. But the travel time makes this rather dense terrain still take a while to get through, much much longer than 100 miles of plains.

You can also think small. If you go to some old village in many places in the world, people will be able to tell you of old stories about lots of places within a day's walk. There's the rock that looks like a giant's head, the cavern that looks like a dragon's mouth, the place in the stream where it curves back on itself and runs red, and so on. In the real world there's not much behind these stories, in a fantasy world there could be.

Quote from: The Butcher;926982Any more prep than what you need for session #1 is overkill.

Reading An Echo, Resounding has changed my mind a bit on this classic piece of wisdom, at least when it comes to D&D. In it, Sine Nomine makes the point that it feels more natural and satisfying for the PCs to see in advance more than one larger regional issue and antagonist they will likely be confronting at higher levels. I especially like his formulation of a rogue's gallery of stronger foes that the GM foreshadows through agents and low level plots in anticipation of dominion level play (when/if the players become lords).

I think I'll make that extra effort next time.

I normally start off with a town/village and the surrounding area, perhaps up to a few days ride. Then, I might expand to a few days ride from where they have been. Anything more than that is overkill at the start, unless you are a fan of "Here's a map, where do you want to go".

Consider how much of interest there is in the British Isles. That is plenty big enough for a sandbox, and is not all that large. Even narrowing it down to just Scotland is a big area when you are travelling by foot or horse.

I am not terribly picky here, but if we are talking something the size of say a sheet of graph or hex paper, then I tend to prefer maps that have each square/hex at 4-6 miles when I am running adventures (so whatever that comes to). Then I like to supplement that with more focused area maps for important places (where the scale can really run the gamut).

I think what is more important to me is that the balance of content and empty space be right. For me, I agree with the OP about wanting some blank areas that i can fill in. I like being able to imagine what is in some of those in between areas. On my home maps that seems to translate to a key location every 5 or so hexes (depending on terrain that is roughly a day travel in the system I use). Depends on the region of the map of course. Frontier areas might have more wilderness in between key locations.