Yora
2014-07-16, 09:02 AM
Sandboxes are often treated as a way of running a game. But really you are not playing sandbox, you are playing in a sandbox. I don't think that's the same thing.
If you got a group of randomly rolled characters who just want to go into dungeons and make XP and loot to upgrade their characters, and go to whatever dungeon is nearest, you don't need a sandbox.
In a game where the PCs take side in a complex political conflict and want to plot and spy against their rivals, you don't have any use for generic dungeons and villages the players can visit as they please.
However, when the campaign is about stopping an invading army of monsters by finding the enemy generals and setting traps for them or forming an alliance of local groups, a sandbox setting would be very useful, even though there is a predetermined goal and secondary objectives the PCs have to complete.
Sandbox alone is not a campaign concept, I see it more like a tool that is useful to put certain concepts into action.
What campaign concepts would you say benefit the most from having a sandbox setting ready, and in what cases is it unnecessary or even unhelpful?
If you got a group of randomly rolled characters who just want to go into dungeons and make XP and loot to upgrade their characters, and go to whatever dungeon is nearest, you don't need a sandbox.
In a game where the PCs take side in a complex political conflict and want to plot and spy against their rivals, you don't have any use for generic dungeons and villages the players can visit as they please.
However, when the campaign is about stopping an invading army of monsters by finding the enemy generals and setting traps for them or forming an alliance of local groups, a sandbox setting would be very useful, even though there is a predetermined goal and secondary objectives the PCs have to complete.
Sandbox alone is not a campaign concept, I see it more like a tool that is useful to put certain concepts into action.
What campaign concepts would you say benefit the most from having a sandbox setting ready, and in what cases is it unnecessary or even unhelpful?