Sandbox One Shot

[sayaijin]

So I've created a sandbox one-shot for my play group, and balanced for the daily XP budget, but...it being a sandbox means they can bypass some of the encounters. It is unlikely, but they could choose exactly the right path that will give them only the boss fight. In that case, they would have full resources, and it would be a cake walk.

How do you handle this situation? Do you normally just literally put other enemies that they can't bypass? I wanted to make this place feel more open world and less rail-roady, but there is risk.

[Theodoxus]

How obvious is the 'right path'? And can you make areas that aren't on said path a bit more juicy for the players to want to explore first?

If you have a rowdy tavern, a forlorn temple and an army barracks in the town, knowing your players, which would they least likely go explore? Pick that spot as the start for your path.

They still have agency, and they can certainly metagame and guess you don't want them to go where they think you want them to, and thus pick 'correctly', but railroaded enticements aren't horrible, especially if they lead to a better overall game experience.

[sayaijin]

How obvious is the 'right path'? And can you make areas that aren't on said path a bit more juicy for the players to want to explore first?

If you have a rowdy tavern, a forlorn temple and an army barracks in the town, knowing your players, which would they least likely go explore? Pick that spot as the start for your path.

They still have agency, and they can certainly metagame and guess you don't want them to go where they think you want them to, and thus pick 'correctly', but railroaded enticements aren't horrible, especially if they lead to a better overall game experience.

So it's a swamp. They have a guide on a boat, and there are only a few paths the boat can take. They could get off the boat and wade in the muck, but I'm going to allude to the fact that there are crocodiles.

There are technically 4 "wrong" paths with different encounters, but it is feasible that they pick exactly the right one or just get off the boat completely.

[OldTrees1]

Embrace the risk. Some paths will take more resources and others will take less. The ease / difficulty will be a result of their meaningful choices. This means a cake walk fight might feel like more of an accomplishment than the expected fight. However to do this you need multiple paths. Don't just put 1 day's worth of encounters on the map. If there is an encounter while crossing a river, maybe there are 4 possible encounters along that river. You still expect the party will face at most 1 of those encounters. However placing multiple gives the PCs a fair challenge if they try to find a place to cross the river that does not have an encounter.

I think your swamp example is good. Even if they pick a perfect path and the end fight is a cake walk, have them see they successfully avoided danger. Have the cake walk be the reward for the successful navigation.

[sayaijin]

I'm fairly certain my playgroup doesn't use this site, so I think you guys can check my work.

That being said, if anyone reading this recognizes the name Dudo Freehand, please stop reading.

So far I have five possible encounters:
1) Down one "wrong path" there are 5 Lizardfolk with javelins and drow poison blow darts (unconscious if fail Con) If they all get knocked unconscious then they get taken to Lizardfolk village. If they aren't knocked unconscious, then the fight with Lizardfolk ends with a giant crocodile eating someone in the water.
2) There is a shambling mound down another "wrong path". They can easily outrun it, but they can choose to fight it.
3) There is a seer who their guide is trying to take them to. She will give them a hint about which path to take to find the boss. She also uses tarots and offers to let people draw cards to see their future. What the players don't know is the cards are actually a modified deck of many things (whenever people are killed by the deck, she collects their stuff). The deck has a chain devil, assassin, and avatar of death in it. So it's feasible that the party could fight all three of those.
4) She will tell them the boss is north, but actually it's a misdirect. The next "wrong path" leads to a young black dragon that they can try to avoid conflict with if they find him, or they might decide to attack him anyways.
5) Finally the boss is a modified green hag who gets the spell cloud kill 1x/day along with ~15 zombies. She will use the zombies to surround them and then use cloud kill. They need to break her concentration or escape the zombies before cloud kill gets them. Once she's no longer concentrating on that, she will use her superior stealth and hit-and-run.

I expect to have 5 level 6 PCs, but I can throw in a sidekick.

[Theodoxus]

Were the players given any clues before encountering the swamp? You could easily color-code each path: 1) Brown, 2) Yellow, 3) Red. 4) Black and 5) Green. Could give a riddle using the colors as clues; either being tricksey - "Red grants weal or woe, beware!" or truthful "Black leads to A Certainty In Death". Then have subtle clues at the start of each path. A patch of dandelions; a small mound of brown mud; the bloody red remains of a swamp critter; 3 black mushrooms; a patch of verdant grass that seems slightly out of place.

Again, you know your players and should be relatively easy to determine what kind of clues will entice them down the wrong paths...

[sayaijin]

Were the players given any clues before encountering the swamp? You could easily color-code each path: 1) Brown, 2) Yellow, 3) Red. 4) Black and 5) Green. Could give a riddle using the colors as clues; either being tricksey - "Red grants weal or woe, beware!" or truthful "Black leads to A Certainty In Death". Then have subtle clues at the start of each path. A patch of dandelions; a small mound of brown mud; the bloody red remains of a swamp critter; 3 black mushrooms; a patch of verdant grass that seems slightly out of place.

Again, you know your players and should be relatively easy to determine what kind of clues will entice them down the wrong paths...

This is actually just a one-shot for when the whole group can't get together. We've had a big campaign going for about a year and a half, and the times when the whole group couldn't make it the forever DM had one-shots in the same world. He's asked someone else to prepare a one-shot for the next time someone can't make it...so that's what I've done.

The prompt they're given basically boils down to a nearby city wants them to go into swamp and kill evil thing, and they have a guide who has only seen the seer once before when she granted him a wish (he drew the wish card). He doesn't remember the swamp though, so he's mostly going to take them whichever way they think is right.

I'm thinking about throwing in a will-o'-wisp to guide them to the seer. Maybe he remembers seeing an orb of light.

[OldTrees1]

I'm fairly certain my playgroup doesn't use this site, so I think you guys can check my work.

That sounds rather linear rather than a sandbox. You seem to have a river with 3 fake forks. You placed 3 encounters in these short legs of these fake forks to allow the players the chance to skip them. However their overall route is very linear.

Linear branching would be more like a river delta where initially choices lead to different options in later choices. Imagine they are on a grid and can choose "Up 1" or "Right 1" at each obstacle. If they go Up, Up, Right they will face a different choice than if they went Up, Right, Right. However if they go Up, Up, Right, Right or Up, Right, Right, Up they will end up at the same location.

Here is an example where they will have 2-4 encounters by a linear branching path.


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X
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If you want it to be a sandbox, then use the same map but anticipate the PCs doing some diagonal moves (portage).

[sayaijin]

So if they stay on the raft then it's not much of a sandbox. They have the option to get off the raft and wade into the ~2ft deep muck. More that I think about it, I think I'll make the muck difficult terrain unless they have a swim speed. If they go in the muck then they can go any which way they want, and I should put some random roaming creatures in the muck.

I think I'll add a swarm of stirges, a giant constrictor snake, a swarm of quippers, and a giant spider (give it water walk and refluff it as a water strider). I'll just have them be randomly placed throughout the swamp.

Any other fun swamp creatures?

[Sorinth]

Since the PCs have no idea which is the right path they are just guessing, so it boils down to a bunch of random encounters one of which is the boss fight. Which doesn't sound very sandboxy to me.

The false flag from the seer shouldn't be strictly wrong, for example she tells them the hag is to the North, but since all the paths are winding if they take the North path from the village it starts to wind to the West and leads to say the Dragon. The East path splits with one path that winds to the North and so is the correct path to actually end up North of the village where the hag resides. But they could also take the North path and when it starts winding West dump the boat and travel by foot North to reach the hag.

The lizardfolk seem like they would get slaughtered if it came to a fight so I would not start it out as a fight. Make it a social skill challenge which if successful leads to them being brought back to the village and the chief can provide info on where to find the Hag. Someone in the village should hint that the lizardfolk work with the Hag but in reality that's because they saw some of the are lizardfolk zombies and didn't realize they were zombies. In reality the Hag preys on both groups.

The dragon should also know the location of the hag, but getting that information from it should seem dangerous. So again speaking to someone in town should hint at there being a connection between the hag and the dragon. Maybe they had made a deal which is why the Hag is modified since she got some of the dragon's power in return for a specific piece of treasure the dragon coveted (And maybe it was cursed to make the dragon covet it beyond reason). The dragon may or may not want the hag dead but probably doesn't want to leave it's lair to do it themselves.

At least this way when they get to town they'll have several leads to follow, and there isn't really a "wrong" path since each path can provide some useful information.


In terms of what happens if they take the right path right away, I would simply throw in an encounter or two along the way. The shambling mound for example, instead of being on the wrong path it could be an encounter along the right path, or maybe a giant crocodile attack. But just keep them in your backpocket based on session time.

[sayaijin]

The lizardfolk seem like they would get slaughtered if it came to a fight so I would not start it out as a fight. Make it a social skill challenge which if successful leads to them being brought back to the village and the chief can provide info on where to find the Hag. Someone in the village should hint that the lizardfolk work with the Hag but in reality that's because they saw some of the are lizardfolk zombies and didn't realize they were zombies. In reality the Hag preys on both groups.


Lots of great ideas in this one. So I hadn't planned to give the Lizardfolk the common language, and I was kinda just going for a coin flip of whether or not one of the characters picks draconic as a language. Maybe I should make it social first. Since the water in the swamp is dark, what if I give them the ability to hide as a bonus action? Then the five of them would be quite annoying if not challenging. Also, they're only using javelins if they get in the water, they'll stick with poison darts (only 1 dmg, but chance to knock unconscious).

[Sorinth]

Lots of great ideas in this one. So I hadn't planned to give the Lizardfolk the common language, and I was kinda just going for a coin flip of whether or not one of the characters picks draconic as a language. Maybe I should make it social first. Since the water in the swamp is dark, what if I give them the ability to hide as a bonus action? Then the five of them would be quite annoying if not challenging. Also, they're only using javelins if they get in the water, they'll stick with poison darts (only 1 dmg, but chance to knock unconscious).

The main problem with hide is that most PCs can just ready an action and so it doesn't do a whole lot unless there's something to occupy their attention. If you wanted to beef them up consider giving them proficiency in athletics then have them grapple and or use Weighted Nets to drag people under water. It's not actually super dangerous since PCs can hold their breath a large number of rounds but RP wise it makes the combat fun, and yeah make the water murky so that anyone under water is out of sight.

One option for the whole language thing is have the hunting party know a few words, so unless the PCs speak Draconic, or use something like Tongues or Telepathy then they have disadvantage on any Persuasion checks and/or it becomes a straight Charisma check instead of a Persuasion check. But the chief is fluent enough to actually provide useful info.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

I'd think about some non-combat challenge(s) that would at least use some resources if they avoid the combat. Is there a way to include something that would fit under the social/ exploration pillars?
Also, maybe the easier paths are longer and give your boss more time to prepare/ gather resources to make the main fight more deadly.

[sayaijin]

The main problem with hide is that most PCs can just ready an action and so it doesn't do a whole lot unless there's something to occupy their attention. If you wanted to beef them up consider giving them proficiency in athletics then have them grapple and or use Weighted Nets to drag people under water. It's not actually super dangerous since PCs can hold their breath a large number of rounds but RP wise it makes the combat fun, and yeah make the water murky so that anyone under water is out of sight.

One option for the whole language thing is have the hunting party know a few words, so unless the PCs speak Draconic, or use something like Tongues or Telepathy then they have disadvantage on any Persuasion checks and/or it becomes a straight Charisma check instead of a Persuasion check. But the chief is fluent enough to actually provide useful info.

Love the nets and grapple ideas. As for hiding, it would give the Lizardfolk advantage on attacks, and really they just want to incapacitate with their blow darts. It also gives the multi-attack characters a nerf because they can only use reaction attacks. Also I really enjoy the idea of giving them a few common words and the chief fluency.



I'd think about some non-combat challenge(s) that would at least use some resources if they avoid the combat. Is there a way to include something that would fit under the social/ exploration pillars?
Also, maybe the easier paths are longer and give your boss more time to prepare/ gather resources to make the main fight more deadly.

Other than social with the Lizardfolk and seer, there's not a lot else in the way of social. I'm open to exploration challenges. What kind do you think would fit in a swamp? I guess I could put traps in the swamp and/or purposefully have one of the enemies destroy the raft so they have to go on foot. I'm definitely open to social/exploration challenges that are thematic.

[Sorinth]

In terms of exploration, one thing to consider is having disease brought by insects be a constant threat. If say for every 4hrs outside of the village every PC has to make a DC 8 Con saving throw or come down with a disease (Village burns some form of incense to help keep the insects away). The risk of a disease especially if it isn't immediately curable via Lesser Restoration/Lay on Hands (Or have a variant rest rules are used so those abilities aren't quickly refreshed) then the players have an incentive to travel fast which brings it's own set of dangers. You can also have regular skill checks where failure creates some sort of setback like the boat springs a leak, or waste an hour getting lost, etc...

[sayaijin]

So I can definitely mess with the boat. I like the disease idea. I think I'll have the guide take a tiki torch thing that keeps bugs away, and that gives them incentive to protect the boat. The stirges and striders I've added are perfect candidates for carrying the disease.

My playgroup likes to track sanity as an ability score, so I'll just have the disease hit their sanity scores.

[Sorinth]

So I can definitely mess with the boat. I like the disease idea. I think I'll have the guide take a tiki torch thing that keeps bugs away, and that gives them incentive to protect the boat. The stirges and striders I've added are perfect candidates for carrying the disease.

My playgroup likes to track sanity as an ability score, so I'll just have the disease hit their sanity scores.

For bringing the torch burning incense, I'd probably grant full protection if stationary (ie camping at night), advantage if on the boat, and a straight roll if travelling by foot. And of course if the boat capsizes they risk losing their supply of insect repellent.