I have run linear story driven adventures that my players tried to run away from in the interest of "not being rail-roaded". But I have found that a) because I was not ready for this reaction, I had nothing to give to them to do outside the adventure I prepared, and b) they themselves didn't have a clue of what they wanted to do free of my plot. Even when I sat with them and asked them what motivates their characters, what's in your backgrounds that I might mine for ideas to motivate your characters (this is pre 5th edition, with Ideals Bonds and Flaws of course). Often the players made 1 dimensional characters they wouldn't flesh out until they played, even when I tried to encourage them to do so. Recently I started running The Vault of Larin Karr by Necromancer Games. It starts with the PC's being hired to clear a Keep of hobgoblins. They become aware of a rumor of a great drow thief named Larin Karr who gathered a great treasure and buried somewhere in the Underdark that lay under the town and the valley area they are exploring. And in exploring the valley, there are location specific encounters that lead to other encounters and so on. For instance they stumble on a plot to assassinate the lord of the valley by his uncle, when they defeat a Gnoll warrior who has been terrifying local farmers. They started looking for the vault, and then stopped because they found the minor plot to be more interesting.
@@josephmckeon8702 Vault of Larin Karr is a truly fantastic book! Deserves to be much better known than it is! I ran a short sandbox that more or less added Rappan Athuk and Tomb of Abysthor (two megadungeons from Necromancer Games) to the Vault of Larin Karr setting.
I'm currently prepping a very ambitious Desert Hexbox for post-pandemic. It's tough work, especially for a new DM. Your content, both the series of articles in the blog and this video, have been a great help. Thanks!
I wouldn't just drop the players into a sandbox; they need to get their bearings. To that end, I create introductory scenarios designed to showcase the world and reveal plot-hooks and situations. These scenarios are tied in with character creation. For example, in my current campaign world, if the players wanted 'heroic', one option is I tell them that they are all part of the High King's retinue of advisors, guards and officials. They are woken in the night and must prepare quickly to ride out. They can create any characters that are consistent with this starting point - and will need to ask about the world to know what the options are. The introduction should last one session, with an option to continue, and should give everyone a feel for what's out there.
This is the best up and coming TTRPG channel on RUclips right now. Unlike the common “top 10 reasons your a bad dm” this material is highly gameable. Thank you for making this.
So I tried introducing my current group to an OSR sandbox campaign since the last campaign we played was more plot driven (Enemy in the Shadows) but the pcs just sorta ended up turning it into a sandbox. The pcs have been oblivious to nearly every hook. Local noble asked the pcs to see why his miners are on strike, tavern owner ask the party about hunting an animal for them, group of soldiers warning about a dudgeon in the nearby woods, the general store owner is a person named Hugh Mann and they only speak in monotone and nobody can remember when they opened the store, etc. They kept just wandering around not knowing what to do. I literally asked them what they wanted to do and they didn't know so I told them to check out the mine.
The default actions and the multiple opposing factions are the best points here. If the players have a well-understood default activity, then they never have to ask the GM what they should do: barring any more pressing undertaking, they will likely fall back on the default. It doesn't really matter what the default action is, so long as it makes for a good hook-delivery system. They could be delving into Undermountain, hitting up the local job board for fresh, setting out into the wilderness to hunt, checking with their contacts for leads in their case, setting sail for the next port on the map... the possibilities for what constitutes a good default action are virtually limitless. Multiple opposed factions are a potentially inexhaustible engine of hooks to hang a campaign. They could be trade guilds, noble houses, rival gangs, corporations, actual armies, religious cults, pirate bands, whatever fits your setting. So long as the party can be aligned with one faction, the factions can take actions against each other, and they have some way to distinguish themselves from one another, then you can easily build a system that generates hooks for the players forever. The party does a favor for the Red Wings, but doing so pisses off the Blue Scales, so they retaliate, which prompts your patrons to ally with the Black Talons, who need a some Macguffin from the White Tails, who are willing to look past this transgression in exchange for helping them against the hated Yellow Fangs... the consequences of the previous events can so effortlessly and effectively lead into the next event that the campaign can almost right itself, given the proper setup.
This is exactly the magic that makes Blades in the Dark such a good game for playing a sandbox. In session 0 it gives you default actions (depending on the type of band the players want to play), as well as opposing factions some of which are allied with the PCs and others are rivals. And all of this with no prep at all and giving complete freedom to the players about what they want to play!
Yup this is how I do it. I dangle out several hooks, bandits, nearby baddies, etc...then if they don't decide on anything, they are attacked, kidnapped, chased, wanted, etc...I made sure they pissed off a local necromancer in the first session, so she's around to come cause trouble as needed.
I've been running sandbox campaigns for 30+ years. Once the players interact with it, it takes on a life, and direction, all its own, with the PC's directing it -- usually without realizing it, of course. This is pure gold, for DM's new to sandboxing their games. Your creativity is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it becomes, and the better you get with wielding it in your games. My players have told me that I've ruined them for other DM's -- who do not play sandbox games. They find it hard to play in other DM's games as they are not as organic as mine. It makes for amazingly fun and memorable games. It also keeps your players *hungry* for your next session. This is pure gold advice. Cheers!
Wow this video actually red pilled me on how exactly sandbox campaigns work. I knew you wanted to present situations to the players, and have consequences for how the players deal with those situations. But I have never heard it put so succinctly how these consequences will then tie into other situations. And how you have situations that here he calls sandbox toolkits that have some impact on the world creating situations hooks leading to themselves. Time for me to read the prepping situations articles you have linked on your website. Hopefully this will give me a solid enough foundation of knowledge to that I can employ this technique in my own game.
The only time I've run a true sandbox, I peppered each location with clues about other locations--bits of regional lore, tales of missing treasures, maps of places yet undiscovered, and various correspondence between factions in different locations. So there was a subtext of plots going on, but they could follow whatever struck their muse. Since I was running the game in Roll20, I had a single large hex map I made in Hexographer with all the sites of interest on the GM layer. I prepped a number of 20x30 site maps of locations with monsters, traps, and treasure and left them waiting to be discovered. Whenever they heard a bit of lore, found a map, or asked around about places, I just moved the site marker from the GM layer to the map layer. Often, just showing a new area was enough for the party to be interested in what was going on there. I kept the plot threads light, but consistent. Since it was done in a sort of watered-down West Marches style, I didn't want to get too complex. And since most of the players were beer-and-pretzels gamers, it was just enough to keep their attention without bogging them down with details.
Your articles about sandboxes have inspired me to start my own campaign in this style. We're now 3 months in, and my players are loving it. What I did was having a "main plot" that happens independent of the players (so they can even miss some crucial content, or even better, dealing with the consequences of it), and on top of that a "faction system" that provides them with quests. Those quests have a "time limit", that I track using an "event calendar", so that they can't simply take every quest. The other element that I'm using is a "radial regional map", where as further from their homebase they are, thing get progressively more dangerous. So they are spending their first levels exploring a "safe" region (without me telling them to - a hard encounter at the border was more than enough for them to realize that), and after that the faction quests can take them in every direction - or they can pursue their own goals, like they're doing now! The last thing I had to do was coming up with a better system for regional travel. I've used your articles as a stepping stone, but I've changed the travel day's division to quarters, and I've assigned an "encounter dice" to each region. For exemple, the plains they're exploring have a d10 danger dice, so when they decide to travel, I make them roll their navigation to not veer, and roll 4d10 (one for each quarter). On a result of 1, they have a random encounter. Safe or barren areas have a d12 (or even a d20) encounter, die, while dangerous places can have a d8 or d6. If they travel by night, I usually increase the danger (lowering the dice) by one category. So that's how your articles made an impact on me. I'm having the most fun GMing in ages, and I'm sending that my players are really happy about it too. So thanks! Keep being awesome!
Questions for a future Sandbox (hexcrawl, specifically) video: How do you strike the balance between having the wilderness feel dangerous and full, vs players getting exhausted of being lost and slowed by obstacles in their path? For players that really enjoy dungeons, how can you make the wilderness as exciting as a dungeon, when the PCs are wandering (lost) through it instead of exploring set rooms and clear(ish) paths? On hexcrawls specifically, how sparse or packed should a hexmap be? How many locations should there be to find before the players should be "encouraged" to move on to new areas?
I pretty much run sandbox games I think. I provide some issues or a situation and the players decided what they want to do, or what they want to ignore. The next game is often predicated on what the players want to do next. This has been my problem with running written adventures. In the span of a session or two we are 'off the rails' and headed off into our own sunset. Great video, thank you.
For a while I was running a 5-room-dungeon-a-week campaign for players with a very limited time to play. The way I gave them agency on the "mission" was to give them a weekly poll, picking which "job" they'd be taking: a bounty, a treasure hunt, an escort mission, and so forth. But whatever job they took would be in that week's dungeon, which would be tweaked to fit the job. Not a full sandbox, but a way to prevent the feeling of a railroad in a campaign that didn't have the time for a more leisurely exploration of the world's possibilities.
That actually sounds like a really chill and fun campaign to play in. I might actually steal this idea for my friends (Also takes a little bit of a burden off the GM it seems to me, no need to spend a lot of time connecting the adventure-of-the-week plot-wise to anything before it, connect PC backstory, etc. unless you feel like it)
I have your rules for sandboxes and hexcrawls from you blog saved in like four different places, so I can always get to it easily. Some of the best advice ever, everyone go read it.
I've been in maybe one game I would have considered a sandbox, but not at length. I've actually suggested me running a sandbox game, though in RIFTS. The concept there was to allow some very overpowered characters and once they start taking actions there is potentially for the world to react too them. Depending on where they go and what they do could have a myriad of consequences from having bounties set by the Splugorth to the Coalition States trying to bombard them with artillery. Sadly never got a group together to run that idea. Currently though I am slowly putting together a D&D campaign which could act as a psuedo-sandbox with the players choosing their general direction with all sorts of plot hooks hanging around them and a plot occurring in the back whether they choose to take part in it or not.
This is GM-ing gold. I wish more adventure modules were packaged as situations and not plots/stories. I bet a lot of people will pay good money for said "Campaign Scenario" books
Great video Justin! I'd certainly be interested in a further one on setting up a sandbox campaign or a hexcrawl campaign. What smart prep should a DM do in filling in the world with interesting locations and what kind of variety is useful, without making the task overly daunting.
I would still love to see a video showing your hexcrawl sequence of play for overland/wilderness travel. I am fixing to write my own soon, but would be interested to see yours in action. Note: This video is your second most popular video of all time. Clearly there is more demand for additional sandbox content.
As a DM, I've had struggles mentioned with running sandboxes. It would burn me out from wanting to run games because it felt like pulling teeth just to get my players to do anything. Instead, I started to run modules (which there isn't nothing wrong with it), but I don't always like the elements that some of them bring. The monster selection - for example - would not be a monster that I would run. Some of the monsters I don't even enjoy running, so I substitute them for a monster that I do enjoy running. I tend to tweak every module to fit better to my style - adding my own NPCs while removing module NPCs.
Really good advice to erase some wrong ideas people have about sandbox campaigns. I've been following and reading your blog for some years now, but it's still nice to see the content in video format (:
Great video. One thing that I've learned from running sandboxes is the GM really has to have his or antenna up for when the players move the campaign in a new direction. Sometimes it is not easy to spot that the players beginning a pattern of behavior that opens up the campaign to something that will fuel countless sessions and it helps to be aware so you can be responsive to it (instead of say dismissing it as a delay or brief excursion before getting back to the task they had at hand)
To shill just a little bit, make sure to check out So You Want To Be a Game Master? when it comes out in October. It'll show you how to think it without overthinking it.
Hi, i have been playing a hexcrawl campaing (inspired by your articles and other materials) and it is soooooo much fun, that never want to play another way D&D. Thanks!
Well, I didn't expect to see you today. I have read your sandbox / hexcrawl articles and I appreciate them. I am a gamer from the 70s, and the sandbox/hexcrawl (as opposed to the 'modern' plotted story) is the way to play [in my opinion]. Freedom vs railroad. I would love to see a video showing your hexcrawl sequence of play for overland/wilderness travel. I am fixing to write my own soon, but would be interested to see yours in action.
I've just discovered your work, Justine, and back cataloguing most of it. This is absolutely brilliant stuff - a succinct explanation of some powerful DMing tools. The beauty is that these tools can be applied in so many different ways, once the concepts are properly understood in a general sense - a universal truth embedded in the progression of any discipline one chooses to dedicate themselves to.
I just love your prep situations advice! It has been so effective in allowing me to prep 3-5 sessions of play in 5 minutes that nobody on the dnd 5e reddit even believes that this level of efficient prep is possible--and it's so much fun to run!
I think I finally understand it. I've seen so many videos shaming me for not running a sandbox, that also don't really explain how to run a sandbox, that I came to the conclussion that my players just want a linear campaign. Now, I'm still not sure that a linear campaign isn't what they want, but I might be willing to give a sandbox game another try in the future. To be fair, I do try to prep situations rather than plots, but my games are more like beaded strings of situations.
I'm really glad the video helped you! Absolutely nothing wrong with a linear or episodic campaign. It can be a perfectly natural structure for all kinds of situations. (Much moreso, IME, than linear scenarios, although there are many situations for those, too.) If you want to dip your toes in a bit with non-linear campaign structures, though, try a 5x5 Campaign as described here: thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37903/roleplaying-games/5-node-mystery Your players, too, will get a taste for thinking in terms of, "What do we want to do next?" rather than, "What are we being told to do next?" It gets easier to build complexity from there, and possibly even getting your players to start proactively setting their own goals instead of just selecting from a menu of options.
@@TheAlexandrian I'm definitely going to give the 5x5 structure a try! Thank you for such a thoughtful reply! I didn't expect that at all, let alone on a three year old video! Just one reason this is the best GM advice channel on youtube. I've been watching D&D videos for a decade, but I just found your channel last week! Your videos are always organized, concise, and highly actionable
Getting ready to run my first ever true sandbox game. Actually it will be many firsts. My first sandbox, my first open table, my first urban crawl, and my first campaign in Cyberpunk Red. I may have bitten off more than I can chew..... Nah, it'll be fine.
@@brianstevens5547 really well so far. We have 15 or so players, play a couple times a week, and have had a blast. Still working on fleshing out the Urbancrawl elements and working to get them integrated but it is going swimmingly.
@@madbishop5566 that's awesome! I'm hoping to run an open table starting this summer once the lgs is running normally again. I can't run online it's to much work lol
Just wanted to say that your videos are interesting, tightly structured, and really helpful! I've also just found my way to your blog, and it's a great resource too.
Hey Mr. Alexander, I'd love to see a discussion on game structures useful in a sandbox campaign (although you might first have to do a video on game structures). Hexcrawls, pointcrawls, and running factions would all be useful structures to see. Also, can you do a video on how you personally keep track of scenario hooks or just things the players have put into play? For example, my players have accidentally started a countdown clock to release the Lich King. How would you keep track of that?
Great stuff! I find that a wide menu of scenario hooks is especially clutch when it comes to making a sandbox. If there's only a single main quest, the PCs don't really feel like they're in a sandbox.
My biggest issue while learning to run sandboxes is deciding what to have prepared, and what to do if the players go off in an unexpected direction/goal. Tools provided in games like Beyond the Wall and Forbidden Lands help, but it'd be nice to hear some thoughts on the matter, and maybe touch on different genres. I've found running a sci-fi sandbox a lot more challenging for instance
Justin, I want to say how much I'm loving these videos. I subscribed to your patreon a couple of months ago in preparation for running the dragon heist remix and it's dominated my thoughts ever since. In answer to your question, my recent experience of it was started Ch2 from dragon heist. I had done what you suggested. Hooks are all over the place. Every resident in Trollskull Alley has a potential hook for a side quest. My mistake was timing. I brought the players to the alley in the second half of a session after a boss fight. At 21:30 my players had no energy to RP and take an interest in the residents lives or problems. They were tired and had a task in mind (fixing up the manor) and had little interest in anything else. So I guess the tip id suggest that might help other DMs is timing. Perhaps that's something you could develop in a future video? Timing sessions to get the best from players? I imagine sandbox decision making works best in the first half of a session (or even between sessions maybe when doing downtime) when the players are awake, and big fights are better later on. I've also made the mistake of introducing a big puzzle as a culmination of the session when the players don't have the mental energy to engage with it. On a side note, I was surprised to see you on these videos. I had a mental image of you from your patreon picture. Who is that clean cut bare chinned guy in your patreon profile?
I'd love an explanation/demonstration of some of the specific things you do to prep NPCs and any other sort of prep that you find especially important in a sandbox campaign. Thanks again for all your work!
Justin, I've been reading your content for years. I'm happy to see you approach a wider audience by converting material into RUclips videos. Keep up the great work!
This video is so densely packed with ideas I had to watch it a few times. My imagination kept going off to work from the ideas presented I missed the next idea entirely. I think you could make these videos nearly twice as long giving more time to each concept. Great content. Keep it coming!
My problem has been encountering players who literally say they want a single, obvious, linear plot to follow. Anything else makes them feel like they're not "advancing" enough and are just wasting their time with "side quests".
Great video. How do you manage progress "off camera"? For example. When the PCs hear about a plague that's broken out in a village to the north, but don't act on it for a while? Things should have changed since the rumor first surfaced. Do you have a mechanism for updating the story hooks that you've left lying around?
Look up the clocks mechanic from Apocalypse World for this. Works great. It's basically just a progress bar for stuff that happens off-camera, with pre-written ideas for what the PCs might see as evidence that stuff is happening that they've haven't dealt with yet. So if there's a plague up north, the first thing that might happen is that goods from up north start getting scarce. The price of (I dunno, ice?) goes up across the country. There are rumors that something is up to the north - if you've got a rumor table you maintain for your game, add a few entries to it about something happening up north. If the party chooses to go on a different adventure instead of investigating, tick another box on the Plague Up North clock. Now there are refugees arriving from the north, and some of them are sick. Roads to the north have bandits on them. If they keep doing other stuff instead of investigating the plague, keep advancing that clock until it's full, and then it's gotten to the point that they can't ignore it - the plague is all across the country where they are and they can't escape it. Ideally, though, there should come a point at which they think "Oh, damn, this is something we have to handle NOW before it really bites us in the butt."
@@SteelDraco Or on the other end of the spectrum, you can also have *other parties* resolve scenario hooks the players drop. For example, take the "bandit king operating out of the Neo-Norscan temple" hook Justin outlined above. You could decide that if the party declines that particular hook three times (by pursuing other quests), then when they return from their third quest they find out that another party of adventurers has gone to the temple, killed the bandit king, captured the ancient talisman, and returned it to House Nebuzo for the reward. If you do this sort of thing often enough that the party knows it's an option, it adds a real element of choice to the party deciding what scenario they wish to pursue next, because they know that any hook they turn down might disappear before they get another chance at it.
What might also be fun is a video on how you handle cursed items. Do they just "stick" to the PCs the way that the 5e DMG suggests, or do you do something else? Also, I love how "system-neutral" your advice has been so far; it's been very helpful for me!
I recently dove in up to my neck in your website and it has been incredibly incredibly useful, thank you so much for putting your thoughts to the page and video! I currently have a sandbox game on going and currently a couple hooks are in play and running smoothly but if my players happen to miss or deign not to pick up incoming hooks for future scenarios how would you suggest mechanically implementing a rumour system? Roll 1dx for a random rumour/hook from a table or add some kind of skill check to quantify how much detail/how many hooks they receive? Cheers for your time and effort :)
Any thoughts on how a campaign that mixes Sandbox play and West Marches style play might look? Any special considerations for the fusion of two elements a DM might have to look out for?
Yes, they are similar in theory, but in my opinion might have some differences in practice. Namely, the need to only play the game (no scheduled game night) when players have an idea might have an adverse effect on consequences. I mainly asked to see if there were any serious conflicts between these two similar styles. I can’t see any potential issues arising from their fusion, and was wondering if others could.
Great content as always. :) I'd like to hear what do you think about incorporating random creations into the sandbox games - random rumors, encounters, locations. Is it any good in your opinion or is it better to prepare everything beforehand?
I agree with Anthony: Procedurally generated content is nigh essential, IMO. Properly designed content generators in a hexcrawl, for example, can flesh out your hex key every time the PCs go exploring. Constantly adding depth can happen without the generators, but it's really nice to have the prompts and also to have it build directly into your procedures.
The ideal seems to be a mix of curated and procedural. Eg when running 5e hexcrawling in the Wilderlands setting I use the pre-made location material along with results from the Xanathar's encounter tables.
At a certain point, this is basically the same as a group of friends deciding where to go eat or what to do for the night, which is to say that it is ultimately their responsibility to figure it out. That said, there are some glaringly obvious things you can avoid by talking through character ideas before play. At the start of my current family game, my brother's idea was to have a farmer who the other characters would have to convince to go on every adventure, but I know that's more annoying than fun, so I talked him out of it.
Sandbox soap opera, have pre written PC on index cards to draw players from. Soap opera episodes only last between 20 to 30 mins from their main campaign PC. Concepts of play are .. a.) 1st to 3rd-level rogues or rogue1/fighter1 or Harry Potter wizard3/rogue1 teenagers hunting down and catching vermin such as clearing out large spiders out from under the mill or barn lofts. b.) Village or town guards dealing with petty arguments or canning riff raff or drunk adventure. " fighter2/rogue3 " c.) Fishermen and dock worker. A few short .. role .. playing mundane normal everyday things. Have the players RPG their campaign run of the mill NPCs, so they have a connection to their setting. Then drop their NPC into a Lovecraft horror story ... 2.) Dealing with DM style burn out, wanting something different and between mixing AD&D2ndE mechanic into D&D3e and Star Wars, and bored with Whitewolf/World of Darkness vampire, they still want a D&D3e game but they are tired of hack & slash dungeon crawl, ghost stories, horror stories, politics and high adventure. So they were willing to try another over the top games I run as long it was not one of my horror games where they start with four PC that get killed off in a slasher horror game. And I had PC cards written up ready to play already. I started off with telling them, " All of you are in a tavern, now pull a card." Player pulls a card, " .. What ! .. I'm the Bar Tender ?!" So everyone at the shop for the next three hours played old fashion bar games, they had random gossip rumor lists they could bull zhit as to what is going on in their county. Which spin off into an urban campaign of its own that ran for a year. End result when there where two gaming groups taking place within the same setting or not, we had a player go and state, " I want to PC the bar tender ! " 3.) Movie, " A Knight's Tale." it is close to twenty years old and it is about a small group of peasants forging papers so their young lead can pose as a noble in the jousting circuit just to get something to eat then later on for fame and love. Yeah we rip that off ... if there was six or more players in the shop the DM runs as a ref story plot driver and have player vs player drama action. So we take turns playing the .. rival .. till we find the right player that can set the mood for the character NPC. At the start of one game where we can write up a 12th-level single or multi class character. Or a 10th-level multiclass character with 10,000xp/gp self made magic items. DM asked what I wanted to play, I said a shape shifting monster and both of they said .. no. But all the players got a good laugh when the DM let me play a wizard8/rogue2 PC with Polymorph Self and Dimensional Door. After my PC screwed over the village and robed the other PCs, .. I turn my PC into a .. Rakshasa .. and vanished. Throwing out a red herring so the others can waste their time trying to Summon and Iron Flash my PC thinking he was a Outsider. So as pay back the shop's owner and DM had me Rewrite my 3e PC skill list to have that PC as a Rakshasa NPC for campaign use.
I'd rather stab the like button with my bollock dagger and check out new content on your list. Truly excellent to the point, short but not frenetic video on the topic. Helpful and practical. Ah, heck! I talked myself into subbing based on just this video 😁
I suggest looking at a system Armor Astir, while the hard numbers are kinda float, it have a great idea for scaffolding the fight against an oppressor A lot of the time I find that "plot campaign" is just a scaffolded campaign that we already know the story beats too, and instead what might be best is to do sandboxes with a few starter sessions to set up the scaffolding for the type of story we want to tell
I would love to hear about how to keep the same scenario interesting for the players. Sure, the dungeon is now filled with bandits led by a different leader, but the fights will kind of feel the same if the npcs are motivated by the same things and they have the same stats... How do I keep it relevant?
I'd start by interrogating the idea of "motivated by the same thing." If you have groups of bandits led by Robin Hood, a cannibal ogre, and a necromancer, they probably AREN'T motivated by the same thing. That will affect both the strategic elements of the bandit lair and the objectives that the PCs are likely to be seeking to accomplish. In practice, this will create a great variety of experiences. The other thing that happens when you re-engage the same dungeon space (either through sandbox restocking or iterative expeditions into a megadungeon) is that the players will get to use their acquired expertise -- i.e., their knowledge of the dungeon's geography. This creates a distinct experience from the initial exploration of the unknown.
Great video! I've been prepping a hexcrawl/west marches campaign lately, and would love to hear your take on how to tame that particular beast. I'm afraid of making the travel parts of every session boring
What are you best/worst experiences with sandbox campaigns?
What sandbox campaign have you always wanted to play/run?
Best experience was with the Hot Springs Island hexcrawl -- really taught me a lot about designing adventures!
I have run linear story driven adventures that my players tried to run away from in the interest of "not being rail-roaded". But I have found that a) because I was not ready for this reaction, I had nothing to give to them to do outside the adventure I prepared, and b) they themselves didn't have a clue of what they wanted to do free of my plot. Even when I sat with them and asked them what motivates their characters, what's in your backgrounds that I might mine for ideas to motivate your characters (this is pre 5th edition, with Ideals Bonds and Flaws of course). Often the players made 1 dimensional characters they wouldn't flesh out until they played, even when I tried to encourage them to do so.
Recently I started running The Vault of Larin Karr by Necromancer Games. It starts with the PC's being hired to clear a Keep of hobgoblins. They become aware of a rumor of a great drow thief named Larin Karr who gathered a great treasure and buried somewhere in the Underdark that lay under the town and the valley area they are exploring. And in exploring the valley, there are location specific encounters that lead to other encounters and so on. For instance they stumble on a plot to assassinate the lord of the valley by his uncle, when they defeat a Gnoll warrior who has been terrifying local farmers. They started looking for the vault, and then stopped because they found the minor plot to be more interesting.
@@josephmckeon8702 Vault of Larin Karr is a truly fantastic book! Deserves to be much better known than it is!
I ran a short sandbox that more or less added Rappan Athuk and Tomb of Abysthor (two megadungeons from Necromancer Games) to the Vault of Larin Karr setting.
I'm currently prepping a very ambitious Desert Hexbox for post-pandemic. It's tough work, especially for a new DM. Your content, both the series of articles in the blog and this video, have been a great help. Thanks!
I'm going to try to rally support from my group for running Forbidden Lands by Free League, which is a fantasy rpg purpose-built for sandbox play.
"don't prep plots"
HE SAID THE THING!
I wouldn't just drop the players into a sandbox; they need to get their bearings. To that end, I create introductory scenarios designed to showcase the world and reveal plot-hooks and situations. These scenarios are tied in with character creation. For example, in my current campaign world, if the players wanted 'heroic', one option is I tell them that they are all part of the High King's retinue of advisors, guards and officials. They are woken in the night and must prepare quickly to ride out. They can create any characters that are consistent with this starting point - and will need to ask about the world to know what the options are. The introduction should last one session, with an option to continue, and should give everyone a feel for what's out there.
This is the best up and coming TTRPG channel on RUclips right now. Unlike the common “top 10 reasons your a bad dm” this material is highly gameable. Thank you for making this.
OMG you have no idea how much I hate those negative titles
So I tried introducing my current group to an OSR sandbox campaign since the last campaign we played was more plot driven (Enemy in the Shadows) but the pcs just sorta ended up turning it into a sandbox. The pcs have been oblivious to nearly every hook. Local noble asked the pcs to see why his miners are on strike, tavern owner ask the party about hunting an animal for them, group of soldiers warning about a dudgeon in the nearby woods, the general store owner is a person named Hugh Mann and they only speak in monotone and nobody can remember when they opened the store, etc. They kept just wandering around not knowing what to do. I literally asked them what they wanted to do and they didn't know so I told them to check out the mine.
The default actions and the multiple opposing factions are the best points here.
If the players have a well-understood default activity, then they never have to ask the GM what they should do: barring any more pressing undertaking, they will likely fall back on the default. It doesn't really matter what the default action is, so long as it makes for a good hook-delivery system. They could be delving into Undermountain, hitting up the local job board for fresh, setting out into the wilderness to hunt, checking with their contacts for leads in their case, setting sail for the next port on the map... the possibilities for what constitutes a good default action are virtually limitless.
Multiple opposed factions are a potentially inexhaustible engine of hooks to hang a campaign. They could be trade guilds, noble houses, rival gangs, corporations, actual armies, religious cults, pirate bands, whatever fits your setting. So long as the party can be aligned with one faction, the factions can take actions against each other, and they have some way to distinguish themselves from one another, then you can easily build a system that generates hooks for the players forever. The party does a favor for the Red Wings, but doing so pisses off the Blue Scales, so they retaliate, which prompts your patrons to ally with the Black Talons, who need a some Macguffin from the White Tails, who are willing to look past this transgression in exchange for helping them against the hated Yellow Fangs... the consequences of the previous events can so effortlessly and effectively lead into the next event that the campaign can almost right itself, given the proper setup.
This is exactly the magic that makes Blades in the Dark such a good game for playing a sandbox. In session 0 it gives you default actions (depending on the type of band the players want to play), as well as opposing factions some of which are allied with the PCs and others are rivals. And all of this with no prep at all and giving complete freedom to the players about what they want to play!
Yup this is how I do it. I dangle out several hooks, bandits, nearby baddies, etc...then if they don't decide on anything, they are attacked, kidnapped, chased, wanted, etc...I made sure they pissed off a local necromancer in the first session, so she's around to come cause trouble as needed.
I've been running sandbox campaigns for 30+ years. Once the players interact with it, it takes on a life, and direction, all its own, with the PC's directing it -- usually without realizing it, of course. This is pure gold, for DM's new to sandboxing their games. Your creativity is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it becomes, and the better you get with wielding it in your games. My players have told me that I've ruined them for other DM's -- who do not play sandbox games. They find it hard to play in other DM's games as they are not as organic as mine. It makes for amazingly fun and memorable games. It also keeps your players *hungry* for your next session. This is pure gold advice. Cheers!
My God! That's GREAT! Thank you for such a wonderful video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow this video actually red pilled me on how exactly sandbox campaigns work. I knew you wanted to present situations to the players, and have consequences for how the players deal with those situations. But I have never heard it put so succinctly how these consequences will then tie into other situations. And how you have situations that here he calls sandbox toolkits that have some impact on the world creating situations hooks leading to themselves.
Time for me to read the prepping situations articles you have linked on your website. Hopefully this will give me a solid enough foundation of knowledge to that I can employ this technique in my own game.
The only time I've run a true sandbox, I peppered each location with clues about other locations--bits of regional lore, tales of missing treasures, maps of places yet undiscovered, and various correspondence between factions in different locations. So there was a subtext of plots going on, but they could follow whatever struck their muse. Since I was running the game in Roll20, I had a single large hex map I made in Hexographer with all the sites of interest on the GM layer. I prepped a number of 20x30 site maps of locations with monsters, traps, and treasure and left them waiting to be discovered. Whenever they heard a bit of lore, found a map, or asked around about places, I just moved the site marker from the GM layer to the map layer. Often, just showing a new area was enough for the party to be interested in what was going on there.
I kept the plot threads light, but consistent. Since it was done in a sort of watered-down West Marches style, I didn't want to get too complex. And since most of the players were beer-and-pretzels gamers, it was just enough to keep their attention without bogging them down with details.
Your articles about sandboxes have inspired me to start my own campaign in this style. We're now 3 months in, and my players are loving it.
What I did was having a "main plot" that happens independent of the players (so they can even miss some crucial content, or even better, dealing with the consequences of it), and on top of that a "faction system" that provides them with quests. Those quests have a "time limit", that I track using an "event calendar", so that they can't simply take every quest.
The other element that I'm using is a "radial regional map", where as further from their homebase they are, thing get progressively more dangerous. So they are spending their first levels exploring a "safe" region (without me telling them to - a hard encounter at the border was more than enough for them to realize that), and after that the faction quests can take them in every direction - or they can pursue their own goals, like they're doing now!
The last thing I had to do was coming up with a better system for regional travel. I've used your articles as a stepping stone, but I've changed the travel day's division to quarters, and I've assigned an "encounter dice" to each region. For exemple, the plains they're exploring have a d10 danger dice, so when they decide to travel, I make them roll their navigation to not veer, and roll 4d10 (one for each quarter). On a result of 1, they have a random encounter. Safe or barren areas have a d12 (or even a d20) encounter, die, while dangerous places can have a d8 or d6. If they travel by night, I usually increase the danger (lowering the dice) by one category.
So that's how your articles made an impact on me. I'm having the most fun GMing in ages, and I'm sending that my players are really happy about it too. So thanks!
Keep being awesome!
I like your idea on regional travel. Where do you get the content for the random encounters you happen to roll?
Questions for a future Sandbox (hexcrawl, specifically) video:
How do you strike the balance between having the wilderness feel dangerous and full, vs players getting exhausted of being lost and slowed by obstacles in their path? For players that really enjoy dungeons, how can you make the wilderness as exciting as a dungeon, when the PCs are wandering (lost) through it instead of exploring set rooms and clear(ish) paths?
On hexcrawls specifically, how sparse or packed should a hexmap be? How many locations should there be to find before the players should be "encouraged" to move on to new areas?
I pretty much run sandbox games I think. I provide some issues or a situation and the players decided what they want to do, or what they want to ignore. The next game is often predicated on what the players want to do next. This has been my problem with running written adventures. In the span of a session or two we are 'off the rails' and headed off into our own sunset.
Great video, thank you.
Subscribed... as every GM or aspiring GM should be.
For a while I was running a 5-room-dungeon-a-week campaign for players with a very limited time to play. The way I gave them agency on the "mission" was to give them a weekly poll, picking which "job" they'd be taking: a bounty, a treasure hunt, an escort mission, and so forth. But whatever job they took would be in that week's dungeon, which would be tweaked to fit the job. Not a full sandbox, but a way to prevent the feeling of a railroad in a campaign that didn't have the time for a more leisurely exploration of the world's possibilities.
Nothing wrong with that approach either
That actually sounds like a really chill and fun campaign to play in. I might actually steal this idea for my friends (Also takes a little bit of a burden off the GM it seems to me, no need to spend a lot of time connecting the adventure-of-the-week plot-wise to anything before it, connect PC backstory, etc. unless you feel like it)
Great stuff. A good source of sandbox resources is Kevin Crawford's Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number.
Great recommendation, Jim!
I have your rules for sandboxes and hexcrawls from you blog saved in like four different places, so I can always get to it easily. Some of the best advice ever, everyone go read it.
Glad to hear it's been so helpful!
I've been in maybe one game I would have considered a sandbox, but not at length. I've actually suggested me running a sandbox game, though in RIFTS. The concept there was to allow some very overpowered characters and once they start taking actions there is potentially for the world to react too them. Depending on where they go and what they do could have a myriad of consequences from having bounties set by the Splugorth to the Coalition States trying to bombard them with artillery. Sadly never got a group together to run that idea.
Currently though I am slowly putting together a D&D campaign which could act as a psuedo-sandbox with the players choosing their general direction with all sorts of plot hooks hanging around them and a plot occurring in the back whether they choose to take part in it or not.
This was more helpful and insightful than any other sandboxing video I've seen. Thank you so much, dude.
Glad it helped!
This is GM-ing gold. I wish more adventure modules were packaged as situations and not plots/stories.
I bet a lot of people will pay good money for said "Campaign Scenario" books
Great video Justin! I'd certainly be interested in a further one on setting up a sandbox campaign or a hexcrawl campaign. What smart prep should a DM do in filling in the world with interesting locations and what kind of variety is useful, without making the task overly daunting.
I would love a video like this as well!
I would like to third this idea!
2 years later, I am looking for this video. 😢
I would still love to see a video showing your hexcrawl sequence of play for overland/wilderness travel. I am fixing to write my own soon, but would be interested to see yours in action. Note: This video is your second most popular video of all time. Clearly there is more demand for additional sandbox content.
As a DM, I've had struggles mentioned with running sandboxes. It would burn me out from wanting to run games because it felt like pulling teeth just to get my players to do anything. Instead, I started to run modules (which there isn't nothing wrong with it), but I don't always like the elements that some of them bring. The monster selection - for example - would not be a monster that I would run. Some of the monsters I don't even enjoy running, so I substitute them for a monster that I do enjoy running. I tend to tweak every module to fit better to my style - adding my own NPCs while removing module NPCs.
agree completely - hooks are the atmosphere of a sandbox.
The map of Doskvol in the background says it all :)
It's really the perfect sandbox environment - a billion opposing factions in a pressure cooker.
I ran a vampire LARP that was basically a sandbox. Worked great.
In the name of The Dream Eternal and unknowable vastness of "that which can not be named" never stop making these videos!
Your voice is so dramatic, I love it!
Realised me and my co-dm are following a bunch of this advice already almost by accident for our west marches game starting this saturday, oops!
Really good advice to erase some wrong ideas people have about sandbox campaigns. I've been following and reading your blog for some years now, but it's still nice to see the content in video format (:
Great video. One thing that I've learned from running sandboxes is the GM really has to have his or antenna up for when the players move the campaign in a new direction. Sometimes it is not easy to spot that the players beginning a pattern of behavior that opens up the campaign to something that will fuel countless sessions and it helps to be aware so you can be responsive to it (instead of say dismissing it as a delay or brief excursion before getting back to the task they had at hand)
These are coming out so fast! I love it. You’ve got to be the most sophisticated and efficient GM blog I’ve seen yet!
"Prep situations, not plots." Holy crap. I knew I was overthinking it, but I didn't know how. Very insightful, thank you
To shill just a little bit, make sure to check out So You Want To Be a Game Master? when it comes out in October. It'll show you how to think it without overthinking it.
Hi, i have been playing a hexcrawl campaing (inspired by your articles and other materials) and it is soooooo much fun, that never want to play another way D&D. Thanks!
the campaing started in 2017 and still going fresh
Well, I didn't expect to see you today. I have read your sandbox / hexcrawl articles and I appreciate them. I am a gamer from the 70s, and the sandbox/hexcrawl (as opposed to the 'modern' plotted story) is the way to play [in my opinion]. Freedom vs railroad. I would love to see a video showing your hexcrawl sequence of play for overland/wilderness travel. I am fixing to write my own soon, but would be interested to see yours in action.
I've just discovered your work, Justine, and back cataloguing most of it. This is absolutely brilliant stuff - a succinct explanation of some powerful DMing tools. The beauty is that these tools can be applied in so many different ways, once the concepts are properly understood in a general sense - a universal truth embedded in the progression of any discipline one chooses to dedicate themselves to.
I just love your prep situations advice! It has been so effective in allowing me to prep 3-5 sessions of play in 5 minutes that nobody on the dnd 5e reddit even believes that this level of efficient prep is possible--and it's so much fun to run!
This content is actually good, very informative. Surprising how under viewed this.
I think I finally understand it. I've seen so many videos shaming me for not running a sandbox, that also don't really explain how to run a sandbox, that I came to the conclussion that my players just want a linear campaign.
Now, I'm still not sure that a linear campaign isn't what they want, but I might be willing to give a sandbox game another try in the future.
To be fair, I do try to prep situations rather than plots, but my games are more like beaded strings of situations.
I'm really glad the video helped you!
Absolutely nothing wrong with a linear or episodic campaign. It can be a perfectly natural structure for all kinds of situations. (Much moreso, IME, than linear scenarios, although there are many situations for those, too.)
If you want to dip your toes in a bit with non-linear campaign structures, though, try a 5x5 Campaign as described here: thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37903/roleplaying-games/5-node-mystery
Your players, too, will get a taste for thinking in terms of, "What do we want to do next?" rather than, "What are we being told to do next?"
It gets easier to build complexity from there, and possibly even getting your players to start proactively setting their own goals instead of just selecting from a menu of options.
@@TheAlexandrian I'm definitely going to give the 5x5 structure a try!
Thank you for such a thoughtful reply! I didn't expect that at all, let alone on a three year old video! Just one reason this is the best GM advice channel on youtube. I've been watching D&D videos for a decade, but I just found your channel last week!
Your videos are always organized, concise, and highly actionable
Getting ready to run my first ever true sandbox game. Actually it will be many firsts. My first sandbox, my first open table, my first urban crawl, and my first campaign in Cyberpunk Red. I may have bitten off more than I can chew..... Nah, it'll be fine.
It will be fine.
So how has it gone so far?
@@brianstevens5547 really well so far. We have 15 or so players, play a couple times a week, and have had a blast. Still working on fleshing out the Urbancrawl elements and working to get them integrated but it is going swimmingly.
@@madbishop5566 that's awesome! I'm hoping to run an open table starting this summer once the lgs is running normally again. I can't run online it's to much work lol
You actually managed to make the very concept of sandbox appealing to me. Never thought it could happen 😂
One of us, one of us, one of us! 😉
I love how you make everything so straight forward. How about something along the lines of epic level campaigns and creating high level adventures?
Wow, this is great!
Excellent video!
Just wanted to say that your videos are interesting, tightly structured, and really helpful! I've also just found my way to your blog, and it's a great resource too.
Hey Mr. Alexander, I'd love to see a discussion on game structures useful in a sandbox campaign (although you might first have to do a video on game structures). Hexcrawls, pointcrawls, and running factions would all be useful structures to see. Also, can you do a video on how you personally keep track of scenario hooks or just things the players have put into play? For example, my players have accidentally started a countdown clock to release the Lich King. How would you keep track of that?
Great stuff! I find that a wide menu of scenario hooks is especially clutch when it comes to making a sandbox. If there's only a single main quest, the PCs don't really feel like they're in a sandbox.
My biggest issue while learning to run sandboxes is deciding what to have prepared, and what to do if the players go off in an unexpected direction/goal. Tools provided in games like Beyond the Wall and Forbidden Lands help, but it'd be nice to hear some thoughts on the matter, and maybe touch on different genres. I've found running a sci-fi sandbox a lot more challenging for instance
A wonderfully dense piece on how to accomplish a rather complex idea for a campaign. Love it.
Glad you like it!
Justin, I want to say how much I'm loving these videos. I subscribed to your patreon a couple of months ago in preparation for running the dragon heist remix and it's dominated my thoughts ever since.
In answer to your question, my recent experience of it was started Ch2 from dragon heist. I had done what you suggested. Hooks are all over the place. Every resident in Trollskull Alley has a potential hook for a side quest. My mistake was timing. I brought the players to the alley in the second half of a session after a boss fight. At 21:30 my players had no energy to RP and take an interest in the residents lives or problems. They were tired and had a task in mind (fixing up the manor) and had little interest in anything else.
So I guess the tip id suggest that might help other DMs is timing. Perhaps that's something you could develop in a future video? Timing sessions to get the best from players? I imagine sandbox decision making works best in the first half of a session (or even between sessions maybe when doing downtime) when the players are awake, and big fights are better later on. I've also made the mistake of introducing a big puzzle as a culmination of the session when the players don't have the mental energy to engage with it.
On a side note, I was surprised to see you on these videos. I had a mental image of you from your patreon picture. Who is that clean cut bare chinned guy in your patreon profile?
I'd love an explanation/demonstration of some of the specific things you do to prep NPCs and any other sort of prep that you find especially important in a sandbox campaign. Thanks again for all your work!
This is great!
I want to hear more about these toolsets to build scenarios, these structures that give weight to the players' decisions.
Loving these videos!! Thank you for your practical wisdom. As a new GM, this has been invaluable inspiration!
That's great to hear! I'm glad it's helping you run your game!
I am so glad you have started to do youtube videos. These have been great.
Thank you for the great advice! I've been interested in trying out a hexcrawl sandbox, and this has given me wonderful inspiration!
Justin, I've been reading your content for years. I'm happy to see you approach a wider audience by converting material into RUclips videos. Keep up the great work!
That necromancer swooping in just made my fucking day!!!
This video is so densely packed with ideas I had to watch it a few times. My imagination kept going off to work from the ideas presented I missed the next idea entirely. I think you could make these videos nearly twice as long giving more time to each concept. Great content. Keep it coming!
I'm running multiple campaigns a week, so this is super helpful for that as well! Thank you so much!
My problem has been encountering players who literally say they want a single, obvious, linear plot to follow. Anything else makes them feel like they're not "advancing" enough and are just wasting their time with "side quests".
you are brilliant .. this is exactly what i need to hear right now , thank you
Been in a slump for adventures,
This video got all my gears turning!
Great Job, Alexander!👍
Stole the words right from my mouth. I like to describe it as crafting little dioramas that I kind of trick the players into messing with.
Wonderful video! I would love to learn more about your thoughts regarding political intrigue and power dynamics in a sandbox campaign.
The book collection today is all the good official 5e adventures - And Tasha's Cauldron of Everything ...
The switch from blog posts to videos is very interesting, looking forward to your next work!
Great video. How do you manage progress "off camera"? For example. When the PCs hear about a plague that's broken out in a village to the north, but don't act on it for a while? Things should have changed since the rumor first surfaced.
Do you have a mechanism for updating the story hooks that you've left lying around?
Look up the clocks mechanic from Apocalypse World for this. Works great. It's basically just a progress bar for stuff that happens off-camera, with pre-written ideas for what the PCs might see as evidence that stuff is happening that they've haven't dealt with yet.
So if there's a plague up north, the first thing that might happen is that goods from up north start getting scarce. The price of (I dunno, ice?) goes up across the country. There are rumors that something is up to the north - if you've got a rumor table you maintain for your game, add a few entries to it about something happening up north.
If the party chooses to go on a different adventure instead of investigating, tick another box on the Plague Up North clock. Now there are refugees arriving from the north, and some of them are sick. Roads to the north have bandits on them.
If they keep doing other stuff instead of investigating the plague, keep advancing that clock until it's full, and then it's gotten to the point that they can't ignore it - the plague is all across the country where they are and they can't escape it. Ideally, though, there should come a point at which they think "Oh, damn, this is something we have to handle NOW before it really bites us in the butt."
@@SteelDraco good advice.
@@SteelDraco Or on the other end of the spectrum, you can also have *other parties* resolve scenario hooks the players drop. For example, take the "bandit king operating out of the Neo-Norscan temple" hook Justin outlined above. You could decide that if the party declines that particular hook three times (by pursuing other quests), then when they return from their third quest they find out that another party of adventurers has gone to the temple, killed the bandit king, captured the ancient talisman, and returned it to House Nebuzo for the reward. If you do this sort of thing often enough that the party knows it's an option, it adds a real element of choice to the party deciding what scenario they wish to pursue next, because they know that any hook they turn down might disappear before they get another chance at it.
Love it!
woah hyped to see you making videos, i love your blog, it changed my playstyle forever
Are you planning on making a video about your "plan encounters - not plot" idea? I personally really agree with it
Great vid! Short and to the point, but also clearly explained and well worded. This is the DnD content I wanna see. Immediate sub!!
I like the way you sneaked the "don't prep plots" thing.
Another really great video, so much quality distilled down to a tiny little 8 minutes! 😄👍🏻 Thank you again.
What might also be fun is a video on how you handle cursed items. Do they just "stick" to the PCs the way that the 5e DMG suggests, or do you do something else? Also, I love how "system-neutral" your advice has been so far; it's been very helpful for me!
Would you happen to have advice for making a procedure to tie together allying/competing factions in sandboxes?
Excellent! This is how it’s done! I’ll be linking this video a lot. Thank you.
You need thousands of more views
This is lovely content. Concise, clear, and easily applied guidance. Exactly why I follow what you put out!
Awesome! Great content and I very much enjoy your delivery. Look forward to your next vid!
Thanks again Justin!
I recently dove in up to my neck in your website and it has been incredibly incredibly useful, thank you so much for putting your thoughts to the page and video!
I currently have a sandbox game on going and currently a couple hooks are in play and running smoothly but if my players happen to miss or deign not to pick up incoming hooks for future scenarios how would you suggest mechanically implementing a rumour system? Roll 1dx for a random rumour/hook from a table or add some kind of skill check to quantify how much detail/how many hooks they receive?
Cheers for your time and effort :)
Thank you for your content!
Any thoughts on how a campaign that mixes Sandbox play and West Marches style play might look?
Any special considerations for the fusion of two elements a DM might have to look out for?
Surely West Marches is a form of hexcrawl sandbox.
Yes, they are similar in theory, but in my opinion might have some differences in practice. Namely, the need to only play the game (no scheduled game night) when players have an idea might have an adverse effect on consequences.
I mainly asked to see if there were any serious conflicts between these two similar styles. I can’t see any potential issues arising from their fusion, and was wondering if others could.
Great content as always. :)
I'd like to hear what do you think about incorporating random creations into the sandbox games - random rumors, encounters, locations. Is it any good in your opinion or is it better to prepare everything beforehand?
love the numenera map one of my first ttrpgs
Hey Justin, what do you think about procedurally generated content inside the sandbox (mostly exploration sandbox) to reduce prep time?
I would say that procedurally generated content is almost necessary to running a sandbox.
I agree with Anthony: Procedurally generated content is nigh essential, IMO. Properly designed content generators in a hexcrawl, for example, can flesh out your hex key every time the PCs go exploring. Constantly adding depth can happen without the generators, but it's really nice to have the prompts and also to have it build directly into your procedures.
The ideal seems to be a mix of curated and procedural. Eg when running 5e hexcrawling in the Wilderlands setting I use the pre-made location material along with results from the Xanathar's encounter tables.
Another quality video. Dude, why didn't you do this years ago?
How do ensure that PCs backstories are compatible? That they don't all try to go haring off in different directions?
At a certain point, this is basically the same as a group of friends deciding where to go eat or what to do for the night, which is to say that it is ultimately their responsibility to figure it out. That said, there are some glaringly obvious things you can avoid by talking through character ideas before play.
At the start of my current family game, my brother's idea was to have a farmer who the other characters would have to convince to go on every adventure, but I know that's more annoying than fun, so I talked him out of it.
@@blainepack5979 In a hole, there lived a Hobbit...
Definitely some next-level campaign ideas going on here
Great video, thanks!
Great video, and quite timely for my own situation.
I'd like to hear more about hex crawling.
Sandbox soap opera, have pre written PC on index cards to draw players from.
Soap opera episodes only last between 20 to 30 mins from their main campaign PC. Concepts of play are ..
a.) 1st to 3rd-level rogues or rogue1/fighter1 or Harry Potter wizard3/rogue1 teenagers hunting down and catching vermin such as clearing out large spiders out from under the mill or barn lofts.
b.) Village or town guards dealing with petty arguments or canning riff raff or drunk adventure. " fighter2/rogue3 "
c.) Fishermen and dock worker.
A few short .. role .. playing mundane normal everyday things.
Have the players RPG their campaign run of the mill NPCs, so they have a connection to their setting. Then drop their NPC into a Lovecraft horror story ...
2.) Dealing with DM style burn out, wanting something different and between mixing AD&D2ndE mechanic into D&D3e and Star Wars, and bored with Whitewolf/World of Darkness vampire, they still want a D&D3e game but they are tired of hack & slash dungeon crawl, ghost stories, horror stories, politics and high adventure. So they were willing to try another over the top games I run as long it was not one of my horror games where they start with four PC that get killed off in a slasher horror game. And I had PC cards written up ready to play already.
I started off with telling them, " All of you are in a tavern, now pull a card."
Player pulls a card, " .. What ! .. I'm the Bar Tender ?!"
So everyone at the shop for the next three hours played old fashion bar games, they had random gossip rumor lists they could bull zhit as to what is going on in their county. Which spin off into an urban campaign of its own that ran for a year.
End result when there where two gaming groups taking place within the same setting or not, we had a player go and state, " I want to PC the bar tender ! "
3.) Movie, " A Knight's Tale." it is close to twenty years old and it is about a small group of peasants forging papers so their young lead can pose as a noble in the jousting circuit just to get something to eat then later on for fame and love. Yeah we rip that off ... if there was six or more players in the shop the DM runs as a ref story plot driver and have player vs player drama action. So we take turns playing the .. rival .. till we find the right player that can set the mood for the character NPC.
At the start of one game where we can write up a 12th-level single or multi class character. Or a 10th-level multiclass character with 10,000xp/gp self made magic items. DM asked what I wanted to play, I said a shape shifting monster and both of they said .. no. But all the players got a good laugh when the DM let me play a wizard8/rogue2 PC with Polymorph Self and Dimensional Door. After my PC screwed over the village and robed the other PCs, .. I turn my PC into a .. Rakshasa .. and vanished. Throwing out a red herring so the others can waste their time trying to Summon and Iron Flash my PC thinking he was a Outsider.
So as pay back the shop's owner and DM had me Rewrite my 3e PC skill list to have that PC as a Rakshasa NPC for campaign use.
I'd rather stab the like button with my bollock dagger and check out new content on your list. Truly excellent to the point, short but not frenetic video on the topic. Helpful and practical. Ah, heck! I talked myself into subbing based on just this video 😁
I suggest looking at a system Armor Astir, while the hard numbers are kinda float, it have a great idea for scaffolding the fight against an oppressor
A lot of the time I find that "plot campaign" is just a scaffolded campaign that we already know the story beats too, and instead what might be best is to do sandboxes with a few starter sessions to set up the scaffolding for the type of story we want to tell
I would love to hear about how to keep the same scenario interesting for the players. Sure, the dungeon is now filled with bandits led by a different leader, but the fights will kind of feel the same if the npcs are motivated by the same things and they have the same stats... How do I keep it relevant?
I'd start by interrogating the idea of "motivated by the same thing." If you have groups of bandits led by Robin Hood, a cannibal ogre, and a necromancer, they probably AREN'T motivated by the same thing. That will affect both the strategic elements of the bandit lair and the objectives that the PCs are likely to be seeking to accomplish. In practice, this will create a great variety of experiences.
The other thing that happens when you re-engage the same dungeon space (either through sandbox restocking or iterative expeditions into a megadungeon) is that the players will get to use their acquired expertise -- i.e., their knowledge of the dungeon's geography. This creates a distinct experience from the initial exploration of the unknown.
Excellent!
Great video!
Good stuff as always!
Great video! I've been prepping a hexcrawl/west marches campaign lately, and would love to hear your take on how to tame that particular beast. I'm afraid of making the travel parts of every session boring
Good stuff