I played Breath of the Wild and fell head over heels in love with that game. Since then I have been wanting to run a sandbox game like it, where players can follow adventure hooks of their own accord or just kind of mess around in the wilderness. The problem is I do not know where to start building this. I have thought of just getting a starting adventure like Village of Homlette or some other adventure and building it into a hex mapped area for the players to explore. What should I do?
Well, the first thing I'd say is that you're going to risk decision paralysis. As DM's we fear the words railroad and metagame, and there is no reason to fear either, they're necessary and unavoidable components to D&D.
I started my home group under the same pretense: "here's the world, go play" and it didn't work out that well. They needed something to bring them together and focus on, the world was too big. Even in BotW you had to do something to get somewhere before you could even begin the game. Then you were asked to do something else so that you could continue through the game. Even after the world opened up to you, you had to do certain things in certain order to progress in the game. So, sandbox doesn't quite fit the bill here, open world does.
That bit of semantics out of the way, how to do this? Give yourself a handful of quests that the players can stumble across. I started with 6 basic "side quest" type things that the players could run into while exploring their home town. Each one was to highlight an aspect of the game such as social interactions, and to give them more information about the world, lore and history bits. Then I made one big story arc, something that wasn't the BBEG but was still big enough to feel like they did something special. Now I had a way to bring them together and give them something to focus on, when they found it.
From there, build outward. You have the home town, you know they'll eventually want to travel, so make a couple towns in different directions. Nothing too detailed, you want to be able to drop NPCs in that fit your players decisions, or prompt them forward in their current story arc. Keep doing that as the players go on to explore, add to the world when/where needed. This will make the world feel organic, feel like it's something the players have influence in.
You definitely should - I would even go so far as to recommended simply purchasing and running the module. It's really interesting, flavorful, and a fun blend of different types of play.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
I think if you understand the different kinds of playing then you have no problem with doing a sandbox even if you put level limits on where people can go to do quests because maybe you can consider letting them break the limits and put in consequences what good is a rule of it cant be broken right? and lets consider since there is many types of open world. ie sandbox, open world, free roam, instance. what different kind of ways of players playing in them are there and how can you use them differently because of how you set up the campaign.
theres roleplaying people playing different roles
theres rollplaying people rolling dice to play
and theres ruleplaying people using rules or breaking rules to show they rule (or just to be cool)
When I have a group that has expressed a desire for a game at the sandbox end of the spectrum, my strategy is either to prepare very little (if I know the players well, and know that together we can improvise an enjoyable game) or if I have a group that requires more explicit preparation I try to make several choices that are open-ended enough that they can eventually lead to the same key encounters.
While there is nothing wrong with running a sandbox game there still needs to be a major event going on in the background that will sooner or later involve the players. Thats just my take on it anyway. Toss some hooks at the players and let them bite on what they want. You can slowly weave them into the bigger picture as the game progresses. You could even have a few major things going on in your world and as the game progresses. It should be easy to decide what direction the players are wanting to venture sooner or later. I like to keep a time record to some extent and keep track of the real issues within the world. I keep a record as to what will happen, or not happen depending on what the players have or have not done during the game. Listen to what the players do. This will give you valuable information as to the direction of the game and help you weave in your story. One last thing to note. Keep some random encounters on hand just in case the players make a really hard turn and spoil your session prep. It happens. These do not necessary have to be combat encounters. This way you will still have something ready when you are winging the adventure for a session.
Tales from the Yawning Portal has a bunch of mini adventures you can seed throughout your world and polut in some hooks for your players should they go that way. The thing to do is just populate your world with content first, so when the players choose a destination you're not just laying the tracks before them. For that, little published adventures like TftYP or others like it on DM's Guild go a long way.
Another piece of good sandbox advice is to let your players know that not everything is going to be leveled for them, and it's perfectly possible for them to get in over their heads. If they wander across the doomvault, for example, at level 5, they might quickly realize that they're not ready for it, and might leave and make a note to come back later and then boom, your characters now have a goal to work towards in the world, and every now and then you can drop a thread to that quest into the world, and maybe the bad guys from that mission become kind of the "main villain" of the player's story.
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I played Breath of the Wild and fell head over heels in love with that game. Since then I have been wanting to run a sandbox game like it, where players can follow adventure hooks of their own accord or just kind of mess around in the wilderness. The problem is I do not know where to start building this. I have thought of just getting a starting adventure like Village of Homlette or some other adventure and building it into a hex mapped area for the players to explore. What should I do?
If you can, my advice is to make it up as you go along. It's what I do.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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Well, the first thing I'd say is that you're going to risk decision paralysis. As DM's we fear the words railroad and metagame, and there is no reason to fear either, they're necessary and unavoidable components to D&D.
I started my home group under the same pretense: "here's the world, go play" and it didn't work out that well. They needed something to bring them together and focus on, the world was too big. Even in BotW you had to do something to get somewhere before you could even begin the game. Then you were asked to do something else so that you could continue through the game. Even after the world opened up to you, you had to do certain things in certain order to progress in the game. So, sandbox doesn't quite fit the bill here, open world does.
That bit of semantics out of the way, how to do this? Give yourself a handful of quests that the players can stumble across. I started with 6 basic "side quest" type things that the players could run into while exploring their home town. Each one was to highlight an aspect of the game such as social interactions, and to give them more information about the world, lore and history bits. Then I made one big story arc, something that wasn't the BBEG but was still big enough to feel like they did something special. Now I had a way to bring them together and give them something to focus on, when they found it.
From there, build outward. You have the home town, you know they'll eventually want to travel, so make a couple towns in different directions. Nothing too detailed, you want to be able to drop NPCs in that fit your players decisions, or prompt them forward in their current story arc. Keep doing that as the players go on to explore, add to the world when/where needed. This will make the world feel organic, feel like it's something the players have influence in.
Hope this helps.
Tomb of Annihilation is a sandbox adventure that i'm currently running, and it's hella fun
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Should I check it out if I want to learn more about running a sandbox?
Thanks that actually helps a lot.
You definitely should - I would even go so far as to recommended simply purchasing and running the module. It's really interesting, flavorful, and a fun blend of different types of play.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
I think if you understand the different kinds of playing then you have no problem with doing a sandbox even if you put level limits on where people can go to do quests because maybe you can consider letting them break the limits and put in consequences what good is a rule of it cant be broken right? and lets consider since there is many types of open world. ie sandbox, open world, free roam, instance. what different kind of ways of players playing in them are there and how can you use them differently because of how you set up the campaign.
theres roleplaying people playing different roles
theres rollplaying people rolling dice to play
and theres ruleplaying people using rules or breaking rules to show they rule (or just to be cool)
Cool! I know I've been wanting to get more adventure books. Namely I want Tomb of Annihilation and Tales from the Yawning Portal
When I have a group that has expressed a desire for a game at the sandbox end of the spectrum, my strategy is either to prepare very little (if I know the players well, and know that together we can improvise an enjoyable game) or if I have a group that requires more explicit preparation I try to make several choices that are open-ended enough that they can eventually lead to the same key encounters.
My thoughts on Sandboxing. The Illusion of Agency.
Sandboxing Versus Railroading
Check Out my youtube videos - D&D5e Fundamentals and my regular Twitch Stream, Rolestream.
I am a professional Dungeon Master at Questbook. Rolestream Website www.rolestream.com
While there is nothing wrong with running a sandbox game there still needs to be a major event going on in the background that will sooner or later involve the players. Thats just my take on it anyway. Toss some hooks at the players and let them bite on what they want. You can slowly weave them into the bigger picture as the game progresses. You could even have a few major things going on in your world and as the game progresses. It should be easy to decide what direction the players are wanting to venture sooner or later. I like to keep a time record to some extent and keep track of the real issues within the world. I keep a record as to what will happen, or not happen depending on what the players have or have not done during the game. Listen to what the players do. This will give you valuable information as to the direction of the game and help you weave in your story. One last thing to note. Keep some random encounters on hand just in case the players make a really hard turn and spoil your session prep. It happens. These do not necessary have to be combat encounters. This way you will still have something ready when you are winging the adventure for a session.
Tales from the Yawning Portal has a bunch of mini adventures you can seed throughout your world and polut in some hooks for your players should they go that way. The thing to do is just populate your world with content first, so when the players choose a destination you're not just laying the tracks before them. For that, little published adventures like TftYP or others like it on DM's Guild go a long way.
Another piece of good sandbox advice is to let your players know that not everything is going to be leveled for them, and it's perfectly possible for them to get in over their heads. If they wander across the doomvault, for example, at level 5, they might quickly realize that they're not ready for it, and might leave and make a note to come back later and then boom, your characters now have a goal to work towards in the world, and every now and then you can drop a thread to that quest into the world, and maybe the bad guys from that mission become kind of the "main villain" of the player's story.