Basically there it is. I've got a side plot about a "ghost ship" (that's actually from the future and stuck in a time loop) for players to explore, I've got a side plot about a cult lead by several aboleth-worshipping slaadi trying to release their imprisoned God, and I have a main quest where the players are left with an enchanted map (which is blank unless you're holding the keys the ancient pirate left behind to unlock it) to a legendary pirate treasure that they need to decipher.
I've also tucked away a few dungeons out in the world for them to stumble into and explore, but right now I'm at the stage where I just want to populate the world with content in order to give players more choice of what to do and have reasons to go one way instead of another.
There’s got to be some kind of pirate island where all the pirates go to hang out, it’s a staple.
A naval officer — a results are all that matters type — who needs something really bad, and is willing to work with a pirate crew to get it. Not necessarily a corrupt officer. More some willing to do the wrong things if he has the right reasons.
Some random merchant ship the PCs plunder turns out to be owned by Keyser Soze.
An orphan kid on a raft is the king’s third child.
An island with a witch on it who is cursed not to be able to leave (basically Circe). Come to think of it, half of the things in The Odyssey will work. Cyclops island. Sirens.
Two great powers are having a war and both are willing to pay an enterprising ship to handle some missions: disrupt enemy supply lines, deliver something, etc. Could pair with the naval officer above.
Basically there it is. I've got a side plot about a "ghost ship" (that's actually from the future and stuck in a time loop) for players to explore, I've got a side plot about a cult lead by several aboleth-worshipping slaadi trying to release their imprisoned God, and I have a main quest where the players are left with an enchanted map (which is blank unless you're holding the keys the ancient pirate left behind to unlock it) to a legendary pirate treasure that they need to decipher.
I've also tucked away a few dungeons out in the world for them to stumble into and explore, but right now I'm at the stage where I just want to populate the world with content in order to give players more choice of what to do and have reasons to go one way instead of another.
Lemme hear your ideas!
From experiance truly open world campaigns tend to drift a bit aimlessly, (ignore the pun), players need a driver to go to a place and do a thing they only know as much about the world as you can tell them and anything you tell them will feel like a draw to do a thing.
You have 3-4 plot points already, if I was you I would stick with that and just dive into the game and see what your players do and then react to there actions. Each of those plots you have seem like they will turn into chunky major adventures anyway. I have learnt after years and years of experiance to take the focus approach when it comes to campaign design, so focus and put detail into the stuff directly in front of the players (and for me this is usually no more then some detailed bullet points and a few notes, I tend to improvise 90% of my stiff on the fly). but this is what the players are dealing with for the next 2-3 sessions. Build your encounters in terms of monsters, treasure, maps etc.
Then the things that they are most likely to want to do next I will have roughly sketched out but no details in terms of maps, encounters, monsters etc. Largely because I will learn from what they are doing now. in the past I wasted hours building maps and populating with monsters only to have to throw it all out because the way the party was working, the tactics and builds they where using, meant that what I had designed would be neither fun, nor challenging. Or they had levelled beyond the threat of that area. Or they just decided to ignore the big arrows saying go here and went off doing something completely different. So for these areas I will note down some NPC's have plot ideas sketched out (again bullet points no deep prose or text) but spend no more then 15 - 30 mins on them because I have at least 2-3 weeks before they think about going there.
Then the rest is blank, I might have place names and maybe a few words. For instance - Vanury Isle, ghosts, no one goes there, shipwrecks, dangerous. (possibly weak barrier to the shadow-fell, or maybe a cult TBD). Enough that if the players ask an NPC about it I can give some vague descriptions, but nothing to commit me story wise to anything. I might have some amazing ideas, but I wont waste any time developing them until I know the party and the story we have created is going to take them there and that is the biggest thing about an open world sandbox game, the story your players want to tell will very quickly destroy all your planned out clever ideas, and thats ok.
The moment your party get into your world they will take it off the rails, by pre populating it with loads of stuff you are actually limiting there own creative choices. I would give them a map and explore it with them you only ever need to be just below the horizon in terms of knowing what is ahead of them, it is even ok if parts of the map are blank, part of the adventure could simply be your players discovering new coastlines and islands that you don't even know exist yet.
Scarloc, yeah that's generally what I do. I'm not at the point of actually designing encounters and game content, I'm more coming up with barebones quest ideas to present to the players as rumor. My philosophy is that you can never know exactly what the players will go for, but I still like them to be in a position to choose their next venture between multiple interesting options, so I'm at this point generating ideas to throw at the wall and see what sticks in the players' heads. I think it helps immersion when it feels to the players like there's a lot going on in the world, but I won't plan much beyond the first encounter any of these questlines unless the players actively begin pursuing them.
Scarloc, yeah that's generally what I do. I'm not at the point of actually designing encounters and game content, I'm more coming up with barebones quest ideas to present to the players as rumor. My philosophy is that you can never know exactly what the players will go for, but I still like them to be in a position to choose their next venture between multiple interesting options, so I'm at this point generating ideas to throw at the wall and see what sticks in the players' heads. I think it helps immersion when it feels to the players like there's a lot going on in the world, but I won't plan much beyond the first encounter any of these questlines unless the players actively begin pursuing them.
In the past I have just made up a ton of 1 - 2 sentence rumors with no idea what they refer to, where they are on a map or what is actually going on. That can be really fun as a dm when the party decide to investigate the random thing they overheard about a boat of pirate children (turned out to be halflings) but I had no idea what it would be when the rumour was said.
Basically there it is. I've got a side plot about a "ghost ship" (that's actually from the future and stuck in a time loop) for players to explore, I've got a side plot about a cult lead by several aboleth-worshipping slaadi trying to release their imprisoned God, and I have a main quest where the players are left with an enchanted map (which is blank unless you're holding the keys the ancient pirate left behind to unlock it) to a legendary pirate treasure that they need to decipher.
I've also tucked away a few dungeons out in the world for them to stumble into and explore, but right now I'm at the stage where I just want to populate the world with content in order to give players more choice of what to do and have reasons to go one way instead of another.
Lemme hear your ideas!
There’s got to be some kind of pirate island where all the pirates go to hang out, it’s a staple.
A naval officer — a results are all that matters type — who needs something really bad, and is willing to work with a pirate crew to get it. Not necessarily a corrupt officer. More some willing to do the wrong things if he has the right reasons.
Some random merchant ship the PCs plunder turns out to be owned by Keyser Soze.
An orphan kid on a raft is the king’s third child.
An island with a witch on it who is cursed not to be able to leave (basically Circe). Come to think of it, half of the things in The Odyssey will work. Cyclops island. Sirens.
Two great powers are having a war and both are willing to pay an enterprising ship to handle some missions: disrupt enemy supply lines, deliver something, etc. Could pair with the naval officer above.
A bounty on another pirate ship that the PC's would have to hunt down.
(Twist: The "Pirates" were actually framed and they real villain is the original placer of the bounty. )
From experiance truly open world campaigns tend to drift a bit aimlessly, (ignore the pun), players need a driver to go to a place and do a thing they only know as much about the world as you can tell them and anything you tell them will feel like a draw to do a thing.
You have 3-4 plot points already, if I was you I would stick with that and just dive into the game and see what your players do and then react to there actions. Each of those plots you have seem like they will turn into chunky major adventures anyway. I have learnt after years and years of experiance to take the focus approach when it comes to campaign design, so focus and put detail into the stuff directly in front of the players (and for me this is usually no more then some detailed bullet points and a few notes, I tend to improvise 90% of my stiff on the fly). but this is what the players are dealing with for the next 2-3 sessions. Build your encounters in terms of monsters, treasure, maps etc.
Then the things that they are most likely to want to do next I will have roughly sketched out but no details in terms of maps, encounters, monsters etc. Largely because I will learn from what they are doing now. in the past I wasted hours building maps and populating with monsters only to have to throw it all out because the way the party was working, the tactics and builds they where using, meant that what I had designed would be neither fun, nor challenging. Or they had levelled beyond the threat of that area. Or they just decided to ignore the big arrows saying go here and went off doing something completely different. So for these areas I will note down some NPC's have plot ideas sketched out (again bullet points no deep prose or text) but spend no more then 15 - 30 mins on them because I have at least 2-3 weeks before they think about going there.
Then the rest is blank, I might have place names and maybe a few words. For instance - Vanury Isle, ghosts, no one goes there, shipwrecks, dangerous. (possibly weak barrier to the shadow-fell, or maybe a cult TBD). Enough that if the players ask an NPC about it I can give some vague descriptions, but nothing to commit me story wise to anything. I might have some amazing ideas, but I wont waste any time developing them until I know the party and the story we have created is going to take them there and that is the biggest thing about an open world sandbox game, the story your players want to tell will very quickly destroy all your planned out clever ideas, and thats ok.
The moment your party get into your world they will take it off the rails, by pre populating it with loads of stuff you are actually limiting there own creative choices. I would give them a map and explore it with them you only ever need to be just below the horizon in terms of knowing what is ahead of them, it is even ok if parts of the map are blank, part of the adventure could simply be your players discovering new coastlines and islands that you don't even know exist yet.
Random tables in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Scarloc, yeah that's generally what I do. I'm not at the point of actually designing encounters and game content, I'm more coming up with barebones quest ideas to present to the players as rumor. My philosophy is that you can never know exactly what the players will go for, but I still like them to be in a position to choose their next venture between multiple interesting options, so I'm at this point generating ideas to throw at the wall and see what sticks in the players' heads. I think it helps immersion when it feels to the players like there's a lot going on in the world, but I won't plan much beyond the first encounter any of these questlines unless the players actively begin pursuing them.
In the past I have just made up a ton of 1 - 2 sentence rumors with no idea what they refer to, where they are on a map or what is actually going on. That can be really fun as a dm when the party decide to investigate the random thing they overheard about a boat of pirate children (turned out to be halflings) but I had no idea what it would be when the rumour was said.