How to Build a Compelling DnD Sandbox

I've been talking a lot about running D and with no established plot lines lately and I've got a lot of great feedback on my video about sandbox style games which is great but I did see some comments on there that raised concerns about sandbox games a lot of the comments were sort of centered around them often feeling directionless and the players just sort of wander about and eventually get bored and the game kind of dies out that absolutely can happen in a Sandbox game and I think it really comes down to the lack of two main items the first is the GM's execution of the sandbox how they design it and how they're running it at the table and then two how the players are approaching a Sandbox game on the latter I've done a video about sort of that sandbox player mindset and it really sort of talks about different things that the players need to look at they need to be proactive and really sort of Drive the story forward on their own by taking the initiative I'll link the video up here if you want to check that one out on the former the GM's execution well we're going to be talking about that in this video and another one soon that really sort of talk about sort of a two-stage approach that the game master can do to make the sandbox a lot more engaging for your players the other issue that people really kind of talked about was the idea of the sandbox and they seem to think that it really needed to be this like 100% pure untainted by the game master situation and they sort of acted as if the game master is just there as this sort of meat computer that solely reacts to the player's choices and spit outs the sort of unemotional output I think that's a real misconception and one that I'll try to clear up here you can play your sandbox game that way if you want but if you do I think those commenters are right you're going to have sort of this soulless game and it's going to become very boring quite quickly which is why you as the game master need to do your prep work and execute on your Visions correctly so that the sandbox is fun and engaging for you and your players you as the game master do take an active role in directing the game but what you don't do is force the players down a linear storyline present the setting with a lot of fun and Intrigue and some gentle nudges on things that the players might want to check out and they'll engage with it present a setting with your hands off the wheel because you don't want to corrupt their experience or Rob them of their Free Will well you're going to have a directional and Bland sandbox to make your sandbox pop you need a two-stage approach first you have the design work for the sandbox that happens before the campaign starts by giving some forethought to your campaign before you get started running at the table your sandbox will have a much better support system than otherwise you can iterate on on this work as you get your game underway and you probably should so you're not inundated with too much work before you actually get to the table but you need to have something there before you get started because that will really sort of help you with running the game and providing good context for what your game is all about second you need to guide and direct the players and coordinate the consequences of their actions once they've started playing in the sandbox hi welcome aboard the Earth mode I'm Randall today we're going to be talking about the first step which is really setting the stage for your sandbox to make it successful the first element of your sandbox you need to consider is theme theme is the central ideas and Concepts that you want to explore and develop throughout your sandbox when I'm talking about theme in this case you can have both abstract level themes things like struggle for justice or you can have VAR on the nose themes like fairies in a dark woods to me and for the purposes of this discussion you can use one or both of those types and blend them together how you see fit as you're developing your sandbox themes are sort of like the fabric that you'll be using to make your sandbox they help support you and guide your decision- making when it comes to the Future choices in your sandbox you really can refer back to your themes to make make sure that when you're making sort of these micro level decisions on different design aspects of your sandbox they really blend and tie in well with the different themes you're trying to explore and develop and discuss within your sandbox of course you can break the rules and sort of add things into your sandbox that sort of go counterintuitive to the themes that you're trying to explore or talk about but you need to do that in sort of a thoughtful way that really makes a lot of sense or adds sort of a nice twist to the sandbox as you develop your sandbox and consider the themes that you're trying to explore within if you want to run a game in a dark and Grim world like the lands in between from Elden ring well it'd be a really weird choice to add in a bustling Cosmopolitan city of merchant princes that just doesn't fit with the theme of Elden ring or sort of that Grim dark kind of essence so the choices that you're making for your theme within your sandbox really need to Jive and line up with your other design decisions our themes will help inform our game setting setting is the world that your players will be interacting with at the gaming table when I'm talking about setting I mean geography kingdoms and States cultures societies histories religion creature choices and so on these are the elements that give your player an understanding of how they can interact interact within the game world and with the different elements within your game World the setting and themes will inform the types of NPCs and factions you will create and you can argue that NPCs and factions are a part of the setting and I do agree with that to some extent but I also think that they are sort of crafted as a product of the other elements within your setting so to me they're kind of this special category where once you've considered your themes and the other aspects of your setting you're really going to start to develop your NPCs and the characters that live within the world setting is important for making a great sandbox that gives your players Direction the setting is with supplying those different oh that's interesting type moments and it's applying the conflicts and the tensions that are omnipresent around the players so once they start pulling on threads or lighting fuses there's going to be some powder kegs that explode and really sort of set the sandbox in motion it gives you the cont EXT to build those Dynamic elements within your sandbox and really sort of tie the different setting elements with your themes to make it come alive for your players if you're enjoying this video then you could help me in building my channel by hitting the like button and consider subscribing if you'd like to see more content like this in the future once the players start poking around they're going to start bouncing off some conflicts and set different elements in motion I've done another video on conflict and why it's so important I'll put a link to it up here so I won't dive too deep into conflict in this video but conflict is what drives all stories even ones that are of the emergent and organic variety so you need to consider conflicts in your sandbox the types of conflicts you will want in your game will be determined by the themes you set and the setting you've defined for your sandbox conflict between Waring kingdoms and the atrocities of War make sense in a sandbox that is a battle torn land but they probably don't make much sense in a sandbox that is about exploring an unknown Frontier the conflicts that you're presenting in the sandbox should give your players opportunities to create enemies and allies with other factions and NPCs in the sandbox and really sort of develop those relationships as they continue to play the game at the table conflict is one way to give your sandbox some teeth and direction for the players but it's not the only element that will help with that secrets and Mysteries are another fun element for players your players like being clever and solving problems they want to know the why behind things so if you can establish some setting level secrets or mysteries for your players that can be a great motivation for them to learn more about your sandbox and guide their actions within it looking at dolman wood and established sandbox campaign setting by necrotic gnome there are several Mysteries and secrets going on who is the nagler and what is their purpose in dolman Wood what's up with the dolman standing stones through the woods and why are the drun so protective of them who are the fairy and why did the cold Prince Retreat from dolman woods so long ago and many more these are just a great example of good secrets in history kind of being layered into a Sandbox that lets your players explore and learn pieces of information and try to enover more and give them different Hooks and directions that they can take the sandbox as they continue to dive further into it doing some pre-work on your setting design and establishing some Mysteries is going to make your sandbox a lot more compelling to your players and it's going to help you tie different locations and factions and NPCs together based off of your themes and the different secrets that you're trying to lay within and you don't even have to have the answers to your Mysteries before you start playing the sandbox you just need to have an idea of what they are so you can start thinking about them and how to incorporate those elements within your locations and NPCs and you can sort of build and iterate on them as you go even if you sort of think about what your mystery is to start with maybe you'll come up with a better idea later as you continue to play the game that's totally fine maybe some of the information about the mystery was a red herring but there's more that they can learn and and find that maybe you know something was sort of a falsehood but now they can find sort of more of a truth around the mystery and just sort of build off of that way so don't worry about having these perfect Mysteries or Secrets before you get started just get some general ideas down so you can refer to them as you're building your setting it'll make it a lot more interesting and I'll give your players something to really dive into in addition to the conflicts that they have going on with the different factions speaking of dolman wood if you choose to run a published setting then a lot of this stage setting work is done for you this is a great option for game Masters who want to run sandbox games but don't have the time or the energy to put into developing the setting before or during an active campaign I get it a lot of people have busy lives and it can be a lot of work to develop a campaign so going the pre-published way can be a great option for you there's lots of good sandboxes out there and really start to use at the table no problem whatsoever there's a lot of variety in settings too so you can find one that fits your interests along with the interests of your players however you do still need to familiarize yourself with the material material beforehand understand the themes setting conflicts and secrets of the pre-published setting that you selected that way you are still prepared to present the world to the players in the most engaging way possible and that will get them invested in the world you are running and hopefully your sandbox can flourish from there give some forethought to the types of themes you want to explore within your campaign use those themes to inform the type of setting you want to run your game and build that out from there once you have that General structure and information in place you can start to define the macro level conflicts secrets and Mysteries that are present within your sandbox if you don't do that pre-work the chances of your sandbox being boring and falling flat are going to be a lot higher you don't have to do a ton of work to start with either a simple outline defining some of these elements will give you a strong Foundation to start creating from I think it's a perfectly great idea to start your campaign small and build it out as your players continue to explore the world and take different interests in different things that you're presenting within the sandbox if you don't have any outline to go off of then you might have trouble weaving together these different elements into a compelling sandbox for your players that outline can really just sort of help you reference back and reduce the mental load and energy it takes to make different design decisions If you're sort of just ripping off the cuff your sandbox with no prep work or outline whatsoever so consider that outline consider your themes and your setting it'll just make it a lot easier as you continue to build it out if you enjoyed the video please give it a like and consider subscribing if you want to see my next video where we talk about how to steer the sandbox once you have it up and running thanks for watching and I will see you aboard the Earth vote again soon

Channel: Earthmote

Views: 14,444

Keywords: ose, dnd, dungeons and dragons, old school essentials, osr, old school gaming, BX, B/X, Basic Expert, TSR, Necrotic Gnome, WoTC, Wizards of the Coast, 5th Edition, 5e, 5e D&D, 5e Dungeons and Dragons, sandbox campaign, sandbox game, Player Character, PC, Sandbox PC, storytelling, emergent story, emergent storytelling

Id: P906g4RPmo0

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 02 2024