How to Start A Sandbox Campaign
Вставка
- Опубліковано 18 чер 2024
- These are five things I think every DM should put into their sandbox campaigns before session 1.
Like I say in the video, no sandbox needs these things but I have found that most successful sandbox campaigns explicitly or implicitly have these features.
All of the advice in this video is based on my own subjective experience. If you are already a DM and use a different method, good for you. However, this advice has worked for me and my many DnD groups for years.
THE LIST
1. A Guiding Light
2. The Starting Town
A. Tavern
B. Seat of Government or Power
C. The Shop
D. Quest Location
E. The Flair
3. A Quest
4. Mentor NPC
5. Conditions to End Your Campaign - Розваги
What are things you all do before session 1?
ua-cam.com/video/mDpoSNmey0c/v-deo.html
What's made my sandbox most successful has been making sure my players know what their goals in the world are and have some idea of how they're going to reach those goals.
I actually avoid the typical "tavern with a job board" thing. If players want a typical "get quests from people and get cash from them" thing, maybe they know each other because they started an adventuring guild in the town as a way to attract work. Maybe they started a freelance detective agency. Maybe they're working in the local lord's court. Something to give them structure rather than it just being "you met each other because there was a bar and you all have weapons" or whatever. They should work that out amongst themselves, maybe with some input from me, way before session one starts. That way, rather than fishing for things they'll find interesting, they already have an idea of what they want to be doing and have some drive to use all that player agency they're getting.
Of course I also try to get more people playing, not necessarily all at once... If you pay attention to some things in the AD&D manual it becomes clear that they were pretty much playing an MMO before MMOs were a thing. That's why keeping track of time mattered, and that's why it was relatively common for people to want to build castles and start their own towns. Having an impact on the world is more fun when other people are also running around in it.
@@colbyboucher6391 Keeping track of time is also a way to put pressure on players to keep moving. Along with the random encounter or wandering monster roll, you don't want to linger too long in one place. In addition, underground you are running out of torches and other expendable items, which is why keeping track of encumbrance and use of items is also very important.
@@captainnolan5062 100%. I was talking about larger timescales, but I think if there's anything 5e can take from older editions without changing it's identity, it's actual dungeon rules. (Sort of funny that a lot of things in 5e still have explicit time limits, and they're usually broken up in 10-minute chunks, when those rules are missing.) I like to use TheAngryGM's "tension dice" mechanic.
@@colbyboucher6391 I will check that out.
Had this great Kobold run market in one of my games I ran. Half of the stuff in the market was either junk (made to look magical), cursed, or magical (disguised to look like junk). The party figured out that the market was somehow off, but didn't figure out what was actually going on. My favorite was a "true strike arrow" which "would always hit its target", but was actually a kobold (invisible) that grabbed the arrow and ran it at whatever you were aiming at.
I will definitely be stealing the true strike arrow! Thank you for commenting
@@enterthedungeon Of course! Love your stuff my dude.
Thats totally something that would exsist in Discworld
Knowing my players they would probably strab some dynamite on it which would definitely also kill the kobold
I have played D&D since I was a kid, and I've DMed for almost 12 years now. I came to this video randomly while trying to find inspiration for my second attempt at running a West Marches game. From the title and thumbnail, I thought "okay, another sandbox advice video, it's not too long, let's just get this over with..."
What I could have never expected was to get some of the best advice, unrelated to sandboxing or WM, but general DM advice I have never heard before and never pondered by my own will.
"Campaign's that start off super serious, turn into joke fests by the end. And campaigns that start off really fun and light and airy, they become the most intense campaigns."
How I've never gotten here, and why every TTRPG sage UA-cam channel doesn't have a 15 minute video on this topic BAFFLES ME!
WOW! Instant sub! Probably the best advice for any GM, brand spanking new to seasoned veteran!
Another tip: make your players like your town's good NPCs (especially authority figures) by having the NPC be nice & give them something. Maybe a PC rolled badly for starting money; have the NPC give them something they need. Boom: friend for life.
I (accidentally) made my Mentor NPC the source of all homebrew rules and items, forgotten magic (AKA updates to spells from older editions that no longer appear in 5e), the source for tweaks and reskins to class abilities and features, and a repository of all obscure and esoteric knowledge. It pretty much guarantees that the party will also go back to the Mentor NPC, and that the Mentor NPC will always need some rare ingredient, component or item in order to turn out (for example) a potion that eliminates the need to breathe for 24 hours.
"We love to get paid" is all that's keeping me and my coworkers together
The Last point is actually very good I now can say that from experience. I run a sandbox campaign for a little more then 2 years now and I still not have an endpoint in mind but starting to realise for a while now that I definitly should at least start building toward one, really good video maybe even my favorite you ever did great work man.
As a DM of 40+ years, I would advise you to not confuse your sand box world with the current campaign. While campaigns start and end, the world goes on. I have had tremendous campaigns in the same world and one of the coolest effects is for a group of adventurers to run across the results of an earlier groups adventures. Think of LORT, there were 4 ages all occurring in the same world (sand box).
Bang on. I've been playing for decades and I spend a lot of time thinking about how campaigns should start. You've nailed it and taught me something, too.
"throw out some nonchalant bullshit and see if they bite" is basically my GMing style too :D
I would also add that the Flair needs to connect to your Guiding Light and also to the bigger plots/central tension of the region
Define campaign. Because a campaign to me, especially a sandbox, is just a series of adventures set in the same world, much like an open world PC game. The players can come and go as they wish they can use the same characters or change them as they want. There is no grand story with a start, middle and end. How can it end when new characters are entering all the time, old characters become NPCs or dungeon dressing, the world just evolves.
Perfect timing! Just starting a sandbox campaign next week
Great video! I'm glad you are uploading more, you're my favorite dnd content creator
Thank you so much. That means the world
I run my campaign in a modern SCP Style world, the furst quest had been thier first encounter with the anomalous (Well, with anomalous beings at least. Some were aware).
The reason for them staying together is that they all got "recruited" without choice into an organization called the UPA. They decided they want to cross the UPA and join another faction (some of them are half non-human and the UPA is racist towards non-humans, and the only humans is a wannabe magician and the UPA also hates magic so they all decided to leave.)
A side quest they did accidentally granted them an ally that is improsioned by the UPA and their organization is working on releasing them, and now the party is planning to convince the other organization to turn the rescue mission into a full assault (as they have insider knowledge)
A very good advice: start in a fun lighthearted way to get your players invested and then hit them with drama, dilemmas and serious plots! 👍👍
loving this January series! Keep it up!
Glad you're enjoying it! There's still many more videos left to go
You know what I like these. I think you make good points.
I had a campaign begin with my party waking in an empty town, tables set, very cozy, but abandoned, the party were all amnesiac.i realized making this set up was probably not the best for an open world, or atleast not yet. I thought I was very clever for naming it blanquemoore.
Doing an Old Western. The entire first adventure takes place on a train. They are all Outlaws on a prison Train. They have to work together to escape the train. They learn they were all framed by the same person. Player will get a feel of the system and maybe thing it's going to be little unconnected missions but at the end of the train mission it will open up into 1830s Texas. Arkansas, Louisiana border. The major settlements and such all there
I've been playing since the early 80's, we basically played sandbox with purchased modules thrown in. Like I would throw out plot hooks and if they bit I pulled out a module and we played it, or I just came up with stuff on the spot. It makes it a lot easier if people miss sessions or get bored.
07:32 Campaings that start off super serious turn into joke fests ... and campaigns that start out light and fun become the most intense campaigns" YES! This is exactly my experience as well. My first campaigns started out serious but everyone just joked around so i made it into a joke-campain and everyone got super serious.
BUT: The friendliest of NPCs have always been the ones that the PCs trust the least, right from the start. So i of course used this to bring forth NPCs that were happy and joking and suddenly trying to rip their heads off while laughing. Trust me... this + a happy and colorful world puts the fear inside the PCs. That's how i turned a jovial setting into a horror story scarier than some obvious Stradh shiet.
Is there a playlist for the series?
What is the name of part two?
This video was great!
I liked this video.
Thanks for the contnet.
There are only 2 main plot points in my open box. The near TPK were a favor is owed. And the mission to pay back that favor.
When the players are wanting to wrap up a sandbox, ask them how they want to end it. Then craft a couple of adventures that accomplish that goal.
8:30 just make them a team before the game begins, having 1 quest under their belt already and avoid cold openings.
Problem with Sandbox games for me as a DM is that I dont have players with personal goals :P Present a sandbox for campaign 2 and they were very much against it as they said, and I quote " We wouldnt know what to do" -.-
A lot of people can’t grasp the idea that there are a LOT of players that want to sit down and follow a morally compelling pre crafted adventure narrative.
If you have these kinds of players, don’t fight it, get your creative gears grinding WELL before your sessions, do some pre planning …and give ‘em the best damn storyline framework you can come up with!
I have the opposite problem. During longer purchased campaigns something will happen that gives someone an idea and that will derail the campaign. For example, one time my players ran into some cockatrices that had a nest of eggs. The module said that the players could sell the eggs for like 100gp apiece. Not my players. They were very carefully packed into a box that one of the players had in their backpack and when they got back to their base they decided they were going to start a zoo. Forget the evil presence in the forest they wanted to go back to a big town, hire some animal handlers to train them and then start adventuring to capture exotic animals.
Another time they cleared out an abandoned mine right next to a town as one of the steps in the campaign, they wanted to turn it into an underground hotel/tavern for dwarves.
I do the same thing when I play though. I derailed a campaign because I was obsessed with creating a particular magical item so I started contacting other planes to get the components and that ended the campaign very poorly. My character pulled into the Nine Hells and our castle destroyed.
It's been almost a year, where's part 2?
I noticed that you talk about "the" quest location, and "the" quest. Some would argue, I'm sure, that it's not really a sandbox if there is only one quest available at a time, and that at any time there should be a multitude (read: 3+) possible quests/things to do at any time. How would you respond to that?
Personally, I try to make sure there are three things the PCs can do at the start of a sandbox that are fully prepped. Then, there should also be rumors of other things, which are not prepped. And at the end of each session, you ask the players what they want to do next time. Then you go prep *that*. That way, the world can be totally open without the GM having to prep everything in advance.
But of course, that's just my preference, I'm not saying my way is in any way better than anyone else's.
Ahhh, I was more so trying to discuss to when players engage with a specific quest. I 100% agree a sandbox has multiple quests open at the same time. Sometimes a lot more than 3! But by no means do I think you prep only 1 thing. Although, at the start of a sandbox campaign, at least how I've run / seen them be run, there is an initiating event such as the farmer's daughter was kidnapped or your party being hired to clear out a bandit hideout.
Your method mirrors my own. However, like you said, to each their own. Thanks for commenting and I hope you stick around the channel!
I run sandboxes and here's how I handle it. Town, a quest, wandering monster tables, and a hex table. Use the downtime between sessions to prep more stuff. BX is especially good for this, as it has procedures to generate ideas. Plop in some rumor tables (Keep On The Borderlands, anyone?) and let it go. Be hands off as much as possible, only managing your NPCs and being the "laws of the universe". Let your players build your world for you and improvise when you need to. Player agency also helps refs come up with ideas between sessions. So session 1 may be just one prepped adventure, but session 2 might have more hooks for the players if they wish to follow that route.
The point is to play. When you have refs overprepping their world, they don't run them because "they're not finished yet." And they never will be. Your campaign doesn't matter if nobody plays the campaign. You will be surprised how not scripting anything will lead to continuous play that will lead to an immersive and long running game that players are invested in. The game can't run without you, but it also can't run without players. Roll some dice, and let the randomness of it all color how you run the game.
Now, get out there and roll some dice!
Jazz jam versus concerto. A lot depends on the group dynamics at play. Personally, I'd HATE to be railroaded into some schlock fantasy/sci-fi writer's wet dream.
I'm not sure what makes a game a sandbox. My game I'm running is in a homebrew city in the Sword coast, there isn't a way to travel out of the town into the sword coast. But the players can enter the Feywild or shadowfell whenever they want to & many of the quests branch out into those
One city can totally be a sandbox. They key is that you have some sort of map that's fleshed out enough that if players go somewhere they'll have something to find (or at least you'll know that nothing is there). You pretty much need boundaries to do something like that so keeping it within one city can work pretty well.
@@colbyboucher6391 yeah... I've expaned to a full blown continent now 😄
"necessity is the mother of invention." Plato. Why does your world, how can your world exist? How can your party plumb the dungeon when they have no base for beans, bolts and bandages? I have been in logistics most of my adult life. Supply till I die. PCs can be, are the prime mover in your world and influence for good and bad. I have set my campaign settlements up for that. Players bring in treasure that drives the economy that attracts investors that grease the wheels of commerce. Not to mention the nature aspect and how (or not) to live in harmony with that side. Conservation. Dionysius vs Apollo. ( fictional philosophies) RUSH hemispheres the sound trac.
DM “Yes, the magic item you are looking for Is in stock here at this shop.”
Player “Ok. I leave the shop.”
DM “But I thought you wanted to buy … oh no.”
Every...single...time...
1:00 Thread right not theat? I mean it can be a threat but I personally feel "big bads" is an overdone trope in dnd.
We play 1st edition. The campaign never ends.
Honestly I've always found sandbox campaigns as the easiest to prep
There needs to be a story on top of the sandbox lol
My years of play and DMing sandbox games/campaigns have been garbage. Almost zero consistency, no direction or continuity. Great for Murder hobos. But i am trying to open myself up to other types of games. Sigh 🙄
I agree this is mostly good advice in general... but it doesn't sound much like a classic sandbox, which is an open world and an open table. The same people may not be there Friday night that play on Tuesday night... or maybe only some. If you miss a session oh well, the Tuesday party plundered the Haunted Monastery and the Friday group slew the troll of Dismal Swamp, now those two locations are cleared. It's a "persistent world" and changes over time. PC parties go where they will. Rumor tables are important, and while there may be "quest givers" the PCs can pick and choose what rumor or plot hook to pursue in any given session, it is up to them. There isn't necessarily an overarching plotline, or at least not for a while.
You can buy magic items ?…and from a kobold…
Why not? Sell the players some low level, generic magic items. Also another great plot hook device that can lead to greater adventure opportunity. And think beyond the Std, Human, Vanilla Merchant. Why not non human merchants. It presents some very interesting adventure situations for the players. Every meeting with a non human does not automatically begin with "roll initiative for combat".
Wait a minute, 5 things I need, but you don't need them. So you don't need them, but you need them? that makes no a sense. I came here expecting what I needed, now you just lyin.
This should be called, "How to Start a Generic, Soulless Sandbox Campaign in a Flavorless Town."