(GMing) Sandbox campaign


Advice


So I have been running an experimental sandbox campaign for the first time. Basically, I've just been populating a map with various adventures,curiosities, cities etc... I gave the PC's a map and then they were off exploring doing whatever.

The issue I'm having is without a direct story to motivate them they seem to discover something try for a couple minutes then if they don't immediately solve it, move onto something else.

Does anyone have any experience running this type of campaign? particularly in motivating the PC's to stick through something? We are only a couple sessions in so maybe they will come back to things or I just haven't found anything that has peaked their interest enough but I'm curious to hear other peoples experiences with this


Why are the PCs exploring? What's their motivation?

The Kingmaker forum, incidentally, provides some excellent reflections/advice/etc. from people who've run Paizo's sandbox adventure path.


Essentially the premise is they are members of an war band seeking to expand their warlords (and eventually become a warlord) territory, wealth and followers.

I'll take a look at the kingmaker forum. Didn't even think about that. Thanks

Sovereign Court

Start with really easy to reach goals and quests. Let the PCs build up some contacts and familiarity with the world. Eventually they will have left enough marks or made enough enemies where you can revisit areas and NPCs to build up more elaborate quests and goal lines from there.


Even though it's open and sandboxy they still need story to motivate them. When they're engaging in one of the interesting things, give them a reason not to walk away! A cursed object destroying local a ecosystem will prevent any nature themed character from walking away. Innocents crying for help and offering a reward is pretty typical.

Perhaps this is not your issue. Your description made it sound a bit like "oo interesting ruins. Hmm... Let's see what else there is".


My sandbox game has adventures tied directly to loot. Particluar types of items require you to travel to a particular place and complete x quest. It has been working really well so far.


Your described structure is actually fairly similar to Kingmaker. In Kingmaker, the PCs are tasked with exploring a territory and establishing a presence there as vassals of their patrons in Brevoy.

Even though you're not playing Kingmaker, I think you might want to encourage your players to put down roots in this region. The Kingdom-Building rules from Ultimate Campaign might be a good place to start. Once you get a little more advanced, the kingdom-building rules include provisions for building and supplying armies, then throwing those armies against your foes.

As far as getting your players interested in general, I think your best bet is to give them a directive from their patron, give them a few allies, give them a few enemies, give them a few groups somewhere in between, and then let them have at it. The key to this, though, is that these other groups should be in motion at the same time the players are. If, for example, there's a competing party of adventurers in the region (perhaps working for a rival warlord?!), this party might swoop in and do quests that your players can't be bothered with.


I threw some random things and then some stuff based on their back stories. I've been thinking a little more. I think a large part is their characters aren't really acting like their description they gave me before the campaign, so I think a may just need to give them more time the figure out their characters.

For example: One of the players is an Orc Cavalier and in his back story he is a savage warrior who is always looking for the next great foe to fell. but in the game he is playing much more like a cultured warrior (kinda samurai style).

He also stated that he really wanted to raid and take over towns. so I put a bunch of small frontier towns around their warbands camp. They approached one in daylight and the sheriff + a few guards came out to meet them. The sheriff didn't want to let a bunch of orcs into the town and told them to leave. and they just kinda listened to him and left. They talked a little bit about coming back in night when they would have the advantage but didn't pursue it.

As I mentioned though as I think on it more I think this may just be growing pains. I've run campaigns for this group before and they have always basically just gone along with the main plot hook and didn't really attempt to divulge from it, like a lot of other groups I have run for. SO maybe We just need to get used to this different style of campaign.


Hmmm I really like the rival idea... I think that would really get them motivated. and maybe I will make the promises of loot a little more overt. A lot of the time the things they find have implied loot rather than straight out saying here is money go do this.
I also like the directive of a the patron. Maybe get him to give them a specific but open ended objective like we need you to recruit fighters to replenish our ranks from the last raid.

Thanks for all the advice it's really helping


Not a problem.

Kingmaker spoilers:
I can't recommend enough that you check out at least the first volume of Kingmaker. Even though you're not running it per se, Kingmaker includes:

* An overarching plot ("Survey this area for the swordlords")
* A BBEG with his own organization (a bandit lord)
* Fleshed-out NPCs who form relationships with the players
* Existing groups (with lairs) that have their own dynamic ... which the PCs can change in the course of the adventure
* Sidequests that give the players motivation to explore.

My players and I finished up the first book (with a few tweaks) a couple months ago, and they seemed to enjoy it. At the very least, KM's structure ought to give you some ideas for setting up your own adventure.


Start with a dungeon with a lot of random encounters. They'll get loot and XP. If they're low level, then there's not a lot they can do to expand territoy anyways. They need to learn how their group works together first before they hit anything big.

In sandbox games the world happens around the PC, not the other way around. They can gain support by helping the local villagers out with the bandit problem or what have you. But ultimatly in a sandbox game, the players will do what they do. There initial "quest" so to speak may be to expand the territory, but that takes time and is pretty open ended to how they go about doing that.

Sandbox is all I run. The only thing you can do is populate, let the players determine what they do and how they go about doing it. If they're used to APs they may just be sampling the area and exploring, this is fine too. But don't forget random encounters. Those can lead to plot hooks they are open to explore. Are the Orcs they just ran into part of a larger invasion force? Maybe...

I find loot in a classic dungeon crawl to be good motivation. Take out magic shops if you have them, make if harder to get the things they want and they'll do more exploring. If you keep your players hungery they'll be more persistant in their endevors. If they get everything they want right off the bat, there's no sense of urgency to aquire the things they "need".

Place NPC adventuring groups, especially from rival warlords. They can get treasure too and the players will have to compete for loot. Maybe they come across a village thats already allied with a rival because they took care of the bandits the PC didn't take care of.

They're part of a warband, give them a salary as well, they need to get paid for thier services after all, no one works for free. If they don't do a good job, they can loose that salary and get fired, earning enemies from their former warband in the process. Avoid the whole "you get paid with the loot you aquire" thing, it's crap. They can go out and do that on their own without someone commanding them to do it. The loot should be considered a bonus. If they do a good job they can get titles from their warlord, increased salary, fallowers under a command, etc...


I've been planning out a sandboxy campaign myself, we're pretty much ready to start but haven't yet because of scheduling conflicts.

Make sure you give them something solid at the beginning, I have a starting encounter and a whole little sidequest branching from it, as well as some nearby bandit camps to look into.

As for the campaign as a whole, try to have multiple big plots that happen in different places that might change depending on whether or not the PCs get involved. Make the world seem fluid, have multiple villains doing lesser things in different places.

If you really want them to explore, make the "final" goal unknown until they learn more about it elsewhere, dropping hints and clues towards it so that they try to figure things out on their own.

That's just what I'm gonna be doing. Take advice as you see fit.

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