I've just gotten a bunch of players together and when I asked them what sort of game they were interested in they said they would prefer an open world/sandboxy style game.
So I started with a couple of scripted encounters to get them introduced to the loose plot that will govern the campaign and then I basically gave them the map to the Inner Sea of Golarion and said where do you wanna go.
So basically I was wondering if any body had any tips for running this type of campaign, how much should I prepare, is there any good ways to develop quests without getting bogged down?
Has anyone had experiences with these types of campaigns and give me their verdict on what went well and what went wrong?
I also wondered if there was any good ways of simulating travelling without it getting a drag, because there is going to be a lot of it obviously.
Thanks in advance for any answers :)
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I've always played in a sandbox style campaigns. Never had the opportunity to try an AP or something similar, although we've had the AP converted for more sandbox style.
Either way be prepared for surprises. That's easy enought to say about any game, I know, but when you open the metaphorical floodgates on what the campaign is sorta going to be, you need to be more keen on potential surprises. Both good and bad.
Also, it's a good idea to plan out a lot of what the overall arc, theme, locations, names, that sort of thing, beforehand. Not every detail, but a good rough estimate of the foreseeable future.
As for helping with traveling many times I use details in the terrain to open up new stimuli to the group. Many times dmsmwill say " ok so you walk he 3 miles to the other town. Nothing happened on the way. ( or they might say how the scenery is nice but still nothing eventful). On the other hand, if you were to allow a perception check every once in a while, if applicable (if your in a desert let's say, and our surrounded by nothing there's very little to improve upon), that might allow you to throw out some possible plot hooks, or little side quests or something. This is a lot easier and more meaningful at lower levels. At higher levels travel becomes less tedious and more direct because there are better ways toget the group more immersed in the world than travel hooks.
As for quests, use the characters background for a starting point or even an arc ending issue. Once that is resolved, use earlier issues, points of adventure to have rip
Le effects throughout the campaign, just like real life. It can be as big or small as you want. From there use that as another point of issue, and have that become its own quest. And grow from there using previous quests. I call it the snowball effect for campaigns that don't have a good foot hold start, or want to start bare. If none of that is to your liking, or even for more quests, use a mission board. Many guilds, tabernacle, city halls, Town courtyard will have a wanted board, or job board. Since they are open jobs to the public it's an easy way for your party to get involved in the world Ina bigger way and for them to start developing the group as a whole. After a while that might get boring. It has happened to my gaming group many times. Just like I mentioned earlier about the ripple effect, use it here now. Once the group has established themselves as a force, trust me they will if they get past level 4 or 5 and they get to be more known, there will be positive and negative ripples playing at work.
For instance, if there are pirates and on the job board the town asks for someone to capture or kill the pirates and try to get back some of the stuff they have been stealing from incoming and leaving merchant ships then your party might think about doing that job. If they do, no problem they get dp, loot, gold, etc. However, what they don't know is that that ship is part of a pirate ring, or group, or a fleet of some sort, where that is just a division captain of some major pirate smuggler who has an alias like "The River Spider". He now takes notice of one of his ships being taken out, so he sneds another one or two to investigate. Presto! Instant campaign arc full of quests for your pcs.
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The above advice is fantastic and a job board is really the best way, I think, to run a sandbox game. If you get stuck for adventure hooks I recommend taking a look at the Pathfinder Society scenarios. They are small, scattered everywhere in the Inner Sea, and some in Tian Xia, and they only cost a few dollars. The job board can easily replace the Pathfinders, or perhaps were posted by the Pathfinders.
The Inner Sea is a HUGE place to sandbox in. I've been considering a sandbox game for one of my groups but I was going to set it in Varisia since it seems tailor made for sandboxes with its scattered ruins and interesting and unconnected adventure sites. Varisia is about the size of Texas where the Inner Sea is about the size of North America. That's a lot of geography so scaling the sandbox down a bit might make your job easier without taking away any of the fun from your players since they won't be so overwhelmed with locations and options.
Thanks for the help everyone some fantastic ideas.
I never thought of using a Job board so I have put one of those in for the next place they are travelling to.
They have thankfully made it really easy for me to use their earlier mistakes to start that snowballing effect. So that should start some quite interesting encounters.
I did consider scaling it down a bit but I think me and the group are quite happy with the openness of it all at the minute. But you never know they might decide to settle haha.
Yep I think ending with the travelling decision is a fantastic idea. I might even try and get there general plans of future places they wish to travel to maybe 2 or 3 sessions down the line.
Thanks for the great input really helped haha.
Oh and thanks Paizo for creating such a fantastic setting to play in.
In addition to the above, give 2-4 plot hooks at a time and let the players decide what they think it's most important. This gives a nice sandbox feel but is more like multiple tracks you can prepare for. Later you may or may not adjust unchosen ideas to use later.
Accept that players will come up with different ways than you plan to solve problems. After a while I stopped trying to plan potential solutions to problems because they so often did things I didn't expect.