What's Difficult With The Sandbox

Many people learn from their mistakes. Most of them are also able to learn from other's mistakes. I'm different, for I have to fail in first-person to learn from a mistake. For instance, if anyone says (advisedly) not to do something, I usually do it anyway. For example, when I was three and my mother told me not to touch the teggia* for it was scalding, I touched it anyway. It was a very formative experience. By the way, my point is that it usually takes me a long time to get into something. Stupidly enough, when I decided to run a sandbox campaign of my own nearly a year ago, I didn't read much about the topic except Carcosa. And yes, I was such an idiot that I wanted to run my own despite the fact I had acquired the amazing Rob Conely's Majestic Wilderlands. So, to be honest, it was a predictable fail.

What really went wrong with that campaign was, in the final examination (or, better, actual final examination): a) the fact that I tried to run it as slightly rail-roaded and b) the fact that I didn't have very clear ideas about the setting itself. In this post, I'm going to focus on the b-factor.

When you run a sandbox campaign, you don't really know how things are going to develop. Perhaps your players are going to go here, or not, perhaps your players are going to do that, or not. Perhaps your players are going to kill The NPC and all your work turns to shit. There are so two factors that look to be vital when preparing this kind of game:

1. Remember that every NPC is expendable;
2. Have really accurate ideas about the setting.

The last is about the most important. A sandbox certainly requires an impressive amount of improvisation, for who on earth is able to paint the most minute details? Yeah Tolkien or M.A.R. Barker maybe, and maybe even you, but definitely not me. Also, you have to maintain coherence, because every bullshit thing you say is going to leave a lasting impression in the player's mind, and may pursue you for a very long, long time. Still, you have to be creative! And this cocktail of skills is nearly impossible to achieve unless you are in the very best right-minded conditions.

I think one very good way to manage to do everything (nay, not everything, just something) right is to really be inspired. You have to work in a world you are "discovering" along with your players rather than inventing. Moreover, you have to leave it open to your players to flesh out. The only way to measure if you are doing it right or wrong is whether or not your players are able to figure out the world on their own, and how close their vision is to yours. Also, for god's sake use what the community provides you! For instance, the very fucking amazing Old School Encounters by Kellri. Ok, maybe it makes for too much greyhawkery, but it's WAAAAY great. Seriously, you can run a (not so pretentious) sandbox campaign on the spur of the moment with only that book and your ruleset of choice!

Also, at least the first few times, keep it as simple and by the book as possible! Seriously, you already have enough problems with making the sandbox work to be worried about new rules design.

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*A "teggia" is a type of pan typical of the Italian region my father's family comes from, Romagna (not Emilia Romagna, just Romagna). It's usually made of ceramic or cast iron (modern ones are of cast iron) and it's used to prepare the "piadina", which is a Romagna dish similar to tortillas, but made with lard, flour and water. A variation of this dish are the "cassone", which is similar to a "calzone" but made using a big piadina and stuffed with country herbs.

Mmmmh... Cassoni...