Of Sandboxes and Railroads, part 2

Continuing the series

On the other hand you have the sandbox and there seems to be a ton of misunderstanding about what a sandbox is and how it works. Some people even go so far as to claim there is no such thing as a real sandbox. One place claims that when the DM says "you can do what you want, my world is a sandbox" that the DM is deceiving the players and they they just have to figure what the DM wants them to do and then climb on the appropriate railroad.

A lot of this starts with the misconception that a sandbox is a featureless desert with nothing but sand in every direction, so that when the players are told to do whatever you want, of course they are clueless becuase there is nothing to do in sandbox and that is why they don't exist. Of course this could not be further from the truth.

I am only going to look at one misconception today, the one that says there are no "adventure hooks" in a sandbox and there is only a pile of sand. That is completely incorrect and those who profess that view are either to be charitable "ignorant" or to be uncharitable "deliberately spreading false information." I sincerely hope that none of you fall into the second category and I trust that you do not.

"Adventure hooks" are a primary feature of a real sandbox. The better the quality of the sandbox the more "adventure hooks" there are. You see a sandbox is a living world and to model a living world prefectly there would be infinite "adventure hooks." Of course you could not do that, even if you worked at it full time. I will have much more to write about this in future posts.

The other part of this is the confusion of "adventure hooks" and "plot hooks," because they are not the same thing at all. "Adventure hooks" are options that the players can choose to pursue or not as they will. But a "plot hook" carries the meaning of "expectation" that the players will do thus and such and it also carries the meaning of an attached "agenda" by the DM that the players will do this and go here and then do this and go here and ultimately they will end up over hear and this will result.

Of Sandboxes and Railroads, part 1

Regarding the topic of Sandboxes and Railroads, I have many thoughts that I would like to express and I will do so over the weeks and months ahead as the whim strikes me.

Regarding Railroads, I have been reading blog posts here and there and many of them have things in common. The player wants to have his character take an action and the DM heads that off by saying that the PC would not do that. Then the DM will conclude by telling the player what their PC is going to do instead. That is classic railroading where the players decisions and choices mean nothing and the DM overrules the player at every turn to keep things on the railroad.

Now there are two responses to this, one is the response I have seen repeatedly where both DMs and players say they like railroads, why I am never quite sure. There seems to be an expectation that everything is supposed to go a certain way and that gives them comfort in some strange way.

The other response is for players who like to make choices and go anywhere they want, these players will usually vote with their feet and find a different DM to play with.

I have also seen comments to the effect that the opposite of a railroad is to let the players do what they want, even if it messes up the plans the DM had. What is never really explained to my satisfaction is this assumption that the DM should have plans. It seems that some people think the solution to a railroad is not to eliminate railroads, but to have multiple railroads in the form of purchased modules, then you don't have to force the players onto a specific railroad, but instead allow them to choose which railroad and how this empowers players by giving them choices that matter.

I beg to differ, having three railroads is not meaningly different than having one railroad, yes I understand it gives the players a small modicum of choice, but still nothing that really matters.

Someone said that to avoid railroading you have to be willing to put hours and hours into things and then be OK if the they walk away from it. Then they say just reuse it another day and don't let the players know you are doing it. Right a little deceit here or there is no biggie, right! I'm sorry as a player that doesn't work for me. If Dungeon X is located below Castle Y 150 miles southwest of Starter Town, then that is what its location should always be and maybe the PCs will go there someday or maybe they won't. Moving it in front of whatever direction the players decide to travel is IMO as both a player and a DM, what is referred to as "cheating." IMO don't "cheat."

Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction and how it affects World Building

I am a big fan of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction and I like the influence it has had on my home-brewed worlds and on my campaigns. While I enjoy stories about the apocalyse taking place, I enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction even more, the story of what takes place after the "end."

Of the pre-1900 books my favorites are Mary Shelley's novel, The Last Man, H. G. Wells' novel, The Time Machine and Richard Jefferies' novel, After London. These are all free on line if you are interested.

Of the post-1900 books my favorites are Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer's novel When Worlds Collide and After Worlds Collide, Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven's novel, Lucifer's Hammer, John Wyndham's novel, The Day of the Triffids, Richard Matheson's novel, I Am Legend, Andre Norton’s novel, Star Man’s Son, Walter M. Miller Jr.'s novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz, David Brin's novel, The Postman, George R. Stewart's novel, Earth Abides, Robert Adams, The Horseclans series and Sterling E. Lanier's novels Hiero's Journey and The Unforsaken Hiero.

Though there are many more, these are most of my favorites.

One of the world building things that I like to do are image a world and flesh it out a bit, then destroy it and fully imagine what it looks like after the end. You can generate some interesting places to play in when you do that. On a few occasions I have did world building where I have had multiple apocalypses and then looked at the last post-apocayltic situation and what it looks like.

I will eventually be saying more about these things.