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Adventure Writer's Planning Sheet

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In the days of yore, Monster Manuals, Player Handbooks and Dungeon Master's Guides came with all kinds of silly forms.  No one used these save for perhaps the Blank Character Sheets, Adventure/Campaign outline forms and the ever-dreaded Blank Monster Form. I do my outlines by hand and if you are a fellow grognard who still kicks it Reagan Era, snap up this little jewel before the greed dwarf claims it. ...Ah the days when "dwarf" was a class...

Facebook: Jeromy Schulz-Arnold, Twitter: @JeromySchulz, Instagram: @jeromyschulzarnold

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If you enjoyed this product, why not try Blank Monster Form and Mapper's Block?

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Thomas B March 26, 2019 9:28 pm UTC
Many official adventures work by having a plot, some set encounters, and some set outcomes. The design is almost like writing a story or book or creating to the infamous Three Act structure.

But some of us are more into sandboxes. In a sandbox, the approach could be fairly different. A bunch of places of interest may exist, a bunch of actors may exist with agendas, and there could be some notions of what sort of interactions may occur sans players, but players have a lot more agency than in pre-plotted adventures (where you kind of buy in or the DM has to put a away his pre-set module and wing it).

With that additional agency that sandboxes provide (and that some players love - not necessarily the right thing for all groups or players), your adventure design becomes about throwing out hooks and opportunities (or events) and then the players decide how they will react - if at all. They have a lot of latitude in their reactions and this would normally badly bust pre-set plots and encounters...See more
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Jeromy S April 20, 2019 4:58 pm UTC
CREATOR
Kaladorn O.,
Sorry for the delay in the reply.
Thank you for the comment. I always appreciate feedback. I read the entire post and would like to offer a reply (not a rebuttal).
As you pointed out this product was not designed for sandbox gaming though one may find a use for certain portions of it in planning encounters as part of a sandbox campaign. I tried sandboxing a few times but found it exhausting. I found your observations of sandbox games to be accurate. I may attempt to craft a version of this product for sandbox games, but honestly, I think you could easily do it.
I offer an invitation for you to link a product like this of yours “with sandbox gaming in mind” here in the comments. If you haven't written one, or don't want to, but have found something you like, link it. I will check it out. If I like it, I might link it and suggest it in my product description as sort of a dovetail piece (with the author's permission of course). I do a lot of collaborative work and I truly...See more
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Thomas B May 10, 2019 6:30 am UTC
You do have to integrate the players early and with some depth so they and the world can have some alignment. Mind you, I've seen problems with that in any sort of deeply developed world with players coming in who don't understand the tapestry and who have in mind to do something else. Early on, you need to establish a common premise.

As an SF example, I'm setting up a Traveller game and in a single system with no jump drives. The context is not the default 3rd Imperium campaign setting. We were looking for something more hard-science and with a little less span of tech/culture (Traveller has everything from cave men to advanced starfaring races and every sort of culture you can conceive as a result). No aliens, just humans, uplifts, genetic mods, and some NPC high-function A.I.s. To set that up, you need to get the team together around a team concept and then people can build characters around that. Ours was "Magnum PI" - rich patron with access to property, land, and vehicles who only...See more
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Jeromy S May 15, 2019 12:21 am UTC
CREATOR
There isn't really a "like" or "heart" button but consider it "hearted".
So I have to say that the idea for a Traveller SF sandbox based on "Magnum, PI" is the most creative idea I've heard in a while! I've played Traveller a time of two so the rules are a bit fuzzy, thank you for the refresher later on. I have a hard time getting players to invest in the setting. If this is working for you then I will try it with my next sandbox.
You make a good point some rules systems being easier to play sandbox in than others. The problem I have is getting players to want to try another systems. I showed them Call of Cthulhu since they enjoyed Arkham Horror and they said "Wow, that's cool, we should play a Lovecraftian 5e game." Now, the CoC and Basic Roleplaying (BRP) are the same system. I case you aren't familiar with it, it's percentile based. Say you have a 35% in Auto Repair, you roll 1d100 and if you roll a 35 or less you fix the car. They added some new...See more
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Thomas B October 04, 2019 6:48 am UTC
I have had the pleasure of playing in one BRP CoC game with other experienced players and GM. It was quite wonderful. The early description of the game hooked me ("The game where running away quickly is a very important skill.").

You know, in thinking about it, D&D can be sandbox. Really, if you don't use big arc adventure paths, and you use the same sandbox strategy (know some key things about the world, know some key things about the major provocateurs and potential nemesis types that are in the region your players are in and what they are trying to accomplish, maybe knock up a few sort of 'plop in' encounters that prime the pump or dangle the plot hook), it can work.

The main thing about sandboxing is: the GM/DM does not wish to drive the direction of the adventure and must not.

You present some hooks (one or more) and then you ask the players: What do you want to do next?

Options tend to boil down to:
A) Follow the dangled hook...See more
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File Last Updated:
December 28, 2016
This title was added to our catalog on December 28, 2016.