[gurps] sandbox / open world campaigns

[Kurt Feltenberger]

Captain Joy wrote:
>>>> Are there any guides for creating sandbox / open world campaigns?
>
> I'm not very good at this, but the other GM in our group is. Based on 
> my observations of him, I'd advise the following. Be aware this advice 
> comes 2nd hand.
>
> 1. Expend to spend significant amounts of time and effort fleshing out 
> your campaign world.
> 2. Come up with several big threads/arcs that are affecting the game 
> world allow them to come to the attention of your PCs.
> 3. Provide your players with lots of background material so that they 
> can make informed decisions.
> 4. Get your PCs to decide what they want to do next (e.g. via e-mail) 
> *before* the next gaming session.
> 5. Have ideas in place to force the action if they seem bored or 
> unsure about what to do next.
> 6. Have some exciting (random?) encounters at the ready to slow them 
> down if they start down a path you're not ready for yet.
> 7. The motives of your NPCs is of paramount concern; you should alway 
> be confident about who your NPCs will react to any situation.
> -- 

I've run this style of game since about three months after I started 
playing D&D in the late 70s. My goal when I develop a campaign is to 
have a couple big threads, several medium threads, and a fair bit of 
small threads for the players to interact with. As a friend one said, "I 
run a world when I DM, not some boring linear B follows A module." If 
the players don't pick up the hints and rumors early on for the "big" 
event, they'll get them sooner or later and the time crunch will be more 
pronounced.

Usually I map out an area, create some towns, villages and a city or two 
(if its fantasy, larger areas in slightly less detail if it's modern) 
and create a number of NPCs. I have no problem creating NPCs on the fly 
or developing new towns or encounters because I know my world. Some of 
my best story elements have been developed this way and NPCs that were 
created with 30 seconds of thought often become integral to the story - 
more so than the ones I spent time and effort developing.

I've found, for me, that planning things out in detail often makes the 
game behave like a car with wheels that are severely out of alignment; 
I'm fighting just to keep it going straight.

For me, there's a sense of "what's over that hill?" that's present in a 
"sandbox" style game that isn't there (for a player or a GM) in a linear 
campaign. As a player, I absolutely detest when I have to do things and 
don't feel like I have a choice in the matter. So why would I subject my 
players to this? In the 30 years or more that I've been gaming, I've had 
very few people complain about my games. Those couple who did usually 
wanted a waiting line of "monsters" so they could kill them for 
experience and treasure and didn't care about role playing.

Just my views.

-- 
Kurt Feltenberger
kurt at thepaw.org/kfeltenberger at yahoo.com // http://www.teotwawki.net

“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough."  - Me