Digging up an old Thread on Sandbox Adventures

[hoefer]

Well, some of you might remember, a long time ago (2 years?) I had started a thread about a test-play that was supposed to be "sandbox" in nature and it just dragged on to the point I as a GM had to force the characters into a climax.  For those who weren't around for the thread, it wasn't that the players weren't engaged, but it was that they were kind of testing the bounds of setting they were in, without ever stepping into enough trouble I could move the story into a climax.  I guess you could say they were having too much fun exploring their possibilities in this setting to take any overly-drastic actions.

I tried to move the thread into a question of how to generate a rewarding climax within a sandbox setting, and Ron gave some suggestions on how to make the NPCs  ever-pressing on with their own objectives and forcing the PCs into making a stand one-way or another (I know this isn't a very eloquent summary of our conversations Ron -sorry).  From there I tried to pose the question of how a publisher could develop this within a prewriten adventure to be organized and useful to the consumer.  The thread sort of fell apart at that point and other things took me away from this.  Now, I've had time to go back and rewrite that adventure for free download on my site.  Originally the adventure was called Son of Nemo, but it now is entitled Captives in the Court of the Sky Lord.  For those interested, read through its set up and tell me what you think.  You can download it here: http://wholesumentertainment.com/downloadspage.html.  Chapter 3, Scene 3 starts the Sandbox portion of the game.  Do you think the plottings there and the bulleted motivations in the character write-ups is enough?  What more does a narrator need (want) to help charge up a plot within a sandbox adventure?  Any suggestions?


Louis Hoefer
Whole Sum Entertainment