Prepping for a (WoD1) sandbox.

[Evlyn]

Hello, I am prepping for a old World of Darkness play by forum. I want to play the game in a sandbox. I have re-read the "sandbox adventures" thread and I wonder if how I am planing to prep will help or hinder my game.

I will be playing on a french forum dedicated to play by forums games. The community feature so far ongoings games of Call of Cthulhu, Trinity, Midnight, Vampire Dark Age, Star Wars and will soon open a forum to play the various titles of the old World of Darkness.

The choice of games titles is limited since the community build a dedicated forum for each titles, where the games are played and where players and game referees can read each other games and exchange about those game. I decided to host a game on one of those forum to profit from the community pool of players and social environment. (Since I already interact and exchange with some members of that community).

I don't know who will be my players. I have to post on the main forum to announce my game, and if I have 3 players (or maybe more) a subforum will be opened for me on the WoD forum where I will be able to run my game. So I am conscious, that I will need to clearly state my creative agenda to attract players who want to share it.

I want to run a sandbox game featuring the Ananasi: the werespiders. I will be using the WoD1 rules, but I am not attached to them.

What I have prep so far: All the players will be part of a family of werespiders. This family reside in a rural setting, but decided or are forced to move into a big city. Moving into the big city is a big change for the whole family. Players characters can be siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, parents, etc. The only family role they can't take is the role of the family matriarch.

I ask myself, should I create a detailed family and ask them to insert their character in the family? Or should I let them build the family together as they are creating their characters?

Should I prep all the setting alone, or should I build it all with the players? ( I assume it will be a mix of the two)

Should I keep for myself the motivations of the npc and some "secrets" or should I present everything to the pc?  I have a feeling that I should present them all the elements of the setting from the start, even the opposition (stuff their characters don't know) to help the players build their drive.

Should I ask for characters goals or "bangs"? What should/can I prep to hyper charge the setting without being GM-centric?

Will the WoD build-in setting and game system hinder me too much to run a sandbox game? Will I be lacking too much useful game system tools? (This is maybe off-thread)

I want to run this game because: the PbF community can provide me PbF players, I want to be part of that french PbF community since I have a good time exchanging with them, I love werespiders, I want to play with a sandbox setting.


 

[Frank Tarcikowski]

i]do<

[Evlyn]

Thanks Frank, you confirm in general what I had in mind.
I will prep the family and the city. And adjust stuff to connect it with the characters.
I think that I will expose some npc motivation and some city elements before character creation. But I will keep some stuff for myself. 

I don't feel like prepping a lot of stats, I will just prep the essential to define the npc in general, and add some detail when needed during gameplay. I agree that PbF is more easy on preparation, but you have to consider the limit of it slow pacing rhythm.


Here, I have some question about the sandbox technique in general.

Do defining clear player character goals during character creation is essential? Is it in fact the essential part of prepping a sandbox? Or do build-in character conflicts will suffice?

Is it possible to prep a sandbox to be a short or long term experience? Do sandbox need by definition to be a long term experience (since player need time to explore the sandbox)? Considering the slow pace of PbF, maybe I should try to prep a sandbox where the setting is really hyper charged, so that exploration will quickly activate character screwdown? Hum, maybe the family theme is not best suited for a (relative) short term sandbox experience. I need to think about it.

Maybe I could do episodes? The sandbox technique is compatible with a episodic structure? Prime time adventure rely a lot on the sandbox technique?

[Frank Tarcikowski]

quote]Do defining clear player character goals during character creation is essential? Is it in fact the essential part of prepping a sandbox? Or do build-in character conflicts will suffice? Quote

[Evlyn]

Thanks again for the reply Frank. (Yesterday, I have read your old thread [Vampire 2E Sabbat] Of Evil and of Simulationism.)

But I don't know anymore if I want to run my game.
Last night, I tried to prep my setting and my NPC, so I found myself re-reading the ananasi sourcebook and other werewolf related sourcebooks. In the end I was really confused about the setting, about factions motivation and goals, about how npc fit in the game world, etc, etc, etc... I won't go into the details, but I had a big headache. I also felt that If I want players who are new to the World of Darkness, they need to assimilate nearly a entire culture to play their characters and to interact with their character society. I felt like there was too much noise within the game setting and the game mechanic.

I kind of knew that from the start. But I though that it would be easier to use the game setting material. I don't know, I though that rich game material equal a lot of interesting material to place in a sandbox. I think I will sleep on this. But I don't feel anymore like running this game. And I need to clear my head. But, hey sandboxing is still really interesting. 

 

[Frank Tarcikowski]

Hey, no problem. Picture me with a raised eyebrow when I read about werespiders. I figured you were playing with a bunch of total WoD nerds. If these people are beginners, why not just play a straight game of Vampire or Werewolf without any crossovers? They're not really intended, nor well suited, for crossovers.

- Frank

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

There's another possibility: take anything you like about the were-spiders in the sourcebooks and isolate them, with no other supernatural stuff involved at all. Forget everything about the factions and other types of were-whatevers, in fact, the entire history in the setting. It's a new setting with no extra special stuff: just you and the were-spiders and normal people.

It will still require some preparation time, for sure. You might have to extract and partially write your own little "our game" book to use as a shared reference. Still, you can be sure that anything you and the group will use is what you (and with any luck they too) find genuinely interesting.

What do you think of that option?

Best, Ron

[Evlyn]

Frank, you are right about werespiders. They are maybe too WoD nerdy :p
When I looked at their book, I first though about the section female story in Sex and Sorcery. I wanted to do something about pregnancy, family ties, eggs, birth control, spider reproduction. Hum. Well also in general I like insects and spiders so I though, ok it could be fun to do something with werespiders, the weavers, spiders spirits, etc... and move away from the garou.
But I was maybe thinking too much about myself without considering my potential players (they could be a mix of WoD nerds and non-WoD gamers).

Ron, I could do that, I have nothing again the idea. But maybe I need to revise my goals.
Hum, I think I want: 1) to play on the community forum, 2) experiment with the sandbox technique.
After reflexion I think that those two points are more important than using the werespiders or exploring female stories themes.
The werespiders are maybe just interference to my 2 main goals.

I think I will ask the players to play normal humans.

So back to the sandbox, I think I need to focus more on a location than on a specie of creatures. I could run a game about a hospital, where all the players are part of the staff. So the hospital would be my sandbox. I know that sandbox are not defined by physical location, but I think it would help me to try the technique on a small location. I am also tempted by the idea of running a game about a shopping mall. There was something in one of the sourcebook about a shopping mall line where the malls are so identical that sometime reality confound them and some weird correspondence phenomenon happen. But this is more delicate to use than the hospital setting.   

Anyway, I need to think more about this. 

[Frank Tarcikowski]

Family and mating is also pretty big in Werewolf, but I understand the fascination of... bugs. Now that you mention Sex & Sorcery, did you read the Azk'Arn setting? It's pretty much exactly what you're talking about. When I read it, my first thought was, man, this is advanced role-playing. It really is! All the symbolism going on and all the alien stuff you need to get a grasp on.

(Well, truth to be told, my first thought was, man, you're really a biology professor, aren't you? But my second thought was what I wrote above.)

- Frank

[Evlyn]

I wish I was a biology professor! :-p
Insects are so fascinating at so many level. I really enjoy drawing them.
Yup, I will ask again my friend for the book and I will re-read the chapter on Azk'Arn, but I wont adventure that far with my game.
Just after posting about the hospital idea, I flashed that pregnancy/birth control and hospitals are related themes. I think I will still use the Ananasi, but as non players characters.