Tips on making a sandbox for a one-shot
I thought it would be a neat idea to run a one-shot or more-shot with my group since an old friend is in town for a while. We're all pretty experienced roleplayers, but for this I think a rules-lite system with fast char-gen would work best. Dungeon World, Tavern Tales, and 6d6 are the choices - whichever is the easiest to print.
How do I go about making a FUN sandbox world? Map first then fill in points of interest? It's gotta be big enough to allow for at least two sessions but small enough so to not be overly effortful. Pre-made maps?
>>46854066
It's all about the hooks, man.
Sandboxes go nowhere if there are no hooks. You don't have to prepare adventures. Challenges are easy to come up with on the spot. Goon stats are enough for most combat. But without hooks the world is just bland. The players won't know what is expected of their characters. Minds won't synchronize, everyone will have a more or less coherent image in their heads, but they won't come out.
With hooks you offer the characters opportunity to position themselves, get polarized, and make decisions. This invites drama and tension, both essential to having a story come out in the end. But let's not get ahead too much.
How to make hooks? What are they? What do players do with them?
A hook is anything that makes a player ask questions. Things that strike their interest. Details that stand out. Things that leave an open question hanging over the table. It can be subtle.
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>>46854741
A good start is to flesh out your NPCs. Now don't go writing pages of background, the less you define the better. You just need a name, one or several secrets, a mask or spiel, and a bit of relevance. In a sandbox relevance is fluid because there is no grand plan yet. A mask or spiel is how they present themselves. This can be a superficial thing they do, or a naked and honest reaction they do not control, and which it is should remain undefined for now. What matters is the personality you play up when interacting using that NPC. A secret is just something the NPC wants to keep hidden, could be out of shame, obligation, or it could be for more sinister reasons. Even an innocent can keep vital information secret because of rationalization from a context that differs from the PCs'. Finally, names are important. They give the players something to remember, something for the brain to structure the story around. If a character is just called 'the smith' then the players will automatically reduce that NPC to a utility. With a name the personality you inevitably give the NPC will stick and develop.
Then imply conflicts. Make the PCs privy to information that puts NPCs in conflict, maybe without them being aware of it. Now connect it to a moral dilemma and let the players decide which problem to solve and which side to take, e voilà: it's a story. All from thin air, made in the moment.
You should take care to develop each hook based on the player who takes interest. Some will involve the whole party, but others might be sidequests or short asides. Taylor not just the challenges to the character, but the theme and tone to the player. Fulfill their expectations. If they go looking for trouble, let them find trouble. If they go slice of life, so do you. You can easily connect anything to the main plot as it coalesces.
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>>46854838
A good rule of thumb is to always present more hooks than the players can follow. This makes the world seem bigger and more mysterious, and it underlines how the players have control over the story.
Provide a little of the big picture, but don't make it random details. Instead focus on why it could matter to a story. Like the local ruler, surely there is an opposed faction hiding in their ranks or lands. How this opposition is acknowledged, denied, faced, avoided, explained, or rationalized, it sets a tone. That's all it has to do. Maybe the story later connects to it, but if it does you have to remain flexible. So just define that and let the players fill in the rest. They can speculate, or they can investigate. Don't answer meta questions unless they deal with a character's concept of self, and then let the player decide within reason. If they speculate, use that speculation as inspiration, don't make it literal truth, but allude to it. If they investigate then there's the next challenge, depending on how they approach it the story will unfold. Could be as easy as finding someone who knows and asking them. But you know players, they never make it easy.
Just develop the world where the players shine the spotlight. And that includes genre, tone, and pacing. Don't be afraid to plug in whatever inspiration keeps you going. No dungeon prepared but there's this Zelda level you remember every pixel of? Go for it. Just file off the serial number and only use it as long as it makes sense.
Or just play West Marches.
>>46854741
>>46854838
>>46855050
Damn man, thanks
>>46855358
No problem
>>46854066
Why would you need a sandbox for a one shot? It seems to me that it isn't worth creating the entire world necessary for a decent sandbox if you only expect to use it once, and if you've already got one prepared, it wouldn't be markedly dissimilar to just running the first session of a regular sandbox campaign. It might be a better use of your time to use a module you're fond of, but isn't setting specific, i.e. doesn't meet with anyone terribly important or interact with something instantly recognizable. Then, if players want to continue after that, you can expand the boundaries of the world to where you think they're likely to get next session, continuing the process session by session until you've got a world made.
>>46855358
This design is so sexy
>>46860503
Wait, the fuck is that?
