Back in September of 2022, I wrote an article that asked the question, “Does what you’re currently running still feel fresh and fun? Are your players as invested in it as they were in the beginning? Does something feel missing? Are you burning out?”
In it, I discussed how we had transitioned in the all-girl’s game I’m running from Rime of the Frostmaiden into a more homebrewed world, DM Dave-style, aka the kitbash.
The players had developed their characters and backstories by playing the board game Call to Adventure, which was a lot of fun and helped to create a party of characters that the players were very tied to and that tied them all together. I had even developed the backstory of their main nemesis, The Nameless One. We then began the campaign of the Melora’s Light, or as I’ve often described it on air as “Charlie’s Angels on the water.”
I began the campaign utilizing the Dragons of Stormwreck Isle adventure that came in the newest Starter Set, and then began to play with some of the adventures in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Princes of the Apocalypse (I swear, they fit together with my overarching idea!) I felt like I was still helping to navigate the players to the adventures, as opposed to them being able to decide where the ship is going. I’ll never apologize for this, as we’ve discussed many times on the show, helping to direct players who are brand new to TTRPGs is very helpful, as they often have no idea what they want to do when you ask them “What do you want to do.”
But, at this point, I felt like I could start removing some of the training wheels and let them begin to explore the depths of what is possible in the game.
So, we begin the transition of removing some of the training wheels of the campaign and delve into a sandbox – but a sandbox with some of their toys already there.
The Background
One of the main things that sets this apart from most other sandbox and West Marches-style campaigns is that, through the adventures that they have currently gone on leading up to 4th level, the characters have already acquired some “inciting incidents” of their own making:
- The unlikely, and unsteady, truce with The Nameless One, as they helped him enter the Temple of Howling Hatred, home of the Cult of Air led by Queen Aerisi Kalinoth. He also revealed some of the mysteries surrounding their newfound powers.
- The realization that they were well out of their depth, and the acceptance of service to Queen Kalinoth to “take care of” her rival, the Black Earth Cult so that they could escape the Temple with their lives.
- The “gifting” of Windvane to the party, which allows the Queen to Scry upon the party, as well as the Invisible Stalker that she has following them (unbeknownst to them, of course!)
So, the party enters this sandbox with certain deals made that are unlikely to be a net positive for them, I’m thinking of Han Solo having already been indebted to Jabba in A New Hope, before we ever meet him.
But, by developing some of the adventure prior to opening the world, these deals are of the characters own making, in real game time, not just as a couple sentences in a backstory. This lends much more weight and realism to them.
The Set-Up
Knowing that they are on a sailing vessel, and partly inspired by our recent spate of nautical-themed episodes and articles, I decided to create a large hexcrawl map of the Azure Sea that Melora’s Light calls home.
As with any good West Marches map, this will be placed out in front of the players with the question, “where would you like to go?” There will be the ports that they have called home and through which the ship and crew can make money, but will also have a number of islands and island chains that are fit to explore as the players see fit. Some of these will tie into the main story arc of Elemental Power, while others will open completely new avenues.
All the while, the characters, who come into this wide open world with real consequences and real problems, must decide for themselves how they move forward.
Final Thoughts
Arguments over “Railroads” and “Sandboxes” will always remain as contentious as discussions about Alignment (please, just… don’t.)
In my experience, many of these arguments, especially online, are an excellent example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Dunning-Kruger Effect is “a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities.” In other words, the less you know about something, the more assuredly you hold your opinions as fact. And, in the realm of the TTRPG space, it always seems to me that the less DMs actually run games, the more apt they are to espouse that there way is the only way, and anything different is evidence of a lack of creativity or intelligence by the DM.
Really helpful advice, don’t you think?
So, in whatever style you and YOUR table decide to have fun, revel in it! For those who like a Railroad adventure, do as DM Tony says and “get them their tickets and get them on the train.” For those who are adept at the Sandbox, go for it! But for those who are looking to transition, remember, if DM Dave can do it… anyone can!
Until next time, Heroes… LIVE THE ADVENTURE!
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