I’ve been running Adventure’s League at my FLGS since the “Rage of Demons” story line. Some of my favorite parts of “Rage of Demons,” “Curse of Strahd” and “Storm King’s Thunder” have been the sandbox portions. You see I love running open world games. I’d like to encourage you to love them too.

To my way of thinking an open world game needs only two things to be successful. First the players must believe they can go anywhere and do anything. Second the players must believe the Dungeon Master knows everything about the places they choose to go. This seems like a tall order but it’s actually an illusion. When carefully maintained your player’s will think you and your world is amazing.

While there is a lot to say on the subject of sandbox style games I’m going to focus just on the approaches taken in the published adventurers “Rage of Demons,” “Curse of Strahd” and “Storm King’s Thunder.” I’ll cover the good, the bad, how to modify them for your home game and how to apply the lessons to your own game from what I think is the easiest to run to the most difficult to run.

Curse of Strahd: Barovia

Type: Zoned Sandbox

The map of Barovia is like a video game map. Player’s start in a low level zone and as the story unfolds they proceed to higher level zones.

The Good

You’ll almost always know exactly where your players are and where they will go next. This adventure is therefore fairly easy to prepare before each session. If the players finish something earlier than anticipated you can always fill time with random encounters.

The Bad

Once the players figure out the zones they’re going to see through the world and into the game. Play can easily become a pattern of collecting and completing quests. If your players are like mine they may simply become bored of grinding the zones and head directly to the last one.

The Fix

If I were to run “Curse of Strahd” again I’d try to break the players out of zoned play by adding quests or altering the parameters of existing quests to add urgency and get the players moving around Barovia more. I’d also add events that would make players need to back track to earlier locations that had changed and become more deadly.

Enemies like The Abbot, Baba Lysaga and Fiona Wachter have a vested interest in Strahd. They should come into active play as allies to be defeated before approaching Strahd for fear of having to face them together.

In a Home Game

A zoned sandbox is theoretically the easiest to write and run. You should start by building the first zone and run it while writing the later adventure locations. Remember to foreshadow those later locations so they don’t seem like last minute additions to the world. Also move your player’s in unexpected directions so the zones aren’t so obvious. If your player’s are video gamers they may not even notice.

Out of the Abyss: The Under-dark

Type: Connected Locations

After escaping a Drow prison the player’s and their fellow prisoners want to get home. They decide where to head first and in which order to do the locations.

The Good

Prep here is still pretty easy. While the player’s will think they’re choosing you can easily guide them through the sandbox by either showing them the map in which case they’ll likely go from near to far, or by making certain NPCs more sympathetic than others.

If the players decide to go in a direction you haven’t prepped yet you can fill game time with random encounters and mini dungeons.

The Bad

Travel between the locations is an adventure that becomes tedious as the game progresses. The Drow pursuit mini-game will help to keep it interesting but at some point the players stop and fight.

The NPCs are great but giving each the amount of stage time they need to draw the players on is a lot to manage. Kill them quickly to remind the players how dangerous the under-dark is.
The Fix

The first time I ran “Rage of Demons” my player’s were a mixed bag of Drow and other races which made their goal a bit fuzzy. If I were to do it again I’d have my party pick one and then use the NPCs to offer goal bait. Which is to say if all the player’s were trying to get back to the surface all of the NPCs would say, “My people can get you there.” Some would be liars.

The life and death of the NPCs should help drive the story. I’d keep their deaths random and really put effort into their characterization. The NPCs should be the first tool to hide the conceit of this sandbox of locations. Don’t be afraid to let the roster of NPCs shrink and grow as the players progress through the adventure.

The second tool to hide the game part of this style of sandbox is travel. I’d prepare more mini adventures to use between main locations. The idea is to keep travel interesting, fill in story about the demon lords who do not play a starring role and possibly derail the player’s plans.

In a Home Game

This is a great style of game to run at home but coming up with all of your locations and mini adventures up front could be too large a task. Since the story will drive the players from location to location you should know what they are and what’s happening in each of them before play begins.

I’d advise spending more time up front on plot, random encounter tables and a small pool of mini adventures. When your players leave the start area they’ll decide which direction to head in and you’ll use mini adventures and random encounters to fill the road with danger.

Use the time between sessions to fill in the later locations as necessary. Make sure your random encounters tie into the plot. Don’t start sessions with the players at that next location or they may catch on and try to break your game.

Storm King’s Thunder: The Savage Frontier

Type: Open World

After saving a town from marauding giants the heroes track down quests from their fellow defenders.

The Good

The players can go anywhere and do anything. This is a sandbox of the truest sort. Your players will feel as if they truly control their own fate.

The Bad

This is the most difficult style of adventure to prepare and run. When your players control their fate you often can’t prepare for what they’ll do next.

The Fix

First limit the quests your players receive. I started my players in Goldenfields and offered them only three of the six suggested quests and only the ones I felt furthered the story I wanted to tell. This allowed me to prepare for a more limited amount of choices.

Your going to need to accept that you just can’t be prepared for everything the players will do. Familiarize yourself with the material and concern yourself with telling a good story. Don’t worry about “getting it right.” If the players are having fun then you’re getting right.

In a Home Game

Don’t write any adventure in the traditional sense. There is no way to know what your players will do and what they will ignore. Instead plot out locations with a few interesting NPCs and events.

Invent your own random encounter tables for each region. Sprinkle any plot ideas you have into the tables. Encountering orcs is a fine. Encountering orcs running to or fleeing from the plot element is better.

Keep track of important plots in the locations they players ignore. Feed them news from those locations and if they head to any involve them in those plots.
In Conclusion

Your job as the Dungeon Master is not and can not be to deliver the letter of the adventure to the players. If you hold yourself to that standard you will fail even when running a game on rails. Running a sandbox game will teach you to embrace the freedom of delivering the spirit of the game and that will improve you as a Dungeon Master.