Building Bhakahsal - Session Report

I run a “dads” game, and we had a session last night. I decided to write it up in detail as it exemplifies a Bhakashal session, it highlights the travel rules, it demonstrates how game play works in a shared world setting with multiple player groups, and it shows how the factional politics of the setting can drive adventures. 

This one had it all.

They were fresh off a victory in the Bhakashal arena, where they defeated Mitrax Toma the Bold, a Lord of House Omander, his henchmen and several of his warlock allies. It was a nail biter, but a combination of smart tactics and good rolls saved the day, though the party did lose 1 PC and 4 henchmen in the fight. Like most of my groups, many of the players have more than one PC, and the player that lost a PC had an alternate and didn't want to roll up a replacement, so we got right back to business.

Mitrax, two of his warlock allies and two of his henchmen were slain in the arena fight. One enemy warlock and one henchman were spared by the PCs and left, dishonored. 

Bhakshal arena combat rules state that a defeated but spared combatant cannot issue an honor challenge against the victor unless they commit another offensive act, so for now the losers leave with their tails between their legs, hoping for revenge another day. These rules also state that combatants killed in the arena, no matter their status, cannot be brought back to life. 

You die in the arena, you are dead for good, magic and status notwithstanding.

Since the PCs fought as a group they did not get Mitrax’s title, but they did get his property and magic items, a small windfall that included an estate in the marshlands where he bred mounts for his personal henchmen and loyal soldiers.

All my groups play in the same game world, some even in the same Noble House. My dad’s group is part of House Quannar, where my Thursday group is now nobility. The patron for my dad’s group is Umani the Onyx, leader of a different faction in House Quannar. Umani wants to curry favor with the head of my Thursday group’s faction, Quin Faal the Iolite. Faal was the patron for my Thursday group PCs for 4 years, as they are now nobility he is no longer their patron, though he is the leader of their faction in the House.

The Thursday group PCs are interested in getting a foothold in the territories of other Noble Houses, and it ends up that one of the “spoils” of the defeat of MItrax, his estate, is in House Omander territory. The property became theirs when they defeated Mitrax, and all but a handful of his men left the property and its collection of sterling mounts. Umani asked the PCs to go and secure the estate before bandits or monsters from the marshlands moved in. He also thought it would be good for them to leave the city for a few days, as they were now enemies of House Omander having defeated a prominent House Omander Lord. 

Umani wants to offer the property as a base of operations to the thieves guild inside of House Omander territory, as a favor to Quin Faal, elevating the status of their faction in the House. The PCs discussed it and decided it was a good idea, so off they went. It was a 5 day journey through the marshlands to get to their destination, part on the road, part on a barge on the Sklar river. 

One of the aspects of Bhakashal that I’m most proud of is the travel rules, they make excursions like this awesome. Bhakashal travel rules structure random encounters while traveling using regular daily rolls with frequency based on time of day, weighted encounter tables based on terrain type, and encounter reaction rules that govern how encountered creatures react.

Choice of route impacts the frequency and kind of encounters you can have, travelling the road is different than travelling through swamps or on the river, both in terms of the speed of travel and the types of encounter possible. Importantly, NOT EVERY ENCOUNTER IS A FIGHT. Random encounters are ENCOUNTERS, which can be anything from a passing group of farmers off to market to an owlbear. 

The tables are weighted to reflect this. And they work well.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Roll based on time of day (1 in 12 - morning, 1 in 10 - afternoon, 1 in 8 - evening, 1 in 6 - night).
2. If an encounter comes up, roll for distance between parties
3. Roll for surprise
4. If surprise does not come up, both parties see each other, roll encounter reaction
5. If necessary, roll initiative

Their first encounter was on the road about 2 days out from the city, at night (between sundown and midnight). So that means there were 6 rolls with no encounter beforehand. The way the odds are set means that encounters are not constant. They can go multiple days without encounters or have multiple encounters per day. 

The important part is that encounters are NOT PREDICTABLE, Bhakashal does not assume that a game day is “wasted” when there are no fights on that day.

Distance between parties was 150’, and surprise was indicated on the monster, in this case a spirit naga, so the party had a chance to react first. They decided to move on, and added another 150 feet of distance (the distance they can travel mounted in a surprise round) before the naga noticed them. They were mounted and far enough off so it couldn’t catch them, charm with its gaze or spell cast unless they approached, and they decided against this. 

Even when you roll a monster encounter, subsequent rolls can make it such that there is no fight. Still, the referee’s job is to make even an avoided encounter engaging, so I described it like this:

“A distance away in the swamp beyond the road you see a large snake, perhaps 15 feet long,illuminated in the moonlight. It is scaled black with crimson bands, halfway standing like a cobra, and you see, much to your horror, that it has a HUMAN HEAD which is turned away from you. You spur on your mounts, deciding to avoid this evil creature, and as you ride off the grotesque beast suddenly senses your presence, its head turning slowly in your direction, ruby red eyes smoldering in the darkness, a foul hiss emanating from its maw.”

They avoided the beast, but they were suitably freaked out. Something they see but don’t actually fight can leave more of an impression, as it plays with their imagination. They all found the encounter to be disturbing, even though it was a “miss”.

On they traveled, and when they reached the river there was a village where you could charter a barge to travel downriver. Mounts are extremely common in Bhakashal, and barges big enough to carry them are common (one of the reasons why barges are more common than boats on the Bhakashal rivers). They commissioned a barge and headed downriver in the early afternoon.

They had another encounter on day 4, this time on the river. In this case the party was surprised by a giant gar, it struck their barge and two of the togmu poling the barge fell into the river. Togmu (frog-people) can swim, but the gar bit one in half before it could get back on the barge. 

In AD&D there are “niche” magic items that have special powers that don’t come up that often, one is a Trident of Fish Command. The party Mercenary (fighter) had one and had yet to use it, so he was chuffed when he finally had the chance. Using the trident he drove off the gar and kept the party from having to deal with a creature who would have been a formidable opponent in the water.

Well played.

They eventually reached their destination and set off on their gess (giant lizards) towards the estate. A 10 mile journey turned up no encounters, so they arrived and surveilled the place using the warlock’s familiar (a blood hawk). After satisfying themselves that the estate hadn’t been taken over by bandits or overrun by swamp monsters, they moved in.

Two House Omander soldiers had stayed behind when the estate changed owners, and they were expecting the party to show up eventually. Much to the party’s surprise, there was no hostility or violence, the soldiers understood that they had won Mitrax’s property in an arena duel, if anything they were impressed that they managed to slay him, and one of them guided them around the estate, showing them the mounts in the outdoor pens, and touring them through the house. The party was pleasantly surprised to discover that Mitrax had an extensive personal library of books on House Omander history and military history, as well as an extremely well stocked map room with detailed maps of House Omander territories as well as territories of other Houses that Mitrax was hoping to flip. These were extremely valuable finds.

They also discovered that Mitrax had a secret cellar meeting room, magically warded to prevent scrying, where he met with parties he did not want discovered. They were very excited about that. None of these things were magic items to use in combat, but all were extremely valuable in the factionalized setting that is Bhakashal.

While they were touring the facility with one of the soldiers, the other soldier stole one of the mounts and fled. They tried to track him down to no avail, and they aren’t sure what he will do, but they turned in for the night happy with their acquisition.

The next day they left and headed back to the river, travelling several miles downriver to find a village where they could commission another barge to return to the city.

They had one encounter on the river, but it was a doozy. One of the great things about the fact that I have always used random encounter rolls is that there are monsters that I’ve never used in game before. 

The Verme is one of those monsters, a 18+ HD giant fish! 

In this case there was no surprise, and the party saw this massive 80’ long beast moving through the water towards them!

The party Mercenary took out the Trident of Fish Command again, expending a charge to take control of the creature, but it made it’s save (an 18+HD creature saves easily) so it couldn’t be commanded, but it also couldn’t approach closer than 10’ to the weilder.  However, the barge was larger than that, and it could easily smash into the barge and send the PCs and bargemen into the water, where it could pick everyone else off.

In this case the party Seer (cleric) cast Speak with Monsters, and attempted to convince the creature to leave them alone, he told the Verme that they meant it no harm, and that they were poisonous to eat. 

There are no specific rules for this, so I decided on a modified encounter reaction roll, with a small extra bonus as the Seer worshipped the god Vekka, god of lakes and rivers. 

The roll was successful, and the Verme passed beneath them, all 80’ of it!

That took their breath away.

They continued home, their last encounter was during the afternoon on the road one day out from the city, with a group of rakasta hunters. They talked for a time, swapping some stories and sharing a meal, then passing on.

When they arrived back in the city they reported to Umani the Onyx, and made arrangements to send some House Quannar regulars to man the estate to protect it against intruders, and they discussed offering it as a base for the thieves guild in the marshlands as a gift to Quin Faal the Iolite and the PCs from my Thursday group.

End of session.

This one had factional politics, social role play, travel, random encounters and exploration. No actual fighting, but they had a grand time. 

People often assume that D&D is all about fighting, and that random encounters are just unpredictable violence. 

These people are missing out…

Building Bhakashal – High Level Faction Play

Image by Don Maitz.

One of the advantages of Bhakashal is extensive play testing. For the last 5 years multiple play groups have been testing out the system, players have shaped the direction of their campaigns, and I have adjusted based on experience. Few systems have had this much playtesting.

My after-school groups are continuing this year, two of my groups have been adventuring in Bhakashal for 4+ years, so they have hit what used to be known as “name level”, when you hit that point, you can become part of Bhakashal nobility.

This play shift to “domain play” is a split from regular faction based play, instead of reacting to the various in-game factions, PCs become influential enough to shape factional goals, they direct their faction rather than being directed.

Each of the groups had to complete a significant task for their faction in order to join its nobility. My Saturday group (Patron: Quin Faal the Iolite, House Quannar) chose to try and unify the two branches (City and Raosk) of the Bhakashal Thieves Guild (the Brass Blade Spider’s Guild).

My Friday group (Patron: Kamerli the Ivory, House Jin) spent the last gaming year finding a book with instructions to create magical circles and slaying 4 mind flayers in order to inscribe one of those magic circles, one that can teleport things from the Bhakashal underworld to the city.

Uniting the guilds concentrates power in House Quannar (one of the Noble Houses of Bhakashal) as they previously only controlled the city branch, adding the Raosk branch makes House Quannar very influential.

Creating the teleport circle brings great power to House Jin, as they will have an exclusive conduit to bring back new monsters and treasure, flora and fauna to their House directly, gaining them resources no other House has.

Since both groups completed their tasks (taking a gaming year each) they have fulfilled the two requirements to transition to Bhakashal nobility, they have hit the minimum level (7^th or above) and they have completed an important task for their House.

When they return to the gaming table things will look very different, now THEY have a role in directing what their Noble House does, and they inherit all of the alliances and enmities of their House. Rival Houses will decide to take action to neutralize or take advantage of the new state of affairs.

Adding to the delicious confusion, the patron of my Saturday group, Quin Faal the Iolite, has been captured and imprisoned on a faraway island in a magical maze, thanks to the PCs in my Thursday group, so just when House Quannar has united the guilds, the Bhakashal noble responsible is gone. How will this reflect on the party, just after they complete this important task for the House and become nobility, their patron disappears! Rivals within the faction may accuse them of betrayal. Houses that benefited from the previous arrangement might seek them out too.

Suddenly the players have split focus, they have to think about rival factions and rivalries within their own faction, and they have to think about how they want to grow their power within the faction. And their actions have changed the game world directly. In this way regular campaign play in Bhakashal changes the game world as you play. Bhakashal provides the referee with suggestions on “big tasks” that can influence the setting. My Saturday group capitalized on one of the rumors from the Bhakashal rumor table (related to the thieves’ guild). My Friday group came up with their task on their own, but even that was an extension of what they had seen in the game, Houses were always competing for resources, particularly parts of magical creatures to be used in making spells and magic items.

That drive, taken from the Bhakashal class role tables, was expanded by the idea of connecting the overworld to the underworld. The setting provides the inspiration, the players direct the actions, and the game world is permanently transformed.

Importantly, these tasks were not planned from the beginning, there were no, “BBEGs” or pre-planned, “campaign arcs” that unified what happened at the table, Bhakashal works more organically, tasks are based on need (factional needs) generated by tables. 

Over time, choosing and pursuing those tasks produces consequences that drive play, and suggest larger schemes and connections. None of it was preplanned or designed by me or the players. Everything emerged from play and setting conceits.

True sandbox play works, and this year will produce completely new experiences as my players explore what it means to operate as Bhakashal nobility, fleshing out domain level play in an engaging way, something that early D&D editions did not explore successfully, given that many campaigns didn't last that long.

Building Bhakashal - Session Report

Building Bhakashal – Session Report

Strap in, this is a long one.

My Thursday group started back in September, they were originally booked for 6 sessions to learn how to play and run the game, but they decided to keep me on for the year. We had our penultimate session last night.

They started the campaign as agents of Quin Faal the Iolite, a powerful Bhakashal Lord at House Quannar. Faal is the patron for two of my groups. One of Faal’s closest allies in the House (Bamal the Boastful) betrayed him, stole a powerful magic sword from him and fled. Faal sent the party to retrieve him. They met Bamal and decided instead to throw in with him and betray their patron.

I have no idea what inspires players to do this sort of thing, but they ran with it. For the last year they have been secretly helping Bamal with two tasks as part of his machinations against Faal, while avoiding discovery by their patron. 

First, the island where Bamal hides has a small dungeon complex hidden in the forest. The complex is a maze, and it had four “anchors”, rooms where magically bound monsters that represent the elements are kept. It ends up the maze is a magical prison which uses the magical elemental essences of the bound monsters to create a magical cage. Bamal was studying the maze when the party arrived on the island and accidentally freed the four monsters that were anchoring the magic of the place, a shocker, a firedrake, a hoar fox and a carrion crawler (lightning, fire, frost and earth).

The party released the monsters, so one of their tasks was to replace them with other elemental avatars. That has occupied multiple sessions, as they needed to bring back live creatures to use in the maze.

The second task related to swords.  Bamal planned to capture Quin Faal and imprison him in the maze complex, but to do so he was going to enlist the aid of a Marilith Demon (a type 5 demon). Quin Faal had obtained the demon’s amulet and was keeping it in the warlock’s tower of House Quannar. Bamal knows the exact location of the amulet. He plans on summoning the demon, offering her the location of the amulet and giving her 6 magical swords as a gift for her to go into the tower, regain the amulet, and bring Quin Faal back to the island maze prison where Bamal plans to entrap him.

Over the past year of play the party has retrieved three powerful magical swords, Bamal has found two, so they have 5 of the 6 swords needed.

Bamal used divination magic to find the location of another powerful sword, in the lair of a pair of White dragons living in a mountain cave on a small island nearby. The party went to the dragons and attempted to deceive them. The spun a story about there being an underground complex on their island that they couldn’t enter, with a massive treasure hoard. They asked the dragons to use their breath weapons on the entrance to the complex to freeze it then they can shatter it and gain access. They claimed they only wanted the magic sword, the rest of the loot would be for the dragons.

The dragons, who had lived on this island and hunted on nearby islands in the long chain for a hundred years, were aware of the island that the PCs were describing and decided to fly there and access the complex without the PCs. This was a useful reminder to the players that intelligent monsters are a bit more of a challenge.

Fortunately for the PCs one of them had a two potions of Polymorph Self she had been sitting on for months, and another had the spell. They polymorphed all three of the PCs into birds that flew faster than a dragon and beat the dragons to the island.

They created an illusion of an entrance to a dungeon complex in front of the caves that they and Bamal lived in on the island. They sat in wait with Bamal and the two Bhakashal Warlocks they had converted to their cause, Kanai Grith the Hessonite and Bham Veen the Mercurial, as well as the Mercenary Reit Layl and the Phantasmist, Boylea the Silver. Reit was the captain of the Wyvern, Boylea was the ship spell-caster, while transporting the party the Wyvern went down, the two have stuck with the party as Layl looks for a new ship.

The dragons saw the “complex” entrance from the air and landed a short distance away. The party, concealed by illusion, gained surprise on the dragons.

Then it all fell apart.

Kanai Grith and Bham Veen both had Evard’s Black Tentacles as a memorized spell, they decided to double cast the spell upon the dragons. They had done this a while back to great success and the party was anticipating the same.

Both warlocks failed their casting rolls, and their spells fizzled.

Ref – “Standing close to each other, you both take out a tentacle from your pouch and wrap it around your fingers, clutching it like a pair of brass knuckles, you cover that hand with the outstretched palm of your other hand, and recite the words of the incantation, staring at the general area of the dragons to target the spell’s effects. You move your cupped hands in a circle, as if stirring a pot, and whisper the words of the incantation in unison. When you finish you pull your hands apart, but instead of tentacles emerging from the ground around the dragons, the tentacle in your hands bursts into blue flame and falls to ashes, pushing your hands away from the hands of your fellow caster. It was as if the spells were cast to the same place and bounced off each other.”

Bamal cast Fire Shield on himself, anticipating a breath weapon attack.

The PC warlock cast Reduce towards one of the dragons, but it made its save so the spell was ineffective. While this was all going on the party PC fighter and Reit went into the caves to retrieve two of the powerful magic swords that the PCs had collected for Bamal, hoping to use them against the dragons. That was a last-minute decision that saved their bacon.

That was the end of the surprise round, and the dragons were unharmed.

Then we rolled initiative.

The dragons only saw the illusory entrance to the complex and magical effects emerging from that entrance, they had no idea the party was there. But they did see a pencil thin beam of energy shoot from the complex entrance, and there was a disturbance in the air around them (the miscast Evard’s spells).

Initiative was rolled.

The party PC warlock went first and cast Dimension Door to get behind the dragon, she took the party thief with her.

Then the dragons attacked.

They did what you would expect, they used their breath weapons against the complex entrance hoping to either destroy it outright or make it possible to shatter the entrance and stop the magical effects coming at them, and so they could get in. One dragon was adult and 6 HD, the other was old and 7 HD, so that’s 30 HP and 42 HP respectively.

 This instantly slayed the NPC illusionist Boylea the Silver and the NPC warlock Bham Veen the Mercurial, while reducing Bamal the Boastful to 2 hp. Bamal got lucky as he had the Fire Shield up and running. The two fighters emerged from the cave with their swords, to see two dead party members frozen solid, their patron apparently on fire LOL, and two other party members weren’t anywhere to be seen. They panicked and charged the dragons.

The first dragon used Charm Person and charmed the party PC fighter, convinced her to stop and attack Reit. She was planning to use the PC fighter as a bargaining chip to get the rest of the party to capitulate.

The other dragon breathed frost on to the ship captain, he made his save and dodged the worst of it.

At this point the PC thief who was brought along with the Dimension Door finally got to act, she pulled a “Crom” and backstabbed the dragon. 10HP damage, x3 for a backstab and the dragon died on the spot.

REF - “You leap forward and drive your sword into the dragons back between its wings, the sword bites deep and strikes the dragon’s heart, running it through and slaying the beast instantly.”

She had just one-shot a dragon!

That rendered them all speechless for a minute.

The PC magic-user tried to use Reduce again but failed the casting! We go multiple sessions with no failed castings, and in this session we had 3 for the PCs side.

Madness.

However, slaying the other dragon broke the charm and the fighter was released. They needed to capture one of the dragons to use in the maze complex, so she dropped her sword and changed to her Rod of Smiting as a weapon. She charged forward and struck a solid blow in an attempt to subdue the beast. I performed the calculation, ratioing the damage she did against the total HP of the dragon, and this yielded a 16% chance that the dragon would be subdued.

She rolled the dice… a 16 on the nose.

There was a lot of screaming at that.

On the nose.

REF – “Your head cleared of that buzz of enchantment magic, you drop your sword and run towards the drake, it is transfixed on its dead companion for a moment, and in that moment you bring your Rod of Smiting down in a sky-to-Earth blow that smashes the beast on the side of it’s head. The dragon stumbles two steps to the side, shakes it’s head, and collapses to the ground, flattening it’s body and burying it’s head in the grass, obedient.”

Dragon subdual is an old school mechanic that the players adored.

The dragon was subdued.

They led the dragon to the maze and Bamal magically imprisoned it, providing the third of four elemental “anchors” for the complex. The last component is a sandman (for the “earth” monster) and the magical prison will be complete.

They then went back to the dragon’s lair and looted it, obtaining a few magic items, a lot of coin, and a powerful intelligent magic sword (the real prize), Dakam the Crimson. They came back to the island. They now had 6 powerful magic swords to give to the demon, a +4 Defender, a +3 Vorpal Sword, the intelligent sword Koslanth the Righteous, a Sword +2 Nine Lives Stealer, a +3 Blade of Skarak and the final weapon, Dakam The Crimson.

All they need to do now is to capture and contain a sandman and the magical maze prison would be complete. Next session, assuming they get the maze up and running, Bamal will summon the demon, reveal to her where Quin Faal is hiding her amulet and give her the magic swords in exchange for bringing back Quin Faal to the maze so Bamal can imprison him there.

 

Observations

This session was so awesome. They lost 2 party members to the dragons but managed to slay one and subdue and capture the other. They learned that dragons are killable but very deadly, but for a low initiative roll the party PC magic-user and PC thief would have been killed as they would have been hit by dragon breath weapon and neither had the HP to survive even if they made their save.

One dice roll was the difference between life and a TPK

They lost a treasured party member, Boylea the Silver was a party favorite, a phantasmist that didn’t do big damage but saved their bacon a few times, they loved interacting with her, we did a lot of RP with Boylea, she even sketched portraits of the PCs (all illusionists in Bhakashal are artists) and taught them a few card and dice games (you don’t spend time as a shipboard caster without learning how to gamble!)

This whole campaign sprung from the PCs going off script and deciding to betray their patron. I didn’t suggest the idea, but I didn’t push back against it either. Spontaneous decisions like these are the lifeblood of an exciting, immersive sandbox style game.

The cherry on top is that the patron they are betraying (Quin Faal the Iolite) is the patron for another gaming groups of mine, so if this plot is successful, Faal will cease to be a patron for this group, something that will have an impact on the shared world that all of my groups play in. My Saturday group (Quin Faal’s other group) has just recently merged the two branches of the Bhakashal Brass Blade Guild (thieves guild) by slaying the previous guildmaster of the Raosk branch.

Player decisions impact the game world.

But perhaps the most awesome aspect of all of this is that our table is a “no fudging zone”, I don’t run a story focused game where I tweak results to “serve the story”, instead we roll everything in the open. When they were rolling initiative they KNEW that if the dragons went first they were done. They knew how much damage they could do.

You can’t script that kind of excitement.

When the two NPC spell casters failed their casting rolls (both had casting odds in the high 80’s, when they failed back-to-back there was much shouting) they were reminded that I don’t fudge things to save favored NPCs and help out the party. If I rolled behind a screen and fudged regularly they would think I made both of the casters fail their rolls for “dramatic effect”, instead they got the dramatic effect KNOWING that it wasn’t something I did, it happened because the dice made it happen.

So much digital ink spilled on the problems with “binary pass-fail” mechanics in games like D&D, but those pass-fail mechanics create the dramatic reversals and successes that get my players screaming at the table. When that 16% chance was rolled with a 16, while standing in front of a dragon that would have killed the PC in one shot with a breath weapon attack.

She charged something that can one shot her and brought it to heel with a single blow.

EPIC, and BTB first edition AD&D.

The player of the thief was another good example. Her family has been experiencing challenges this year, and the game has been a real life-line of distraction. When she tried the backstab I wasn’t expecting her to kill the thing in one shot, and I knew that it would turn around and either rip her to shreds (she didn’t have great HP) or breath frost on her and that would be that.

But as I remind myself regularly at the table, the key to running a sandbox game is to trust the process. Don’t interfere when you are tempted, instead let it play out and respond to that. It’s radically freeing as a referee. I used to get hung up on whether or not to change something because it was “bad” for some reason, now I just let the game happen and we roll with it.

And this one was a corker.

Building Bhakashal – Sandbox Style Open World Gaming

I’ve been running sandbox style open world games for about 15 years now, and I’ve noticed that there are a lot of misunderstandings about how this style of game works. I thought I would say a few words about them here.

Sandbox style open world games have two primary features:

1 – Agency: The players can do whatever they want

2 – Consequentialism: The referee’s adjudicates the game world’s reactions to the PCs actions

The hardest part of running games like this is that the referee doesn’t control what happens, the players do. They direct the action, not the referee. It took me a while to unlearn the habits that made it difficult to allow player freedom of this kind.

What are some of the misunderstandings around sandbox style play?

Here are my top 10.

1.        It’s completely random, every session requires the referee to improvise something new

Every time the players interact with the game world they create reactions, they gain allies and enemies, and their actions have ripple effects that impact future games. So, when you sit down at the table it isn’t a “blank slate”, instead the previous actions of the party will have created opportunities and challenges for them in the current session.

2.       It’s “zero prep”

Though sandbox style gaming is less prep, no gaming style is “zero prep”. The referee has to keep track of what happens in every session so they will know what the context is for later sessions. In addition, the referee will still have to prepare encounters and environments for the players. If the players decide to go to the Temple of Sogog the Dark then the referee will have to prep the Temple of Sogog the Dark. It is also extremely helpful to have a setting of some sort to draw upon, whether you run a sandbox style game or not, and you will have to familiarize yourself with that setting.

3.     You will be caught flat-footed and unable to run sessions because your players pivot in an unexpected direction

One important rule of sandbox style gaming is this: you only have to make it to the end of the session. If the players make an unexpected decision, like going to the Temple of Sogog the Dark, then you have a few options:

a.        They have to get to the Temple of Sogog the Dark, that takes time, and will often get you to the end of the session

b.       The referee has any number of “consequences” from earlier play to draw upon, say a disgruntled former enemy that escaped death at the hands of the PCs can show up before they get to the Temple

c.        The referee can start to describe the Temple when the PCs arrive there, revealing only what is needed for immediate play. When the session is over they can create the Temple for exploration in the next session. The ref will have to record the decisions that they make so they can incorporate them into the actual Temple when they create it. I’ve done this so many times I’ve lost count. PCs tend to move slowly when exploring new areas, aware of the dangers that unwary adventurers can face. Just jot notes on what you tell the players so you can keep things consistent.

d.       As an option of last resort, you are welcome to say to the players, “I wasn’t expecting you to do X, I don’t have anything prepped for that and I don’t think I can improv this right now, let’s break and we can pick up next session.” There’s no shame in calling a session early as you aren’t in the head space to improvise. I will add that in 15 years of active sandbox play I’ve never had to do this. But it is an option.

4.     You can’t use modules or preprepared materials

Sandbox style gaming calls upon the referee to pivot and follow whatever the players choose to do, but that doesn’t rule out using modules or any other pre-prepared materials. Sandbox style gaming just means that the players can choose to leave the module/adventure at any time they like. I regularly sprinkle pre prepared modules into our campaigns, and they work well.

5.     Because there isn’t an overarching, planned out plot, and the referee isn’t telling the players what to do, the players will get bored

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, having an overall planned out plot allows the referee to drive the game forward, and it can certainly be a hook to draw in players, you don’t need this to interest players in the game. Players are invested in sandbox style games because they maximize agency and consequentialism. Player actions and the consequences of those actions drive the game, so they have an immediate and visceral stake in what happens at the table.

6.     Because the game is not planned out by the referee, the players will get stuck

I was initially worried about this, since I didn’t have a plan, maybe the players wouldn’t know what to do. However, the game world doesn’t just sit there, inviolate, while the players stand around doing nothing. Just existing in the game world is dangerous, this isn’t Papers and Paycheques after all. Monsters lurk all around, nefarious factions work in the background, old enemies resurface. Even if the players had no idea what to do something in the environment would prompt them to action sooner or later. I haven’t found this to be an issue; players always manage to come up with something to do!

7.     Improvisation is hard, so the referee might not be able to come up with a response to player actions

Improvisation is a skill, so this is a real concern, but there are some straightforward solutions. First, if the referee can’t decide between options, they can simply roll dice to choose between them. Second, if the referee can’t come up with an option, they can listen to the table talk amongst players and riff off of that. I’ve “stolen” the explanations that players have floated at the table more times than I would care to admit, inspiration can come from anywhere! This concern transcends sandbox style play, every style of play will have to respond to player actions, so it isn’t really a concern specific to the playstyle.

8.     Improvised sandbox games won’t have the depth or atmosphere that pre-planned adventures have

I used to worry about this one a lot, if I’m riffing off player actions at the table, as opposed to keeping the players on track to go through a well-prepared adventure, won’t they miss out on something? What I’ve discovered is that players often miss the “cool” aspects of your adventure and end up engaging with the things you find the least interesting or important. The sheer number of encounters that end up “on the cutting room floor” due to player decisions is wild.

Not only that, but you can still (as mentioned above) use published modules and adventures with all the detail and atmosphere you like in a sandbox style game.

9.     Players will waste too much time deciding what to do if they aren’t actively directed

This particular concern is group specific. There will be groups who like to debate options and are indecisive, as well as groups who are decisive and focused. But in either case, if the players can’t make up their minds the consequentialism of sandbox style gaming and the dangers inherent in the setting will get things going soon enough.

10 . Because the referee hasn’t created an engaging overall plot, “BBEG” and deep planned out connections to the various player backstories, the game will be less engaging

One of the greatest tragedies of modern TTRPG gaming is the idea that the campaign has to be connected up to the tragic backstories of each player in order to have them invested in the game.

In my experience, a sandbox style game that stresses agency and consequentialism the players are deeply engaged, as they are dealing with the consequences of THEIR ACTIONS. Yes, a big plot element (“THE END OF THE WORLD”) can create engagement, but allowing players to drive the action creates it’s own powerful form of engagement. It also creates immersion, as it mimics the real world, where actions have consequences.

I’m sure there are more, but these represent the most common complaints I’ve seen about sandbox style gaming. I'll make another post about the advantages and disadvantages of the playstyle.