Sandbox & Hexcrawl Archives - Roleplaying Tips

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Tag Archives for " Sandbox & Hexcrawl "

What’s the Point (Crawl)?

Here’s a tip for new GMs or those new to point crawls. What’s a point crawl? I don’t know the official definition, but mine is an adventure you make based on story gates characters must get through. When the final obstacle’s been beaten and that gate traversed, the party’s won. Creating a point crawl confused […]

3 Ways to Make Domain Play Fun Again

Here’s a query I received a little while ago from Wizard of Adventure JL: How to make conquering/managing/defending a domain FUN (for the players, not just the DM?) I like this question because it gets to the heart of a common GM challenge: making the world matter. Characters with no attachment to your setting will […]

My Sandcrawl Method

Author Paul Quarles For my The Refining Forge campaign, a Castles & Crusades campaign, I decided to run a sandbox, hexcrawl campaign, or a Sandcrawl campaign as dubbed by Johnn Four. My last campaign struggled as a pure hexcrawl campaign with two key problems: This newer approach has been a lot more organic and has […]

Evolving Hex Crawls: My New Approach Where Sandbox Meets Hex Crawl

You know how my preferred campaign design approach is Sandbox meets Crawling meets Adventure Path? I wrote on that recently here. Well, over the weekend I tweaked it a bit. On the surface, it’s just wordplay. But to me, it’s an exciting change in how I do things behind the screen. First let’s review. My […]

When There’s TOO MANY Awesome Hooks

During a chat I had with RPT GM Omar last night, he mentioned this tricky problem: I also had a great holiday season and got a new Cthulhu-themed rulebook I’m eager to try. I really downgraded my prep in favour of a dynamic world that reacts to any player choice. That is, until some player […]

How I Prep My Basilica Campaign

How do you prep? While chatting with a GM during a coaching call, I realized I don’t prep the same way many GMs do. Let me explain, using my Basilica campaign as an example…. My current campaign is sandbox meets hex/dungeon crawl meets story path. I’m looting Temple of Elemental Evil (and hope the PCs […]

Treasure First: A Quick Hack For Creating Adventure Hooks

Treasure First: A Quick Hack For Creating Adventure Hooks When players fail to trigger an encounter or adventure, our prep becomes moot and the game goes sideways. But how do you craft hooks so appealing that players bite on them harder than an orc at an all-you-can-eat troll BBQ? Earlier this week, I gave a […]

Plot Your Sandbox in Under a Minute with Player Magnets

Here’s how I plot out an old school sandbox in pretty much under a minute. In the Wizard of Adventure members area, we got to chatting about how to use Campaign Logger in conjunction with the The Plot Compass technique. The Plot Compass technique is something I shared with Wizards of Adventure recently. It boils […]

Mastering the Depths: Enhancing RPG Mines

Mastering the Depths: Enhancing RPG Mines Sometimes, a couple of extra details makes all the difference in helping players imagine our encounters and take interesting actions. RPT GM Chris N. sent me some great insights into the complexities of running a medieval or fantasy RPG mine. We can use these fantastic details to flesh out […]

Simple Sandbox Economics – 4 Tips

A GM had this tip request: Any ideas of emulating/tracking a robust economy in osr style sandboxes? Good question. Here are a few tips and then I’ll end with some resources. Create a Treasure Budget I call this Treasure Crawl in my sandbox creation checklist. Forecast at each level or tier, to the projected end […]

My Simple Sandbox GM Tool – The 5 Actions

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1183 Sandbox games often challenge you to fabricate encounters on the spot. I take a simple approach for this. It’s kind of cheap, when you think about it. lol. But it works. When RPT GM Scott K. emailed me, he said something that made me think about this aspect of sandbox games […]

Starting a West Marches Campaign – Step By Step

From Jochen Linnemann Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1147 Starting a West Marches Campaign (Part 1) Some time ago, I decided to start a West Marches type campaign with the idea of an episodic, easy-to-prep game for a group changing players in mind. So, I started to research the topic. Reading Tips Google was a good jump […]

How To Conjure Incredible Sandbox Campaign Climaxes

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1000 How To Conjure Incredible Sandbox Campaign Climaxes Adventure Workshop GM Jeff B asked me this thorny question about how to finish a great campaign: If the adventure is not linear and the PCs aren’t railroaded, how can I get all the roads to lead to the big finale and tie up […]

Creating A Sandbox Campaign – 7 Steps

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0891 Creating A Sandbox Campaign Here’s a quick recipe for building a sandbox campaign. The point is to not do a whole lot of plot prep in advance. Be an Agile GM. Only plan deeper once players have chosen a hex, path, or entrance. Step 1: Sandbox Campaign Structure First thing I’d do is […]

Sandbox Adventures – 5 Essential Ingredients

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0842 I got my first taste of sandbox play in B2: Keep on the Borderlands. The PCs based themselves in The Keep and forayed into the Wild. A crazy hermit shared the location of several caves nearby, confirmed dangerous, rumoured with riches. As the party crested a hill, a horseshoe valley stretched […]