Storytelling Suggestions: Volume 1 – Sandbox Gaming
Photo by Nitin Arya from Pexels
Story Time!
I have run 3 table top rpg campaigns for a year or longer. All three have been in the same game world, but had changes to them to keep them growing and interesting. This weekend my players found out after 2 years the behind the scenes plan.
Following the long reveal I was feeling pretty good about everything. I started thinking about what I wanted to write about today and I got this request.
“Thoughts and ideas about how you come up with lore for your worlds.”
That got me thinking that there is a method to my madness, but can I describe it? Lets find out!
Where To Start?
I have tried to determine the most important place to start, but I can’t decide on just one. As such, I think I am going to focus on one of my most contested viewpoints; the sandbox game world.
Welcome To The Jungle!
The sandbox game world is well known in video games such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and a number of Spider-man titles. This style of game has an open game world for the player to explore at their discretion, incorporating side quests and main line quests to allow the player to progress at their own pace.
A sandbox RPG or LARP is handled in a very similar way. The game master will write a number of side quests, main quests, red herrings (deceptions), and money making quests to allow their players to do what they want. This specific type of game is vehemently opposed to the traditional ideas of railroading and scheduled gaming.
Gaining The Lore
So what lore is necessary for this running style? What do you need planned? How do you plan for this style of game?
Lore is super necessary for this type of game. The game runner must have a dedicated understanding to either the entire game world, the core concepts the players are currently interested in, or at the very least, the concepts for the local area where the players are. This becomes increasingly difficult in an RPG when teleportation and planar travel opens up, but can be very easy to do for LARPs as they are usually based around a rather small area.
Planning or having an intrinsic knowledge of the lore of the game world is very important when preparing for a sandbox style game. For RPG planning the most important items to start with are the beginning of your story (how the players get together) and the finale (planned final boss). In addition to this it is important to have an understanding of the characters taking part in the story. Over the course of this style of campaign, the players will join together, and it will be the game masters job to give them ways to learn who the final boss is, why they should care, ways they can deal with the boss, and ways that the player characters backstory and decisions will link them together to help build camaraderie. Often times this style of game is difficult for players to pick up on, because they can literally do whatever they want. It is the game masters job to link what the players want to do to the story that they want to tell. The players actions should always have value and should help determine the path from the beginning of the game to the finale.
LARP sandbox games follow a similar style, however, having so many more players, its is much more difficult to focus on all of the players actions. Due to this, there are a number of ways that the game runner can plan.
Option one is the tree based story method. In this method the plot runner writes the beginning of the event and a number of branches that allow the plot to change based on how certain modules end. This means that there are normally 3 to 10 endings that are written to allow the players actions to determine the course of events. This requires a lot of tracking by the plot runner, but is worthwhile for players that want to have impact on the story.
Option two is the bad guy of the weekend style plot. Similar to the tree based method, the plot runners write static (cannot be changed by the players) plotlines for the event, but how the players deal with the weekend plot determines what plot is run during the next event. Often times players that like the comfort level of railroaded plot can tolerate this style of story.
Option three is the free form style of game that was discussed previously for table top use. This is very difficult for LARPs unless there is a primary plot runner that runs all events. Due to the free form plot writing that is often necessary for this style, having multiple plot runners makings sharing the information and the logistics of it next to impossible.
How Does Lore Tie To This?
Planning on running this style of game is not for the faint of heart. Often times players decisions or lack their of can drive a plot runner crazy. Players can choose to do whatever they want, meaning that game runners must always be prepared for something unexpected.
It is highly suggested to have a number of NPCs with names and backgrounds planned or being confident in coming up with these on the fly. Knowing the background of the town where the adventure or event is taking place is also important. This includes the politics, businesses, key players, taverns and inns. These items may all make great hooks for adventures or sources of information.
It is highly suggested that running this style of game for a small group is the best way to start. This running style can kick your butt if you don’t have the proper mind for it. That said, you will never know if you never try.
Need more info? Want to learn more? Disagree? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook!