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RPG in the Time of Plague – How did I start to run a sandbox campaign? 7-item to-do list

Sandbox RPG campaign in the time of plague
This sandbox campaign was mean to the characters. But it all started out of the mean time for myself. Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash

Little time for preparing sessions, having to schedule them to late hours and simultaneous drive to play something exciting – it’s all made me run my first sandbox RPG campaign. The concept appeared to me from time to time on the Internet, but I wasn’t very familiar with it. But when I read in the Forbidden Lands GM’s Guide that “15–30 minutes of preparation is plenty most of the time”, I was sold on it immediately. So why and how I did actually start my first sandbox campaign?

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Do all roads lead to an inn? – cliché in RPG

Can using cliché such as meeting in an inn be beneficial in RPG?
Can using cliché such as meeting in an inn be beneficial in RPG? Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash

Even at the world’s lowest backwater, there’s an inn, a bar or other gathering place of some sort. And in it, you will almost certainly find rumours, mysterious strangers and, most importantly, the main plot. It sounds irritatingly obvious or overused, isn’t it? Well, maybe. But I also disagree about using cliché themes in RPG.

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The first session of RPG campaign in the Brown Lands – Setting the Stage

Atmosphere at the beginning of the first session of RPG campaign is defining for the whole game.
The atmosphere at the beginning of the first session of the campaign is defining for the whole game, photo by Zac Edmonds on Unsplash

Crafting an introduction to the first session of an RPG campaign is a powerful way of setting the tone for the adventures to come. In my opening post of the series, I described a handful of ways to bring up the unique feeling of Middle-earth in my Brown Lands campaign. Those concerned mostly the general layout of the plot. This time, I’d like to focus on how to perform it at the RPG table. So, let’s set off right into the campaign!

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A Tale Never Heard of in Middle-earth – (Sub)creating a story in the well-known setting

Sunset over the heather in bloom on the North York Moors National Park, photo by Helen Hotson on Adobe Stock

The Brown Lands were barren and empty, a realm that no lord nor lady thought of claiming as their own. No living soul dwelt among its formless moors, windswept hills and ominous gullies. Or so it was in the time of great events that were passed to us in The Red Book of West March. But these unwelcoming, unclaimed lands were once home to the hardy folk who enjoyed staying outside the affairs of the broader world. It is the story of their vanishing – yet another among Middle-earth’s tales of decline and passing.

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Before I Run Tabletop RPG As a GM, I Had To Move Past These 5 Things

runing tabletop RPG as a GM can seem like a long and hard hike to a remote summit
Running a role-playing game as a GM seemed always a very distant goal, requiring too much time and experience.
Photo by Mukuko Studio on Unsplash

The Remote Summit of GMing an RPG

I always wanted to run tabletop RPG as a GM rather than participate as a regular player. Telling engaging stories, inciting the imagination of others and sharing creative inspiration gave me great satisfaction and drive since I can remember. Yet, up to a day not so long ago, I never actually run a single session as a GM – even though I knew it for years. The more I thought about GMing, the more I felt like it was something I wanted to do. So, why it took me so long to finally run an RPG as a GM for the first time?

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