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How and Why Integrate Pre-made Module into Sandbox RPG – Arrival at the Hollows

While exploring a pre-made village or region, GM and players have a chance to interact with the game world, developing characters, plot, and integrating various parts of the sandbox for a satisfying campaign.
While exploring a pre-made village or region, GM and players have a chance to interact with the game world, developing characters, plot, and integrating various parts of the sandbox for a satisfying campaign. | Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

When Mara, Hrod, and Bruni descended from the foothills of Thynde Range, they saw a welcoming sight of a more civilized region. In the distance, smoke from the chimneys rose, and crop fields and pastures appeared after a short while. They were nearing the Hollows – a pre-made module I was about to integrate into my sandbox RPG campaign. However, I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t approach this creatively.

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Players Ignore the Plot Hook – The Untold Story of My Campaign

Thinking about the plot hook that the players ignore could be frustrating. But you could find your way to take advantage of it .
Thinking about the plot hook that the players ignore could be frustrating. But you could find your way to take advantage of it and add a twist to the story. | Photo by Ethan Sykes on Unsplash

An eerie fog rises around as a little hamlet somewhere in the Noman-lands holds breath, preparing to defend against bandit raiders. From the mist, only one person emerges, speaking riddles. The tension is high, and everyone wonders what to make out of this. Or I supposed they would because the players seem not interested in the puzzles at all. What should GM do when the players ignore the plot hook?

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Making sense of random rolls in sandbox RPG – A Tomb-plunder to Pay Your Bills

If you assume that the random rolls make sense, you'll find even the wildest ones to make sense in your sandbox RPG. Just practice your improvisation skill.
If you assume that the random rolls make sense, you’ll find even the wildest ones to make sense in your sandbox RPG. Just practice your improvisation skill. | Photo by Pineapple Supply Co. on Unsplash

Bruni – the dwarven lush and fencer, Mara – an itinerary tradeswoman, and Hrod – a golden-hearted goblin scoundrel – are on their way. From? Where to? I asked myself the same questions as we sat at the table for our first session. But in our sandbox game, it wasn’t me to answer them – I just had to make sense of what the random dice rolls would say. What was it?

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Meet Your Humble Ravenland’s Graverobbers – I love random player-character generation!

Rolling the dice may spark imagination to create an unusual idea - especially when you do a random player-character generation.
Rolling the dice may spark imagination to create an unusual idea – especially when you do a random player-character generation.
| Photo by Ugo Mendes Donelli on Unsplash

It’s our very first session of the Forbidden Lands campaign. From the very first moment, I see players’ interactions reflecting their alter-egos, the relationships seem like they’ve been there for a long time now. But in fact, we’ve finished creating them just seconds ago. That’s all thanks to random player-character generation and its powerful ability to inspire.

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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?

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