Hi all!
I just wanted to post my sandbox-creation process to maybe help others and to know how YOU do it.
- I draw a rough map on a hexgrid.
- I put important locations on the map (PCs' starting point, major towns, major dungeons, etc). I describe them in details but I do this only for crucial parts of my setting.
- I put locations (dungeons, caves, towns, temples, shrines, tombs, etc) semi-randomly on the map without describing them. For my exemple map I shamelessly used Skyrim's icons.
- I create a roster of 10 NPCs keeping it simple by only describing their distinctive features and their goal.
- I plan 3 of each location or use published dungeons/towns and rip the name off. I then plan 3 hooks/quests that I put somewhere on the map (in opposite directions).
When the game starts I know where the players start-out, give them the 3 hooks and they decide where to go. They see only their location, their quests' location and where they already went on the map (I use fog of war in roll20). On their travel they may encounter an interesting location and they are free to investigate or just pass it. If they decide to investigate I take out one of my pre-planned location (I decide or roll randomly) and I make a note on the map that links the icon to that particular location.
After the game I check what I used, for instance, if I used one of my 3 pre-planned dungeons I make a new one to fill the ''roster''. Quests are of the PCs' level but the locations I pre-plan are not linked to it keeping the world feeling ''immersive/simulationist''.
I also make sure that every location/quest leads to one or two others (rarely I put a ''dead-end'' location but I prefer to give my PCs more options).
Usually, after the first session I don't need to create more hooks because my players can find interesting things everywhere. I also like that method because I don't need to plan everything ahead of time and as a DM I'm also surprised to see what they are going to find (because I roll locations randomly).
That's how I do it, how do you do it?
Exemple map:
When I'm going for a sandbox, I can't help but do the least amount of work possible, so the process looks a lot like this:
- Name a settlement and decide how large it is. Example: Knob Hill, village.
- Tell the players the briefest outline of a single adventure that originates from that settlement. Continued Example: Miners are going missing near Knob Hill, there is a modest reward posted for anyone that can figure out what is going on.
- Have the players work together to make their characters, requesting that they have a reason to care about doing the outline single adventure.
- Start playing, making everything else up only once it actually is needed to be known, mostly just reacting to what the players do and say - they drive the campaign, I just fill in the blanks.
That way there are as many locations as the players look for, as many quests as they decide to take or invent for themselves, and as much or as little of a world as the players feel like interacting with.