Is it possible to create a sandbox that is a 'living, breathing world'?
No. It is possible to create one that to all intents and purposes resembles such a thing. But we fool ourselves if we imagine that paper, dice, pencils and a bit of imagination can actually produce, rather than create a simulacrum of, genuine complexity.
The reason this comes up is that, in a recent post, I made the claim that it was not possible to set up a sandbox in which the PCs are the good guys responding to threats posed by evildoers without a way of systematising how the evildoers behave. There was some pushback on this in the comments, but I stood by my position. If there is not a way of systematising evildoer behaviour - if one just says to oneself, 'Well, I will just treat the evildoers in the sandbox as though they were PCs and ascribe to them motives and agency accordingly' then one will end up producing what is in effect a railroad. What do I mean by this?
Picture a hexmap. And picture a campaign in which the PCs are the 'goodies' - Knights of the Square Table. Their job is to protect the weak from evildoers. They live in Bamelot, where they serve King Marthur.
For the sake of simplification, let's then say there are three factors of evildoers which you have created. There is the Red Baron and his minions, the Purple Vampire Count, and the Yellow Nosed Dwarfs.
Everything is set up - the hexmap is keyed and populated, Bamelot is filled up with interesting NPCs, etc. The campaign now begins: it's the 1st of January. Now, you want your sandbox to feel as though it is a 'living, breathing world'. So...what happens?
Well, if it is a living, breathing world, what do the Red Baron and his minions, the Purple Vampire Count, and the Yellow Nosed Dwarfs do? They pursue objectives. What are their objectives? Well, let's say the Red Baron, er, wants to abduct King Marthur's daughter because he wants to force her to marry him. And let's say the Purple Vampire Count needs the blood of innocent children to survive. And then let's say the Yellow Nosed Dwarfs want to raid Bamelot's treasure vaults to get King Marthur's gold.
Ok. So what happens now? Hmm. Let's say that the Red Baron sends his flying monkeys to kidnap King Marthur's daughter. And let's say that it will take them about two days to arrive based on distances on the map. Then let's say that the Purple Vampire Count goes off to raid the village of Autumnfield, and it will take five days for him to get there. And then let's say it will take a month for the Yellow Nosed Dwarfs to finish digging their tunnels all the way to Bamelot.
Right. So, in the meantime, what are the PCs doing? Maybe 'going out on patrol'. Maybe consulting the wizard Gerlin about what his soothsaying skills suggest about the emergence of future threats. Let's say they've chosen to go out on patrol. What happens? Hmm. Well, it would be boring if nothing happened when the PCs were out on patrol. So maybe they could get the opportunity to discover clues or hear rumours about flying monkeys, which would then give them the opportunity to pre-empt the Red Baron's kidnap attempt. Or maybe they could encounter some unrelated fourth threat? Or maybe they could get the chance to uncover information that might alert them to the activities of the Purple Vampire Count or the Yellow Nosed Dwarfs...?
Do I need to belabour the point further? I hope not. There is nothing about any of the above that is illegitimate and I do not mean to suggest that this way of playing a game would not be fun, but it is not a 'living, breathing world'. It is a world in which the DM is deciding more or less everything, either on the fly, or in reference to what he has pre-planned or thought up in advance - and, crucially, in light of his own particular tastes. Yes, the PCs do have a bit of agency in how they respond to events as they unfold. But they are really just living out an interaction with whatever the DM happens to think would be appropriate at any given moment. And they will not therefore be interacting with a 'living, breathing world' but in the end reacting to the DM's own implicit or explicit ideas about how he wants the campaign to emerge. What happens does not come about organically but because of what the DM wills, even if what he is willing does take place in response to what the PCs do at a particular time. And what happens in these circumstances will inevitably be led by whatever the DM happens to think would be good, or fun - in reference to his own tastes, desires, and vision.
A little of this is inevitable in a role playing game, as we all know, but by far the more authentic and, I think, rewarding way to simulate the existence of a 'living, breathing world' in such a way as to avoid the DM simply making things up as he goes along is to set up neutral systems of generation and decision-making. Instead of beginning with a Red Baron and a Purple Vampire Count and a tribe of Yellow Nosed Dwarfs, and ascribing to them motives, one instead comes up with a way of generating evildoers and then creating interactions between them, and the world around them, through the use of random tables. One comes up with neutral ways of determining, through the use of dice or other methods, how they pursue their objectives, and when. One creates methods for determining how new threats arise. One creates ways for seasonal and climactic factors to influence events. And so on. One, in other words, systematises as much as possible so as to ensure that the players are not in the end simply 'adventuring' in the DM's own hall of mirrors.
The result is not a 'living, breathing world' either, but it is one that is much less immediately a representation of the DM's own conceptions of what would be best at any given moment. And that is a world which, while not 'living and breathing', does at least contain space for player agency to develop.
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